pureLifi is a reasonably new company that has come up with a product that could eventually replace Wi-Fi as our standard for information transfer. Li-Fi uses a revolutionary new way of transferring data. Rather than using radio waves it uses visible light.
How Does Li-Fi Work?
Back in 2011 Harold Haas, Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of pureLiFi, gave a Ted Talk about his latest breakthrough in transferring data using light:
In this video he shows how their equipment takes regular LED light and sends a pulse through it. These pulses are so fast that they are invisible to the human eye. This allows for both data transfer and constant streaming light, at least according to what we can see.
In 2015, Professor Haas again went on Ted Talks to discuss the progress that his company has made. This involved the incorporation of a solar cell as a receiver:
Shortly before this, pureLiFi released their own video discussing their product:
According to Science Alert they have finally taken Li-Fi out of the lab. They tested it in Tallinn, Estonia. During these tests they found that it could transfer data at a speed of 1 GB/second. This is “100 times faster than the current average wifi speed.” According to pureLiFi, they believe that their product will be more secure than Wi-Fi. They believe this because light can not pass through walls like radio signals can. This means that a data transfer is room specific and anyone outside of the room would not be able to intercept your data stream.
Comments and Opinions
This is an amazing new breakthrough in wireless data transmission. This could be the way to access the internet in the distant future. As for the near future, the amount of money and resources required to completely switch from Wii-Fi to Li-Fi is too much. Therefore, I see them working side by side sharing the load and allowing for both shared and secure connections.
