[thedoc (OP)]

A spinoff of that Wi-Fi is a Li-Fi.  This is a system that uses visible light to send information into mobile devices and computers...
Read a transcript of the interview by clicking here

or [chapter podcast=1000083 track=13.02.07/Naked_Scientists_Show_13.02.07_1000406.mp3] Listen to it now[/chapter] or [download as MP3]

[CliffordK]

As the world moves away from incandescent lights to alternatives such as LEDs, this would be an excellent time to consider LED lighting, and LED networking.  One of the issues, of course, is competition with sunlight.  Many commercial buildings use a lot of light inside during the daytime.  But, I would hope they would also consider alternative energy sources such as skylights and light tubes, at least for shorter structures.

I could imagine our future room lighting being more colorful, with red lights, green lights, blue lights, and etc, each transmitting on a different channel.  Fortunately, one could likely balance multiple narrow spectrum lights to give the appearance of white light, although colored objects might not show up with the true colors.

Flickering might be a problem, but much greater frequencies would be chosen than flicker fusion of about 60 HZ.

I'm not sure about security.  If the room had no light escaping, then the transmission couldn't be intercepted.  However, if light was allowed to escape, I would think that an ordinary telescope would be able to pick up the signals quite well, even at a great distance, and with very precise localization.  One could, of course, attempt to drown out the signal with a false signal, but the fake signal would have to have an overlapping spectrum, and have sufficient randomness that it couldn't easily be subtracted out.

[twitte_king]

well the li-fi tech is for sure a new way of data transporting, but i would like to rise some problems.
1. the light have low penetrating power, so a phone equipped with li-fi will have no data reception in a purse or pocket.
2 if so, should fabric or watch  or sth we wear on top be equipped with the li-fi signal recevier and transmitter instead of the molibe devices?
3. if so, will people be dress in glowing clothes just like what we saw in tron?

[twitte_king]

and about CliffordK con cern of security, i personally think thats a problem of encrpyting the signal rather than the spectrum of EM wave used