Lighting Trends

While getting my daily dose of "GREEN" on TreeHugger, I read this interesting article on a new project out of Boston University’s College of Engineering. Under a a National Science Foundation grant, BU is looking to revolutionize wireless communications technology by using visible light instead of radio waves to transmit signals. This so called "Smart Lighting" uses LEDs and are said to be faster and more secure than your standard network technology.

According to Engineering professor Thomas Little, via a BU press release, "Imagine if your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate with
you when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch," said Little. "This could be done with an LED-based communications network that also provides light – all over existing power lines with low power consumption, high reliability and no electromagnetic interference."

This Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center is part of an $18.5 million program "awarded to Boston University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of New Mexico to develop the optical communication technology that would make an LED light the equivalent of a WiFi access point." This whole concept takes Energy Efficient lighting to a WHOLE other level. How would this change the wireless Internet industry? Would this be available at home? Would electric companies have to charge more for people to use the Internet?

The idea is that any wireless device within sight of an enabled LED could send and receive data though the air at speeds in the 1 to 10 megabit per second range and given that these signals can't pass through walls, there's a higher level of security. There still is a lot of work to be done and the practical use of LED lights in still an evolving science. The possibilities are endless here though. Take a look at some diagrams illustrating the process and how it works. Lights out until next time. - Via TreeHugger / Photos via Boston University