It's backscatter tech, which was literally invented for surveillance (see Great Seal Bug [0]) -- modern(ish) versions of which are prominently featured in the N

It's backscatter tech, which was literally invented for surveillance (see Great Seal Bug [0]) -- modern(ish) versions of which are prominently featured in the NSA's ANT Catalog [1]. This is the same technology as UHF RFID (now Rain RFID). Using dedicated RF carriers rather than ambient WiFi signals, we've demonstrated 100Mbps at 10uW using QAM Backscatter signalling [2]. Similar tech was used to read neural data off of dragonflies in flight [3] or self-contained implantable devices [4]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_ANT_catalog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_ANT_catalog [2] http://people.ee.duke.edu/~sjt/publications/pdf/2013_Thomas_dissertation_May2013.pdf http://people.ee.duke.edu/~sjt/publications/pdf/2013_Thomas_... [3] https://www.wired.com/2013/06/dragonfly-backpack-neuron/ https://www.wired.com/2013/06/dragonfly-backpack-neuron/ [4] http://www.travisdeyle.com/publications/pdf/2017_rfic_implantable_sensor.pdf http://www.travisdeyle.com/publications/pdf/2017_rfic_implan...