Twi-Light Zone? City Uses Flickering Office Lights to Send Data
- Posted on December 27, 2010 at 10:48am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) — Flickering ceiling lights are usually a nuisance, but in city offices in St. Cloud, they will actually be a pathway to the Internet.
The lights will transmit data to specially equipped computers on desks below by flickering faster than the eye can see. Ultimately, the technique could ease wireless congestion by opening up new expressways for short-range communications.
The first few light fixtures built by LVX System, a local startup, will be installed Wednesday in six municipal buildings in this city of 66,000 in the snowy farm fields of central Minnesota.
The LVX system puts clusters of its light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, in a standard-sized light fixture. The LEDs transmit coded messages — as a series of 1s and 0s in computer speak — to special modems attached to computers.
A light on the modem talks back to the fixture overhead, where there is sensor to receive the return signal and transmit the data over the Internet. Those computers on the desks aren’t connected to the Internet, except through these light signals, much as Wi-Fi allows people to connect wirelessly.
LVX takes its name from the Latin word for light, but the underlying concept is older than Rome; the ancient Greeks signaled each other over long distances using flashes of sunlight off mirrors and polished shields. The Navy uses a Morse-coded version with lamps.
The first generation of the LVX system will transmit data at speeds of about 3 megabits per second, roughly as fast as a residential DSL line.
Mohsen Kavehrad, a Penn State electrical engineering professor who has been working with optical network technology for about 10 years, said the approach could be a vital complement to the existing wireless system.
He said the radio spectrum usually used for short-range transmissions, such as Wi-Fi, is getting increasingly crowded, which can lead to slower connections.
“Light can be the way out of this mess,” said Kavehrad, who is not involved in the LVX project.
But there are significant hurdles. For one, smart phones and computers already work on Wi-Fi networks that are much faster than the LVX system.
Technology analyst Craig Mathias of the Farpoint Group said the problems with wireless congestion will ease as Wi-Fi evolves, leaving LVX’s light system to niche applications such as indoor advertising displays and energy management.
LVX Chief Executive Officer John Pederson said a second-generation system that will roll out in about a year will permit speeds on par with commercial Wi-Fi networks. It will also permit lights that can be programmed to change intensity and color.
For the city, the data networking capability is secondary. The main reason it paid a $10,000 installation fee for LVX is to save money on electricity down the line, thanks to the energy-efficient LEDs. Pederson said one of his LED fixtures uses about 36 watts of power to provide the same illumination that 100 watts provides with a standard fluorescent fixture.
Besides installation costs, customers such as St. Cloud will pay LVX a monthly fee that’s less than their current lighting expenses. LVX plans to make money because the LED fixtures are more durable and efficient than standard lighting. At least initially, the data transmission system is essentially a bonus for customers.
Pederson said the next generation of the system should get even more efficient as fixtures become “smart” so the lights would dim when bright sunlight is coming through a window or when a conference room or hallway is empty.
Because the lights can also change color, Pederson said they could be combined with personal locators or tiny video cameras to help guide people through large buildings. The lights could show a trail of green lights to an emergency exit, for instance.
While Kavehrad and Mathias credited LVX for being the first company in the United States to bring the technology to market, Kavehrad said it trails researchers and consumer electronics companies in Japan and Korea in developing products for visible-light networks.
Pederson’s previous company, 911 EP, built high-powered LED roof lights for squad cars and other emergency vehicles. He said he sold the company in 2002. He said the visible-light network grew out his interest in LEDs that goes to the mid-1990s.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, which pays for 24-hour lighting and replacing fluorescent bulbs on high ceilings, is considering an LVX system, said Jeffrey W. Hamiel, executive director of the Metropolitan Airports Commission.
The system might include mounting cameras on the light fixtures to bolster the airport security system, but the real attraction is the savings on electricity and maintenance.
“Anything we can do to save costs is worth consideration,” he said.
Michael Williams, the city administrator in St. Cloud, said the city had been considering LVX for some time.
“It’s pretty wild stuff,” he said. “They have been talking about it with us for couple of years, and frankly it took a while for it to sink in.”
