MAY THE POWER BE WITH YOU

Photos: LUCASFILM/20TH CENTURY FOX/THE KOBAL COLLECTION

A useful measuring stick for wireless transmission may be found in Star Wars: Episode IV (1977), the first in the Star Wars series. The six frames shown above are taken at equal time intervals from the movie’s beginning to its end and are marked to show the portion that could be downloaded in the space of 2 minutes. Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15), at 2 megabits per second, would get a few seconds of the movie; the IEEE 802.11g standard would make it to the middle of the introductory narrative; and ultrawideband would get about a tenth of the way into the movie. Meanwhile, IEEE 802.15.3—the proposed standard for 60 GHz—would make it all the way to the final credit [bottom right].