By David Ponce
You know, the thing about wireless network passwords is that they’re pretty darn secure. Provided you pick something other than “password” or anything equally inane, you’re not going to get hacked. But for some people, that’s just not enough. So some researchers at the Institut Polytechnique of Grenoble have developed a wallpaper that is able to block WiFi signals. It was developed in conjunction with the Centre Technique du Papier (The Technical Paper Center) and features a special pattern of geometric shapes traced in a conductive ink which contains silver particles. This design is effective at blocking some frequencies of electromagnetic radiation, namely that of typical WiFi signals. And if you don’t like the look of the designs, you can either paint it or cover it with your favourite flowered wallpaper or whatever it is you fancy. The rights to this products have been acquired by the Finnish company Ahlstrom and they wish to commercialize it by 2013 for roughly the same price as a regular wallpaper.
[ News Article (In French) ] VIA [ DVice ]
I’ve seen some proofs of concept that WPA isn’t that difficult to crack, but haven’t tried it myself.
Either way, it will keep out all the noise from all my neighbors’ routers, so that would be nice. On the downside, it would keep me from using wifi in the backyard. If I still lived in an apartment I’d be looking into it.
“centre technique du papier” means technical center of paper, not technical paper center.