Many of us know the Wi-Fi, it’s the way that our laptops, tablets and smartphones communicate with each other and connect to the internet at our home. But have you heard about the Li-Fi ?

In this interesting TED talk , Harald Haas raises an interesting question :

What if every light bulb in the world could also transmit data?

Li-Fi technology depends on tx of data using LED light bulbs. Haas describes it as :

At the heart of this technology is a new generation of high-brightness LEDs. Very simply, if the LED is on, you transmit a digital 1, if it’s off you transmit a 0. They can be switched on and off very quickly, which gives nice opportunities for transmitting data

The new emerging technology has many advantages like using a free bandwidth, higher security as light doesn’t penetrate walls, high data rates (claimed to reach 3 Gbps)  and is expected to be cheaper and more efficient than Wi-Fi but on the other hand you need a direct line of sight with the transmitter and even with a direct line of sight the receiver is susceptible are to interference with other light sources like the sun and normal light bulbs .

Related articles

• Ultra fast ‘Li-Fi’ is only a year away, says French start-up (dvice.com)
• Wireless data from every light bulb: Harald Haas on TED.com (ted.com)
• Li-Fi Data Transfer Technology Coming Soon! (nasilemaktech.com)
• The Future is Here: The Li-Fi Network (storiesbywilliams.com)