3-D printed plastic objects that can communicate with WiFi devices

Re:3-D printed plastic objects that can communicate with WiF... by iamnotlarry on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @09:54AM (#15861424)

"Without electronics" except for the computer devices that have to be dedicated to monitoring for the back-scatter created by the 3-D printed objects and translate it into something meaningful.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:3-D printed plastic objects that can communicate with WiF... by worldsayshi on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @10:38AM (#15861867)

"Dedicated"? Can't the devices that is already nearby, like a router or your smartphone, query it when needed?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:3-D printed plastic objects that can communicate with WiF... by whichfawkes on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @10:48AM (#15861959)

They can't query it, they have to be listening when it broadcasts.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:3-D printed plastic objects that can communicate with WiF... by worldsayshi on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @11:01AM (#15862086)

Yeah ok I understand that it doesn't have a memory. But you can still sort of "query" the current state of a device that is always broadcasting, like a flow or speed sensor.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:3-D printed plastic objects that can communicate with WiF... by regularfry on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @12:20PM (#15862858)

The router's probably pinging beacon frames out several times a second anyway. There's a lot of 2.4GHz traffic a passive listener could use.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:3-D printed plastic objects that can communicate with WiF... by TeMPOraL on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @01:23PM (#15863492)

You could presumably use existing devices for that, but it would require making a serious software change - in particular, you'd have to alter the radio driver to listen to and recognize backscattered signals (instead of rejecting them as noise).

[ Parent | on HN ]