Lifi: the future of wireless working
It’s already enough to make us curl our toes and start deep-breathing but as more and more people use smartphones, ipads, GPS systems the more frustrating public wifi will become. Whether you’re working from a cafe, stealing it from a neighbour, wrestling with a dongle or competing for bandwidth in an airport or a conference you’ve encountered the anxiety of the dreaded slow bandwidth.
The frustration of bad wireless is topped only by how unreliable it can be. Fibre-Optic Communication has revolutionised the way we work and communicate making long-distance calls, file-sharing and collaborative online work feasible. We’ve laid fibre lines in all our buildings and know how work intensive and costly the process is, placing it out of reach for many public buildings and home usage. Haas’ idea removes this costly installation process, his so-called ‘D-Light’ taps into an overlooked source of fibre that’s all around us – in lightbulbs.
Data is sent through an LED lightbulb, it’s the same idea behind infrared remote controls, but far more powerful. So the infrastructure is already there, it’s available everywhere there’s a lightbulb and it’s secure as the data is only sent where the light is.
Haas says his invention can produce data rates faster than 10 megabits per second, which is speedier than your average broadband connection. You can imagine a whole world of possibilities where public wifi (through street lamps) is just the tip of the iceberg. From chemical plants where radiowaves are too dangerous, aircrafts cabins, hospitals and traffic control.
The future is looking very bright.
The Office Team