IT CAN create undetectable, unjammable communications systems; cheap, portable radar that can see though walls; it could even help park your car. And, fingers crossed, it will create a lightning-quick wireless superhighway powerful enough to beam music, video and even high-definition television pictures around your home.
This might sound like the prospectus of an over-eager tech start-up. But for Gerald Ross, a 73-year-old engineer living in semi-retirement in rural Massachusetts, the applications are old and familiar friends. Most emerged from the seminal paper he wrote in 1978, and all derive from a simple yet novel idea: why squeeze radio signals…
