Magnetic wood – the new mobile phone squelcher • The Register

Magnetic wood – the new mobile phone squelcher

Major plank

By Drew Cullen • Get more from this author

Posted in Mobile, 28th June 2002 10:01 GMT

Tune into our application security webcast, click here

There's a huge market in Asia for mobile phone squelchers - in Hong Kong for example, people don't think twice about making and receiving calls in the cinema and theatre.

Of course, mobile phone jamming is illegal in the UK because it can cause interference outside of the building it's covering.

But now, a Japanese team of boffins, based at the University of Morioka have come up with an new spill-free way of squelching mobile signals - magnetic wood.

Used to line a room or building, the ferrite powder-sandwiched-inside two strips of wood stops anyone inside from making or receiving or call. And not a nasty. interfering phone jammer in sight. The Morioka team reckons the product can be made cheaply enough to be viable. And leader Hideo Oka hopes "that it will soon be possible to buy the novel wood panelling by the metre at your local hardware store", The New Scientist reports.

According to the magazine, magnetic wood could be a "major plank in the battle against noisy cellphone users". There's more detail here. ®

Mobile Phone Squelchers - Register readers weigh in

Join our expert panel in discussing application security