Editor’s note: Readers can watch a video detailing the technology here.
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copycat042
Posted on December 29, 2010 at 11:41am@Sinista Mace: at 3mbps, i would imagine that the blink rate of the light would far exceed the image persistence of the human eye. (think TV screen, not strobe light).
Report Post »hotrodrockets
Posted on December 28, 2010 at 10:10amDoes this mean the FCC will try to regulate LIGHT?
Report Post »robx
Posted on December 28, 2010 at 12:31amI dont think I would misspell a company name just because the romans used a alphabet didnt have a U.
Report Post »thinkingoutloud
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 4:18pmFlicker the lights, trigger a seizure, city gets sued, more jobs for lawyesr, increased cost to taxpayers.
Report Post »sjwanderer
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 6:30pmFlorescent lights flicker about 60 or 120 times a second already and with LED’s you can speed that up and make the light more friendly.
Report Post »Passerby
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 3:32pmNo, flourescent is still more efficient than LED’s High powered ones have to be mounted on a heat sink to dissipate the waste heat. No heat sink required for flourescent.
Report Post »sjwanderer
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 3:59pmYou don’t have to mount them on a heat sink you just have to adjust the duty cycle so they stay cool yet provide comfortable lighting. Its really quite easy and the LEDs are only on about 25% of the time or less and using way lower power.
Report Post »sjwanderer
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 3:03pmAs the price for high intensity white LEDs comes down I’m all in favor of this for lighting only, skip the data part, and it is cheaper to operate. But while a sinlge LED required for such functions still costs more than $1.50 it is cost prohibitive for small businesses and the average consumer. We built something like this, a few years ago, in my shop and it used about 25% the power of a comparable florescent but assembly cost was about $1500.00 for one light fixture. I will say that it seemed easier on the eyes too.
Report Post »tweaker
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 1:55pmENCRYPTION… ??? Is there any available for it? Give it a few days and someone will hack it.
Report Post »GeorgeIII
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 1:35pmNobody mentioned line of sight. The “receiver” has to “see” the light (there’s a pun in there somewhere).
Un-like wireless, which transmits thru walls, floors and closed doors…, a transmitter/emitter and a receiver will be needed in every room. I only need one wireless transmitter/emitter.
Report Post »The Patriot
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 1:30pmCan anyone say subliminal messages? What do the lights say Rain man? “They say obey the government every thing is fine. go about your business every thing is fine. That all they say “
Report Post »fancynancy
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 12:45pmI live in Saint Cloud MN and have occasion to visit the city offices. They are so poorly lit and the hallways are barely lit. Maybe this will allow them to actually work in lighted spaces.When I commented on the poor lighting, budget is the problem, they never say the pension for employees is busting the budget. Saint Cloud is also notoriously against temporary signage. This policy is very detrimental to small businesses that can only afford temporary black signs.
I sure hope this new lighting does not affect the budget. Because they will just raise my taxes.
Report Post »AI4GK
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 12:13pmThey’re also talking about using the LEDs for room lighting. Not a good idea. In my experience, LEDs are very good for traffic lights (although the electronics used to control them creates RF (radio frequency) pollution, panel lights such as for radios & other electronics, and to a certain extent flashlights, but the light is way too coherent to use for filling a room with light. IMHO, there is no substitute for the 100-plus year old incandescent light bulb for lighting a room.
Report Post »CitizenVetUSA
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 1:01pm@A14GK……….I totally agree. I dislike the new curly bulbs that take a long time to illuminate to full lumen capacity (The SI unit of luminous flux, equal to the amount of light crossing a unit area at a unit distance from a light source of luminous intensity of one candela).
Even when warmed up then don’t produce the natural light color spectrum required for reading anything printed on paper. Stick with the old filimate bulb to save your eyesight!
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 1:14pm“They’re also talking about using the LEDs for room lighting. Not a good idea.”
They have much faster response times needed for on / off binary transmission, but yeah… they suck for lighting up a room, and they hurt your eyes and your head much like fluorescents. Incandescents are great for throwing light, but useless for sending information any faster than morse code. Might as well use smoke signals, lol.
