What is Digg?81 Comments
- BluthBoy, on 10/07/2008, -3/+82Now there's a bright idea!
- kelchm, on 10/07/2008, -0/+49Line of sight networking? Really?
/sigh - nightofgrim, on 10/07/2008, -0/+41Make sure you don't put your hand held wireless device in your pocket, in your drawer, under some papers...
- Quicksilver4648, on 10/07/2008, -1/+36Dugg for the guy watching an HD video stream while on the job.
- feoren, on 10/07/2008, -0/+29Or Nikola Tesla would, then Thomas Edison would steal the pants and tell everyone he did it
- makbryan2, on 10/07/2008, -0/+25Arrrrrrgggghhhhhh I lost internet!! Who walked in front of the router!?
- jedsmith, on 10/07/2008, -1/+22This is a surprisingly bad idea. I get quite irritated by fluorescent lighting, with its oscillation that is barely perceptible; how bad will THIS be? And, I have to leave my lights on for my torrents to download? Come on.
What exactly is the advantage of this over RF, given that RF can, oh, I don't know, penetrate walls with varying degrees of success? - cle2105, on 10/07/2008, -1/+19Thomas Edison would piss his pants in pure ecstacy if he saw this
- feoren, on 10/07/2008, -0/+16Except the people who can see it through your window
- centran, on 10/07/2008, -0/+13That is a pretty cleaver idea.
One of the tricks with LEDs to save power and/or dim them is to turn them on and off very rapidly since they do not have a warm up or cool down time like other lightbulbs. Since the flickering happens so fast the human eye cannot process the on and off stages fast enough so you don't see the flicker.
So instead of just using that technique as a power saving device they are using the fast on and off to transmit data. Brilliant! - edge777, on 10/07/2008, -0/+11Completely unusable for most applications.
- apena89, on 10/07/2008, -0/+10your comment was brilliant!
- vpshockwave, on 10/07/2008, -0/+10Dugg for "cleaver idea"
- neowolfwitch, on 10/07/2008, -0/+9Have to agree with Microchp- nothing really new or innovative here. Using light for networking was pretty much abandoned many years ago. Remember when almost all laptops, printers, and PDAs had IR ports? Reliable transmission (and reception) over useful distances at useful bandwidth was almost impossible, and very-very prone to interference from other light sources and shadows.
- jasonwalker, on 10/07/2008, -0/+8so much for turning off the light when you leave the room
- tomz17, on 10/07/2008, -0/+7That's because the flickering was happening at Hz (probably some multilpe of 60Hz)
In order for this to be even remotely useful it has to be thousands of times faster t.an that... You will NOT see it! - ZeNiTH456, on 10/07/2008, -0/+7I see no reason why they would use visible light for this, it would most likely be IR. And IR data transfer has been around for decades...
- seanmc303, on 10/07/2008, -0/+6It was Alligator Hand Puppet Man. I curse thee Alligator Hand Puppet Man and your cursed silhouette.
- perogi21, on 10/07/2008, -0/+6I don't think it would be piss in his pants...
- UselessTrivia, on 10/07/2008, -0/+6Yeah...this is pretty retarded..why would we want to go back to line-of-sight communications systems? On the bright side (no pun intended) nobody will be able to hover over my shoulder as I type, lest they cut off my network connection with a shadow!
- revenz, on 10/07/2008, -1/+7what if you want to watch a movie streaming to your htpc/xbox in the dark? as soon as you turn the lights out the movie stops?
cool concept, but its ultimately flawed. - Ninnux, on 10/07/2008, -0/+6Need a way to embed a rim shot .wav file into this comment.
- dmrick, on 10/07/2008, -1/+6So what if someone bumps in to the light. is everyone like "ahh shiit!"
- jaxter2010, on 06/17/2009, -0/+5I have had a few lectures with these guys. They are geniuses.
This article has a few more details:
http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/news-cms/news/?dept=666&i ... - cle2105, on 10/07/2008, -0/+5That's the American way
- lebrac, on 10/07/2008, -1/+6and how does the data go uplink ???
