KING5 News: New Antenna Could Change the World

A new flat antenna could change the way we connect to people around the world. Redmond-based Kymeta has been working on a lightweight, flat antenna that could give people broadband internet as long as they have a view of the sky.

The company can do this with the use of metamaterials. Metamaterials are created by arranging naturally occurring materials in a particular pattern that produces an electromagnetic response not found in nature. The toolset can then be utilized to form holographic beams that could link to satellites and do it while the antenna is in motion.

Other phenomena that were explored in metamaterials were things like cloaking — where scientists could bend light around an object effectively rendering it invisible. This antenna is one of the first real applications of metamaterials that’s really seeing the light of day.

Kymeta is currently working with several companies, but one of the more exciting partners is Toyota. Kymeta is installing its technology in test cars and currently driving them around the country measuring connectivity. The benefit to having this in millions of cars would be added safety features and quicker software updates. Modern cars today have 100 million lines of code, but vehicles still have to be recalled to the dealership to fix an issue. With Kymeta, car makers could send a massive amount of data to people through a multicast overlay with satellite. Consider what this technology can do for other forms of transportation like boats, planes and autonomous cars.”When Apple sends us an update for their phones, it actually crashes networks all over the place because everybody is trying to suck down the same thing in these one-to-one sessions,” said Kundtz. “So the ability to overlay this multicast layer becomes really powerful.”

Read more at King 5