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The mesh network allows you to connect each of the laptops together without having to

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have a server in between, and this sort of frees them up to talk to each other without

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having to have complex hardware or expensive hardware.

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Okay, it's a wireless network, but it's different from your normal wireless network in the sense

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that every node, that is, every computer, can also route the traffic from other computers

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to get to an access point or a mesh portal in this case.

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My name is Miguel Angel Alvarez, and I'm an engineer here at the OLC.

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Usually you have one access point in the middle, and everyone will connect directly to the

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access point.

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And when you have a mesh network, you can have another one farther off, who connects

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to the internet or to the access point or to the server through the intermediate node.

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Each laptop has a range, and so you can think of it like clouds.

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If each laptop has a small cloud around it, when the clouds intersect, they're meshed,

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and you can actually, you know, that makes the entire mesh bigger as you keep adding

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more laptops.

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And, you know, I mean, this might be, in the case of wireless networking, this might be

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300 feet.

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Most laptops don't have the ability to dynamically mesh, and so what happens is that if you're

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over here, you can't actually access anything, you know, you can't get anywhere.

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But with the mesh networking, that actually dynamically extends the range, and so as long

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as somebody is between you and the access point of the mesh, you know, which happens

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to be school most of the time, then you'll have an internet connection because it can

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hop from computer to computer, laptop to laptop to get to the school.

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Whether or not there is an internet portal of any kind, the computers can talk to each

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other and can collaborate and can execute applications together.

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I mean, you can imagine with games that there's a really good possibility to use this because

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right now, I mean, there are a lot of network games, but they depend on a server.

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And potentially, you know, what you can do is you can just start up a random game and

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somebody else can join.

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You can invite them to that game, and they can play.

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It's really independent of, you know, any of the infrastructure that you might need.

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Two kids with laptops sitting under a tree, you could play Kinect 4.

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It's a little bit harder in today's computer, and most people don't even think about these

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sorts of things when they're making games today.

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The hardware is integrated into the main board.

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There is a chip which takes care of all network-related stuff, and the antenna, they only serve as

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physical gain elements so that you get a little bit better signal-to-noise radio.

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The good thing is normally antennas are built behind the screen, and they have some interference

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because there is a lot of electric activity going around.

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And in this case, we have separated a little bit the antennas from the rest of the computer

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so that they are better insulated and they have less noise from other electric components.

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And that's beneficial for the whole connection.

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Normally, what happens is that there is a mesh view in the interface that shows who

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others are present in the mesh network at any given moment.

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And in that way, you can either talk to them directly or initiate an activity or share

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an activity with them.

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And in that way, you can, for example, browse the internet together.

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You can both see the same pages and comment what you're seeing, or you can draw a picture

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together.

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So I downloaded the e-book, Little Women, on this machine, and I shared the activity

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by clicking on the share button in the toolbar.

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And over on this laptop, it popped up in the mesh view.

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So I clicked on it in the mesh view, and that starts up the same instance, a shared instance

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of the read activity, which automatically downloads the e-book from this computer to

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that computer.

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And so both of these laptops right now are reading the e-book, Little Women.

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You know, you could highlight things, and that would show up in the other person's document

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like, hey, take a look at this.

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We also want to do annotations as well, just kind of like leave a little post-it in the

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document for the other person as well.

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You have to make a mesh which is both more robust and easier to configure, to access,

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and to get away from, because the users are going to be children in the end, and they

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have to have access to this automatically without having to configure it, without having

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to figure out how to connect with one or how to connect with the other, only seeing other

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users and being able to interact with them.

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And that's one of the things we want.

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We don't want them just using the computer so that they can use technology.

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We want them to use this computer so that they can become social with each other and

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collaborate with each other.

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Okay.

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Great.

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