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Washington 15 jun (EFE). – Google launched Saturday an ambitious project with which you want to connect to the internet billion people who live in remote areas, poor or affected by natural disasters, by giant helium balloons equipped to transmit signals wi-fi. The company announced on its official blog and a video on his YouTube account the new program, called Loon Project, which aims to create “a network of the Internet in the sky”. For this, Google will use balloons about 15 feet in diameter, thanks to solar energy, will rise to the stratosphere and will be united on a specific zone thanks to “very complex algorithms and computing power,” said Mike Cassidy, director of the project. “We’re still in the first stage, but we built a system that uses balloons, wind-blown double the altitude at which flying commercial aircraft to provide Internet access at speeds similar to or faster than the 3G networks today,” Cassidy said. The team started a pilot project on Saturday in New Zealand, endowed with 30 balloons that will try to connect 50 people on a first test designed to “learn about how to improve our technology and the design of balloons.” “In the future, we would like to start pilot projects in countries that share latitude with New Zealand,” said Cassidy. This range includes Argentina, Chile, South Africa and Australia, situated on the 40th parallel, which shows stratospheric conditions ideal for the Google project. “We imagine that someday you will be able to use your cell phone to your current service provider to connect to the balloons and get a connection where today there”, he said. Cassidy acknowledged that the idea “may sound a little crazy,” but “has a solid scientific basis.” The project was developed by engineers at Google X Secret Lab, located in Silicon Valley (California) and working on revolutionary technologies such as G oogle goggles Glass and driverless cars. According to the “captain” of these projects at Google X, dubbed Astro Teller, the great challenge of Loon Project was “to organize the balloons” through the air currents from the stratosphere to keep them together, and ensure that “when a leaving group another comes to take its place. ” The system consists of a number of antennas that connect to the internet flask, which in turn rest and then to contact a ground station that is connected to an internet provider. Balloons filter all internet signals to process only those who undertake the project of Google, which can also direct them to they land in several designated spots and can be recycled. The fact that, in most of the stratosphere, winds move “west-east” will eventually allow “the balloon that is above South Africa can move up in South America,” said Astro Teller in the video presentation. Google’s goal is to R 20;start a debate on how to achieve that 5 billion people living in remote areas” to connect to the internet, Cassidy explained in an interview with the “Washington Post”. Google will need the permission of the governments of the countries in which we want to circulate their balloons, which are about one hundred days in the air and whose signal can be picked up when the receiver is in a radius of 38 km. Cassidy believes the program can make a big difference in most countries of the South, where “the cost of an internet connection is higher than the monthly income.” EFE lib / cs / id (photo)
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