Relative artical recommendation:?Why did the binary system kill the ternary computer in the Soviet Union?

A while ago, I came across a popular science article about balanced ternary system. Recently, while researching synchronous wireless transmission of data and energy, I suddenly had an idea.

The classical solution for energy transmission is through alternating magnetic fields, and the most commonly used method to maximize transmission efficiency is resonant inductive coupling, which involves power transmission at the LC resonant point by connecting an inductor and capacitor in parallel. As for data transmission, it is mostly done in the form of harmonics, that is, high-frequency harmonics containing 0 and 1 data are added to the alternating magnetic field through modulation, and then decoupled at the receiving end to obtain the data.

Such a design seems to have no problems in daily external environments and many domestic laboratories are conducting research in this area. However, for the current consideration of implantable wireless energy and data transmission, for example, for powering and interacting with artificial eyes and long-term implants, high volume, stability, and safety requirements are needed.

So how are balanced ternary and wireless data energy transmission related?

Let's briefly explain what balanced ternary is: simply put, compared to the traditional binary system that uses positive and negative voltages to represent 1 and 0, balanced ternary introduces the existence of a negative voltage -1, which provides higher data capacity in encoding than binary. By transmitting the same number of ternary digits as binary at the same data transmission rate, the transmission system has a higher data bandwidth than binary.

Now let's take a look at the sinusoidal magnetic field waveform generated by wireless charging, which can also be seen as a waveform similar to balanced ternary. By adjusting the polarity of the sine wave to positive, negative, and zero states, both energy and data signals can be transmitted wirelessly.

It is evident that the sinusoidal wave alternates between positive (N) and negative (S) directions, and passes through zero point. Does it seem familiar? Positive, negative, zero (+1, -1, 0).

Interestingly, the sinusoidal wave perfectly matches the characteristics of balanced ternary system. So, can we boldly modulate the magnetic field waveform directly, producing positive half-wave for +1, negative half-wave for -1, and 0 for zero potential to carry out the transmission? The electric field generated by the magnetic field is only related to the rate of change of magnetic flux, i.e., dB/dt, according to the explanation of electromagnetic induction. Finally, it often passes through a full-bridge rectifier, which can generate electric energy.

In this way, we can ensure the theoretical transmission of electrical energy while letting the waveform itself carry the higher-density ternary information.

It is worth noting that compared to classical methods like frequency modulation, this ternary transmission method can often carry a large amount of data at very low transmission rates. For example, using harmonics formed by frequency modulation often requires many complete waveform cycles to accurately determine the frequency to define 0 or 1. Therefore, to obtain higher transmission rates, we often need to increase the data transmission rate, such as ultra-wideband (UWB) with GHz transmission frequency. This not only places higher demands on decoding but also the higher frequency may pose a risk to tissues. In contrast, the system described above is composed of positive and negative potentials, and the detection of positive and negative potentials is much easier, which can reduce the pressure of modulation and demodulation, and reduce power consumption and size.

This theory is still being verified and is just a small idea of mine. I welcome discussion and exploration with others.

I may periodically update research progress in the future.

Signed, The Seventh Moon Night Westlake University, March 29, 2023.