When I first saw the article I thought they were going to tap into the natural frequency that fluorescent lights emit (by modulating the power), which I thought was cool as it would be cheap and useful for certain non-essential things, and utilize something that’s already there. But then I read on… ugh. Lame. They aren‘t exactly using something’s hidden potential. They are introducing something else altogether, for no good reason.
What are they going to do next? Try to get us to replace our stoves with bunsen burners? This is something that belongs at a science fair, not in everyday use. If they start pushing this on us with regulation… AAARGH!
Report Post »the_ancient
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 11:23amBetter Solution for Offices that do not want or cant have wifi has always been PLC (power line communication) 3 MB/s is terrible for a LAN, wired it 100 – 1000 these days, wireless g is 54, “N” is is upto 160. the slower speed may work ok for a internet connection, but most offices transfer files between PC’s have internal backsups, on-network accounting etc etc that MUST HAVE the higher transfer speeds to work right
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 11:36amThey have been using open-air laser based networking between office buildings in England for years. Don‘t see why they don’t just use FiOS networks intra-office too. It’s not that expensive to run lines anymore, especially for LAN applications.
If I had the money or the need I wouldn’t think twice about it.
Report Post »CALIDUDE
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 11:21amI hope none of the people around this have seizure disorders, high frequency light flashing can cause seizures. Remember all of the Japanese kids in the 90s who had seizures while watching TV?
Report Post »Xcori8r
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 11:06amSolution looking for a problem.
Report Post »rbqueen
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 11:19amSolution has no need to look for a problem – I would say that it probably created a problem or maybe two or three. It is a known fact that while certain lights can save energy – when lights are constantly being switched on and off it increases energy usage so I can see where they could be used in “energy management” LOL
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 12:10pm@RBQUEEN
It’s not the energy aspect that has me wondering (LEDs use very little electricity… less than pushing electrons through copper wire) but the interference. Light is fickle in open air, especially at high frequency. The faster this gets, the more chance there is for mistakes, and the more packet loss per mistake. Obviously there will be a buffer of sorts, but it just seems to be asking for trouble. That’s what fiber optic cable is for! Keep it contained and concentrated, impervious to everything.
I can also see data being stolen through windows… what are they going to do? Glaze them? Light is harder to scramble / cancel than radio waves. Will they just have separate networks for different levels of security? Kind of defeats the purpose of saving energy doesn’t it? If I can see your emitter, I can save your info and decrypt it later on. Just go with fiber optics! Massive transfer speed that never breaks down and is extremely hard to splice into at the best of times, never mind unnoticed. It’s literally impossible to intercept FiOS without cutting into the cable.
Just seems weird to me. I can imagine line of sight being interrupted by all sorts of things in an office environment, and depending on frequency, even more headaches. Fluorescent lights run at 120Hz, computer monitors at 60Hz, most everything else is in the MHz and GHz range. It all adds up to a cacophony of high energy radiation pounding your skull all day long. No need to add another buzzing emitter over your head.
I smell another industry flop… all this trouble just to avoid a few feet of cable. It could be cool for small hotspots or mobile applications, but really this technology is more of a novelty than anything. It hasn‘t been implemented yet and it’s already obsolete. All it is is an extremely slow optical network with no cabling.
I bet if people dig they can find some government involvement with a lobbyist somewhere… someone‘s going to get rich at everyone else’s expense, in the name of “green energy”.
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {cat folk art}
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 12:29pm@N37BU6
Appreciate the info on the lights and the fiber optics; one thing I have heard about the fiber optics is that anyone actually trying to splice into them, unless it is done in a very precise manner, will have the entire system rendered useless. Any info on this is of interest.
Report Post »Xcori8r
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 12:34pmFrom article: “For the city …The main reason it paid a $10,000 installation fee for LVX is to save money on electricity down the line.”
I’d fire the guy that made this decision — or find out what connection he had to the vendor.
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 1:05pm@SNOWLEOPARD
“Appreciate the info on the lights and the fiber optics; one thing I have heard about the fiber optics is that anyone actually trying to splice into them, unless it is done in a very precise manner, will have the entire system rendered useless. Any info on this is of interest.”
