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Boston University Working On LED Wireless Networks

Posted by timothy on from the line-of-sight dept.

Madas writes "This article on Absolute Gadget details how researchers at Boston University's College of Engineering are working on devloping wireless networks that use LED lights instead of normal radio waves. This research apparently has other uses in the automobile industry. Apparently the LEDs could warn you if the driver in front has put the brakes on so could avoid hitting the car in front. Personally, I'd use the vision balls that are in my thought box."

39 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Brake Lights by arizwebfoot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apparently the LEDs could warn you if the driver in front has put the brakes on so could avoid hitting the car in front

    Dude aren't those called brake lights?

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    1. Re:Brake Lights by internerdj · · Score: 4, Funny

      So you are the guy driving most every car that was on the road with me this morning?

    2. Re:Brake Lights by hey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Could be used to communicate the rate at which the brake pedal is pressed.

    3. Re:Brake Lights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Vision balls?

      Single point of failure if you ask me. What type of nerd are you?

    4. Re:Brake Lights by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not to mention that such a feature (automatic braking based on the car in front of you) already exists. It uses radar, it just has to bounce a signal off the car in front of it. As it turns out, when a car starts braking, it starts to slow down, and that can be easily detected!

      In fact, networking using LEDs also already exists: it's that IR port that no one uses any more because it sucks.

      So congrats, Boston, you finally discovered LEDs and technology that has existed for what, two decades now?!

      It does explain why MIT agreed that a student wearing a shirt with LEDs should be treated like a terrorist, though, no one in Boston knew about LEDs.

    5. Re:Brake Lights by MaxwellEdison · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There is so little in TFA that has to do with cars. I don't understand why this was chosen as a focus of the summary.

      --
      -=Bang Bang=-
    6. Re:Brake Lights by Deadplant · · Score: 4, Funny

      One with a pair of vision balls.

    7. Re:Brake Lights by T3hD0gg · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why don't they do that with regular brake lights?

      You could have it so the brightness of the brake lights describes how far down the pedal is. You could even have it so if there's a sudden, heavy push to the pedal, they could blink rapidly.

      Also, the people who ride their brake pedal won't be an annoyance to other drivers because their little pedal tap won't create a huge change in the brightness of their brake lights.

    8. Re:Brake Lights by jmorris42 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      > Dude aren't those called brake lights?

      The light part would remain, to tell YOU the guy in front is braking. But now imagine that every light on every vehicle were also beaconing a unique identifier along with current speed and acceleration. You car would notice a car in front of you (because it has been seeing it with the front mounted sensor for a bit, thus it has to be in front and it could likely even know it is in the same lane) just started drasticly slowing down and you haven't hit your brakes. So it does something, hopefully themeable. Imagine the possibilities. Or fear them as the case may be.

      --
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    9. Re:Brake Lights by MightyYar · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I can think of two reasons:
      1. A pressure sensor like that would be more complex and prone to error - probably require some kind of calibration.
      2. Psychologically, you probably don't want people ignoring faint brake lights. I can already hear people complaining about how, say, Toyota uses brighter brake lights than Chevy and so so-and-so got confused about how hard the person was pressing the brake. It would also be hard to interpret the lights in varying light levels.

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    10. Re:Brake Lights by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem for me is if I rolled up on a random car and the brake light came on, I would have no idea whether it was on full brightness or some dimmed level. I'd have no choice but to act as if they had just stomped on the brake... same as today.

      You could change the number of lights that come on instead of brightness. This might work if the light size and number of lights were standardized, but even then you wouldn't really know what the breaking characteristics of that particular car were. You could mitigate THAT by tying it to an accelerometer instead of the brake pressure.

      But then you'd still have to do studies to see which way was safer :)

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    11. Re:Brake Lights by kesuki · · Score: 3, Insightful

      should have RTFA, this is about using LEDS over ambient lighting, to broadcast data via power lines, to every light in the room, which is then received by every data device.

      weird, but a quite a bit different from IrDa for one, it's using visible light. i can't think of any real reason to be broadcasting large amounts of data to multiple devices in a single room for consumer markets, but for instance a usb dongle on a laptop, and everyone in a lecture hall could receive all the notes from the class all at once, while listening to the lecture.

      --
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    12. Re:Brake Lights by Compumyst · · Score: 2

      That's just too much information to look at in a possible crash situation.

      I can't remember where the article is, but I read a while back that in one study, they reduced the amount of information available to a person if the car sensed that a crash was imminent. The study found a consistant increase in reflexes across the board. Granted, it was only a few milliseconds, but as they said, that's anywhere from 4-10 feet that you're shaving off of your stoping distance in most circumstances.

