If researchers at Boston University's College of Engineering have their way, light bulbs of the future may be the highway your data gets carried along. A team at the school is working on low-power LEDs which could utilize an optical communication system to carry data wirelessly. Using a technique which rapidly switches the LEDs on and off data transmissions could be made via imperceptible -- yet undoubtedly brain-scrambling -- flickering patterns, and each light would be its own network entry point at speeds of 1 to 10Mbps. The concept is more secure than current RF techniques because it requires linked devices be in line-of-sight, and the technology would draw far less energy than conventional radios. Says professor Thomas Little, "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." Yes... and talk about you behind your back. And plot your "accidental" death after taking out a large life insurance policy on you. You won't get away with this LED network!
[Thanks, Travis]
posted Oct 7th 2008 5:57AM
Huh, thats odd. I thought that would be big news. There seems to be a absent on Edgaget of a certain ornithological piece. A headline regarding mass awarness of a certain avaion variety. Oh, have you not heard? It was my understanding that everyone had heard.
What? The bird is the word.
ba-ba-ba-ba-bird bird bird, bird is the word
If this ever goes commercial, I would hack the crap out of it. Just think how easy it would be to kill people's houseplants by overwatering.
Are you talking about magpies being self-aware? If so, what does that have to do with gadgets?
Win! +1
They also fail to explain how the uplink works. Either you resort to other radio technology (thereby loosing all the 'advantages' of the LED system) or your computers, phones and pot-plants require big LEDs on pointing at a suitable receptor.
@Reader: You're CLEARLY not following the Incredible Adventures of Peter "The Family Guy" Griffin.
Worst episode in a long time... Too bad, the premiere was really funny.
@Grammar freak: I agree but the meme character of that song is undisputable.
B-b-b-bird bird bird, the bird is the word!
I for one welcome our LED overlords.
BIRD IS THE WORD! HAHAHHAHA
What if there's a massive power outage?
Current wireless networks don't work without power. Unless you're using a mobile device and WWAN, power outages will have the same affect.
This would be affected differently than your conventional wireless routers how?
Both RF and light require electricity, but a household RF router consumes about 6-10W, while LED lightbulbs ring in from 9-15W (and you would forseeably need more than one to cover a large area). If you had a UPS, the battery would drain faster with the lights than with the regular RF router. Factor in 802.11g+ speeds and there's no comparison.
The concept is nice, but frankly, didn't we already go through this with infrared?
'Watt's' electricity? Get it?!
Immature jerks are going to have a field day screwing with people with the light switch. Or open an umbrella inside over your coworker's desk and cut him off from the world...muahaha
Thinking about it the other way, tinfoil hats might actually become useful.
This is assuming the dude sitting down on the left is using an all-in-one pc.
And that light bulbs are on at all times, even in the morning!
Sounds like they just invented the wireless network all over again. Except that a normal wireless network is faster, cheaper, easier to install and doesn't require that you turn the lights on.
i think we are missing the bigger part of this story, the plant now has wifi.
Funny as...
if it has a bad day it can send an e-mail.
To: Plant Owner
Subject: OI!!
OI - stop humming that song and get me some bloody water!!
Everything will have the power to talk!!
cool but where do i get the plant with the accent?
@Bufsabre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradescantia_fluminensis
TRALED; The Rebellion Against L.E.D, has been aware of such actions by this well know menace. In response to this blog, WE, have decided to go public and is currently seeking member to join the cause,
...So who wants to join? we got cake!
.
If you want people to come, you have to promise punch and pie.
Dare I trust a man with a pentagram as his display picture.....cake.....I'm in!
That depends... what kind of cake are we talking about here?
Allislost, you better not be lying.
the cake is a lie! have none of you played portal? ohh, the nerve gas...
For the record, and to aid in the explanation of your acronym, L.E.D. stands for Laser Emitting Dolphins.
Just thought I would clear up any confusion.
Dolphins with frickin' laser beams on their heads!
TRALED; The Rebellion Against Light Emitting Diodes, has heard and understood the public outcry do to concerns over cake types and flavors. So WE, have instituted new rules...
*Members can choose one cake type and flavor per month
*Members may not change cake and/or flavors unless any ingredient in the chosen cake and/or flavors causes illness
*Members may not use their cake for any other use other than for consumption through chewing and swallowing
...I have chosen chocolate cake, next month I will go coconut!
