You know what's better than
wireless power? Nothing, frankly. You know what comes darn close? Wicked fast transmissions through thin air. Researchers from
Siemens have just shattered their own record for wireless data transfer using white LED light, hitting a whopping 500Mbps while working in collaboration with the Heinrich Hertz Institute in Berlin. The old record sat at "just" 200Mbps, but the new speeds are helping to take Visible Light Communication from a hopeful technology to a serious contender in the space. These same researchers were also able to show that a system using up to five LEDs is capable of beaming out data over long distances at up to 100Mbps. We're told that the
IEEE has been toiling tirelessly since 2007 to standardize activities in this field, and while a late 2010 completion date is currently being penciled in, we're not holding our breath. Anyone remember
how long it took 802.11n to escape "draft?"
[Thanks, Mademoiselle Y]
posted January 21st 2010 5:46AM
Bro, that's like totally crazy. I want my house to have this.
@Murphys Law
Why bother with it? CAT 5e or CAT6 can hit 1 to 10 Gigabits (Gb/s), waay faster this tech. Heck, 500Mb/s is slower than 1394b which by the way can be used to make home networks.
@barCODE
Correction
*waay faster than this this tech
What's a Transfer Jet?
@Google TransferJet is a technology developed by Sony that allows USB 2.0-like speeds wirelessly over a distance of a few centimeters.
@Google
Oh the irony of someone with your handle asking that question...
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What%27s+a+Transfer+Jet%3F
@solah Your sarcasm meters are not working.
I meant it as that the technology is going to be obsolete because of this.
This should bring the cost of fiber data down~ LED :) Get some Cree or Luxeon action up this snatch and pump that bright data farther!
Oh and has there been an N router worth a fluff? Most of the wi-fi routers produced these days function better as paper weights~
@cosmicinglewood At the risk of sounding like a fanboy - the Apple Airport Extreme. It's rock solid and it can actually route my 100 MBit connection with torrents without breaking a sweat.
What if I want to download a torrent while I sleep? This would pretty much suck.
nowhere does it say how far one can transmit data using this method and at that speed. Meters ? Also, you need clear line of sight - hard to achieve in room-to-room transmission ... nice toy though
@marekhaj
this is true, line of sight is to be assumed, but try to think of some positives, say you have a bunch of metal warehouses that all have some PCs inside that all need to stay in sync, running cable in this scenario isn't feasible because there is probably going to be mostly concrete around them and if you ran the cables in the air from roof to roof, that probably wouldn't look good either. take some of these babies and pop them on top of each warehouse with some type of weatherproofing and bam...there you go.
@phil0083
these are nieche applications. It is as much easy to do direct laser tranmission with 1 Gbit/s, which has been demonstrated long time ago ... come on.
@marekhaj
well they say data can be transmitted up to five meters, but they dont mention the speed at that distance. I agree this is definitely niche tech. I checked out their site and some of the stuff they say sounds like bs to me.
@marekhaj
The cost of laser vs the cost of led .. let alone the safety implications.. is something that makes this more feasible though.
@canny
show me a good, powerfull white LED with sufficient modulation bandwidth that costs less than lousy DFB which is mass produced and sold in millions every year ... I do not want flame but a white LED with decent output power is as dangerous as a sub 1mW IR laser.
Also remember that LEDs would need to be specially designed to support such modulation speeds, while it is much less of a problem in case of DFBs
Why can't they just use IR lights like existing data transfer technologies?
Does the available bandwidth depend on the light's wavelength? Or do they just want it to look cool (but annoying after a minute of use)?
@(Unverified)
the higher the frequency of the modulating wave, the higher the data capacity of the channel - telecommunication 1:1. IR has longer wavelength than visible light (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation) so data carrying capacity of visible light should be higher. The problem is the power level, intensity as well as the fact that human eyes happen to be sensitive to this light.
Looking cool does not have anything to do with it. I guess they are just looking for low cost transmission sources for home use. I'd still think that there are better solutions with longer reach and similar bandwidth
@marekhaj
thanks for that info :)
Anyway i think radio waves such as in wifi are still the way to go, the bandwidth is ok, they go through walls and they do not disturb people.
500 Mb/s doesn't sound that fast as a world record for wireless data transfer? It is faster than my 802.11N router ("270Mb/s" - yeah right), but in research labs I'd expect numbers in the thousands? Especially as I can't see a practical use for something like this; there's too much interference on the visible band from stupid things like people.
Presumably the value in this technology is that it is omni-directional. The fact that it is visible, while being annoying, could be useful. Here's a little story to illustrate:
A fire has broken out in an office building. Sirens blare and warning lights flash. But now because of work by the people of Siemens, those flashing lights are encoded with vital information about where the fire is and what the closest exit is. Want to know where the hot spot is? It's the giant blinking light.
Not every technology exists for you to sit on your ass and access the Internet faster.
@NoSarcasmInText
"omni-directional" - as opposed to bluetooth and wifi which are...?
If such requirements existed for your example about the fire then it would already be in place. The technology for this (morse code) has been around for a fair time.
@cashclientel
Wrong.
1- Morse code (even sped up) is amazingly slow (It's called binary).
2- Wheres the hot spot? Wifi can accomplish what I envision accept in my version the fire men aren't wasting precious seconds look for the hotspot. They find it intuitively.
3- To say that because this system I envisioned hasn't been instituted, therefore it can't be instituted is illogical.
Hand held devices have only been around a few years. Give it time. We'll eventually figure out how to properly employ them.
@NoSarcasmInText
Re: 3 - I said that if needs existed for what you'd described it would already exist. It doesn't therefore there is no need for this technology to be applied in this way.
Regarding all of you points there - why couldn't they do it over WiFi?
Last point because I'm bored at work - wouldn't a fire (heat and light) completely disrupt this technology? Communication by pulsing light would be useless in a fire-rescue scenario.
@cashclientel
Ok. You got me. Environmental conditions would disrupt this technology. You mentioned fire/light, but smoke would be far more crippling (so you get half credit).
In response to you inability to understand: a wifi signal is not a visible signal, so harder to locate than a visible light (b/c you can see light) Do you really want a bunch of people running around during an emergency w/their eyes glued to their handheld's as they frantically search for a hot-spot?
My point is this: We already use lights to convey information, to add another level of information to what already exists is not revolutionary, just logical.
Our needs don't dictate adoption of new technology. Capital does (It's called capitalism).
@NoSarcasmInText
You don't need to physically locate a WiFi signal to use it so I don't understand how this is advantageous. If you did for whatever reason then some kind of light bulb (or laser?) attached to the router/access point would do the trick.
Human's don't really use lights to convey information. It is possible (morse code on Navy ships circa WWI) but not really common in today's age.
@cashclientel
You're right. I totally forgot about:
Stoplights, taillights, warning lights, power indicator lights, Etc.
Just b/c the messages are simple- "Stop", "Power is off", "I am braking"- doesn't mean that they aren't being used to communicate.
Wireless sex > Wireless power
62.5MBps... yawn...
Seriously don't blink! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH0R01gP3m0#t=1m41s
Oh no, now the power-saving lamps that can detect human presence (so they can shut off when not needed) are going to be able to talk to each other about us and know our habits all to well when the mechano uprising comes.