Visible Wireless

This week I watched a TED Talk by Harald Haas on using light bulbs to transmit wireless data signals.  The idea originated to address the limited capacity with radio spectrum and the increasing data load on this spectrum.  The visible spectrum is much wider than the radio spectrum and moving to a new range of frequencies will ease the upcoming capacity issues.  Also, the author noted security benefits of the visible spectrum in that it does not go through walls and is available to only devices within sight of the signal.  As a result, it is more transparent who is able to access the wireless signal.

While this is a new idea and is only being developed (although a demonstration of this unit in action was provided) there certainly is potential for this innovative use of existing light sources.  It is good to see new ideas in solving problems in the information technology field.  I hope to see this theory continue to be developed and, eventually deployed.