Sure thing!
Yeah, that’s exactly what happens. You can’t discreetly splice in like electrical. You’ll just interrupt the stream altogether. It can be done, but it takes time and everything screeches to a halt as you’re doing it. It also affects signal strength more than traditional cable, so is really easy to detect. Plus the only way to move the data secretly after you’ve done it is converting it to wireless RF or something similar, which means more equipment and signals to catch.
I use optical audio for my PCs and stereo… doesn’t get any better. Zero signal loss, zero interference! Wish you could use it for everything at the consumer / enthusiast level. There’s no worrying about quality issues or the dreaded placebo effect all audiophiles suffer from because optical only has 2 states: working and not working. :)
They are developing CPUs that run on light instead of electricity now too… just imagine! In a few years everything will be lightning fast, secure, and using practically no electricity and generating no heat. Drastically smaller batteries, no fans or heatsinks, more compact circuits… much lighter, many orders of magnitude faster, and super reliable. The only power hogs will be displays / speakers, but displays are catching up now too.
This is why I put so much faith in FiOS. It makes sense; if everything’s going to be running at ~90% light speed, networks should too. Why create bottlenecks? They should be by necessity, not for the sake of novelty. That’s all this stupid technology will be doing- dispersing the signal and relying on air transmission. It’s lame… the Prius of networking!
The future is looking good in this arena. Let’s just hope the government stays OUT of it! I know they have this incessant need to make everything slower, more expensive, and less competitive, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 11:03amAnd everyone thinks they get headaches at work because they are thinking too hard…
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {cat folk art}
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 12:26pmAgreed.
Report Post »NickDeringer
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 11:02amNews you can use??
Report Post »Dustyluv
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 11:15amIt will be good until the Government or Lawyers step in. I see lawsuits and regulation issues out the backside. No new technology will ever be able to escape those two menaces…
My Granddaughter informed me she wants to be an attorney. I told her she had better find another place to live and someone to pay for her college…Not on my watch.
Report Post »cubber
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 11:31amI hate regulations. Got a new glass topped stand for my new TV from Santa. Took me 5 minutes to remove the safety sticker. Ironically, I cut my finger with the single edged blade I used to scrape it off. My Scoutmaster will be disappointed. BE PREPARED.
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {cat folk art}
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 12:25pmInteresting ideas. My apartment complex has replaced all the hall lighting with the new and highly efficient (right) lighting system that the bulbs will last for six to eight months each; guess what has happened now?
Just two months after installation, the entire top floor halls are dark as night, and each of the newly installed light panels have blown out. Pretty nice pyrotechnics though.
Report Post »RightWrite
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 12:35pmA very wise man once or twice told me; “everyone hates attorneys until they need one”. How dare anyone claim lawyers are bad, or that the profession is evil! Without lawyers to protect our God given unalienable rights, we would be doomed to the cancer of Progressivism. Some are showing their ignorance here!
Sinista Mace
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 12:53pmCan anybody say “epileptic seizure”?
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 1:18pm@CUBBER
I almost tripped over a wet floor sign once.
Report Post »TXPilot
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 1:55pmI’m reminded of all the benefits of this new technology they government wants to push on us, everytime I step outside at night in the winter and my fancy new lightbulbs won‘t work because it’s too cold…..
Report Post »Multiple Arms
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 2:12pm@RightWrite. You are right. It is just that 99% of lawyers give the rest of them a bad name.
Report Post »firstlast
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 2:32pm@dustyluv…
Report Post »Omg!!
firstlast
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 2:37pmI hate regulations too. I dont need any commie bastard telling ME hexavalent Chromium6 is bad for my health! I’m confident PG&E only has my best interest at heart; some say extremely toxic, others say potentially carcinogenic. I’m going with the latter because my trusted energy provider say so.
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 2:58pmWhat happens when a bug or a fly lands on the modem or the LED’s and blocks the light?
Report Post »Polwatcher
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 6:19pmHow about sublininal light fixtures? Zombies next?
Report Post »nateums
Posted on December 27, 2010 at 6:55pmfinally, a way to keep epileptics out of my house.
Report Post »