eudoh940:
Google has unveiled plans to provide the
internet to the billions who cannot
currently access the web - using balloons
circling the globe.
The internet giant's secretive X research
lab is behind the move, called Project
Loon in recognition of how strange the
idea sounds.
Scientists launched a trial on Saturday in
New Zealand's South Island, letting off a
string of jellyfish-shaped balloons in the
sky about Lake Tekapo.
The aim is for the flimsy helium-filled
inflatables, which are made from plastic
film, to beam the internet back down to
earth as they sail past on the wind.
It has taken the lab, which also came up
with a driverless car and web-surfing
eyeglasses, 18 months to reach this point.
Ultimately Google hopes to launch
thousands of balloons into the
stratosphere and bridge the digital divide
between the 4.8 billion offline and 2.2
billion online.
If successful, the technology could allow
countries to avoid the expense of laying
fibre cable and dramatically increase
internet use in areas such as Africa and
southeast Asia.
Project leader Mike Cassidy said: "It's a
huge moonshot. A really big goal to go
after. The power of the internet is
probably one of the most transformative
technologies of our time."
Project loon founder Richard DeVaul
added: "It's a very fundamentally
democratic thing that what links everyone
together is the sky and the winds."
Charles Nimmo, a farmer and
entrepreneur from outside Christchurch,
was the first person to receive Google
Balloon internet access after signing up
with 50 others to test out the project.
It was kept such a secret that no-one
would explain to the guinea pigs what
they were involved in.
Technicians came to their homes and
attacked bright red receivers the size of
basketballs and resembling giant Google
map pins to the outside walls.
Engineers used eight large laptops to
check wind data and manoeuvre the
balloons over peaks by making sure they
floated at a particular level.
One of the balloons being launched in
New Zealand on Saturday
Mr Nimmo had internet access for around
15 minutes before the balloon
transmitting it sailed past and he used it
to check the weather.
"It's been weird but it's been exciting to
be part of something new," he said of the
experience.
The balloons scavenge power from card
table-sized solar panels dangling down
and picking up enough charge in four
hours to last a day.
They travel below satellites but twice as
high as aeroplanes, and receive signals
from ground stations below.
Each balloon could provide an internet
service for an area twice the size of New
York City, about 780 square miles, and
terrain is not a challenge.
This means they could stream it into the
Khyber Pass in Afghanistan, or Yaounde,
the capital of Cameroon, a country where
the World Bank estimates four in 100
people are online.
Anyone using Google Balloon Internet
would need a receiver plugged into their
computer to get the signal, the costs of
which have yet to be disclosed.
Because the signals travel through the
unlicensed spectrum, the firm would not
have to go through difficult regulatory
procedures for wireless communication.
Mr Cassidy said the next phase of the
launch was to fly 300 balloons in a ring on
the 40th parallel south from New Zealand
through Australia, Chile, Uruguay,
Paraguay and Argentina.
Some charities experts hailed the project
and said it could help billions but others
warned about more negative
consequences, such as a surge in
consumerism.
Temple University communications
professor Patrick Murphy said: "The
nutritional and medical information,
farming techniques, democratic principles
- those are the wonderful parts of it. But
you also have everyone wanting to drive a
car, eat a steak, drink a Coke."
Richard Bennett, from the Information
Technology and Innovation Foundation,
added: "I'm really glad that Google is
doing this kind of speculative research but
it remains to be seen how practical any of
these things are."
Before travelling to New Zealand, Google
spent several months on secret launches
in California's central valley - prompting
some interesting speculation.
Mr DeVaul said: "We were chasing
balloons around from trucks on the
ground and people were calling in reports
about UFOs."