Samsung sees 3D holograms, "digital twins" and terahertz bands as things in the 6G future

5G technology has only really kicked off in earnest in the last 2 years. However, some OEMs are already investigating the potential of 6G for future generations of their products, as well as for the general sphere of electronics - not to mention for people - in advance. They include Vivo and Samsung, the latter of which has just released a white paper on where its research division envisions for this potential future.

Essentially, the Korean giant mainly sees extended reality (XR) getting, well, much more extensive. This involves much more effective and immersive AR, MR and VR in the future. In fact, Samsung predicts that 6G will facilitate the generation of a given user's "digital twin", a possibly true-to-life "avatar" that will allow humans to explore, enjoy or evaluate the reality of the artificial environment in question to the fullest extent allowed by the technology.

6G also stands to benefit artificial forms of intelligence, too. Samsung Research imagines that they will be able to live more to the full (as far as they are concerned) in clouds or virtual environments themselves. The greater abundance of data connectivity may also give them more granular control over edge or other devices within their "reach", a phenomenon the OEM currently terms "Machine as User."

Obviously, all these gadgets in use will indeed need a huge uptick in data bandwidth and throughout. Therefore, Samsung projects that the use of bands at a whopping 0.1 to 10 terahertz (THz) will become commonplace. It notes that the FCC has already approved the spectrum between 95 and 3000 gigahertz (GHz) for researchers involved in developing the new possibilities in this white paper, albeit at a "5G level".

This work is currently at a stage at which the use-cases of wireless systems that require new radio (or 5G-NR) at bands of 52.6 GHz or greater. However, according to Samsung, even this echelon of advancement may be surpassed in a relatively short space of time.