Researchers at the University of Tokyo have created paint larded with aluminum-iron oxide, which block electromagnetic waves.
This is nothing new though, as RF-blocking paints have been available for a number of years now. Indeed, EM-SEC Technologies successfully tested its own RF-blocking paint back in March 2007 to shield wireless devices and other electronic equipment within a building.
But what the New Scientist is reporting is that existing technologies are becoming increasingly obsolete as companies are now using new, higher frequencies to send data. For example, the best wave absorbers commercially available today are only effective up to around 50GHz.
It’ll be cheap, according to the scientists, as they collaborating with a real paint company to make the stuff in the first place: about $14 a kilo.
Awesome – so now I can just paint my head to keep the CIA out, rather than having to wear an unsightly tin-foil het!
Brilliant – paint with thermite in it. What could possibly go wrong?
I thought this had mostly to do with the intrusion of higher frequencies from new equipment and spectrum allotments.
#2
“Brilliant – paint with thermite in it. What could possibly go wrong?”
Ha! Nice catch.
There’s got to be some sort of “captured secret agent clever escape plan” involving this product.
This is essentially what the Hindenburg was painted with. According to the Mythbusters’ tests, that was at least as much of a factor in the disaster as the choice of hydrogen rather than helium as the lifting gas.
@5 I bet the Hindenburg got really crappy wifi.
Great, now even my PAINT is outdated. . . I’m gonna go live in a monastery. . .
Hiss. Boo. My piggybacking days may soon be over.
Easy alternative to using a strip of copper sheet to shield electric guitar electronics?
By itself, this paint isn’t likely to do much good. The real challenge is in sealing all the cracks – around doors, windows, where the floor meets the wall. These higher frequencies are so good at finding ingress (egress) that 90% coverage can be almost as ineffective as 10% – same reason you can still get a phone call in a mountain tunnel. Shielded chambers used for testing have solid metal or double copper screen walls, and mesh and spring gaskets around all ports and doors. I’m sure there’s a “Make” alternative, but it will need effort. And your door will be hard to open and close with all that stuff on the edges!