2Mbps Internet Connection Over LED

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Chinese researchers have renewed interest in line-of-sight internet connection over LED technology.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences claims to have realized a 2Mbit per second internet connection that transmits data simply by modulating the flicker of the little diodes, and imperceptibly enough to have them serve as room lighting as well. Like Boston University before them, the Chinese scholars see short-range LED networks controlling smart appliances.
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Lol, so they took apart a fiber module and soldered on some more powerful diodes?
 
HD content through 2Mbps? Fail.

political-pictures-george-bush-fail.jpg
 
staticlag said:
Lol, so they took apart a fiber module and soldered on some more powerful diodes?
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That's what I thought too. Anyone who's used a late model switch with a fiber gbic has used the internet over a pair of LEDs. I guess they mean open air, which would be the equivelent of the laser tranceivers we used between sites.
 
Seems like a good idea to me.

Flourescent lights flicker at 60hz and up. LED lights will probably have to flicker at 1,000,000 hz+ (binary 0/1) to get into the Mbps range.

It will be completely imperceptable flicker IMO.

The infrared spectrum that your remote control uses - is suprisingly inefficient. It does afterall use the "heat" spectrum.
 
I can see remote controls being useful for this tech.

Increased battery life (so you can power LCD screens for longer). Add an SD slot - and you can beam whats on your card to the TV through your remote control.
 
I fail to see the point. Conventional Wifi is *much* faster (Wifi N is what, 300Mbps?), and this isn't any harder to sniff or crak. It also suffers from line of sight and possibly range issues.
 
Yep. Fluorescent lights are supposed to have a flicker that's imperceptible, but I can tell, and it's f'ing annoying.
 
In b4 bionic-eye implants which allow me to surf porn while staring into my desk lamp.

But srsly, I guess it's good in the sense that it'd cut down on RF crowding. Might also be good for communications systems in covert military ops where radio silence is key. There are many possibilities for this tech.

Also, would it be 2mbps spread through the entire system? Or each LED or LED panel providing a complementary data stream, kinda like shotgunning modems? (I know that's an old term, i just can't think of what the new term is)
 
Probably no licensing requirements. The B and G bands are getting crowded.

Technically Wifi and the like are considered radio waves and are regulated (one watt direction for example) Light is only regulated as high wattage laser.

The reason there isn't a Wifi remote control - is that it will probably interfere with your internet.
 
one swell foop said:
Yep. Fluorescent lights are supposed to have a flicker that's imperceptible, but I can tell, and it's f'ing annoying.
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It's pretty well established that the flickering is unnoticeable by for most people, but like you and I, there are plenty of people that notice the flickering.

There are a lot of factors, however, as to what makes flickering noticeable.
In fluorescent lights, stuff like the decay rate of different types of phosphors, the gases involved to produce a particular color of light, etc, all factor into it.

As ZenOps mentioned, though, the frequencies involved for this stuff would be far beyond the perception of anyone.
 
Big difference between 50/60 cycles per second and 2 million or more, folks. Ain't no human being going to look at an LED that's turning on and off 2 million times a second and say "OH GOD MAKE IT STOP..."

Just ain't happening.

This is just a first step, it can get better, faster, and most likely will. Brilliant idea I say, can't wait to (not) see what comes of it. ;)
 
Bahamut said:
Big difference between 50/60 cycles per second and 2 million or more, folks. Ain't no human being going to look at an LED that's turning on and off 2 million times a second and say "OH GOD MAKE IT STOP..."

Just ain't happening.

This is just a first step, it can get better, faster, and most likely will. Brilliant idea I say, can't wait to (not) see what comes of it. ;)
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"OH GOD MAKE IT STOP..."
 
one swell foop said:
Yep. Fluorescent lights are supposed to have a flicker that's imperceptible, but I can tell, and it's f'ing annoying.
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Older tube-style fluorescent lights flickered at either 60Hz or 120Hz. There are plenty of people sensitive to 120Hz light flicker, and the 60Hz lights were painful for everyone. You may be seeing some of those.

However, newer electronically ballasted fluorescent lights flicker in the range of 10,000Hz to 40,000Hz, and nobody can be sensitive to that (other than the hypochondriacs who think their neighbor's iPhone is zapping their brains).
 
kllrnohj said:
I fail to see the point. Conventional Wifi is *much* faster (Wifi N is what, 300Mbps?), and this isn't any harder to sniff or crak. It also suffers from line of sight and possibly range issues.
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It's a feature, especially around airports or anywhere interference is unwanted. Previous Laptops with infrared were bouncing their 'signals' off the walls and capable of making an ad-hoc network inside an airplane.

Think of it as an alternative to bluetooth that can be tightly localized within a room.
 
So basically it's an IR/HomePlug bridge. This poses far too many potential security problems to be worth it.

Say they start selling E26 LED lamps with IR Tranceivers and HomePlug connectivity. Mass produced, they could be extremely cheap, and people could screw them in everywhere. They can then act as bridges, tunnel traffic between networks and to devices with overlooked IR connectivity.

Remember when the chinese had their domestic fabs build security loopholes into USB chipsets for foreign manufacturers? Think about this on the scale of lightbulb use.
 
and when someone decides to steal all your visible information right from the LEDs that are right out in the open.....

hijacking a bluetooth connection is easy enough, all you need to read an LED is line of sight. anyone who can see thru your window will be able to sniff your networked lights.
 
Yes, please give me a 2Mbps whole house network that only costs $30 a light, or maybe $1200 for an average sized home. Much better value than an enterprise grade wireless N/G access point that will cover the entire house with reliable 50+ Mbps speeds for $400 or so...

Stupid idea, won't take off. Existing buildings won't be retrofitted, so penetration won't be high enough to make it worth including in your next laptop.
 
ghost6303 said:
and when someone decides to steal all your visible information right from the LEDs that are right out in the open.....

hijacking a bluetooth connection is easy enough, all you need to read an LED is line of sight. anyone who can see thru your window will be able to sniff your networked lights.
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You don't need line of sight because the light is reflected everywhere. You just need a sensitive enough receiver.
 
Probably more like $2 per LED. Its basically just smushing the LED and chip inside a remote control and pumping it up to network speeds.

I imagine the silicon could probably be all put inside the LED itself as well, sort of like how they fit Gigabytes of data onto a flash chip the size of a fingernail.
 
I bet you guys are just worried that your computer will start talking to your microwave about your p0rn surfing behind your back ;)
 
To all those saying hacking LED-based connections requires line-of-sight... I'm not sure why that's such a drawback considering that current wireless can be accessed through solid walls. The radiation from constant wireless exposure probably isn't the healthiest thing either, whereas the light from LED's should not cause long term effects. This could also work in areas where radio transmissions are prohibited or there are large amounts of interference. I don't see something like this replacing existing wireless, but the technology does have some niche uses.
 
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