- CaviMike, on 10/07/2008, -0/+4How does the system know the plant needs to be watered?
- boozedrinker, on 10/07/2008, -1/+5+1 internetz for you!
- MaxMWood, on 10/07/2008, -0/+4What was that diagram? It was just like.. what the *****. Why dont you just draw one light and point it to everything while your at it..
- edge777, on 10/07/2008, -1/+5I agree, I did everything in my power to eliminate flourescent lighting from my office. So now, for data, I get annoying LED lights which flicker like crazy. Ya, that's gotta be good for the nervous system.
- eldridgea, on 10/07/2008, -0/+4How enlightening.
- colto, on 10/07/2008, -1/+5http://www.instantrimshot.com
- no2gates, on 10/07/2008, -0/+4And if you wanted to use your laptop at home at night with the lights dimmed??
- flarn2006, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3But then what if there's a resonance cascade?
- budgetguitar, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3So much for that whole energy efficient light bulb thing everyone was so worried about.
And we have to watch porn with the lights on now? - KevinJim, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3So the idea of how future will be: Plants will have WiFi and if something block the light source your and the plant are both screwed. Wait... does that mean we're gonna turn into vegetables? Damn, now Paris Hilton can drag about being the "Evolution" of man kind...
- edge777, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3Hmm, read this sight, and others on the project, and maybe I'm not getting it, but I just don't get how this could ever be feasible (and yet, they're quite excited about it, and receiving some major funding). Like, I know it's cool to play with toys, and spend all this time and money getting something to work, but really... LINE OF SIGHT COMMUNICATION???? That's worse than wires! It's like having wires, but they have to be straight in order to work. Another poster commented that they were geniuses; maybe there's something to be said that when someone gets too smart they no longer live in the common sense world that we live in.
- dizzythegreat, on 10/07/2008, -2/+5That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
- dizzythegreat, on 10/07/2008, -0/+3http://www.instantrimshot.com/
- catfoodgood, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2I'm just throwing out a guess here but...
tells the time? - inactive, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2oops they did say visible light and we already know the limitations of infrared.
- leif777, on 10/07/2008, -1/+3Booooo!!!... (dug)
- kingjokin, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2i dont like that ideA. CRazy talk.
- jaxter2010, on 06/17/2009, -0/+2@edge;
If this were setup in say an office, where would there not be lights? Unless you are hiding under your desk doing work, a receiving device should be able to pick up the signal directly or via reflection off another object.
With the electromagnetic spectrum saturated, its definitely worth investigating other mediums, which is probably why its funded by the NSF.
Not too long ago people would have said it wasn't feasible to transmit data through glass tubes, but fiber optics are at the core of the communication backbone. Now we just need to remove the glass tubes. - docbob84, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2Agreed. Now I *do* think it would be cool if they could use lightbulbs like wireless network. I'm not a computer person, but if each one could pick up signals from lightbulbs nearby and relay them to each other. Or maybe all your home's bulbs are connected to its network and instead of having one central wireless router, you have many that don't have to be as strong. The nice thing is, lightbulbs are everywhere. It would be nice if it became standard for them to help us network in more places.
- piesforyou, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2I'm trying desperately hard to see how this might compete with other technologies such as WiFi, bluetooth, wireless USB etc etc.
I can't think of anything. - edge777, on 10/08/2008, -0/+2Point taken, but that´s where fiber optics works - light goes through a glass tube. Maybe light reflects and such, but I have my laptop on my desk under a shelf, with obstructions on both sides. What happens when my cell phone or PDA is in my pocket? Like, I'm all about thinking outside the box, and maybe I'm missing something, but I just can't figure out how this would be practical. The only application I can think of is in a open office setting where wifi would be a security risk (all wifi can be hacked).
- seanmc303, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2And I thought Peanut Butter Jelly Time was going to give me a seizure. On the other hand, this could make for some pretty cool rave like lighting effects in the office.
- zacbro, on 10/07/2008, -3/+5What do you want from me? Someone already took the "bright idea" pun..... Just move along....
- HackerThatsme, on 10/07/2008, -0/+2:O Calm down there just say
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