You have heard of wifi...But have you heard of... LiFi?
Public Domain
This is an interesting piece of technology I came across today that I figured would fit greatly in my never ending list of useless facts that I like to occasionally post about.
So, lifi is much like wifi but with light bulbs. Well, short of.
It's a wireless technology with a similar principle to wifi. But instead of radio waves,it uses light to wirelessly transmit data, using LED lights that flicker very fast. This flickering is extremely fast and can't be detected by the human eye.
Although the idea of transmitting data with the help of light goes all the way back to the 1880s with the photo phone lifi itself is a recent invention, first introduced by Harald Haas during a 2011 TEDGlobal talk in Edinburgh:
The technology can use visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light with speeds exceeding 224 Gbit/s. Not bad!
The technology has a few unique advantages, like how it can be used in electromagnetic sensitive areas without causing electromagnetic interference.
However, it's greatest advantage is probably in security since the light stays isolated in wherever the hardware is installed, unlike radio waves that can go through walls. This however is also its biggest demise as it means a much shorter range. Interestingly, a direct line of sight is not necessary as there are workarounds to reflect the light.
Although the technology has been used here and there, applications remain quite niche and mainstream adoption is something far far away in the future, if ever.
And that pretty much sums this tech. Here's a link to Wikipedia if you'd like to read more on it. I found it quite fascinating :)