Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are claiming that radio technology using quantum physics might enable wireless communications and mapping in locations where GPS, cellphone and radio signals are not reliably transmitted (if at all), such as indoors, underwater, underground and in urban canyons. The NIST team is experimenting with very low frequency (VLF) magnetic radio using quantum sensors. VLF digitally modulated magnetic signals can travel farther through building materials, water and soil than conventional electromagnetic communications signals at higher frequencies. This technology may eventually be useful to mariners, soldiers and surveyors, among others. NIST’s research is published in the Review of Scientific Instruments.
