Emerging Tech

Discussion regarding the Outsider webcomic, science, technology and science fiction.

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Grayhome
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Emerging Tech

Post by Grayhome »

Didn't know where else to put this, so I'll just start a new thread.

200+ Gigabits per second internet speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqH9KX9o0vg

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Arioch
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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by Arioch »

The advantage of using radio waves for Wi-Fi is that the signal can travel through obstructions, allowing one transmitter to give coverage to receivers in multiple rooms, and allowing devices to be positioned or moved from room to room without having to worry about line of sight with the transmitter. It seems to me that the chief problem with using visible light is that it can be blocked; the TED presenter unwittingly demonstrated this when he stuck his hand between the lamp and the receiver and the video stream stopped. To use Li-Fi, you'd need to have at least one transmitter in every room, and probably more than one to ensure complete coverage. But the transmitters must get their signal from somewhere, so they'd each have to be wired to the signal source. The main benefit of using Wi-Fi is so that you don't have to run wires through your whole house. If you have to run a high-speed wired network through every room in your home to feed the Li-Fi transmitters, then you might as well just plug the receivers directly into the wired network itself, which will be faster, more secure, and much more reliable.

The other major problem is that this data stream seems to be only one way. How does the receiving device send signals back to the transmitter?

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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by Game Theory »

It would allow one to stream large amounts of data to any device with a camera and the right software. Wile I wouldn't suggest this would replace wifi in the home, it could be used in the consumer industry as more and more tech become wearable. Imagine buying large data packets for whatever it is strapped to your face in 2020 from your local red box in seconds. This could come in handy for extremely small devices perhaps.
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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by dragoongfa »

I don't see this penetrating further than static high speed downloads without the use of a cable.

Even then the problem with consumer use of technology is that humans are 'stupid'. They will obstruct and move the devices that use this technology without even realizing it, high speed cable connections will again prove themselves far more stable.

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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by alpha »

dragoongfa wrote:I don't see this penetrating further than static high speed downloads without the use of a cable.

Even then the problem with consumer use of technology is that humans are 'stupid'. They will obstruct and move the devices that use this technology without even realizing it, high speed cable connections will again prove themselves far more stable.
I'm still waiting for my fiber optic terabit cables. :P
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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by icekatze »

hi hi

If we could just replace all of our weak human flesh with durable robot parts, we could have some awesome gamma ray wireless connections. :)

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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by fredgiblet »

This could be GREAT for long-range point to point. My parent's place had to use a local, land-based wireless ISP for a while because they were outside of town. Something like this might work well in that situation and provide much higher bandwidth.

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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by Absalom »

Arioch wrote:The advantage of using radio waves for Wi-Fi is that the signal can travel through obstructions, allowing one transmitter to give coverage to receivers in multiple rooms, and allowing devices to be positioned or moved from room to room without having to worry about line of sight with the transmitter. It seems to me that the chief problem with using visible light is that it can be blocked; the TED presenter unwittingly demonstrated this when he stuck his hand between the lamp and the receiver and the video stream stopped. To use Li-Fi, you'd need to have at least one transmitter in every room, and probably more than one to ensure complete coverage. But the transmitters must get their signal from somewhere, so they'd each have to be wired to the signal source. The main benefit of using Wi-Fi is so that you don't have to run wires through your whole house. If you have to run a high-speed wired network through every room in your home to feed the Li-Fi transmitters, then you might as well just plug the receivers directly into the wired network itself, which will be faster, more secure, and much more reliable.
I can't imagine it being used without Wi-Fi for these reasons, but I can see some point for it anyways. Chances are that you won't be moving the highest-bandwidth devices around too much, so your 8k-VR-120Hz googles are probably going to work fine if they're in the same room as the relevant console, just like they should be. Similarly, any TV that can actually make full use of the data stream isn't necessarily going to be portable: you're probably not going to be benefiting from this tech in all of your rooms, even if you have 100% service coverage of your house, just because it's likely to be massive overkill for consumer activities for quite some time after it's brought to market.
Arioch wrote:The other major problem is that this data stream seems to be only one way. How does the receiving device send signals back to the transmitter?
The devices that I've seen are fairly large, but if you ignore the likely power drain then I imagine that a smartphone-side transceiver wouldn't be too much larger (if larger at all) than those little plug-ins that Square uses for credit-card transactions.

alpha wrote:
dragoongfa wrote:I don't see this penetrating further than static high speed downloads without the use of a cable.

