Imagine stopping to look at a poster for a band and immediately being able to listen to their music on your mobile.

    That could soon be a reality thanks to new technology that can transform random objects into radio stations, ready to broadcast useful messages to your smartphone.

    The technology, known as “backscattering*,” uses low-power radio signals that already exist in the environment to send out information.

    Using the technique, the team from the University of Washington managed to create a singing poster that could transmit a snippet of the band’s music to a smartphone at a distance of 4m or to a car over 18m away.

    “The challenge is that radio technologies like WiFi, Bluetooth and conventional* FM radios would last less than half a day with a coin cell battery when transmitting,” said Vikram Iyer, a doctoral student at the university.

    “So we developed a new way of communication where we send information by reflecting ambient FM radio signals that are already in the air, which consumes close to zero power.”

    (SD-Agencies)