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Researchers develop antennas to defrost, cool cars WASHINGTON (November 3, 1998 8:56 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Invisible antennas can not only be used to hook drivers up to radar and cellular phones, but they can also defrost foggy windows and cool the car = at the same time, researchers said on Tuesday. A team at Ohio State University said they had won two patents on antennas inbedded in car windows that do far more than tune the radio. "We'll soon see car antennas not just for radios, but for radar, cellular phones and global positioning systems," Eric Walton, a professor of electr= ical engineering at the school, said in a statement. "That's why we're developing multi-purpose antennas that fit unobtrusively into the windscreens of cars." One design uses a transparent metal film embedded between the layers of gl= ass in the windows and windscreen of the car. Such a see-through metal is already used in some models of car to deflect sunlight and keep the interior cool. Walton and his students came up with coupling techniques to allow this met= al film to act as an antenna for the car radio. The second patent used the heater wires in many car windows. Walton and hi= s students built a transformer that lets the wires use heating power and yet= act as an antenna, too, without shorting the whole thing out. "The heating elements are already there, and they are insulated from the b= ody of the car, so they already have many of the characteristics of an antenna= ," Walton said. "The equipment to manufacture them already exists, so we knew this would be a very inexpensive way to add an antenna to an automobile." Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries is funding the research and providing test windscreens. "If we put both these patents together, we could produce a front windscree= n that can help cool a car in summer, defrost itself in winter and receive A= M/FM signals but still remain completely transparent," Walton said. =1A Copyright =A9 1998 Nando Media Copyright =A9 1998 Reuters News Service janet paterson - 51 now / 41 dx / 37 onset - almonte/ontario/canada http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/janet/ [log in to unmask]