Wireless technologies will improve our life quality. That is the statement we like to prove. To do this we investigated existing and future wireless technologies in the domain of medicine, transport of energy and communication.
Improvements in medicine
With a smartphone, it is nowadays already possible to monitor your temperature, blood pressure, your glucose level if you are a diabetic, the amount of calories you are consuming, your heart rhythm, oxygen and so on. These vital functions can also be monitored with wireless sensor networks for in-home healthcare. At home, the wireless implants of a human body can communicate with this network and transfer their vital data, which can be used to decide the health status of the body.
In this way, (chronic) diseases can be followed up better and more regularly. As a consequence, you do not need doctors and nurses anymore to check up on you if it is not really necessary.
People with hearing problems will also enjoy improvements of their life quality. Hearing aids such as the Resound Alera, have been designed to capture wireless signals, transmitted by sound producing devices, like television, radio, cell phones,… . The hearing aids could probably also be used by people without a hearing distortion. People can manipulate the volume so that the sound reaching their ears is not too loud to be healthy. An application of this principle is realized in silent discos, where people are singing and dancing on music coming from a headphone, without the presence of external speakers.
Improvements in transport of energy
Transport of electrical energy happens nowadays mostly using wires, but this can also be done wireless, including all its advantages and making life a little more comfortable in some situations. The following technologies exist or are being researched and should be improved:
A system to wirelessly charge a car. In order to transfer the power to the vehicles battery, it should be close enough to the charging unit. But the cost of not plugging in a cable and using the wireless transportation, is 20% energy loss. This system would be better applicable if it were to be improved such that it can be used while driving, thereby removing the need for a battery.
Resonant magnetic coupling. It has a high efficiency for short and medium distances, acceptable amounts of radiation, limited interaction by non-tuned objects,…
A wireless charging technology for electronic devices like eCoupled. It is a universal standard with an intelligent control system that communicates with devices to obtain their power needs. Only the power needed to allow the device to operate safely and efficiently will be provided incorporating several factors like battery age for example. This technology can be used at home (from cell phone to TV), on the road (mp3-player, laptop,…), in the air, …, almost everywhere. It eliminates the need for using different adaptors for all the electronic devices. It can also transfer data, so even data cables can be left at home.
A technology for wirelessly powering electronic devices, without the need of a battery. Enocean obtains power from ambient energy sources like temperature differences or surrounding vibrations. Their sensors do not require batteries, cables or even wireless power supplies, which creates a cleaner environment.
A technology for transmitting power wirelessly over large distances. An example of this category can be space based solar power, that the company Space Energy is doing research for. In this way, solar energy is captured in space using satellites with photovoltaic panels. That energy is transmitted wirelessly to a ground station on Earth, which is connected with the existing power grid. Because of their constant presence in sunlight and the absence of an atmosphere, the efficiency of the solar satellites is much higher than with capturing sunlight on Earth. The capturing is independent of weather conditions, seasons and the position of the sun.
Improvements in communication
The existence of mobile devices has introduced several mobile services, like mobile communication, mobile enterprise, mobile entertainment, location based services, mobile healthcare, mobile commerce, mobile and remote education, … Those services make us more efficient in collaborating and communicating and hence, improve the quality of our lives.
Wireless sensor networks will play an important role in the evolution of industrial automation. This will improve quality, productivity and safety.
In wireless medical monitoring implants, the challenge lies in the improvement of the wireless monitoring sensors rather than in the wireless transmission of data. The devices should be small, reliable and safe to use, and they should consume little energy. The power supply for these devices can be a battery which is charged by wireless power transfer or by surrounding vibrations due to body movement. A battery management system should be included, though, to prevent the battery from running empty when no charging sources are present.
People like to hear and especially feel the low frequencies in music when dancing. The use of a headset in applications like a silent disco, decreases the quality of the music beats. Also, other (disturbing) noise in the room will make this application less comfortable to use.
Technologies like eCoupled should only be used for powering electronic devices that consume a few Watts or have to be plugged in and out all the time, and not for fixed high power devices like a television or dishwasher. A wire will always be more efficient. Because these devices remain on the same place, there is no advantage in using wireless power transport.
The development and research of space based solar power and the wireless transmission of power over such large distance, is very expensive. There is also no consensus yet over the achievable efficiency of the transmission, but as long as the delivered power is comparable to that of the current power plants (which is the case according to Space Energy), this is not a problem. The technology also does not deliver the energy wirelessly to the end user, only the transmission from space to Earth happens wirelessly.
It is not yet proven whether radiation due to wireless communication technologies (like for example Wi-Fi) is harmful for human beings or not. The frequencies at which those devices are transmitting are close to the frequency used in microwave ovens, however, which is the resonant frequency of water, and a microwave oven is designed to heat water molecules. Thus in fact, when one is using his mobile phone, he is heating his brain. Luckily the transmitted power of a cell phone is not that high, so if one does not exaggerate in using the device next to his head, the effects are not that influential.
When using wireless communication services, people should be aware of the fact that their privacy is not guaranteed. Big organizations gather data about the locations you visit and the wireless networks you encounter, when you are using your smartphone. Some even store e-mails and passwords obtained from monitoring wireless networks. So for important applications like online banking, it is better to use a secure wired connection.
The presence of wireless technologies introduces the possibility to continue your work anytime at any place. In this way, the boundary between work and leisure time is fading away and life will become more stressful. Some say that this is a phenomenon of modern times and not necessary due to the existence of mobile devices, but in my opinion, the mobile devices just are the cause of this phenomenon.
Sensor networks are mostly build using wireless technologies, but in some cases also power line networks can be used for this purpose (like in the in-home healthcare technology for example). Power line networks do not require the use of wires not already present. So for fixed sensors in a building, which require the presence of a power supply anyway, the power lines are a good alternative for the wireless medium.
Power line networks can also be used for broadband communication as an alternative for Wi-Fi. It is more secure than wireless transmission, because a hacker would need physical access to your home electrical network to sniff for private information (if a filter is installed on the electrical providers connection). Hacking a network using Wi-Fi can be done from within a car in front of your home.
If not using signal attenuating things like distributing plugs, power line communication is even faster than the wireless counterpart. But this is true for all network technologies using wires. If high data rates are needed, a wired connection will always be the best option.
Our lives have already been positively influenced by using wireless technologies. They make us more efficient in communicating and collaborating. Diseases and the health of the human body can be more efficiently monitored with smartphones and in-body and in-home sensor networks. Hearing problems can be solved and prevented by using wireless hearing aids. Wireless power transport is also a very promising domain, with technologies for charging and or real time powering sensors and other devices. Thus it can be concluded that wireless technologies will indeed improve our life quality.
There are however a few points to consider when using wireless technologies. First, the wireless transmission of both power and data will never be as efficient as their wired counterparts. Also privacy and security are better when using wired networks. Second, the possibility exists that signals radiated by wireless transmission devices are not that healthy and third, life can be more stressful if the mobile office is taken home.
So wireless technologies will indeed improve our life quality, but they should be used with care.