Zhi DongXi (public number: zhidxcom)
Author | Cheng Qian
Edit | Heart edge
Thieves are not terrible, they are afraid that thieves have culture.
In April 2021, Apple launched an "anti-loss artifact" AirTag at the spring conference, as long as this small disc is stuffed in any object, its positioning can be tracked by the mobile phone in real time.
Apple's AirTag
AirTag quickly became popular, and even derived some completely opposing uses. For example, some thieves hide airTags on target vehicles or car owners, waiting for opportunities to steal the car; car owners can also use AirTags to lock the location of the car and help the police catch criminals.
Behind the various tracking and anti-tracking dramas, UWB technology is a key secret weapon. This originally niche wireless communication technology suddenly became a hot concept and began to become popular in the technology circle.
UWB, whose full name is Ultra Wide Band, is used in areas such as near-field wireless communication and tracking and positioning. As Apple's AirTag detonated the UWB consumer market, mobile phone manufacturers such as Google, Xiaomi, Samsung, and OPPO, bmw, Volkswagen, and Tesla have introduced this technology.
Based on UWB technology, mobile phones or watches can easily control other smart home devices such as lights and locks, and can also make mobile phones turn into car keys, which can be unlocked and started by walking next to the car, and easily achieve "keyless" and "passwordless"...
On the one hand, consumers are full of praise for this convenient "anti-loss" black technology, and capital has begun to flock to the UWB track; on the other hand, how to avoid this technology becoming a criminal tool and ensure the privacy and security of the public is becoming an increasingly hot topic.
What is the development potential of UWB technology, which is so favored by technology giants? When tracking networks are all over the streets, will people live in a world where the trajectory of life is monitored in real time?
First, indoor space perception, to achieve centimeter-level positioning
When it comes to positioning, the first thing that comes to mind is global positioning systems such as Baidu Maps and Google Maps, which can navigate routes or view coordinates in real time.
However, unlike the commonly used positioning technology now, UWB technology is a high-precision positioning technology that can be used for indoor position tracking to achieve centimeter-level accurate position perception, and to identify spatial perception and accurate short-range position tracking.
Like the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 5G cellular standards, the technology isn't proprietary to a tech giant, it's more of a basic communications infrastructure. In addition to Internet giants such as Apple and Samsung, a small number of players such as domestic Jingwei Technology, Yibaide, and Hanwei Microelectronics have also launched products based on this technology.
UWB technology is a new type of wireless communication technology that can directly modulate shock pulses with steep rise and fall times, so that the signal has a bandwidth of the order of GHz. Reflected in performance, UWB technology has the advantages of strong anti-interference, high transmission rate (tens to hundreds of Mbps), larger system capacity, and shorter communication distance.
From the perspective of positioning methods, this technology has three positioning methods: two-way ranging, triangular positioning, and multi-point positioning. Before positioning with this technology, beacons are set up to identify the position of an object by measuring the time it takes for radio waves to travel between devices and beacons.
▲UWB technology positioning implementation principle (Image source is Tirich Labs)
UWB technology positioning requires a two-way dialogue between the chip inside the smartphone and another UWB device, which is a bit like the GPS used in Google Maps, but GPS positioning uses one-way transmission from the satellite to the listening receiver on Earth.
The beacons set during the positioning process are small, such as the AirTag, which is about the size of four and a half dollar coins put together, and can last for years when installed on a single battery. However, the technology requires several such beacons to be installed nearby to accurately transmit location information.
Second, the mobile phone becomes a key, access control card, the car can be started remotely
Although UWB technology is still in its early stages of development, many applications are already emerging.
The iPhone 11 released in 2019, the Apple Watch Series 6 released in 2020 and the series of models after it are equipped with Apple's self-developed U1 ultra-broadband chip, as well as new mobile phones launched by Google, Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO and other companies, all of which use microchips or other forms to achieve this function.
Smartphones based on UWB technology can replace wallet direct payments and can also replace access control cards.
Laptops equipped with this technology can also recognize that the user is sitting in front of it by listening to the signal of a smartphone or smartwatch. Ardavan Tehrani, a researcher at Facebook's parent company, Reality Labs, a fiRa member of fira, a global alliance for ultra-broadband technology standards, said: "It can automatically log in to any service that users are authorized to use, and it has another nail in the password coffin." ”
In addition to mobile phone manufacturers, car manufacturers are also trying to end the "key era".
