Blended Antenna Wearables for an Unconstrained Mobile Experience

Abstract

We envision a world in which everyday life experiences can be augmented on-demand via the real-time cloud processing of information sourced at multiple wireless end points. While current wireless systems focus their effort on improving downlink capacity, these life-changing augmented experiences will only become a reality if the uplink capacity increases at the same or even higher rate. As a catalyzer for the capacity increase in both directions of the wireless communication link, we propose an innovative idea that brings the spectral and energy efficiency benefits of massive MIMO systems directly to the end user without compromising device size, weight, or power consumption. We propose a radio enhanced garment composed of blended textile antennas for seamless high data rate connectivity anytime, anywhere, addressing immediate and future needs. The real-world applications for such a solution are tremendous, including enhanced connectivity in crowded spaces and remote areas, as well as symmetric extremely high data rates for access to next generation real-time services (e.g., augmented reality and cognition, real-time computer vision, telepresence, 3D video sharing) from ever lighter end user devices (e.g., Google Glass).