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Wysips Connect will make your phone a solar cell that can receive data transmitted through light waves

Remember that 90% transparent solar-cell that stumbled into our CES trailer last year? It's back, and it's got some new tricks. Wysips Connect is making its official debut on the show floor this year, and while the transparent panel can still generate electricity through sun exposure, it's now equipped with LiFi - a visible light spectrum communication technique capable of transmitting data at broadband speeds. If LiFi becomes common in smartphones, shopping malls, airports or hospitals could use the technology to push local map data to a user's phone, or help them find a product's location in an oversized supermarket.

All talk? Not quite: Sunpartner Technologies and Oledcomm say that they'll be announcing the first Wysips Connect equipped smartphone during the show. The jury's still out on if the technology will take the mobile world by storm, but at least the company is leading by example. We'll let you know how the solar cellphone fares under the lights of the CES 2014 show floor.