| Aug. 4, 2011 - Talk about a light bulb moment. A professor of engineering at Edinburgh University recently demonstrated for the first time to a wide audience his technology that uses common every day lights to transmit data.
Harald Haas streamed a video through a desk lamp at Ted Global 2011 at Scotland's Edinburgh International Conference Center in July.
If commercialized, the technology not only creates a vast new application for light, but also dramatically expands our now limited wireless capacity. Imagine downloading your email from any of the14 billion light bulbs installed in the world.
Haas' technology swaps out our current way of transmitting data - through radio frequency - with a new approach using visible light from LED light bulbs. This is significant because we are running out of radio frequency spectrum as our appetite for wireless communication grows, Haas says. The visible light spectrum, on the other hand, is enormous, with about 10,000 times more capacity than radio frequency. Using light instead of radio frequency would give us a lot more capacity for our cell phones, wireless computers and other devices.
The energy implications are even more interesting.? Click Here to read the full story. Share &/or CommentΓû║
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