back to article Oz WiFi guys score top Euro inventor award

The original Australian CSIRO research team that created and patented WiFi technology has been international recognised with the European Patent Office (EPO) Inventor Award. The wireless standard was developed in the 1990s by a team of Australian scientists and germinated from a technology they were working on to filter …

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  1. wowfood

    Finally

    A parent artical on reg that doesn't make me fume.

  2. Peter Galbavy
    Paris Hilton

    I love the smell of inovation in the morning, especially when it's culled from the shoulder meat of others - given we were using (not called "WiFi") wireless networking at "Live '95" for Demon Internet's stand network. It was about 2Mb/sec mind but it wasn't microwave and wasn't point-to-point either. I recall the technology developing very quickly, so I'm not 100% sure why any of the CSIRO stuff was new. Perhaps discussing it with the ghost of Hedy Lamarr would help clear this up.

    1. Stef 1
      FAIL

      Do you undertand what novelty means?

      "<...>given we were using (not called "WiFi") wireless networking at "Live '95" for Demon Internet's stand network <...> I recall the technology developing very quickly, so I'm not 100% sure why any of the CSIRO stuff was new."

      Because CSIRO developed their tech at least 3 years earlier? (most probably earlier still, until they had enough material to support their first patent application, AU1992PL06069, filed 27 November 1992)

      1. Mark 65

        Re: Do you undertand what novelty means?

        I believe CSIRO work was in making the system work better not in inventing it per se, but the improvement did make it more viable.

      2. FlatEarther

        Re: Do you undertand what novelty means?

        Well,

        I think the genesis of this was much earlier. I know for instance that CSIRO Radiophysics had test designs on the CSIRO VLSI Program Multi-Project-Chip (along with the cochlear implant chip aka bionic ear) between 1981 and 1984. The physics was even earlier.

        More work was done between 1984 and 1991 at Austek Microsystems on the Australia Telescope and Fast Fourier Transform signal processing chips. Many of the Radiata people came from Austek.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "The original Australian CSIRO research team that created and patented WiFi technology has been international recognised with the European Patent Office (EPO) Inventor Award."

    WiFi V Wimax = VHS V Betamax.

    VHS won out even though it was inferior. History repeating.

    Why give them an aware when Wimax was better?

    1. sueme2
      Meh

      why?

      Because it is/was better & it works now. wimax? DOA or just plain "can not work". You can spend a gazillion olympic elephants stuffed with dollar bills, and you will get something working that is better, faster, and so expensive only the Mil can afford it. Or you can buy a wifi dongle with Australian patents for less than $10. You are free to choose.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wi-Fi is an interoperability Standard not a technology

    What makes Wi-Fi a success is not the underlying modem technology or the much earlier Carrier Sense Collision Avoidance technology. It was the formation of a industry based certification program that allowed consumers to buy kit from different vendors and have it to work. The market was also helped a great deal by Intel and its estimated $150M$ invested in its marketing campaign, remember the guys in a tent on top of a mountain? (oh, ignore that example). How much did CSIRO invest? So who should get the credit, the ones creating the multi Billion dollar market or the ones that got their technology into a standard? If patent income was related to the cost of developing it plus a bit for being clever then lawyers would not be so rich.

    1. sueme2
      Meh

      Re: Wi-Fi is an interoperability Standard not a technology

      Chipzilla has patents, but these are not Chipzilla's. So all ur wifi r belong to US? Good point. Unfortunately Chipzilla did not do this inventing thing that is patent protected, so the royalty is due to the patent owners, and the chief bitch I hear is that the USD are going to become AUD.

  5. Adam 1
    Alert

    Quick Patent Test

    Since the good folk at various patent offices struggle to recognise what the rest of the world considers stupid, lets do a quick quiz.

    which of the following suggestions are valid:

    Unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image.

    or

    Using multicarrier modulation methods to defeat the problem of indoor interference with radio waves

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