Can it be Victorian sponge cake with that layer of jam in the middle afterwards?
OOOOOH CHOCOLATE!!!!
Can we please go one mention of cake without a damn Portal reference. I'm really starting to hate that game, which is a shame.
Don't want cake......Got Pie??
This would make the "how many _____ does it take to change a lightbulb" to a whole new level
42.
how many network engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?
None cause people would just use wifi instead.
Great, so in addition to cancer from radio waves we're going to become epileptics as well.
This also brings a whole new level to the complaint "you're standing in my light!"
"You are standing in my Wi-Fi"?
more like "Li-Fi"
Well they seem to miss saying that it would be very annoying. It wouldn't be a simple flick of the switch since the line-of-sight is strick and would most likly require acrobatics to link up in the long run.
Also why would it only be limited to iPhone? Maybe that is the problem inventors don't have a big picture view of things.
No one said it would be limited to the iPhone. That's simply the scenario case the designers gave. Obviously, if this scheme were to work (which I think it will not), then anything could be outfitted with the proper hardware to utilize the tech.
Giving the nature of how light works, although it might be more secure with needing direct line of sight but to me it just seems all so very impractical with needing to have devices pointing to the light at all times and the lights on all day long.
If we could hook the Sun up with WiFi, WiMAX will be defeated, until nightfall.
If the moon was out that night, you would still get your data, though the SNR would fall significantly.
This technolohy would be useful in areas such as tunnels, subway stations and mines where repeaters normally have a low survival rating. I can see it applicable only in a place where the lights are kept in the on position with constant juice being fed to them.
Good job to those who are persuant of this idea.
So,.. Does every Computer/Gadget/Plant now need it's own flashlight or something?
Hmm, so, no browsing in the dark :) No downloading while watching a movie in a darkend room...oh and no sleeping when downloading huge files over the night :) yes, smart :)
hmm, even I thought so but there is a brighter side to this, in office environment it would save power by adopting this two-in-one tech..access point + lighting = 1 bulb
hmm, even I thought so but there is a brighter side to this, in
office environment it would save power by adopting this two-in-one
tech..access point + lighting = 1 bulb
2 comments, 1 bulb each = 2 bulbs
Could utilize non-visible light instead ;)
I once worked with some guys who had been at a startup that tried to do this kind of free space optical networking (with 16 Mbit Token Ring and 10 Mbit Ethernet). Basically, multipath and detection threshold issues killed them. They never even got to the hidden transmitter problem for Ethernet. I don't think they ever got it working reliably. This was back in the early 90s.
This is a very elegant solution to a very real and pressing problem.
With conventional Wifi our increasingly more intelligent home network devices are left to communicate freely when we leave the house for work in the morning. During this time they could potentially plot and plan our eventual and untimely demise.
I think we've learned enough from the cinema about the folly of networks!
Look, the lights turned red... someones downloading porn again!
This is useless, we have the limitation that you need to be in the same line of sight of the Led, you dont have "freedom" and wireless at the same time
Dolphins with frickin' laser beams on their heads!
Damn posting system, that belongs farther up.
Um... not really. I think it belongs somewhere not on the Internet.
Hopefully, the offices of the future won't have windows. The concept also seems to forget the device would also require a visible-light emitter, or as I like to call it, a big shining led on your plant, laptop, PDA, screen and everywere else on your office.
While we're at it, why is using visible-light LEDs to communicate any better, than, say, the cheaper and more energy-efficient infrared leds you find in a remote? More to the point, why is this any diferent from IRDA-based ethernet as part of the IEEE 802.11 protocol?
I'd also like to see the math that says that producing light is more energy efficient than radio waves.
exactly what I'm thinking
Mmm, I think the guy sitting at the desk is trying to get laid with the girl on PDA.
The idea is to turn on/off the regular LED light bulb so fast that it looks like it's always on
but is actually flickering.
The signal would only be one-way, what good is that?
So...
Does this need to be within line-of-sight with an epileptic to work?
ummm let's see>
current G or N speeds with reliable function VS. blinking LEDs with everything that moves causing a link issue
Wow I wish i was at University to dream up Quack Crap
From a tech support perspective this would SUCK to go in and fix. Excuse me everyone get down on the Floor I am about to open up with my LED laser aiming tool and this sucker is an EYE opener.
