High-Speed Data Link Made from Laser Pointers Works Where Wi-Fi Won't

Why not just couple the lasers to a fiber optic cable for long distance transmission or even short distances through walls?

This is kinda cool, but why compare it with a USB based network? That's very rarely used outside home usage.

If my maths is correct, they've accomplished a 5gigabit connection. I would've thought a standard 1gigabit connection over Ethernet sufficient for most uses: no more cumbersome than the rest of the equipment and associated cables lying around the ward/lab.

But if you can't find an electrician to put the wiring in the walls/floor/ceiling for under $600 per cable then get a new electrician :P

Sorry, not sure where i got the 5 from... its just a 1gigabit connection they're offering anyway?

No WiFi in hospitals, that's an interesting supposition, but utterly untrue in two that I know of: WiFi is available in every corner of the buildings and on the campuses. The one dead zone I found in one was directly between two radiation therapy suites (a few chairs and a water cooler there), which I took to be unique architecture--I'm sure they meant to put another suite there, and the shielding is in place, they just need to enclose and equip it.

CELLULAR use is proscribed in places, but that just means I use Google Voice/Google Mail to place a voice call (or receive them) when I am in those few corners.

I've been advocating a public beamline for a long time now. It's the obvious answer to bandwidth issues.

@thechoochman528

Probably because the typical fiber optic equipment, terminating devices, et al probably cost more than $600. Putting the lines in the walls would probably cost as much as the laser equipment, and worrying about breaking the lines routing them around corners, etc makes the cost more prohibitive (I'm guessing). You can't as easily just wrap the fiber optic cable around corners like regular ethernet UTP cables. They're rather fragile compared to them.

Running ethernet cables means a cable installer has to come in, run the lines, check the connections, install routers/switches/hubs/repeaters, etc. If this were a NEW building, putting ethernet jacks in every room would be okay, but a pre-existing building is harder since you need to rip open the walls/ceilings, etc.

@rpenri I've actually worked with fiber optics before, when i was doing I.T. at a certain ministry we were in the midst of up grading our upload technology to get the most out of our t-1 interfaces. it's a pain to work with and you really can't feed it through already built walls as even 10 pounds of pressure is enough to make the glass snap. i think my boss said that 100 feet cost somewhere between 300-600 dollars and even one fracture anywhere on the line can make it a very expensive paper weight. they come with little end connectors that have dust caps on them and if you get dust on the inside of the connector it ruins them just as much as breaking it over your knee.

all in all this is actually a very economical solution to short telecommunications basically like a computer talking to a printer. however i could also see this in use with the actual infrastructure of a hospital or something. imagine a laser system in the top corners of the hallways, and at every door there is a prism, the prism is designated with a wavelength so that any incoming communication of the right wavelength get's funneled into the room while everything passes through to the next place. if one room wants to communicate with something in another room it uses say a green laser, and it can also at the same time communicate with yet another room using a red laser, and we can even use a blue laser to keep them all connected to a server. and while we're at it we can call it Vicky and see if it spontaneously wants to kill everyone.

to mars or bust!

OMG these are cool! I like the colors. They look like those things from star wars! Gosh I feel stupid You guts sound so smart! I give you mad props! :D

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Peace,Love and Happiness!

Sorry I typed wrong I meant you GUYS! Not guts..... my bad!

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Peace,Love and Happiness!

I suppose this is basically a fiberoptic link without the fiber.

The other good thing about this versus Wifi is that it doesn't pollute the environment with EM noise, meaning that you can set up as many parallel links as you want in the same airspace without them interfering with each other.

Sorry zentastic, but I always forget about how much safer laser radiation is than EM noise.
One thing that was not made clear is if there error count was tested in a dark or light room. Whenever I have built audio connections over laser communication, I found the largest source of error was due to the amount of ambient noise from the fluorescent lights.
We also have to keep in mind that the lasers will have to be pointed directly at the photo-diode that is detecting the signal. Which means if we are in a area where earthquakes are typical, we could find ourselves realigning the beam every time.
One question I have for the developers is how they plan on amplifying the signal after the beam degrades past the demoed 30 feet. Every techniques that I have seen for signal amplification is very pricey.
My final thought about the system is that they will have to connect their computers through an Ethernet port that ties into the optical receiver. Which takes away a lot of the advantages of an all optical system.

@ turtlepokerman; Yeah, the fluorescents act as a diode as well, receiving on a fairly wide bandwidth, not even counting the off position as part of it.

As to our beam integrity over distance, it's obvious. We use some sort of inline amplifier. A little set of crystals in a tough bullet configuration would work nicely. These technologies aren't as expensive as they were because the field is getting competitive now.

For those that ain't hip yet, There's a clearinghouse with a huge list of suppliers for all kinds of cutting edge technologies including highest grade optics. It's called GlobalSpec.