In 2005, a new kind of internet
service provider took birth. This technology worked like Wi-Fi by providing us
internet wirelessly. But there was a major and ground breaking difference here.
This technology used light, yes literally a wave of light to transfer internet
to our devices. It is known as Lifi and “li” stand for light and “fi” for
fidelity. After this technology was invented, after 13 years that is in 2018, a
company launched a final working product based on Lifi which can be without any
doubt can be used in our premises and is fully working.
MyLifi
Oledcomm is one of the first
companies to make a working product based on Lifi technology. They have named
their product MyLifi. This product comes in a package which contains a lamp and
a dongle. This dongle fits into your computer or laptop USB port.
How does it work?
The lamp is a simple and stylish
lamp which changes it color often from warm color to cool one. This lamp throws
rays of light and acts like any other normal lamp, but there is a small circle
or hole in the center of the lamp through which a small antennae kind of thing
is inserted. The internet is transmitted to our device from the lamp through
this antenna in the form of infrared rays. An app is provided by the Oledcomm
which helps us to control the Lifi and set its timing and all. The visible
light which covers major part of the lamp provides you light while the small
portion which is in the center of the lamp is main provider of internet. The lamp receives internet from an Ethernet cable
similar to the one that we use in our homes and offices.
These infrared rays are well
received by the dongle attached to your device. The reason why we are using
this extra device called dongle is that, it supports and receives radio waves which
our current laptops and computers are not built to receive. You just have to connect
the dongle, switch on the lamp and that’s it, you will start receiving internet
on your device without any software or app.
Terrific data speed
According to the experiments done
by various tech enthusiasts, the internet speed was clocked at 50Mbps which is
pretty fast as compared to many of the Wi-Fi devices. The lab test conducted on
Lifi technology gave a speed of 224 Gbps, wooh! That’s too much.
Why will you like it?
The advantage of MyLifi is that it
uses light to transfer data so as light is confined to a particular area, the
internet cannot be used or hacked by a second person who is positioned outside
the light falling region. It is major advantage over Wi-Fi system as Wi-Fi can
be used or hacked by a person within 500-600 metre area. We do not have to
worry about the light waves fearing that it may be radio waves, but it is not
and is safe respective to our health.
Why will you hate it?
One of the major drawbacks of
MyLifi is that the device which needs internet connection should be in direct
sight of the lamp and if you try to mishandle like bend the small antennae,
then there would be a connection problem. But Oledcomm says that in the future
they are going to place this light inside ceiling fans and tube lights so that
light is spread over a large area and every device is internet connected. This
plan will cost more as compared to the present Wi-Fi system that we are using.
Presently MyLifi costs around $840 which is far too costly compared to any
other internet providing services like Wi-Fi and only a single person can use
the lamp at a time.
Oledcomm CEO, Benjamin Azoulay defines
the connection as “an Ethernet cable of light.”
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