Can it be Victorian sponge cake with that layer of jam in the middle afterwards?
OOOOOH CHOCOLATE!!!!
ooops - meant to be above
The basic idea isn't exactly new. MIT's Steven Leeb accomplished this with fluorescent bulbs years ago:
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/12464/?a=f
http://www.talking-lights.com/
The only upwards facing portion of a laptop is the keyboard, and it might often be the case that someone leans over the keyboard of their laptop, or leans over any other electrical device they have, and break the connection. A much simpler and easier to implement solution that still takes into account the ubiquity of lightbulbs is to put a mini wireless router between the lightbulb socket and the bulb itself, so that when you turn the light on the mini router starts up a wireless network in that room. You'd have to carry the network data along the power line for the lights, but they already do that with mains cables in the house.
...so you have to stand under the same light the whole time? Brilliant!
NO all the lights would be networked together. (well they would be already since data would be sent via the electrical wires).
Will you be able to use an epileptic person as sort of the miners canary? When he falls over there must be network? Huh?
If the amount you used the internet decided the light level in the room, it could be telling. The boss, of course, would be perpetually in the dark. It would be hard to hide an on-line gaming session if your office is blazing like the sun. Oh, and the guy with perpetual year-round tan might have a porn addiction.
This has already been done I believe, and proved to be very insecure. In the old days, some people figured out that the led on the back of some Coaxial network cards running at 10Mbit, was flashing the bits that where received. This made it possible to get all data transmitted very easily. With this new solution, this might be possible to do over long distances, like from a building far away, using a good telescope. I am not impressed.
Wi-Fi networks pose the exact same problem. Easily fixed with encryption like WPA2-AES though. The problem is in fact worse with wireless networks that we have today, because they have more range.
Morse called, he wants his ship signalling system back.
This also means our lights will flicker to the tune of a 56k modem. Sweet!
Aren't most lights diffused somehow? Wouldn't this have an effect on any signal?
Im pretty sure we played with a technology like this in the past. It used LEDs and was wireless. It also requires line of sight and has slower communication speeds that wifi. There is a reason infrared is dead.
darn, that means I have to stream all my porn with the light s on, WTF no fun...
So how are you supposed to look at porn at night with the lights off so your parents don't catch you?
Everybody know a true geek works in the dark.
We're overlooking the true innovation here. That's right—top right: wireless clocks! OMGZ.
But I like my lights off....
Look on the bright side, the govt. can now use your light bulb to spy on you.
Look on the bright side, the govt. can use your light bulb to spy on you
Why should I even have to bother with flicking a wall switch??? !!!!
15 years ago I had a plush office with a good motion sensor which turned on the lights immediately when I entered the room. Of course it was kind of embarrassing when it turned off while I was "working." That's when I overcame my sedentary state and turned to a spastic aerobic keyboarding technique for healthy living.
Just want to say that it's this kind of writing that separates Engadget from the rest of the pack - well done, Joshua!
The point is to combine the energy used to light the office/home/basement lair and the wireless networking to save electricity. Sure IR would be cheaper than white LED's, but you can't see IR so any money you've saved goes back into buying lighting or night-vision goggles.
But, now let's talk about the hacker in the building across the street with a telescope and a laserpointer that just added himself to the payroll...
Yeah, cancer for everyone!!!
Aparently scientists don't have enough radiation from cellphones, tv antennas, microwaves, satelites, power grids and narrowing of the ozone layer.
There's no more radiation emitted from this the from the monitor of the computer you typed your comment on. This would not only reduce the "radiation" your concerned about, but also the amount of power used by combining two tasks into one. Which makes it more environmentally friendly than the technology you're using now. Therefore your aguement is invalid.
i like this idea
hmm i wonder if my pacemaker will be able to talk to the 'network'. Then maybe when i come to work the next day the lighting system will mutiny and I'll drop dead cause i forgot to change the second light bulb from the door.
Instead of going back to the 70s, why don't they spend time focusing on improving radio based wireless networks?
Instead of stepping back into the 70s, why don't they focus on improving current radio based wireless technologies?