Researchers Beam 230Mb/sec Wireless Internet WIth LEDs

MikeChino writes "A group of scientists from Germany's Fraunhofer Institute have devised a way to encode a visible-frequency wireless signal in light emitted by plain old desklamps and other light fixtures. The team was able to achieve a record-setting data download rate of 230 megabits per second, and they expect to be able to double that speed in the near future. While the regular radio-frequency Wi-Fi most of us use currently is perfectly fine, it does have its flaws — it has a limited bandwidth that confines it to a certain spectrum and if you've ever had someone leech off of your connection, you know that it also leaks through walls. LED wireless signals would theoretically have none of these downsides."

Comments

Just different ones

[MozeeToby]

LED wireless signals would theoretically have none of these downsides.

Nope, instead it'll have a whole range of different ones, such as requiring line of site.

Re:No upsides either

[maxume]

That's a huge upside for linking up video devices though. No interference from the neighbors, no interference from the other room.