How was WiFi accidentally invented?
An astronomer looking for exploding black holes found your wireless internet instead.
The answer
In 1992, Australian engineer John O'Sullivan and his team at CSIRO were trying to detect faint radio signals from mini black hole explosions predicted by Stephen Hawking. They failed to find the explosions, but the mathematical technique they developed to clean up blurred radio signals turned out to be ideal for transmitting data wirelessly across multiple frequencies. This work led to the key patent behind the 802.11 WiFi standard, and Australia's CSIRO earned over $430 million in licensing fees from tech companies worldwide.
Source: CSIRO
- WiFi
- invention
- Australia
- radio
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