Wireless technology is ready to evolve into its next stage with Li-Fi. Using Visible Light Communication, scientists have managed to create technology that transmits data up to 224GB per second (that's 18 movies of 1.5 GB each being downloaded every second) in lab settings and 1GB per second in offices and industrial environments.
Being able to transmit data at 1GB per second makes Li-Fi 100 times faster than the current average Wi-Fi speed… that means a roughly 43GB game like Just Cause 3 could download to your Xbox One in well under a minute.
Imagine playing a first-person shooter online with this kind of internet!
Li-Fi was invented by Harald Haas back in 2011. Haas demonstrated that a single LED could transmit more data than a cellular tower. Unlike Wi-Fi, Li-Fi will be more secure, faster and be affected by less interference between devices. The unfortunate part in all of this is that Li-Fi will have some work to do before it replaces Wi-Fi. A large portion of workspaces and industries are built to support Wi-Fi and replacing all those devices with Li-Fi compatible devices simply isn't feasible.
For the time being Haas and his team have launched a company aptly named PureLiFi to get the technology up and running.
"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," Haas said. "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."
