As Dr. Michael Olsen at OSU notes this is not directly about lidar, but it is about the use of light to replace radio waves to transmit the Internet at blinding speed. By blinding I mean 100 times faster than wi-fi using a light bulb. Yes a light bulb.
These researchers claim they tested it an office environment and achieved 1Gbps (gigabit per second) – incredible. It requires a light source, such as a standard LED bulb, an internet connection and a photo detector. It was tested this week by Estonian start-up Velmenni, in Tallinn.
The term li-fi was first coined by Prof Harald Haas from Edinburgh University, who demonstrated the technology at a Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in 2011.
But the technology also has its drawbacks – most notably the fact that it cannot be deployed outdoors in direct sunlight, because that would interfere with its signal.
I think we can live with that, right Starbucks?
No, we cannot live with it & we have to have it outdoors too. That’s why we will have 5G, the speed is announced to be around 20 Gbps.
Well I will disagree with this. Considering how much human body is bombarded with harmful and ever more powerful radio waves at all frequencies, causing all sorts of health problems (not mentioning poor animals that have to live with us on this planet), it is “enlightening” to see that there are other possibilities like this. I can easily imagine myself wearing glasses to block out some light spectrum from reaching my eyes, but can’t as easily think of Faraday Cage I could wear to stop 5GHz microwaves reaching my brain or internal organs.