'Wireless' 2Mbps Internet Using Blinking LEDs
Get your blinking internet working.
The amount of freedom we have with our laptop computers these days compared to a decade ago is remarkable. Thanks to Wi-Fi and even more so now with 3G networks, we can access the internet from almost anywhere. But what if all those electromagnetic waves are undesirable to you? Then perhaps blinking lights are more to your liking.
Chinese scientists have demonstrated a wireless networking method which uses blue LEDs that transmit data by modulating flicker rate. The LED lights can double as lighting as the blinking is imperceptible by the human eye.
The speed so far achieved through blinking lights is 2Mbps, which is quite sluggish by today's other wireless standards. Also, instead of worrying about radio signal interference, now the concern will be the blocking of light transmission.
Still, it's an interesting concept. Read more from the Beijing Times.
(Via Engadget)
- wireless ,
- internet ,
- led ,
- chinese ,
- scientists
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Great, more ammo for the paranoid... Saying they're sensitive to lights, so no net based on LED's...
Seriously..... Although it sounds cool, I think it's not so practical as LED's have generally low lifespans especially when they're almost always blinking.
it's not so practical as LED's have generally low lifespans especially when they're almost always blinking.
What planet are you from?
LED's have amongst the longest lifespans of any bulb on this planet.
Hospitals do not allow cell phone or wireless technologies of any kind because it interferes with medical equipment that also uses wireless on same band. If this technology proves to be reliable it would be an alternative to prevent interference.
??? LED's have generally low lifespans? I was under the impression that LED's had the highest lifespan of all lighting methods.
Great, more ammo for the paranoid... Saying they're sensitive to lights, so no net based on LED's...Seriously..... Although it sounds cool, I think it's not so practical as LED's have generally low lifespans especially when they're almost always blinking.
generally low life spans? are you talking about LED's that last 25,000 hours (and still shine 70% of what they were at when new after the 25,000 hours) ,or halogen and incandescent bulbs which typically burn out at 1,250 and 2,500 hours, respectively?
As far as i knew, LED's are the most efficient man-made visible light source we have.
Uh, aren't "blinking lights" still emitting electromagnetic waves? =p
Uh, aren't "blinking lights" still emitting electromagnetic waves? =p
yes but at a much longer wave length, thus being a lot less "harmful" if you can call wireless harmful.
This seems like a dead end technology IMO, walls are a major issue for radiowave wireless, using light for the medium would require a new wall building method, possibly using fibre optics running through them.
Dead end!
infra-red died long ago.
Photograph shown here is of a light bulb (not LED)
"But what if all those electromagnetic waves are undesirable to you? Then perhaps blinking lights are more to your liking."
and what exactly is light? if not an electromagnetic wave...??
Photograph shown here is of a light bulb (not LED)
Not every pic you see on here is going to be 100% accurect to the story, sometime there not really related at all....
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/P [...] 10311.html
Hospitals do not allow cell phone or wireless technologies of any kind because it interferes with medical equipment that also uses wireless on same band. If this technology proves to be reliable it would be an alternative to prevent interference.
Having hospital equipment on heavily used public frequencies seems to be a problem that they should be focusing on fixing, not the consumers.
Morse code with flashlights at night not good enough for you? Why not hget a truckload of little LED's?
yes but at a much longer wave length, thus being a lot less "harmful" if you can call wireless harmful.
Shorter. It's just that we live with daily bombardment from visible and infrared light. Anything other wavelength range and people start worrying - microwaves, radio waves, ultraviolet, gamma and x-rays.
[citation]This seems like a dead end technology IMO, walls are a major issue for radiowave wireless, using light for the medium would require a new wall building method[/citation]
Like glass? Technically radio waves have no trouble with walls. Cell phones and wireless routers use the microwave band, which almost everything absorbs or reflects.
Weren't the infrared ports that used to be on laptops a bit faster than this and basically used the same principle except the LEDs were infrared instead of visible light...?
They tried this before, it was called IrDA, and it never caught on. Only different was that it used infrared instead of visible light.
Hospitals do not allow cell phone or wireless technologies of any kind because it interferes with medical equipment that also uses wireless on same band. If this technology proves to be reliable it would be an alternative to prevent interference.
Maybe you haven't been in a hospital recently. My last several trips I've asked about cell phones, and they've stated that as long as the patient isn't on a heart monitor, that cell phones and other wireless is just fine.
yes but at a much longer wave length, thus being a lot less "harmful" if you can call wireless harmful.
Visible light has a very short wavelength compared to radio frequency EMF.
Photograph shown here is of a light bulb (not LED)
The picture *IS* of an LED. Try again, Captain Failboat.
Now can they secure it?
Now can they secure it?
Unless it is encrypted the same way wifi is, which also fires off an indiscriminate bubble of signal, at least a light can be directed in a fairly straight line. I suppose a laser beam would have been even better, but im sure the blue colour has some significance here.
Yawn.....
Not every pic you see on here is going to be 100% accurect to the story, sometime there not really related at all....http://www.tomshardware.com/news/P [...] 10311.html
That may be true, but you cant tell me they dont have a picture of an led
So it's like morse code for computers? Weird concept but it might be useful in environments suceptible to radio interference.
Photograph shown here is of a light bulb (not LED)
Look more carefully despite the flash light bulb appearance, Its defiantly an LED.
Look at the inside of the bulb. it looks just like an old fashioned LED. maybe not the surface mount units many are used to seeing.
http://produkbaru.files.wordpress. [...] r-led1.jpg
Generally this may have some uses, but they will need to increase the bandwidth. IR is able to bounce off walls(I see no reason this may not be able to as well) and literally fill a room with signal. For a one way application this can work well. Check out Edifier's IR wireless speaker system.
http://www.edifier.ca/english/spea [...] ainbow.htm
This isn't exactly a new concept. Remote controls have been using a similar principle for decades. I have an HP-48SX scientific calculator, from back in the early 90s, that could transfer files wirelessly between other HP-48SX using an infrared LED.
fiber optic with out the fiber, good times
Not every pic you see on here is going to be 100% accurect to the story, sometime there not really related at all....http://www.tomshardware.com/news/P [...] 10311.html
Actually that example doesn't work warmon6... Linux uses a penguin as its logo...
Photograph shown here is of a light bulb (not LED)
Yes it is a LED, just not one with legs. Look at the 'bulb' itself, you can see the typical LED parts that create light.
"But what if all those electromagnetic waves are undesirable to you? Then perhaps blinking lights are more to your liking."and what exactly is light? if not an electromagnetic wave...??
It is something made from photons
(though not unlike any other electromagnetic radiation)
Hospitals do not allow cell phone or wireless technologies of any kind because it interferes with medical equipment that also uses wireless on same band. If this technology proves to be reliable it would be an alternative to prevent interference.
Hospitals shouldn't be using wireless for such critical devices.
The danger of interference from the machines there should be enough to see that. You will find also a lot of unprotected wireless keyboards, mouse stuff. These things aren't secured so when you're close to another computer. It'll start to do the same movements there too.
Pesky wireless.