Researchers have developed a new form of wireless networking that uses low-cost office lighting – but will it reprogram your brain in the process?
If you thought Morse code died out years ago, think again: a team of Chinese researchers has apparently developed a similar technique to deliver high-speed datacasts throughout an office environment – using the lights in your ceiling.
The theory is simple, Engadget
tells us: LEDs installed in the ceilings are managed by a controller that changes their brightness very, very quickly. Data can thus be encoded in the signal, providing a stream of wireless data that can be received by deskbound computers and laptops throughout a working or living space.
Each light acts as its own broadcast node, allowing a large number of simultaneous data streams to be delivered around an office environment – while doubling as highly energy-efficient office lighting.
There's no detail about providing a return channel: the technology is one-way only, as far as we can tell; transceivers could theoretically be built into devices around the office, although the technology’s line-of-sight nature would require some careful aiming with consideration of potential physical obstacles. And there's no indication about whether the rapidly-flashing lights could cause epileptic fits in people so predisposed, although the flashing is said to be of such high frequency as to be outside the limits of human perception.
And how fast is this Christmas-lights-on-steroids data transfer system? Boston University researchers looking into the concept
back in 2008 projected speeds as quick as 10Mbps, but the current research, by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has apparently delivered up to 2Mbps.
But what would it be used for? While you could theoretically use it to do an officewide broadcast of the boss's drunken antics from last year's staff party, the scientists envision more practical uses such as the construction of smart environments.
For example, the technology could be used to keep office clocks correct, read plant watering sensors, control thermostats, or beam documents to printers. Turn on the lights, and the in-room sensors will all communicate to make sure things are as they should be.
Of course, much of this can already be accomplished using WiFi or Bluetooth – so advocates may have challenges convincing potential investors and buyers that their system is a viable and more beneficial alternative.
Perhaps the biggest thing going for the LEDs is their low running cost and power consumption, compared with ubiquitous Bluetooth and WiFi technologies. With authorities clamping down on environmental standards, this sort of thing could sell well to the eco-conscious crowd – and, perhaps, for our future overlords determined to use the technology to reprogram our brains. Bwahahahahaha!