Oledcomm, a French startup, has designed a system based on LiFi, part of IEEE 802.15 standard, that quickly modulates your existing LED lights and deliver wireless networks in a similar manner as Wi-Fi, and delivers up to 1Gbit/s bandwidth. The modulation is fast enough so that it’s invisible to the human eye, and all your need is a LiFi enabled router that will power and transmit data to your LED lights, as well as device with a LiFi receiver, such as a LiFi enabled smartphone. Transmission is somehow bidirectional.
Charbax filmed a demo by the company at CES 2014, and he seems to be in a state of disbelief during the interview, just as I did. The company did not want to provide technical details, as they are still looking for investors, but this appears to be real.
In the video, they mention up to 10MB/s throughput, lower than the 1Gbit/s claim in their website. This is still very cool, but I’m not quite sure about the applications, and how it can replace or complement Wi-Fi in our homes, offices, and public places. The main selling points are Wi-Fi saturation, potential health issues due to Wi-Fi high frequency radio waves, and electromagnetic sensible areas. In some ways, it’s also more secure, as it won’t go through walls.
The Lifi phone shown at CES 2014 transmits and receives data without draining the battery thanks to Wysips Connect transparent photo-voltaic film from Sunpartner Technologies, which handles both solar power and data transmission.
Check out Oledcomm LiFi page for a few more details.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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