If you’re on a mobile device or have one handy, search for nearby wireless networks.  Right now, a quick browse nets me 17 different networks, maybe even more depending on signal strength and my relative position.  In any neighborhood, you can drive down the street and find dozens of wireless networks.  Sure, most of them will be blocked, but that amount of electronic noise can’t be good, and having a visible network is just asking for hackers to take a turn at trying to break into your home computer cocoon (or at least get some free internet).  However, there may be a solution in the near future:  signal-blocking anti-WiFi wallpaper.

Researchers from two French agencies, the Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble and the Centre Technique du Papier to create a thin material known as metapaper.  Basically, metapaper is a selective filter designed to keep rogue WiFi signals out and keep your WiFi signal in.  That can boost signal strength AND security in one fell swoop!  Even more amazing, the metapaper is easily recycled and made of renewable resources!  (It also comes in a snowflake pattern, which can be easily covered up with traditional wallpaper as seen above).

That said, don’t look for metapaper wallpaper at your local store just yet.  The rights have been acquired by Finnish firm Ahlstrom, but it is not yet available for purchase.  The firm is still in the process of mass-producing the wallpaper.