It doesn’t matter who our service provider is, we always complain about the nature of our Internet Speed. And we always will, and then when it is TOO fast, we will complain that we can’t get anything done again. A team of researchers at Boston University is hoping to come up with a solution that will change that for good, by coming up with a concept that will provide Internet and wireless connectivity at the speed of light. Sort of. It will be done through lights in a manner of speaking. Computers and networks will be able to enjoy literally uninterrupted wireless connections through the use of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) that are installed into lighting fixtures and WiFi access points.
The concept is that due to the fact that LED’s don’t use a lot of heat, and actually run very cool, that any remaining signals from the lights can be used for power and created as conduits for wireless access points. The researchers from Boston University, whose mascot coincidentally happens to be a huge light emitting geranium diode, are using an $18 million dollar grant from the US National Science Foundation to study how to combine LED bulbs with wireless access points.
This technology will enable the communication of data with visible light and can also be adapted to existing power lines. The same diode that provides the light will thus provide the network connection, with data traveling as fast as 10 MB per second. If you’ve ever sat there waiting for email to download onto your Blackberry or iPhone, and painfully watched the MB’s load and load and LOAD, then you know how useful this service will be in terms of wireless connectivity. This is definitely an invention that will revolutionize WiFi usage, so keep an eye for it.
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