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Everyone except the most ardent technophobe (or freecycler) will likely have a remote control for their TV. The remote control communicates with the TV set through the use of IrDA (infra red), a form of light communications. It beats getting up off the sofa every time you want to change channel, however we also likely know how frustrating it can be when the signal doesn’t quite go as planned. You know, those times when you end up waving your arm in the air and frantically pressing buttons and thinking it would have been quicker just to walk over and press a button on the TV.
The reason this doesn’t always work is because light has a habit of bouncing off surfaces around where you are pointing it, creating interference and messing with your signal.
Having said all this, transmitting data optically is far faster than current wireless data methods. For example Bluetooth transmits around 3Mbps, but IrDA is around 16Mbps.
So the theory is that an LED can be used to transmit data, think signal fire of the digital age, accept this time the light source is switched on and off in rapid sequence to transmit the data to a receiver that then translates the information into the message content. Be it an image, command, or text. We are talking too fast for the human eye to perceive by the way.
Light communications also offers a secure medium unlike current Wi-Fi technology, as the walls of your surroundings create bounds for the light signal. Boston University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York have recently launched a five-year $18.5m (£13m) research programme to hopefully prove this.
And in case you are wondering about operating costs for a whole new system, then don’t forget an LED uses much less power than a conventional light and can also be added to existing building wiring, reducing environmental impact and adoption costs.
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