Chinese Scientist Close to Developing Li-fi Connectivity

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

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Forget Wi-fi, the future of broadband may rest with ‘visible light communications’, otherwise known as connectivity from a light bulb. Bright idea, but is it for real?

Li-fi promises to be cheaper and more energy-efficient than existing wireless radio systems given the ubiquity of LED bulbs and the fact that lighting infrastructure is already in place.
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tikiman2012 said:
Because everybody loves flickering lights.
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Unless you are a camera then you should be fine. Only a small portion of people notice the flickering.

This tech is pretty genius , LED bulbs have taken off and this would be an awesome way to create a network.

Hope it actually comes out of the lab and into real application.
 
My former professor has his hands in this development. The flickering will be impossible for anybody to see. Light modulation like this isnt visible to human eyes. I say if it gets rid of crappy routers im all for it
 
Why does it even have to be in the visible spectrum? Make it infrared and no one will worry about it. :D

Problem with optical systems though is that it would suck if something as small as a shadow screws up your connectivity, and you constantly have to dust off your optical sensor.

There's a reason fiberoptics are enclosed and capped when unplugged.
 
It may not be noticeable in your perceptible vision, but that doesn't mean yours eyes don't notice it and register it on some level.

Light has a far greater effect on human beings than most people realize, and I'd be worried about everything from simple eyestrain to more serious things like disruptions of sleep cycles and altering of moods due to psychological stress.
 
They have demoed stuff like this before, the problem is its light. The advantage of rf is it passes through objects. Light gets blocked. If you can put one radio in a laptop that takes care of everything its cheaper than adding light sensors but still needing redundant rf for when things are dark or need wall penetration. Wireless itself is all about ease of installation most people want to drop a single combined router / switch / wap at the point of entry and be done. Not have to make sure all their light bulbs in the house are positioned in good places and compliant.
 
rudy said:
They have demoed stuff like this before, the problem is its light. The advantage of rf is it passes through objects. Light gets blocked. If you can put one radio in a laptop that takes care of everything its cheaper than adding light sensors but still needing redundant rf for when things are dark or need wall penetration. Wireless itself is all about ease of installation most people want to drop a single combined router / switch / wap at the point of entry and be done. Not have to make sure all their light bulbs in the house are positioned in good places and compliant.
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Which is also a benefit in an age where privacy is paramount in the land of wardriving and NSA snooping.
 
For a few paranoid people maybe not anyone else. If you cared you would hardwire.
 
1. How much do you want to bet this is going to spike epileptic seizures on a grand scale and
2. Isn't LiFi just WiFi with a heavy Asian accent?
3. I'm an idiot aren't I?
4. Don't answer that.
 
1. Have we seen an epidemic of seizures due to dimmable lighting fixtures? Because they flicker too, you just perceive it as a dimmer light bulb.

2. Yes sir yes it is

3. ...

4. Ok
 
Scenarios:

A) Say I'm watching Netflix at night in my living room. With LiFi, I can't turn off the lights because then I'd lose my network. Also my Netflix receiver needs to be emitting light in order to talk back to my light bulb.
B) Say my phone is LiFi enabled. When i'm walking around it will be flashing an LED as it attempts to connect to LiFi networks in the area.
C) Say it's sunny out and the window shades are open. I would still need to turn on the lights to get network. Visible light takes much more energy to emit than radio frequencies, so I'm now wasting electricity.
D) Also I would now have to arrange devices in rooms so that when I'm using them they still have line-of-sight access to my light bulb.
E) And I would have to wire my light bulbs together (or have strategically placed mirrors around the house) in order for my network to be complete.

How is any of this a better alternative to WiFi? Not to mention that AC wireless will be able to do over a Gbit/s as we get to later versions.
 
VladDracule said:
My former professor has his hands in this development. The flickering will be impossible for anybody to see. Light modulation like this isnt visible to human eyes. I say if it gets rid of crappy routers im all for it
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What about animals and insects, though? This tech is not in my home.

Even back in that TED speech they didn't say shit about animals. Fuck those guys.
 
sfsuphysics said:
1. Have we seen an epidemic of seizures due to dimmable lighting fixtures? Because they flicker too, you just perceive it as a dimmer light bulb.

2. Yes sir yes it is

3. ...

4. Ok
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Actually, light flicker really annoys me. Actually almost got really sick because of it one time when a fluorescent bulb was flickering just right. It was flickering at just the right frequency to make stuff that moved near it have a weird jumpy trailing effect. It instantly made me light headed, and gave me a really bad headache at the same time.

As far as light dimmers go, if you are using incandescent lights, it is just a variable resistor. No flickering at all unless you turn it almost all the way off.. and when that happens, I can't stand it either.

I am in the boat with those who get headaches from CRTs monitors running at 60hz refresh. The flicker is horrible. 75hz is better, but 85hz is even better.

This whole light flickering data transfer is stupid. Straight line of sight is the only thing that would even work, and I can pretty much guess it would make certain people sick.
 
Nice to know I'll be fine, but my dog may have epic seizures. =/
 
Sounds like something Tesla was working on but not quite the same. I'm very interested in how it works will do more research on it when I have the time.
 
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