Even then the problem with consumer use of technology is that humans are 'stupid'. They will obstruct and move the devices that use this technology without even realizing it, high speed cable connections will again prove themselves far more stable.
I'm still waiting for my fiber optic terabit cables. :P
They're not tera-bit, but if you really feel like it...

fredgiblet wrote:This could be GREAT for long-range point to point. My parent's place had to use a local, land-based wireless ISP for a while because they were outside of town. Something like this might work well in that situation and provide much higher bandwidth.
If there isn't any rain, fog, snow, etc., then sure. However, if those are present then it isn't going to work especially well. Using some other wireless point-to-point setup will work much more reliably for your use-case.

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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by fredgiblet »

Absalom wrote:If there isn't any rain, fog, snow, etc., then sure. However, if those are present then it isn't going to work especially well. Using some other wireless point-to-point setup will work much more reliably for your use-case.
There are places where weather conditions would regularly be able to work for that. Also using a paired setup with a li-fi for good weather and radio backup for bad would work, though it would be somewhat more expensive.

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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by Arioch »

I would think that visible light Li-Fi would have limited range outdoors because of interference of light from other sources. Microwaves are better suited to this role, and microwave communication links have been used successfully in this manner for some time. This is not exactly a novel technology, as it's been in use since the 1930's. The problem is that in order to establish line of sight with a relay tower, you probably have to build a tower of your own on top of your house.

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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by discord »

or just VERY many links....if just about every led light everywhere was a 'link' the coverage would be a lot better....and is a possible solution to the bandwidth usage problem....

this way WOULD lower the bandwidth something enormously but it should work since when the bloody hell did you really need more than 10mbit for a single stream...

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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by fredgiblet »

discord wrote:this way WOULD lower the bandwidth something enormously but it should work since when the bloody hell did you really need more than 10mbit for a single stream...
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Grayhome
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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by Grayhome »

Looks to be more of a publicity stunt than anything, but pretty cool nevertheless.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/13/9728 ... responders

Image

Feel free to throw whatever tech or science news you guys find interesting into the thread guys. Go crazy here.

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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by RedDwarfIV »

Arioch wrote:I would think that visible light Li-Fi would have limited range outdoors because of interference of light from other sources. Microwaves are better suited to this role, and microwave communication links have been used successfully in this manner for some time. This is not exactly a novel technology, as it's been in use since the 1930's. The problem is that in order to establish line of sight with a relay tower, you probably have to build a tower of your own on top of your house.
There used to be a company in my area that sold microwave telephone receivers, and you can still see a lot of houses with small octagonal dishes on them.

They went bust though. The reason? Trees kept growing up and blocking the dishes' line-of-sight.
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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by alpha »

RedDwarfIV wrote:
Arioch wrote:I would think that visible light Li-Fi would have limited range outdoors because of interference of light from other sources. Microwaves are better suited to this role, and microwave communication links have been used successfully in this manner for some time. This is not exactly a novel technology, as it's been in use since the 1930's. The problem is that in order to establish line of sight with a relay tower, you probably have to build a tower of your own on top of your house.
There used to be a company in my area that sold microwave telephone receivers, and you can still see a lot of houses with small octagonal dishes on them.

They went bust though. The reason? Trees kept growing up and blocking the dishes' line-of-sight.
Nature will always find a way to beat technology.
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Grayhome
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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by Grayhome »

Nature will always find a way to beat technology.
I have yet to see a bear outsmart a bullet.

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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by dragoongfa »

Grayhome wrote:
Nature will always find a way to beat technology.
I have yet to see a bear outsmart a bullet.
They don't need to outsmart the bullet, they only need to outsmart the human :P

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Grayhome
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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by Grayhome »

They don't need to outsmart the bullet, they only need to outsmart the human :P
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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by fredgiblet »

Image

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Re: Emerging Tech

Post by Arioch »

Kinda sad if one needs a pistol to cripple a girl.

...that sounded worse than intended.

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