'Wireless' 2Mbps Internet Using Blinking LEDs

[nukemaster]

[citation][nom]guid_aaa000001[/nom]Photograph shown here is of a light bulb (not LED)[/citation]
Look more carefully despite the flash light bulb appearance, Its defiantly an LED.

Look at the inside of the bulb. it looks just like an old fashioned LED. maybe not the surface mount units many are used to seeing.
http://produkbaru.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/clear-led1.jpg

Generally this may have some uses, but they will need to increase the bandwidth. IR is able to bounce off walls(I see no reason this may not be able to as well) and literally fill a room with signal. For a one way application this can work well. Check out Edifier's IR wireless speaker system.
http://www.edifier.ca/english/speakers/rainbow/rainbow.htm

 

[jellico]

This isn't exactly a new concept. Remote controls have been using a similar principle for decades. I have an HP-48SX scientific calculator, from back in the early 90s, that could transfer files wirelessly between other HP-48SX using an infrared LED.

 

[maigo]

fiber optic with out the fiber, good times

 

[scott_madison1]

[citation][nom]warmon6[/nom]Not every pic you see on here is going to be 100% accurect to the story, sometime there not really related at all....http://www.tomshardware.com/news/P [...] 10311.html[/citation]

Actually that example doesn't work warmon6... Linux uses a penguin as its logo...

 

[eyemaster]

[citation][nom]guid_aaa000001[/nom]Photograph shown here is of a light bulb (not LED)[/citation]
Yes it is a LED, just not one with legs. Look at the 'bulb' itself, you can see the typical LED parts that create light.

 

[MxM]

[citation][nom]marcdanilov[/nom]"But what if all those electromagnetic waves are undesirable to you? Then perhaps blinking lights are more to your liking."and what exactly is light? if not an electromagnetic wave...??[/citation]

It is something made from photons
(though not unlike any other electromagnetic radiation)

 

[annymmo]

[citation][nom]CTPAHHIK[/nom]Hospitals do not allow cell phone or wireless technologies of any kind because it interferes with medical equipment that also uses wireless on same band. If this technology proves to be reliable it would be an alternative to prevent interference.[/citation]

Hospitals shouldn't be using wireless for such critical devices.
The danger of interference from the machines there should be enough to see that. You will find also a lot of unprotected wireless keyboards, mouse stuff. These things aren't secured so when you're close to another computer. It'll start to do the same movements there too.

Pesky wireless.

 

[gpace]

I've seen this stuff before, though not at 2 mbps. Also LEDs are fine when turned on and off very quickly. Incandescents and florescent decrease in lifespan when flickered on and off. They also don't react as quickly as LEDs because they usually need time to warm up before getting to max output.

There is some benefit to using visible light. You don't need another transmitter like with WiFi, the lighting and the signal are together, hopefully saving some energy and making things simpler, but the problem is that it won't work too well under the sun (too much ambient light).

 

[wotan31]

LED's suck. I refuse to use them. They have such a cold and harsh color. I love incandescent's with their warm and inviting glow. I'll never give them up.

 

[wotan31]

[citation][nom]twisted politiks[/nom]yes but at a much longer wave length, thus being a lot less "harmful" if you can call wireless harmful.[/citation]
Do you just make this stuff up or are you really that ignorant??? Visible light is way WAY shorter wavelength than radio. Radio is from about 300 Hz, to about 300 Ghz. Visible light is more than 300 Thz. Yes, Terahertz.

 

[lathe26]

As already mentioned, this guy just re-invented IrDA, which was popular in laptops and handhelds (e.g. Palm) about a decade ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IrDA

I hated IrDA. Imagine giving a presentation and having the distraction of your laptop constantly making the Windows "ba-bing" and "ba-bong" sounds of device add/removal. After 20 minutes of these interruptions, I realized my watch was acting as a mirror that was making and breaking an IrDA connection with my neighbor's computer. I always disabled the IrDA hardware after that.

Regarding security, an attacker can use a telescope and a laser (for Rx and Tx of data) to overcome distance. You still need encryption and authentication for security.

[citation][nom]jellico[/nom]I have an HP-48SX scientific calculator, from back in the early 90s, that could transfer files wirelessly between other HP-48SX using an infrared LED.[/citation]

We should get our HP48-SX calculators within 1 inch and exchange files. 🙂 I remember that there was a remote control app that could record the signals and play them back (manually or progammatically).

 

[drip50291]

this is pretty much crappy infrared... lame

 

[lathe26]

Timex had watches back in 1994 that used light to transmit data call Datalink.

In a nutshell, you held your watch up to your CRT monitor or to transmitter adapter to download phone numbers, appointments, mini-apps, etc. Transmission was only 1-way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timex_Datalink

 

[boris152]

Doesn't the internal wireless network in the White House use a technology similar to this?

 

[Gin Fushicho]

Neat, but it's certainly going to have to be faster.

 

[kingssman]

will this help improve communications of deep space probes using blinking laser so as not to get the interference and static from traditional radio frequencies that occupy the vacuums of space?

 

[lukeeu]

If it blinks at 2MHz then it emits radio waves at 2MHz. If it blinks at 10MHz it emits radio waves at 10MHz. Sorry but that's physics. If you alternate current (turn LED on and off) you emit radio waves at that frequency + harmonics. And if you do it using 1W-100W it will be picked up by electronics in your hole neighborhood.

 

[rags_20]

Ironic, right? That the Chinese have invented something related to the internet.

 

[IFLATLINEI]

Congrats for the Chinese scientists for convincing someone to pay them for this waste of time.

 

[drowned]

It's an interesting idea, but it'll never become more than a bench project. Even if it were somehow 5x faster, why bother when you have gigabit IR in the pipeline?

 

[arlandi]

now, instead of screaming "Move over, You're blocking the view!", you can do "Move over, you're blocking the Net!"

 

[JohnnyLucky]

does not seem to be very practical.

 

[kiang]

[citation][nom]wotan31[/nom]LED's suck. I refuse to use them. They have such a cold and harsh color. I love incandescent's with their warm and inviting glow. I'll never give them up.[/citation]
That's because you're an idiot.
LEDs have a bigger GAMUT-range than any other man-made light-source, that's why we use them is displays. So if you aren't a cheap-ass redneck without a brain, you'd just buy the LEDs that say 'natural light' or 'warm light' on the box, you moron.

 

[andyviant]

[citation][nom]lukeeu[/nom]If it blinks at 2MHz then it emits radio waves at 2MHz. If it blinks at 10MHz it emits radio waves at 10MHz. Sorry but that's physics. If you alternate current (turn LED on and off) you emit radio waves at that frequency + harmonics. And if you do it using 1W-100W it will be picked up by electronics in your hole neighborhood.[/citation]

Sorry, but that's NOT physics. You're confusing the frequency of the signal with the frequency of the waves carrying it. If you blink a light bulb on and off one time per second (1hz) and someone is watching and recieveing your "signal" you have not changed the frequency/wavelength of the light carrying it.