A Mexican software company has managed to transmit audio, video and
internet across the spectrum of light emitted by LED lamps — at a data transfer
rate of 10 gigabytes per second.
The technology can illuminate a large work space, such as an office,
while providing full mobile internet to every device that comes into the range
of the light spectrum.
The technology, called Li-Fi or light fidelity, is presented as an
alternative to Wi-Fi because it will maximise the original provided speed of
the internet to offer safer data transfer and a transfer rate of up to 10
gigabytes per second.
The Li-Fi device circulates data via LEDs that emit an intermittent
flicker at a speed imperceptible to the human eye.
"As Wi-Fi uses cables to spread our connections, wireless
transmission Li-Fi uses LED lamps that emit high brightness light," said
Arturo Campos Fentanes, CEO of Sisoft in Mexico.
Another advantage in comparison to Wi-Fi is that there is no way to
hack the signal since the internet is transmitted by light, there is no way to
"steal it."
Furthermore, it can be installed in hospitals areas that use radiation
apparatus and generally block or distort internet signal, Fentanes said.
With this new technology expansion through the market is sought, with
lower costs and a service increased by five thousand per cent internet speed.
Currently in Mexico the highest transfer rate is 200 megabytes per
second. Just to get an idea, with Li-Fi you could quickly download an entire HD
movie in just 45 seconds.
Also known as visible light communications (VLC), this technology
began with an internet speed of two Gigabits per second, but Sisoft along with
researchers from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM)
adapted the system to be multiplied five times.
Fentanes explained that the first experiments were conducted with
audio, in which a cable is connected via 3.5 mm audio Jack from a smartphone to
a proto board table to transform the auditory signal in optical waves.
That way a special emitter transmits data across the spectrum of light
generated by an LED lamp and is captured by a receptor located in a speaker
that reproduces sound.
For wireless internet transmission, the mechanics is similar. The
station developed by Sisoft stands above the router device that distributes the
internet signal and a lamp-LED is incorporated to maximise the speed of data
transfer.
Light will emulate an antenna, but only the electronic apparatus that
has the receptor for the "optical audio" signal and is inside the
range of the halo of light will have a connection.
