Anti-Wi-FI Paint Protects your Home Network

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a paint that is capable of blocking radio frequencies where Wi-Fi and other broadband wireless technologies communicate. Up until now, wireless security and encryption for home networking systems are always at risk for being broken into if a war-driving hacker is determined enough. There have been some ingenious attempts to prevent this, but I've never heard of paint being used. The idea sounds good; take special paint and put it on walls you don't want wireless signals to pass through, like your houses walls. The special part in all this is to mix in aluminum-iron oxide particles with the paint, according to the researchers.

Radio signals cannot travel through the paint's pigment layer because the metal particles resonate at the same frequency as Wi-Fi and other radio waves. But think about this; although someone outside the house wouldnt be able to access your network, someone inside the house wouldnt be able to access anything on the outside, like your neighbors Wi-Fi internet connection, not to mention a cell phone network.

Wi-Fi typically operates at 2.4GHz; the new paint can allegedly block frequencies all the way up to 100GHz; a 200GHz-blocking paint is now on the drawing board. Although security-conscious consumers would be no doubt be interested in such a product, the real money here might be in industrial and commercial applications. For example, movie theaters that want a way to keep cell phones quiet during the movie, or perhaps commercial aircraft makers seeking to keep wireless devices from interfering with sensitive flight critical electronics.

Then there are more "speculative" uses. Public places like elevators and buses could become quieter through the discrete use of this paint. Or maybe someone could offer clothing impregnated with the blocking paint, for those with real privacy issues.

via BBC