Wireless networks could get personal – New technology may help resolve everyday problems

Apple Computer Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak’s new company has invented technology that would allow people to create their own personal wireless communications networks extending anywhere from 1 mile to 100 square miles.

Benny Evangelista, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer

The Silicon Valley icon known simply by his nickname, Woz, believes the new technology he calls wOzNet has the potential to solve an infinite number of ordinary modern-day dilemmas, from keeping track of kids and wayward pets to making sure the garage door is shut or the stove is turned off.

"This is going to be extremely important in the future," Wozniak said in an interview with The Chronicle. "It fills a hole for which there is a vast need."

Wozniak founded Wheels of Zeus of Los Gatos in January 2002 after devoting a decade to education and philanthropy. Now called Woz Inc., the company has remained silent for 18 months about the technology it was developing.

But with a management team in place and licensing deals with several companies nearing completion, Woz Inc. today plans to lift that veil of silence — but only to a certain point, because specific devices that would use the technology may not be ready or announced until next year.

The company did not have a specific product to demonstrate, and has not briefed any independent technology analysts.

Wozniak and Woz executives, however, outlined the basic concept behind the technology in interviews last week.

They said the technology would create personal wireless communications networks that fill a gap between the geographically limited wireless local area network now available for computers and wider telecommunications networks like cell phone systems.

Other companies are working on radio-frequency identification systems, or RFID, using small, inexpensive and controversial chips that would be used by businesses to keep track of inventory in a store or factory.

But Rich Rifredi, Woz Inc. chief operating officer, said the company saw a need for devices with a range that went beyond one home or building. Like the RFIDs, the wOzNet technology uses standard 900-Mhz radio frequencies, but combines low battery power usage with the ability to transmit a small amount of data over longer distances.

The individual wOzNets can be moved from location to location, like from home to the park, and can tie into other individual wOzNets to create a community watch network, Wozniak said.

The devices would allow wOzNet zones, or hot spots, to extend over an area of 1 to 2 miles, but Wozniak said it could be expanded to cover as much as 100 square miles.

Furthermore, the wOzNet technology would employ devices that would permit some form of two-way instant person-to-person communications. However, Wozniak and Woz executives wouldn’t divulge what form those devices would take and exactly how they would work.

Wozniak said he set out trying to solve problems people encounter in their everyday lives. In his case, he wanted an inexpensive way to know if his dog crossed over the electronic fencing around his home without having to tag the pet with an expensive device like a cell phone or Global Positioning System receiver.

Rifredi said he’s interested in having a way to track and instantly locate his 2-year-old son, "who’s just getting mobile now."

But Gina Clark, vice president of business development, said the company has heard from "businesspeople who want to know where their briefcases are at all times because their briefcases have laptops with very confidential information."

And "they wanted to make sure their golf clubs stayed on the outside of the clubhouse while they stayed inside," Clark said.

E-mail Benny Evangelista at [email protected].

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