The day is not far when your computer, iPhone, TV, radio and thermostat could all communicate with you when you walked in a room just by flipping the wall light switch and without the usual cluster of wires. This could be done with an LED-based communications network that also provides light - all over existing power lines with low power consumption, high reliability and no electromagnetic interference. Ultimately, the system is expected to be applicable from existing illumination devices, like swapping light bulbs for LEDs. The initiative is known as the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Centre, and will be carried forward at Boston University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of New Mexico. The US National Science Foundation is providing $18.5m in funding. These data transmitting LEDs are affordable devices which would replace existing lamps and light fittings, usually requiring only the already-present power lines for backhaul. Devices equipped with visible-light ports not unlike IrDA kit would have a data connection whenever such a lamp was in line of sight. The data would be transmitted by the same LEDs which provided white-light illumination, flickering like tremendously fast signal lamps. The data flicker would be imperceptible to humans. As visible light does not penetrate walls or travel round corners, the developers say that the system would be more secure than present-day Wi-Fi connections.

The research is a big deal as lighting currently consumes 22 percent of the electricity in the U.S. If the DOE accomplishes its goals of reducing lighting energy use by 50 percent, it would save billions of dollars and reduce environmental impact.

Source