Most of the smart home appliances come with the option of being controlled by a smartphone. However, sometimes controlling smart appliances through a smartphone proves to be more difficult than it is usually deemed to be.
Most of the times the smartphones engaged in controlling other smart devices do so via a local WiFi network or even through an Internet service; apparently, this creates some latency and invariably makes the devices wholly depended on a network connection. To override this issue, Xiaomi has come up with an alternate solution.
As per the Chinese company, the alternate solution offers that phones can act just like traditional remote controls that use Ultra-Wideband technology rather than relying on infrared light. The Ultra-wideband or commonly known as UWB uses low-energy, short-range, high-bandwidth radio waves to transmit data.
The large bandwidth used by the UWB starts from 500 MHz, or at least it does so for the Xiaomi UWB. This fairly large bandwidth is also used by wireless monitors, routers, and even portable pocket printers as there is a complete lack of interference with narrowband and carrier wave communication.
Xiaomi’s genius, in this case, lies in the fact that it employs the Ultra-wideband to give devices some spatial awareness. The devices will be able to determine not only their position but also its orientation to other devices. Furthermore, the inclusion of pulse radio will also make communication between various devices seamless.
The Chinese company put out a demo that shows that a Xiaomi Mi 10 could easily connect to and control any smart device just like a traditional remote, and all the user needs to do is to point the smartphone at the devices they wish to control.
However, as good as it sounds, there are a few requirements that need to be met before this kind of communication could take place. The UWB requires specific antenna and equipment. This makes it highly unlikely that Xiaomi’s UWB technology will be available anytime soon.
