Today, I stumbled across the word "Li-Fi" for the very first time.
Li-Fi is a new technology that is 100 times faster than traditional Wi-Fi - and it comes from LIGHT!
Don't get your hopes up too soon - the technology isn't quite ready yet, and still holds a lot of challenges for everyday use.
But it could become an amazing new feature that improves our daily lives, and researchers are already working on a solution!
Last year, Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, Inventor of the Technology, explained and demonstrated LiFi at a Ted Talks conference:
What exactly is Li-Fi and how does it work?
Li-Fi is actually just a nickname, the technology is called Light Fidelity or Visible Light Communication (VLC).
Data is being transferred through lamps that flash at an extremely high speed - so quickly that it's impossible to notice for the human eye.
The devices that you use will then be equipped with certain sensors that can pick up the light in return.
How fast is Li-Fi in reality?
Tests have shown that Li-Fi can reach an incredible speed of 224 Gigabits per second - this would mean that you could send 18 individual files that are each 1.5 GB large within ONE SECOND only.
What's Li-Fi's disadvantage?
The problem with Li-Fi is, that it only works when you're in sight of the signal.
So you'd need to be relatively close to the lamp that emits the Li-Fi flashes.
The signal doesn't work through walls, and it could even cause problems if you turn the receiver away from the lamp.
This is definitely a problem that still hinders the everyday use of Li-Fi, but it's being worked on and it also has a positive aspect: Hackers or others wouldn't be able to connect to the network if theyre not in sight either.
So what happens at night?
To keep the Li-Fi connection stable, the emitter lamp has to be turned on at all times.
But don't worry, it's possible to dim down the lamp so much that the light appears to be invisible for the human eye, while the data connection is still going.
How would you install Li-Fi?
The process is relatively simple: The ceiling lamp that you already own would have to be equipped with an Encoder.
The device you'd like to use then gets a receiver attached to it.
The whole technology is connected to electricity through the lamp, and doesn't use much more power than the lamp itself.
"All we need to do is fit a small microchip to every potential illumination device and this would then combine two basic functionalities: illumination and wireless data transmission. In the future we will not only have 14 billion light bulbs, we may have 14 billion Li-Fis deployed worldwide for a cleaner, greener, and even brighter future."-Harald Haas, Inventor of the Li-Fi Technology
As you can see, the Li-Fi technology is still far from replacing traditional Wi-Fi or being used on an everyday Basis. But it's an innovation with a huge potential, and might be used in combination with Wi-Fi to make use of its benefits!
New Li-Fi Technologies and solutions are being developed as you read this, so let's wait and see where this technology might take us!
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© Sirwinchester
That's facinating! I'd not heard of that in this sense before!
While I know it's meant to be line of sight and/or indoors, I wonder if they would have ways to encrypt the info from these. Not a deal breaker, but I could see the need developing over time.
A lot of improvements would have to be made if we want to use Lifi on a day to day basis .. but still, I think it has a lot of potential!
Oh totally agree, I can see the great potential there. I def wasn't trying to put down the idea, just a curiosity :)
When I read about this a few months back, I was equally impressed as I am now. I think it will make user experience better in the future considering the fast speeds involved.
Thanks for sharing.
I think so too, and although there is still a long way to go, maybe we could combine it with wifi for the best user experience.
Thanks for your feedback!
never heard of li-fi before but it sounds like it has huuuge potential !
it definitely has!
That’s so awesome, thanks for sharing! I had no idea!
glad you enjoyed the post!
Okay, even if it’s still far from being used in everyday life, it COULD still become a revolution!
Give it a few years, and they'll have found a solution to the problems they're currently struggling with.
100 times faster than wifi? download a movie in a few seconds? yes please!!!
I also like the sound of that a lot!
I think we all dream of having this super-fast wifi, lol
It would make a lot of things so much easier and quicker!
Very interesting technology, never heard of it before! Let’s see where this goes in the future!
exactly, we'll keep an eye on it and hope they can soon figure out a solution for the problems!
This sounds so awesome! I want to use it NOW!
me too!
A LOT of improvements would have to be made to make it more accessible .. but it’s definitely a step in the right direction
exactly. There'S a long way to go, but the technology itself is a great innovation.
how do you always come up with these topics?! that’s so cool! I hope we get to use it soon!
I'd like to try it out as well! Thanks for your feedback!
I heard about this a few years back. I hope it comes out soon. Would be great for use at home but there are applications for it everywhere.
Yes I guess it's been invented in 2011, but they're still struggling with some problems.. But I hope they find a solution soon and everybody will be able to use Li-Fi!
Yes. I hope they sort it out.
I had heard about this some time ago, but it was great to see it demonstrated - thanks for sharing.
you're welcome, glad to hear you enjoyed it!
I'm sure schools and businesses will breathe a sigh of relief with this kind of change. I wonder what the cost would be vs wifi, and if we'd still need both. Interesting post.
the cost is relatively low, you only need to install the Encoder. The energy itself will be not a lot more than from the lamp.
I'm looking forward to the future, and seeing where we could implement this technology!
At first this sounds cool but I'm not sure I understand any benefits of using visible light over the non visible light we use right now. It seems this just shifts data to an inferior spectrum space for a gimmick.
Could you imagine having to ask someone to move over a foot because their shadow is killing your internet speeds?
Yes, that's still the major problem and there is a long way to go.
But in general, having Wifi that's 100x faster is the biggest benefit.
We'll see where this technology may take us in the future!
This is a fantastic blog and thanks for sharing. Upvoted and shared on Twitter✔ for my followers to read. Now following and looking forward to reading more of your blogs. Cheers. Stephen
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That's awesome, thank you! Appreciate it!
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Great article, can't wait to release it
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thanks to my mi phone because wifi also works fast than any other mobile of that budget thanks to mi customer care they have told me about this.