Internet via a light bulb.
Scientists from the college at Boston University have taken on a project whose grandeur would make Anatoly Chubais himself with his nanotechnology and RAO UES envious: they are going to develop a technology that will turn ordinary electric light into an information transmission channel.
The researchers intend to develop special LED systems that will “make” lamps and lights “blink” at certain frequencies that are invisible to the human eye.
In fact, this is how data will be transmitted.
«Imagine that your computer, smartphone, TV, or, for example, an electronic thermostat on the wall could receive information without any wires — all you need to do is turn on the light,» says Boston University professor Thomas Little. «This is possible using a communication network based on LEDs with low power consumption, high reliability, and no electromagnetic interference. Moreover, this network can be built on the basis of the existing lighting network.»
According to his assumptions, the new technology will significantly reduce traffic costs and reduce the harm done to the environment.
Moreover, it can be used not only indoors, but also outdoors.
In particular, Little described to journalists such a breathtaking picture: cars will “read” signals from the headlights of cars driving in front, inform the driver of his braking speed or turn on the appropriate safety systems.
It is clear that if the «electro-Internet» networks are successfully developed, traditional Wi-Fi hotspots will become unnecessary.
However, skeptics are somewhat confused by one point: modern LEDs can be switched on and off no more than 10 million times per second, which limits the data transfer rate to a maximum of 10 Mbit/s.
For comparison, Wi-Fi technologies allow, in theory, to reach a speed of 600 Mbit/s.
However, Little's group has its own answer to this argument: a whole group of LEDs can transmit data simultaneously, they say.
So «Wi-Fi speed» can be achieved and even surpassed.
The development will be financed by the US National Science Foundation.
«I don't know about cars, but there's no way this technology can replace hotspots,» doubts Andrey Nenakhov, director of the Redsolution company. «Unless American scientists manage to teach light to spread along a curve, and transceivers to work with reflected light. Otherwise, any object, for example, a person walking around the room, will interrupt data transmission if it finds itself in the line of sight.
And you can't call this technology particularly innovative: for example, the IR port that was recently present on any phone is a type of LED that «blinks» at a frequency invisible to the human eye. High-speed optical data transmission is also nothing new – laser ethernet devices (bridges, access points, etc.) are widely used in countries where fog and rain are rare.»
«The idea is certainly tempting,» notes Tatyana Mukhamadeeva, director of the PRaktik company. «However, it is too early to draw any conclusions or make any assumptions: let's wait until the Boston group achieves at least some practical results.
After all, in the last century, Nikola Tesla also invented devices for transmitting electricity wirelessly over hundreds of thousands of kilometers.
And where are they now?
And Tesla – in the world of physics, the name is still bigger than Little, with all due respect to the latter.»