Researchers at Boston University’s College of Engineering have successfully tested data transmission through LED powered light bulbs. As they see the future, Wi-Fi could eventually be replaced by light bulb transmission.
The concept may not be completely out of the world. LEDs are powered by fiber optics and data transmission through optical fibers is an established medium of transmission. The innovation here lies with spurting the data packets into open air and the data transmission takes place in the line of sight only.
This probably could be more secure than today’s Wi-Fi as the reception occurs only at places where the light shines. So, we don’t have to worry about our neighbour stealing our bandwidth anymore!
One of the researchers, Prof. Thomas Little, said - “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.”
The estimated speeds are in the range of 1Mbps to 10Mbps which is at least ten times slower than the existing speeds. This may not be sufficient for gamers and hardcore computer users, but the concept of digitizing home appliances could become a reality. We could probably see the advent of internet enabled TVs, refrigerators, printers that take commands at a flip of a switch.
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