Don’t know if any of you picked this up from el reg. A US company called Force Field Wireless has created a paint containing “laced with copper and aluminum fibers that form an electromagnetic shield, blocking most radio waves and protecting wireless networks”. It does seem like a revolutionary idea but I have the following questions?
- Are the radio waves being blocked or deflected? Not trying to be stupid here but the metallic elements in the paint are more than likely reflecting all electromagnetic signals back into the house? This may not be a great idea as depending on the amount of electromagnetic devices your operate in your house you’ll increase your exposure to background non-ionising EMR
- Ignoring health concerns, which aren’t conclusive anyway, will it affect your ability to get a mobile phone signal in your house?
- What about windows? (and I don’t mean the OS)
3 replies on “Radiation deflecting paint designed to deter war-drivers”
I know that a copper mesh will absorb radio waves and convert it to heat. Maybe the same can be said for individual strands or flecks of copper and aluminium in the paint. It would definitly reflect a percentage anyway. Windows do attenuate EM to a degree but not that much. They’d probably act like portals in the shielding. With all the radio waves being bounced around you’d probably end up with standing waves where you get positions with either boosted signal or no signal at all 🙂
Regarding the window issue. It very much depends on things the paint manufacturer can’t control like the size and position of the window, it’s proximity to other windows and the power of the signal. Also the modulation scheme used by the is going to have an effect. Spread-spectrum modulation schemes such as CDMA will still be quite resistant to rayleigh channel interference caused by reflected signals but you’ll still see an effect in a painted house. I believe the power output from such mobiles may have to increase dramaticaly to get a signal. Just to clarify I’m sure the paint will have a significant effect in reducing the possibility of war drivers grabbing your bandwidth but WPA should do the same without requiring you to repaint your house.
just wear a tinfoil hat 🙂