Li-Fi has just been tested in the real world, and it's 100 times faster than Wi-Fi

[hihello]

Expect to hear a whole lot more about Li-Fi - a wireless technology that transmits high-speed data using visible light communication (VLC) - in the coming months. With scientists achieving speeds of 224 gigabits per second in the lab using Li-Fi earlier this year, the potential for this technology to change everything about the way we use the Internet is huge.

And now, scientists have taken Li-Fi out of the lab for the first time, trialling it in offices and industrial environments in Tallinn, Estonia, reporting that they can achieve data transmission at 1 GB per second - that's 100 times faster than current average Wi-Fi speeds.

"We are doing a few pilot projects within different industries where we can utilise the VLC (visible light communication) technology," Deepak Solanki, CEO of Estonian tech company, Velmenni, told IBTimes UK.

"Currently we have designed a smart lighting solution for an industrial environment where the data communication is done through light. We are also doing a pilot project with a private client where we are setting up a Li-Fi network to access the Internet in their office space.”

Li-Fi was invented by Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, Scotlandback in 2011, when he demonstrated for the first time that by flickering the light from a single LED, he could transmit far more data than a cellular tower. Think back to that lab-based record of 224 gigabits per second - that's 18 movies of 1.5 GB each being downloaded every single second.

The technology uses Visible Light Communication (VLC), a medium that uses visible light between 400 and 800 terahertz (THz). It works basically like an incredibly advanced form of Morse code - just like switching a torch on and off according to a certain pattern can relay a secret message, flicking an LED on and off at extreme speeds can be used to write and transmit things in binary code.

And while you might be worried about how all that flickering in an office environment would drive you crazy, don’t worry - we’re talking LEDs that can be switched on and off at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye.

The benefits of Li-Fi over Wi-Fi, other than potentially much faster speeds, is that because light cannot pass through walls, it makes it a whole lot more secure, and as Anthony Cuthbertson points out at IBTimes UK, this also means there's less interference between devices.

While Cuthbertson says Li-Fi will probably not completely replace Wi-Fi in the coming decades, the two technologies could be used together to achieve more efficient and secure networks.

Our homes, offices, and industry buildings have already been fitted with infrastructure to provide Wi-Fi, and ripping all of this out to replace it with Li-Fi technology isn’t particularly feasible, so the idea is to retrofit the devices we have right now to work with Li-Fi technology.

Research teams around the world are working on just that. Li-Fi expertsreported for the The Conversation last month that Haas and his team have launched PureLiFi, a company that offers a plug-and-play application for secure wireless Internet access with a capacity of 11.5 MB per second, which is comparable to first generation Wi-Fi. And French tech company Oledcomm is in the process of installing its own Li-Fi technology in local hospitals.

If applications like these and the Velmenni trial in Estonia prove successful, we could achieve the dream outlined by Haas in his 2011 TED talk below - everyone gaining access to the Internet via LED light bulbs in their home.

"All we need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device and this would then combine two basic functionalities: illumination and wireless data transmission," Haas said. "In the future we will not only have 14 billion light bulbs, we may have 14 billion Li-Fis deployed worldwide for a cleaner, greener, and even brighter future."

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[dMog]

yea well don't hold your breath thinking thinking this technology will readily availabe or even viable for daily use by the masses

[jamesDDI]

yea well don't hold your breath thinking thinking this technology will readily availabe or even viable for daily use by the masses

Btw it's really amazing.. :blink:

[GRiM]

yea well don't hold your breath thinking thinking this technology will readily availabe or even viable for daily use by the masses

Why?

[Future Soldier]

too far in the horizon for the commercial use anyways a great reseasearch

[VileTouch]

problem: can't browse the internet in the dark... it's like 2-handed controls for video players in a porn site... or so i've heard :dunno:

[rudrax]

Soon people will be seen sitting under LED bulbs in the middle burning sunlight. :lol:

[GRiM]

problem: can't browse the internet in the dark... it's like 2-handed controls for video players in a porn site... or so i've heard :dunno:

Good point lol

[Rok]

A great research, that'll be available to our next generation (may be).

[bubbada]

LOL!

A Disney researcher waves a Li-Fi magic wand and makes a fairy princess dress light up

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My view on this topic

The thing about this half baked Li-Fi is light comes and goes like the sun. the power company's would have to work harder to keep the power grid going because of the amount of down lights and data thats transmitting though them and keeping these lights going constantly burning lights all day just to keep a constant stream of data going meaning light would keep u up at night too and how much heat is going to be generated though these bulbs as well if the light is being manipulated that could also mean that it could be dangerous to exposure, if the sun can give us skin cancer what will Li-Fi give.

Another view of it just say if the light is contained in a area that it will transmit in a closed environment that would'nt impact of thing like sleeping. but on that the light would create heat and where would it go?

This technology has ways to go yet.

[VileTouch]

i wouldn't mind browsing the web under these leds though