Various technologies employed by wireless devices to maximize their use of the available radio frequencies
Radio-frequency (RF) communication saw a progression of innovation throughout the 20th century. In recent years, it has been transformed profoundly by technological advances, both in the capabilities of individual radios and in design of networks and other systems of radios. Modern technologies and systems, including those that are wireless, are mostly digital. However, all RF communications ultimately involve transmitting and receiving analog signals. Digital signal processing is increasingly used to detect the desired signal and reject other “interfering” signals. This shift has been enabled by several trends: increasing use of complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits in place of discrete components; the application of dense, low-cost digital logic (spawned primarily by the computer and data networking revolutions) for signal processing; new algorithms for signal processing; advances in practical implementation of signal processing for antenna arrays; and Novel RF filter methods.
transcend the Earth and apply to all nature within the universe? This would mean that predators are a class of living things that could be found on other planets, and have a transferable recognisability between humans and extraterrestrials. How would this benefit the progression of a universal pictorial language? By uncovering a universality of intelligent life, then perhaps this would help us develop a universality between humanity.
fig.17 Anole Photograph (D.L. Mahler).
The Voyager Golden Record (fig.18) was sent into space in 1977, and was developed under the supervision of Carl Sagan with the intention of it’s reader being an intelligent extraterrestrial species (NASA, 2012). The Record contains information about humanity, such as our music, lifestyle, the way we eat, and about our planet. To communicate our history and biology, the Record contains a collection of silhouetted images, for instance: humans hunting a deer-like animal and a pregnant woman (fig.19). It acts as a time capsule as well as an informational guide on humanity. The Record is made from copper and is gold plated, which reduces radiation decay, which should result in it being the longest lasting object ever created by humans. (NASA). ‘Its real function, therefore, is to appeal to and expand the human spirit,and to make contact with extraterrestrial intelligence a welcome expectation of mankind.’ (Sagan.C, 1978).
fig.18 Voyager Golden Record (1977). fig.19 Voyager Golden Record (1977).
On one side of the Voyager Golden Record there are instructions on how to use it (fig.18) which also includes an illustration of our solar system engraved in lines of binary code. The diagrams are pictographic, but rely on binary for full understanding, especially when someone or something has never used a record player before. If evolution is predictable within the universe then perhaps the Record would be found and understood by a human-like species that had developed enough to understand mathematics and physics. These things have to be learned, but they are part of the natural world and there is no author. Is a language universal even if it has to be learned through thousands of years of development? There is universality in nature as it has scientific and mathematical laws, and so is everywhere. However, how long do
