Not Wi-Fi, but Li-Fi (Light Fidelity)

Combine Wi-Fi with fiber optics and you get Li-Fi! Well, not really. However, it does have characteristics of Wi-Fi and fiber optic cabling. It operates wirelessly like Wi-Fi and utilizes light pulses like fiber. Herald Haas explains it better in his Ted Talk posted here if you wish to check it out: http://www.ted.com/talks/harald_haas_a_breakthrough_new_kind_of_wireless_internet

Herald Haas argues that Li-Fi has the potential to expand and promote the Internet of Things even further by increasing the speed of network connections and by saving massive quantities of electrical energy.

Herald demonstrates Li-Fi capabilties by streaming a high definition on his laptop via a LED lamp and solar cell. The LED lamp acts as a Li-Fi transmitter, sending a light pulse to the solar cell. The solar cell then takes the light energy and converts it into electrical energy for transmission to the laptop. The laptop then of course converts the electrical energy into the bits of data that represent Herald's video.























This Ted Talk was particularly interesting to me given my Network Specialist program. Down the line, this may become mainstream so it would not hurt for me to become familiar with it now.