Transmitting data over light beams is not a new idea, we've even covered flourescent light LANs in the not too distant past, however these solutions have tended to be expensive. Over at Hack a Day is news about a project working on a less expensive solution, beaming data over infrared light. They use Raspberry Pi powered machines with motorized lenses in a 3D-printed chassis to project the signal. A green light is used for rough aiming of the devices, once they are pointed at each other a web interface allows you to fine tune the IR emitter and receiver, with real time feedback to show how the signal is changing. As with other LiFi networks you are limited by line of sight and people walking in between the transmitter and receiver can cause dropped packets but it is still a lot cheaper than running fibre optics through your building. Check out this project and several other similar solutions over at Hack a Day.
"The Koruza project is an open-source, “inexpensive” system that aims to transmit 1 Gb/sec over distances around 100 meters, using modulated infrared light. The intended use-case is urban building-to-building communication at speeds that would otherwise require laying fiber-optic cables."
Here is some more Tech News from around the web:
- Next-gen LTE is making a monkey out of Wi-Fi @ The Register
- Updategate: Microsoft nagware tries to turn workers against sys admins Updategate: Microsoft nagware tries to turn workers against sys admins @ The Inquirer
- 0day remote code exec holes in mobile modems can read SMS and HTTP @ The Register
- Amazon Echo hijacks thermostat after mistaking radio for voice command @ The Inquirer
- Tor Users Can Be Tracked Based On Their Mouse Movements @ Slashdot
- Qualcomm ARM server chips try on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for size @ The Register
LiFi used LED lights, not
LiFi used LED lights, not flourescents.
Point to point IR communication? What is this, 1980?
Did you skip the link about
Did you skip the link about the flourescents? LiFi was added as a tag so that it is easier to search as it was a PITA to find my own link about the lights … and may be likely to become a term used more widely as this sort of thing appears more often.
Your link to your older LiFi
Your link to your older LiFi article doesn’t mention flourescents at all nor does the Inquirer link. But the Wikipedia link does mention LEDs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li-Fi