      Regarding your suggestion, generally, the human brain can more quickly judge sudden changes in velocity based on perception rather than numbers. Interesting idea though.

      --
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  2. IRDA Anyone? by neowolf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wasn't there just a story about this on Slashdot two days ago?

    Anyone else remember the exciting world of IRDA? How is this really going to be that much different (or better)?

    1. Re:IRDA Anyone? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 3, Funny

      These look pretty. Maybe they'll use blue LEDs. Everything is better with blue LEDs.

    2. Re:IRDA Anyone? by neowolf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No- it got killed because of reliability over any kind of a distance issues. You also had to always make sure the ports were clear of obstacles, which isn't very practical in an office or mobile environment. You could "kill" a network device (like a printer) with a post-it note.

      I still remember (not-so-fondly) printing from my Palm device to an HP printer with IRDA. That was almost as agonizing as waiting for a 2400-baud modem to connect, and about as fast too. I also remember creating "ad-hoc" IRDA networks with laptops. Once again- the 2400-baud modem analogy kicks in.

      It's certainly possible they can ramp-up the speed, and it may be slightly more reliable using visible light- but it's still light. It's a fantastic transmission medium when contained (as in fiber optics) but sucks in the open air. A shadow or well-placed mirror could completely frell your network. Beyond that, a well-placed mirror or two could relay your network traffic almost anywhere- so much for security.

    3. Re:IRDA Anyone? by argent · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There are certainly things you can do with bluetooth that you can't do with IRDA. I wouldn't want an IRDA headset, and I wouldn't use it over a distance, but BT gets used for all kinds of things that USB (yes, real wires) Wifi, and IRDA are better for.

      Printers? Stick them on a network, don't wire them to a computer. If you want wireless access to a printer, use Wifi and Zeroconf/Rendezvous/Bonjour.

      Headsets? Perfect application for Bluetooth.

      Sharing files, PDA to PDA? You *want* short range and directionality. IR is ideal.

      Mice and keyboards? Been there, done that, got the dead batteries and incomplete mess

  3. Vision Balls? by dmomo · · Score: 5, Funny

    > Personally, I'd use the vision balls that are in my thought box."

    Personally, I think the zipper gets in the way.

    1. Re:Vision balls? by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Uhh.. eyeballs are merely the extension of the brain, they in a sense ARE your thought box, just another aspect of your mind.

      No, not the whole eyeball, just the retina and optic nerve. As doctors stuck needles in my left eye in 2006, turning me into a cyborg and giving me far better than a normal person's vision (20/15, before surgery it was 20/400 and I wore thick glasses since childhood. You will be assimilated.) and again this past April I've learned a lot about how eyeballs work.

      If you damage your retina, it doesn't hurt. Your brain percieves damage to the retina as a flash of light. If you are badly nearsighted you are in danger of a torn or detached retina. If you see flashes, followed by black snow and/or a black snake, get immediate medical help. If you don't you will become irreversably blind.

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
  4. Trust issues by psydeshow · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But the question is, do you REALLY trust the car in front of you? What if it just randomly transmits a "braking now!" message in order to cause other cars in the vicinity to put on their brakes?

    It would be cool to see what you could do with this to improve traffic flow and autopilot in a controlled environment, but out in the real world the trust issues get pretty dodgy.

    1. Re:Trust issues by qoncept · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Something tells me you never pulled any pranks that were funny.

      --
      Whale
  5. Hey, I've got a great idea! by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 4, Funny

    They should make the LED's look like characters from Aqua Teen Hunger Force!

    --
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  6. Amazing by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is amazing. Maybe they can put this technology in a small box that I can point at my TV so I don't have to get off the couch to change channels. Maybe they can use IR LEDs to reduce interference from ambient light which is mostly in the visible spectrum.

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    1. Re:Amazing by Wescotte · · Score: 2, Funny

      That will never work. What happens when you want to change the channel but can't see the TV? IR only works with line of sight.

  7. Stupid summary by hcdejong · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Cars communicating with each other is a good idea, and being worked on. Signalling that a car is braking is one obvious use, despite the stupid comment in TFS. Having the car react automatically to the car in front saves the 1+ second reaction time of the human driver, making you less likely to rearend someone. The only drawback is that you're relying on external inputs. This system won't stop for a pedestrian, or an older car (which doesn't broadcast its intentions in a machine-readable way), for instance. Radar seems a better bet for this particular application.
    But there are more uses for a network between cars. Relaying congestion data is one, you could synchronize cars so they run at the same speed instead of harmonica-ing all the time (prevents traffic jams), etc.

    Using LED signalling instead of radio might be a good way to avoid the problems with RF (interference, limited number of channels available).

