There have been some rumors recently about the upcoming technology known as light fidelity, otherwise known as Li-Fi. It appears to have reached a new milestone in the research phase -- a transfer speed of 150 Mb/s in practical applications. Earlier this year, a German research team managed to reach speeds of about 1 Gb/s, however, this was in a lab environment and probably not replicable in practical applications.
Li-Fi is a wireless technology based not on radio waves but as the name indicates, on light. Supposedly, a single 1 W LED bulb is enough for about 150 Mb/s of data, which should be able to network about four PCs. The technology also goes by the term VLC (Visible Light Communications). Of course, unsurprisingly and unlike Wi-Fi, a direct line of sight is required between the sender and receiver. From a security point of view, using light as a communications method has many benefits. That said, Mom and Dad will always be able to tell when you're on the Internet late at night.
So far, the research team has not provided any videos or other proof of the technology. However, we expect that to change November 5, 2013 when the team is hoping to reveal the technology at the China International Industry Fair.
On another note, NASA has just announced that it has managed to reach transfer speeds of 622 MB/s, using lasers, to and from the moon -- a distance of over 239,000 miles!
