Australian researchers recently said they have designed a new device that could someday be used in gaming consoles to improve graphics and the speed of data transfer.

The device, created by a team at the Australian National University in collaboration with a team from the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena, Germany, is similar to a tiny antenna around 100 times thinner than human hair, and is used to speed up data exchange between processors in a console.

The invention was two years in the making.

According to senior researcher Dragomir Neshev from the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering, it could be used to improve user experience in gaming consoles in the near future.

"One of the big problems that gamers encounter is sluggish game play, which our nano device could greatly improve by speeding up the exchange of data between the multiple processors in the console," Neshev says in a statement.

"The speed of this data transfer is currently limited by the speed that electrons can flow along the copper wires connecting the processors in gaming consoles.

"Our invention can be used to connect these processors with optical wires that will transmit data between processors thousands of times faster than metal wires. This will enable smooth rendering and large-scale parallel computation needed for a good gaming experience."

Neshev says the team had to create the device to be small enough to match the modern console's smaller electric parts and added that it is the first of its kind anywhere in the world. "We are the first to make a tiny optical nano-antenna device with the ability to sort and route ultra-fast bit-rate telecommunication signals," he says.