  8. Here's a thought... by cjhanson · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've had the idea for a long time that the brake light system should be an LED array, which would get progressively brighter, or fill more area, or by rapid blinking, indicate the rate at which the driver is attempting to decelerate. An inch of light indicates "I'm slowing a little" and 6 inches of light indicates "I'm stopping now".

    Go ahead and patent this, Microsoft.
    LED by example. Get it? Okay I'll stop.

  9. Forget the network by chord.wav · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Put two white leds in the rear bumper and a wiimote between the headlights of each car.

  10. Oh, so YOU're the guy ... by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, Funny

    with the braille instrument cluster.

    --
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    1. Re:Oh, so YOU're the guy ... by Bishop+Rook · · Score: 3, Insightful
      As funny as that observation always is, consider that:
      • Walk-up ATMs and drive-up ATMs frequently use the same interface and same keypad, so it's just cheaper to make them all Braille
      • It's not just the person in the driver's seat who can use a drive-through ATM. Somebody sitting in the driver's-side rear seat can use it just as well

      There are often reasons for silly things...

    2. Re:Oh, so YOU're the guy ... by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 3, Funny

      The passenger's side can use it too! There's very little that's more hilarious than driving backwards through a crowded ATM. The best part is staring straight into the person "behind" you's eyes. I find an absolutely blank expression is best. Don't smile. Don't frown. Just stare, and drive backwards.

      A word to the wise though: don't try this if you've got weed in the car. Let's be honest, if you're thinking about this, chances are pretty good...

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  11. LED transmission has been used for years now. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Erm, they should take a look at this:
    http://ronja.twibright.com/

    instead of re-researching it from scratch.
    And the project is opensource.

    Woyteck

  12. Once again.... by Radical+Moderate · · Score: 2, Informative

    An interesting idea, stupid article, and even worse Slashdot summary. For those who couldn't read all 5 paragraphs of the article, the idea is that LEDs can be rapidly modulated, basically acting like an IR remote, only in the visible spectrum. And they can modulate so fast that it's imperceptible to the eye (AKA "vision ball")

    The brake light idea that the summary innaccurately mocks would actually allow the brakes in your car to be activated when your car "sees" the brake lights on the car in front of you activate. While this is a phenomenally stupid idea, it is different from what the summary indicates. I don't know why that bothers me, should be used to that by now.

    The article also states that this technology would allow devices in your home (assuming they're equipped with LEDs) to wirelessly communicate directly with you, but doesn't say how. Morse code, perhaps?

    --
    Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
  13. Did they run out of pigeons or something? by Verdatum · · Score: 2, Funny

    For those of you unsatisfied with IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers (RFC 1149), we now have IP Datagrams on Aldis Lamp!

    1. Re:Did they run out of pigeons or something? by bradgoodman · · Score: 2, Funny
      Oh..my..god...

      You were actually serious!

      http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html

  14. 2005: Been There Done That by cmholm · · Score: 4, Informative

    I knew I had seen an led-based point-to-point networking system described somewhere, and after a few minutes on hackaday, here it is, straight from 2005. Best part is, the linked to Ronja project is open, free speech-wise (and free beer for the major league scrounger).

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  15. LED Pay Phone Tap by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    At the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, in the Student Union on the main campus (not East Campus), there is still a bank of pay telephones under one of which is a large metal box with a single LED on it, still there even after the remodel since I was a student there. One day between classes I observed someone using that particular pay phone and seeing the LED on that box alternately flickering in concert with the person's lips, then again presumably in sync with the sound coming from the other end of that call. I've long thought that if I converted that brightness pattern back to sound, I could listen to both ends of the conversation at a distance.

    And I also wondered what the purpose of that box truly was.

    --
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  16. 802.11, anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I recall that 802.11 contains a part that specifies using infrared for 1 and 2Mbit/s multipoint operation. Apparently since its inception in 1997. Getting a bit more bandwidth out of it would be nice though. And, uh, more implementations.

  17. Re:I want to drive too! by dougisfunny · · Score: 2, Insightful

    doing a search on the interwebs of famous blind people, I recognized the names of 4 people on the list, Louis Braille, Helen Keller, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder.

    Who would you choose as an example of someone who is blind?

    --
    This is not the funny you're looking for.
  18. Perfect! by denmarkw00t · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Personally, I'd use the vision balls that are in my thought box.

    Of course, because thats why those lights are there, so that your car can hopefully help in that .000000000001% chance situation where you aren't paying attention, back into a pylon, and crack your tail light. Not the worst thing, but an expense nonetheless - vs. some LEDs? Not bad, of course, the rest of the hardware...

    I dunno, didn't RTFA. My vision balls are dry and red.