LED Lighting Could Form Future Wireless Networks
Researchers from the Boston University College of Engineering are currently spending their time looking at ways to use light bulbs instead of traditional wireless communication to transfer data. This ’smart lighting’ system has the bulbs flickering at imperceptible speeds to talk to network-enabled devices at up to 10 megabits per second and since they require line of sight, claim to be far more secure. It’s unlikely to ever be suitable for high-demand applications like video streaming, but the boffins are saying it’d be great for household appliances like internet-enabled fridges, digital photo frames or printers in the modern digital home. Professor Thomas Little excitedly stated: “Imagine if your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate with you when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch and without the usual cluster of wires.” Personally we can’t really see the appeal. If the light isn’t on, or the bulb blows, it wouldn’t work. Plus what if you’re standing in the line of sight or there’s an object blocking the view? Little claims that widespread LED lighting could effectively form a computer network in large buildings. He also goes on to say that they could be used in brake lights for cars to actively slow vehicles with that fancy automatic cruise-control seen in modern Mercedes. Still not convinced? Neither are we. - Paul Lester [Cellular-News] LED wireless lighting
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Original post by nafiz