“Beginning with iOS 9.1, the operating system’s library cache file makes mention of ‘LiFiCapability’ alongside other hardware and software capability declarations,” Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider. “The change was spotted by Twitter user Chase Fromm and independently confirmed by AppleInsider.”
“Li-Fi works in a way not entirely unlike a traditional infrared remote control. Data is transmitted by rapidly modulating a light source, and received with a light sensor before being reassembled into an electronic signal,” Oliver reports. “Unlike your television remote, Li-Fi uses visible light and the modulation happens in a manner imperceptible to the human eye: that means the same bulb that lights your hallway can act as a data access point.
“It’s also much faster,” Oliver reports, “with theoretical throughput capacity of up to 224 gigabits per second.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Data delivered at the speed of light!
SEE ALSO:
Li-Fi: 100 times faster than Wi-Fi, tests prove – November 25, 2015
Finally – the Holy Grail to solve the TV is revealed. Ultra-high-speed channel surfing. Apple surprises yet again.
Incandescent, fluorescent, LED, Halogen, or… Inquiring minds want to know.
Could NOT be incandescent. Why?
Because the intensity of a large, long, cruved tungsten filament can not be cycled at gigabits per second.
An LED can be though.
Only LED light sources could be modulated sufficiently quickly. The filaments in incandescent and tungsten bulbs couldn’t be modulated anywhere near fast enough while the phosphors in fluorescent bulbs would lag too much.
Serious question:
Is there anyway to charge a device with this light technology in addition to data transmission? Yes, I know what you are going to do say about charging with light has been around for a long time. But i am referring to this demonstration in the video. If his invention can transmit that much data, imagine if it could also charge our devices in a new way too.
It’s light with data modulated onto it. If you have a solar cell, it will generate power from the visible light and if you have a LiFi receiver, it will get the data from it. If you have a device with a solar cell and a LiFi ability, I would expect it to work as a data device which doesn’t require another power source.
However it has to be pointed out that you would need an incredibly efficient solar cell and a device that was very frugal withy it’s power consumption in order to make use of the power generated from a small LED bulb.
Great. The upside is we get super fast downloads, the downside is we have to keep the house and/or streetlights on 24/7/365.
Our macs now connect to multiple network connections at one time. If the lights are off, there is wifi.
No.
If you watch the video, he explains that it still works even when the LED source is dimmed so low that it’s not discernible to the naked eye.
Meh. This tech has several problems. The most obvious problems are:
– Line of sight transmission only
– One way data streaming
– Noise from other light sources
– Transmission of data to the light source
Agree with all your points except “Noise from other light sources” which he showed would not interfere. Regardless, this is a geek technologists presentation in which the presenter makes it look like every important issue is addressed thoroughly. Its definitely interesting technology good for industrial and commercial closed system applications but the single biggest limitation to widespread consumer use is that every light manufacturer would have to adopt the technology and then every light bulb in the world would need to be replaced. So, if Apple is going to support this technology it might be in a specific area like healthcare or some enterprise or industrial solution. Think IBM.
on the other hand, if this is for li fi charging and Apple adds the receiver to their screens to charge, then this is a really big deal. The ramifications are staggering. With any visible light available pretty much everywhere all the time, the battery charge could be maintained at near capacity on an ongoing basis and the battery size needed could be substantially smaller. As long as the phone is in the light of day and not in your pocket. Certainly captures the imagination. The simplest way to enable global li fi communications is to install a communications chip in the sun (tee hee)
He didn’t directly address light noise in the video. He only moved his data stream light to the side and no data got through. But I’d certainly expect they’d write code to recognize actual data packets and block out the rest. They’d have to.
My other concerns remain. This is merely a one-way data stream. Nothing-at-all was said about how you do anything upstream. That’s obviously a deliberate omission, which indicates that they know very well it’s a problem. There would have to be a secondary connection to the computer, Wi-Fi or wired, for upstream.
Now, could their be computerized devices that ONLY need downstream data. Yes, such as manufacturing robots. But there again, don’t we want feedback? How do we get it?
This doesn’t have to be an ultra-powerful blast of light. It just needs to be strong enough to be visible on the other end of the connection.
The line-of-sight transmission does mean that there will be serious practical limitations (how do you wire an entire building?).
All data are delivered at the speed of light, e.g., electricity. It’s not how fast, it’s how much at one time.