The NoCat Wireless Access Point/Night Light

cascadefx writes "O'Reilly's Hacks page has a really great article about a wireless access point that was on display at the recent Emerging Technology Conference. The folks at NoCat.net rigged up a Siemens Speedstream series access point with a low power ultraviolet light to create a wireless lightbulb. Just screw it in place and combine powerline ethernet with a wireless network... and a light, to create a wireless lightbulb. Ubiquitous networking, here we come."

Comments

Sounds like a Ricochet node

[Animats]

Ricochet nodes are very similar, except that they plug into street light photocell connectors.

Why I think powerline will not take off

[gricholson75]

I don't think powerline will take off. Here's why.

1)Price. I can get a wireless network of comperable or better speed cheaper. The powerline adapters are $80 and only do 14Mbps.

2)Late to market. Although they were promissed for years they just recently got good speeds (>1Mbps). I own an older home, I was considering this tech as an alternative to pulling wire( a huge pain in my house). But, 802.11b got to a resonable price to performance ratio first.

The only advantage I see to powerline is covering long distances in large buildings with no existing networking cabling. Does anyone else see a reason this tech would take off?

Re:Obvious, but...

[jerkychew]

Why not wire it like your car stereo? When you shut your car off, power still goes to the stereo via a separate feed, so you don't lose your preset stations.

You could have a constant power line going to the network guts of the enclosure, while the power controlled by the on/off switch was wired to the light side of things. Hit the switch and the light turns off, but the network keeps on chugging.

Granted, it would require you to do some rewiring of your existing light infrastructure, but half the fun is getting there!

Re:Wireless lightbulb?

[LamerX]

I live very close to the really big, high tension power lines. I don't fear them at all, but someone told me one day about holding a flourescent light up under them at night and watch it light up. I thought, yeah right! So one night, I went out with a big long tube light, and sure as hell, it lit up. It was so blowing my mind. It doesn't light up really bright, but it lights up none the less. I haven't tried it with an incandescent bulb, but I don't think they are supposed to work.

Re:Wireless lightbulb?

[benjamindees]

I've always thought that an orbital mirror would be a better idea. Instead of flying heavy solar panels into space and beaming microwaves down, fly aluminum foil into space and just beam down sunlight. It could be concentrated into a small area and used to heat water or scald unsuspecting passers-by or whatever.

There's going to be heat pollution either way, but I have a feeling there'd be less with a mirror. Plus, the collector device on Earth could be upgraded as technologies improve.