Scientists have successfully adapted an atom - based radio receiver communicating system to also welcome colour video signals and even stream a picture secret plan from a console table . This is a huge step forrad for these devices , whose small sizing and tolerance to resound make them potential substitutes for sure environments . Plus , it passed a golden criterion for technical school : it can run Doom .

research worker at the National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST ) created the antenna by using rubidium atoms in a Rydberg land . This is a state where the atoms are unrestrained . Some of their negatron are excited , which means they are in orbitals that are much further forth from the lens nucleus than usual . Some of the Rydberg atoms can be 1,000 times large than the ground - state ( read non - excited ) version of the same atom .

This more rummy electron distribution draw Rydberg corpuscle particularly sensitive to electromagnetic field of operation , and that include radio sign . The atoms are observe in a glass container . An incoming signal shift the energy in the Rydberg atoms , which can be read . Its output is fed to a TV , which can play the transmittance . In this case , a video provender from a camera or a game from a console is channelize by a horn antenna .

“ We image out how to rain buckets and get videos through the Rydberg atom sensors , ” undertaking leader Chris Holloway said in astatement . “ Now we are doing video cyclosis and quantum gaming , streaming video games through the atoms . We basically encode the video game onto a signal and detected it with the atoms . The output is fed right away into the TV . ”

A primal component for the success of the arrangement is the size of it of the beam of light . The horn antenna directs the radio wave into a beam and the size of it had to be tweaked to get a unspoiled signal . A irradiation with a diam of few than 100 micron , the average diam of a string of human hair , was launch to be the most effective . A great bandwidth of around 100 Mbit per secondly was honest enough for streaming .

“ We have demonstrated the power of the Rydberg particle receiving system to receive springy colour video , using both a camera and a secret plan cabinet . The bandwidth was better by optimize the probe optical maser beam width , which tuned the intermediate time the mote rest in the interaction mass , ” the squad wrote in the finis of the newspaper publisher , published inAVS Quantum Science .

The squad is now investigating how to increase the system bandwidth and information rate .