imagine a world where every LED light is
an internet access point could life I
offer unprecedented bandwidth and data
we are consuming a hundred percent more
Wireless data every year that is
doubling the amount of wireless data we
are consuming from one year to the next
that’s exponential growth but what is
exponential growth legend has it that
chess was invented by an Indian
mathematician in the 6th century the
ruler at the time was so impressed with
the game that he offered the
mathematician any reward he wanted the
mathematician was a humble man so he
asked for one grain of rice on the first
field of the chess board and then
doubled on every subsequent field so one
grain of rice on the first 200 4 on the
third field and so on as it happens a
chess board has 64 fields the total
amount of rice on the 64th chess field
is 300 times larger than the global
world production of rice for 2016 that’s
14 centuries later that’s exponential
growth what we are doing now is that in
2016 we have consumed more wireless data
than in the entire history of humanity
put together and some of it might be cat
videos but it’s happening nonetheless so
what happens when we move from 5 billion
connected devices to 20 billion
connected devices what happens when the
Internet of Things becomes a reality
when temperature sensors and pressure
sensors and occupancy sensors and CCTV
cameras and heartrate monitor
what happens to all of the information
as everything becomes more digital what
happens to the security of that
information everything is becoming
digital our passport numbers our photos
our fingerprints our birth certificates
our friends eating preferences drinking
preferences good nights out all of our
memories is digital everything we know
and every day an institution gets hacked
and every day that information is leaked
in this digital world we do not have the
security of walking in our home and
locking the door behind us so we have an
increasing demand for wireless data we
have the increasing vulnerability of
that data and we need energy to fuel all
of this so what happens in a world of 20
billion connected devices as it turns
out the data centers are just a drop in
the ocean for the total energy
consumption compared to the wireless
access that is required for them in 2015
according to the Center for energy
efficient communications the world
consumed 43 terawatt hours just for
accessing the wireless cloud that’s
equivalent to the yearly consumption of
energy for 2015 of Romania but there’s
another piece that also consumes a lot
of energy light light accounts for about
20% of all in building electricity
consumption even with LEDs that’s a lot
of energy so we have this unprecedented
demand for data we have the growing
vulnerability of that wireless
communications and we have an enormous
carbon footprint if we want to keep
growing in this exponential fashion what
if data
and light use the same power could we
help solve that problem light is very
contained could we lock the door on our
wireless signal could we offer
unprecedented bandwidth keep our data
safe and repurpose the energy that we
use for illumination to provide wireless
communications life I can offer all of
this and more life I was first presented
and demonstrated at tEDGlobal in 2011 by
Professor Harold Collins it refers to
high-speed bi-directional and networked
wireless communications using light it
offers users a substantially similar
experience as traditional wireless
communications except using the light
spectrum Wi-Fi is complementary to
traditional wireless communications
think about how many wireless access
points you see right now on your phones
in my flat in Edinburgh I regularly see
20 to 30 different ones if I can see
them they can see me that’s interference
that’s security which started off as a
relatively big brown box during the 2011
demonstrator has now been reduced to
this this is the world’s first Wi-Fi
dongle by pure life I so USB dongle like
many other Wi-Fi dongles that you can
connect into any USB device and connect
wirelessly using Wi-Fi to any Wi-Fi
enabled light every communication medium
started this way and over time it has
reduced and become a chip which is now
in your phone’s life I will be
ubiquitous life I will be everywhere and
it will just work so what we have here
is a life I connected tablet with some
additional bits and pieces to get the
signal back these lights that are
hanging are fully integrated Wi-Fi
devices and they are providing wireless
connectivity using the light medium as
you can see they blend with everything
else around us and they’re not
flickering so first we need to try and
share the screen okay so you can see
that you can see that we are basically
in flight mode and you can see on the
screen that the life ix is there it’s
just another wireless access medium so
if we now go to our web browser if we go
to a web page I can request anything I
like and we can now play a simple video
on our website
HD whatever you like high-speed the
important piece is that this video and
this connectivity is available here
under this light and if I move under a
different light
my connectivity is handed over and it
resumes this is life I it is the ability
to transmit data wirelessly in and be
handed over from one light source to
another it is this ability to move
freely around the location which allows
us
to connect wirelessly and to provide the
user with the same experience as
traditional wireless communications
except using the light/medium so this
brings us to a very important point you
can see that both of these lights are
approximately three meters apart from
each other all of the light spectrum all
of that wireless data is being provided
by this light and is not interfered with
this light that’s a fundamental
principle of increasing the density of
wireless access points it means I can
use all of the spectrum in one location
and reuse all of the spectrum just a
couple of metres further this is how
life I solves the exponential growth in
the demand for mobile data this is how
we move from traditional wireless
communications to light it is this
ability to provide a greater spectral
reuse and spatial reuse that will allow
us to continue this growth so you may
have seen can we go to the next slide as
you saw Wi-Fi provides both uplink and
downlink it means I can upload a video
have a Skype video call and download
information seamlessly it means I can
provide high speed data rate not just
one directional low data rate as some
systems out there the lights are not
flickering they’re not interfering with
anyone in fact the rate of change of the
LED light is so fast that we needed a
special receiver to detect that and they
can work when the lights are dimmed so
if you’re at home and you’re watching a
movie and you dim the light or if you’re
in a restaurant that has a dimmed
ambience life I will still work it works
in daylight now this isn’t really a
problem for the UK but in some places
where there’s a lot of sunlight it
matters and what this means is you can
have smart cities light posts connected
to light post car is connected to cars
all of it would lie fine without
problems and so next slide please
life is a reality today it is ready for
the enterprise market it is being
installed in the headquarters of Mexican
project from both some of France’s
largest property developers it is
installed in the headquarters of
Microsoft in Paris in the University of
Edinburgh and the University of
Strathclyde and many other locations
Wi-Fi is a reality today for the
enterprise market and it will be in the
future for the consumer it will
transform the lighting industry in the
same manner that mobile internet
transform transform mobile phones
providing a unique combination that will
offer incredible advantages with life
eyeing a world connected by light has
become a reality
light will always be here life I will
offer the world unprecedented bandwidth
and data to continue our exponential
growth thank
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]