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woodrowbarlow | 19 days ago
there is a working group at 3gpp, an EU-funded research group (6th sense, Open6GHub), universities (NCSU, Bristol), and many companies working very hard right now on proposals to include "integrated/joint sensing and communication" (ISAC/JCAS) in the 6G spec.
ISAC means adding mmWave to 6G (ostensibly for speed, but also) to build a high-fidelity 3d realtime "digital twin" of the real world that can see through walls, owned and operated by your telecom provider.
> A very exciting innovation that 6G will bring to the table would be its ability to sense the environment. The ubiquitous network becomes a source of situational awareness, collating signals that are bouncing off objects and determining type and shape, relative location, velocity and perhaps even material properties. With adequate 6G solutions for privacy and trust, such a mode of sensing can help create a “mirror” or digital twin of the physical world in combination with other sensing modalities.
https://www.nokia.com/about-us/newsroom/articles/nokias-visi... https://www.bell-labs.com/institute/blog/building-network-si...
there's been a testbed deployment in a German hospital for "non-invasive" monitoring of vitals; which sounds to me like it can literally see a heartbeat.
https://www.nokia.com/about-us/news/releases/2024/12/17/noki...
truth is, this is the nature of wireless radios. we can't keep improving bandwidth and latency without also turning the radio into a camera. i'm disturbed by the inevitability.
protocolture|19 days ago
"See through walls"
There used to be a great video on youtube of a very high power 60GHz signal being blocked by a door. Sad I can never find it. E Band isn't much better.
IIRC the 60GHz radio is being left out of a lot of 5G deployments because the slight benefits don't outweigh the cost.
This is a pretty common thing for mmWave (or near mmWave) to be deployed with massive fanfare and then be slowly phased out of existence. I am decidedly not writing this on a WiGig docking station.
I dont see telcos wanting to constantly broadcast extra mmWave for little to no added benefit, especially not in all directions. Likewise, regulators are going to choke on that. And the class/band license schemes would have to be updated, to remove interference from devices already using those bands as they are about to have a constant background level of interference. E-Band PTP users, of which there are many, wont give up their high capacity links to weird 6G omni broadcasts without a fight.
I tell you what however, having a button you can press that would map the environment for alignment sounds like a maybe use case here. Better than a camera for detecting new obstructions when links go down.
They might also add more bands to the whole automatic MIMO backhaul trick they have been pursuing.
woodrowbarlow|18 days ago
it won't start as a mass deployment -- just focused on stadiums, airports, government buildings, etc.; maybe some authoritarian states will attempt mass deployments, but the cost will be an obstacle. also, my read is that western telcos aren't interested in owning a surveillance tool because they know their governments won't let them keep it.
hopefully 6G won't be the end of physical privacy. but it will prototype the end of physical privacy -- and i think it will end up being just a matter of time from that point on, unfortunately.
Ancapistani|19 days ago
insane_dreamer|19 days ago
testplzignore|19 days ago