Kansai Airport tries delivering content using visible light
RFID tags, Bluetooth, WiFi? Forget it. This week, Japan's Ministry of Land is demoing a technology at Kansai Airport that will transmit information to cellphones using the LED or fluorescent lights in the departure lounge. NTT DoCoMo is supplying the phones, while NEC, Matsushita, Keio University and Japan Airlines chip in on the remaining technology. Passengers will point the phones at the appropriate blinkenlights around the lounge to get information on departure times and shops and facilities, and to download music and video. Throughput is reckoned at 10Kbps from a fluorescent light and several Mbps from an LED. As long as they don't try and adapt the same technology to reprogram our minds while they're at it, we're happy.
