Enabling Wireless Virtual Reality Through Programmed Phased Arrays

Virtual reality is the newly known technology that allows a person to see graphics at a higher resolution enough that it mimics a real world environment. The only problem is that VR is limited to some sort because it requires a direct connection to some hardware in order to be able to process such a high graphics resolution that the user is trying to watch. Believe it or not, the reality is that wires suck, you can trip on them and we are so far into the digital age to require something that has been available for a while. Well to no surprise of mine, MIT researchers have developed a way so that wires will hopefully no longer be required. They're calling this functional prototype, "MoVR," which will basically allow any person to utilize any VR headset through a wireless connection, the name even sounds like "Move" and "VR," implying that you can wander around with this newly innovative technology. Through several tests administered by researchers at MIT's computer science department, they have discovered that this technology can actually enable communication up to several megabits per second, which converted to bits comes out to several billion bits per second. These tests utilized many high-frequency signals of radio waves that are called "millimeter waves," which are guessed by many experts to one day provide some very fast and powerful smartphones that would run on 5g.

One smartphone by the name of the HTC Vive was able to utilize this VR technology. Though most of the experts have stated that the "MoVR" technology is able to be utilized with any headset. Just imagine that you can play multiplayer video games with friends all wirelessly, even using many other applications that are capable with this VR device. Now you may ask how this tech actually works. The antenna is a two directional and what they call a "phased array" antenna which is a relative array of many antennas that feeds each antenna through a pattern of signals that can correct undesired direction. Below is an image of the "MoVR" antenna that is almost the size of a credit card, and can fit almost anywhere.

While there are several complications with this newly built tech, like the fact that it is very hard to keep a strong signal as the user has to be directly in front of the antenna or else even the slightest blockage like for example putting your hand in front of the antenna can cause signal loss. MoVR has the ability to revert each signal toward the user and correct the signal, but this solution is not fully refined and needs more work. While this is close to being something that can be bought hopefully, the technology is a bit ahead of itself. But the idea is awesome and requires extensive programming by computer societies utilizing special algorithms too that the angle can be corrected automatically. So it is a mixture of programming and hardware design that has allowed this innovation to become a feasible  reality. I am a fan of VR gaming and hope to be able to buy such a piece of tech soon if it is available. It is amazing to see where tech is headed and where it is going to be in the near future. 

Reference Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phased_array

http://news.mit.edu/2016/enabling-wireless-virtual-reality-1114

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6GA5oIy9ONo/maxresdefault.jpg