Page 76 - ITU Journal, Future and evolving technologies - Volume 1 (2020), Issue 1, Inaugural issue

ITU Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies, Volume 1 (2020), Issue 1

Networked
tration, MEMS, anti-seismic structures, etc. Tunability Sensor IoT MetaMaterials
of elastodynamic metamaterials can be achieved with Passive part Actuate Gateway Communicate
&
electric, magnetic, optical, thermal or chemical stimuli. Actuator Sense
EM
In a nutshell, their operation is as follows: Impinging Behavior Compute
EM waves create inductive currents over the material, Source Label
SPLIT
which can be modified by tuning the actuator elements Source NETWORK
Label API
FOCUS
within it (e.g., simple switches) accordingly. The Huy- Source
Label
ABSORB MIDDLEWARE
gens principle states that any EM wavefront departing
Source Label
from a surface can be traced back to an equivalent cur- POLARIZATION Alter
Source Label
rent distribution over a surface [3]. Thus, in principle, Source STEER
Label
PHASE Alter
metamaterials can produce any custom departing EM
wave as a response to any impinging wave, just by tun-
ing the state of embedded switches/actuators. Such EM
interactions are shown in Fig. 1 (on the right side). The Fig. 1 – Networked metamaterial structure and possible energy
same principle of operation applies to mechanical, acous- wave interactions [8].
tic and thermal metamaterials [6].
Key Enabler 2:
absorb() collimate()
The second key enabler of the IoMMT is the concept
of networked metamaterials. These will come with an
application programming interface (API), an accompa-
nying software middleware and a network integration steer()
refract()
architecture that enable the hosting of any kind of en-
ergy manipulation over a metamaterial in real time
(e.g., steering, absorbing, splitting of EM, mechanical,
avoid()
thermal or acoustic waves), via simple software call- follow()
backs executed from a standard PC (desktop or lap- steer()
focus()
top), while abstracting the underlying physics. The goal steer()
focus()
is to constitute the IoMMT directly accessible to the steer()
focus()
IoT and software development industries, without car-
ing for the intrinsic and potentially complicated phys-
ical principles. Regarding the IoMMT potential, large
scale deployments of EM metamaterials in indoor setups
have introduced the groundbreaking concept of pro-
grammable/intelligent wireless environment (Fig. 2) [7]. Fig. 2 – The programmable wireless environment introduced
in [7], is created by coating walls with networked metamateri-
By coating all major surfaces in a space (e.g., indoors)
als. This allows for customized wireless propagation-as-an-app per
with EM metamaterials, the wireless propagation can communicating device pair, introducing novel potential in data
be controlled and customized via software. As detailed rates, communication quality, security and wireless power trans-
in [7] this can enable the mitigation of path loss, fad- fer.
ing and Doppler phenomena, while also allowing waves ˆ The acoustic metamaterials can surround noisy
to follow improbable air-routes to avoid eavesdroppers devices or be applied on windows to provide a
(a type of physical-layer security). In cases where the more silent environment, but to also harvest energy
device beamforming and the EM metamaterials in the which can be added to a system such as a smart-
space are orchestrated together, intelligent wireless envi- household.
ronments can attain previously unattainable communi-
cation quality and wireless power transfer [7]. Extend- Assuming a central controller to optimize a given
ing the EM case, we envision the generalized IoMMT IoMMT deployment allows for further potential. For
deployed as structural parts of products, as shown in instance, one can allow for quickly “patching” of over-
Fig. 3: looked physical aspects (e.g., poor ecological perfor-
mance) of IoMM-enabled products during operation,
ˆ EM interference and unwanted emissions can be
without overburdening the product design phase with
harvested by IoMM-coated walls and be trans-
such concerns. The “patching” may also be deferred in
formed back to usable EM or mechanical energy.
the form of “eco-firmware”, distributed via the Internet
ˆ Thermoelectric and mechanical metamaterials can to ecologically tune a single product or horizontal sets
micro-manage emanated heat and vibrations from of products.
devices, such as any kind of motor, to recycle it In this context, the principal contributions of the paper
as energy while effectively cooling it. The same are as follows:
principle can be applied to a smart household or a
noisy factory. ˆ We propose the concept of the IoMMT and discuss

56 © International Telecommunication Union, 2020