Daniel Knobloch, a BMW wireless engineer and CCC president, said chips compatible with UWB technology can determine the location of objects within a centimeter. The organization has incorporated the technology into the standards it identified in May 2021, allowing cars to be started via a smartphone.
BMW is one of the companies that use UWB technology, which allows drivers to use their smartphones as car keys.
Many newer cars have keyless entry systems, but features based on UWB technology are still in their infancy. The new standard for the Automotive Connectivity Alliance allows smartphones based on UWB chips to unlock cars, and users can unlock them by walking around within a certain range of the car with their phones.
Since the car is accessed entirely from a smartphone, this feature can also be transferred to other phones. In this way, multiple users can more easily use the same car, just click on the link in the email or other text, you can turn another mobile phone into a "key", truly achieve "keyless" use of the car.
Another potential application of UWB technology is to make smart homes easier to use, and Bastian Andelefski, a German iOS developer, has demonstrated its potential. In November 2021, Andilevsky posted a video on YouTube in which he pointed his iPhone at smart light bulbs in his home and turned them on or off with a single tap, without having to open the corresponding app and then select the bulb.
Andilevsky said: "Completing this work is expensive and complicated. If more and more companies were able to install beacons, UWB technology could be applied to consumers' lives sooner. ”
It is true that the application of UWB technology must be reflected in smart devices. The research team led by Dinesh Bharadia, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, announced in September 2021 a study that developed a new beacon that could make the positioning technology recognize approximately 10 times faster and consume less electricity.
And, the resulting improvements only require software updates to existing smartphones using UWB, without the need to purchase additional new devices. The new beacon developed in this research can locate an object every millisecond, which further expands its application scenarios. In the future, the technology may be positioned to track VR and AR devices, robots and other automation devices, pets and livestock, boxes in warehouses, and anything else that allows connections to UWB devices in real time.
Third, real-time "broadcast" location update, how to protect user privacy?
The use cases for UWB technology are so rich, but Barardia warns: "That doesn't mean it's necessarily going to be used." ”
Barardia gave an example of an app that once claimed to provide users with indoor navigation or find the right location for goods in a supermarket, but without success. There are two reasons for this, but neither has anything to do with technology. First, the margins for indoor map production are lower; second, there are already enough tabs in supermarkets that users may think that looking at tabs is more convenient than opening a phone to look at a map.
UWB technology can help users navigate to specific destinations in museums, shops, or other interiors.
In addition, the third reason why indoor positioning technology may fail is privacy.
Andilevsky found that when using Apple's own UWB technology, the software and hardware of the iPhone will restrict developers' access in a variety of ways, which he believes is apple's practice to maintain user privacy and protect users' location data.
An Apple spokesperson said: "Privacy is a 'key consideration' in how Apple's UWB-based technology works and how developers use it. In order to maintain user privacy, Apple has taken measures such as using the technology-based positioning features only after unlocking, and apps cannot track the user's location in the background.
Even so, there have been recent reports of airTags being used to track cars and owners before stealing them.
Mickael Viot, director of business development at U.S. semiconductor company Qorvo, a fiRa member of fira, a global ultra-broadband technology standard-setting alliance, said: "UWB is enabling more accurate location data, and how to protect data is up to Apple, Google and other companies. ”
Conclusion: UWB technology or to make metacosmectron positioning technology more accurate
UWB technology may be somewhat insignificant compared to the endless stream of high-tech features such as real-time long-distance communication, complex photographic functions, real-time health monitoring, and high-frame rate game footage, but UWB's potential lies in the way it connects with other technologies. Just as it's impossible to predict how much 3G communication and front-facing cameras will spawn social apps Snapchat and smartphones will change the way we socialize, it's hard to say how much change this technology will bring to our lives.
Now we can see its application only as a replacement for car keys and passwords, but in the current fire of the metaverse concept, this technology is likely to become an important part of it, such as helping smart glasses identify our location in real life.
The use cases of UWB technology may be further enriched in the future, but how these devices that constantly broadcast our locations will protect privacy is equally important.
Source: The Wall Street Post