NEC Develops Wideband Wearable Antenna Prototype October 31, 2007

Read more Technology

NEC has developed a wideband antenna prototype that's made of fabric, allowing it to be attached to or stitched into clothes. This'll allow people to increase their cell connectivity by wearing gigantic antennas on their backs. Apparently, "one of the difficulties encountered in the past when using conductive fabrics was that soldering was not possible. In the case of this new antenna, power is supplied to a small flexible print substrate by a soldered coaxial cable, so that power supply is possible through capacity coupling with the substrate." Well, I'm glad they worked all that out. Look for supremely-dorky antenna pants in the not-too-distant future. -Adam Frucci [Akihabara News]