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A comment on Ambient Backscatter: Wireless Communication Out of Thin Air [pdf]. Parent comment

Re:Ambient Backscatter: Wireless Communication Out of Thin A... by GeorgeTirebiter on Sunday July 07, 2013 @11:59PM (#6005108)
Tesla was interested in this, eh? I did this sort of thing in 1967 when I put a capacitor on the output of my crystal set, and was able to (very weakly) light a standard panel lamp. Nothing is new, only the details change.....
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Re:Ambient Backscatter: Wireless Communication Out of Thin A... by chockablock on Monday July 08, 2013 @12:54AM (#6005246)
Unwarranted grumpiness. Harvesting power from radio transmisssion is indeed not new.

What they demonstrate, however, is transmission from the 'receiver' to additional devices by modulating how much power is absorbed or reflected.

This is fundamentally different from just using the harvested power to run a second transmitter, because modulating backscatter is 'orders of magnitude' more efficient.

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