Hardware & Networking Technology

Wi-Fi 6:

Based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard, Wi-Fi 6 is the latest generation of Wi-Fi designed to address the looming capacity crunch while creating a superhighway to support new and emerging multi-gigabit applications. Compared to Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), Wi-Fi 6 is better equipped to service a large number of Wi-Fi devices, especially in dense environments like city centers, malls, airports, concert halls and stadiums. In addition, the shift to Wi-Fi 6 includes significant improvements in data speed and latency for both uplink and downlink transmission. Wi-Fi 6 brings a host of feature enhancements, such as 1024-QAM and OFDMA, designed to address high-bandwidth, low-latency use cases.

6-GHz Wi-Fi: The next frontier in Wi-Fi
Legacy Wi-Fi devices have utilized the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz Wi-Fi bands for decades. Now with the latest addition of Wi-Fi 6, which supports 2.4-GHz, 5-GHz and future 6-GHz bands, there are essentially six generations of Wi-Fi devices sharing the crowded 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands in which end-user applications are constantly competing for airtime. These bands will soon become overloaded due to the growth of wireless connectivity and data. The solution to this challenge comes in the form of spectrum globally available in the 6-GHz band for Wi-Fi.

6-GHz Wi-Fi will allow multiple 160 MHz channels to enable the next wave of multi-gigabit applications at home and office, thereby realizing the full potential of Wi-Fi 6. In addition, the 6-GHz band offers a wide bandwidth with little radio signal interference from other sources, such as microwave ovens, wireless headsets and cordless phones. The wide range of new and emerging data-intensive applications that 6-GHz Wi-Fi can enable includes:

4K/8K video distribution for home and business
Real-time immersive gaming
Virtual/Augmented Reality (VR/AR)
Telemedicine
Distance learning

Frequent smartphone use has turned us into lazy thinkers, researchers report, adding that the convenience at our fingertips is making it easy for us to avoid thinking for ourselves.

Smartphone users who are intuitive thinkers -- more prone to relying on gut feelings and instincts when making decisions -- frequently use their device's search engine rather than their own brainpower, they added.

"They may look up information that they actually know or could easily learn, but are unwilling to make the effort to actually think about it," said Gordon Pennycook, from department of psychology at the University of Waterloo.

In contrast, analytical thinkers second-guess themselves and analyze a problem in a more logical sort of way.

Highly intelligent people are more analytical and less intuitive when solving problems.

"Humans are eager to avoid expending effort when problem-solving and it seems likely that people will increasingly use their smartphones as an extended mind," added lead author Nathaniel Barr.

In three studies involving 660 participants, the researchers examined various measures including cognitive style ranging from intuitive to analytical, plus verbal and numeracy skills.

Then they looked at the participants' smartphone habits.

Participants in the study who demonstrated stronger cognitive skills and a greater willingness to think in an analytical way spent less time using their smartphones' search engine function.

The research provides support for an association between heavy smartphone use and lowered intelligence.

Avoiding using our own minds to problem-solve might have adverse consequences for ageing.

"Our reliance on smartphones and other devices (is likely) to rise. It is important to understand how smartphones affect and relate to human psychology before these technologies are so fully ingrained that it's hard to recall what life was like without them," cautioned Barr.

Whether smartphones actually decrease intelligence is still an open question that requires future research, Pennycook added.

The results also indicate that use of social media and entertainment applications generally did not correlate to higher or lower cognitive abilities.

The study was published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior.