Researchers have already figured out how to turn an array of LED light bulbs into a wireless data network. Now they’re using them to “print” invisible data onto physical objects.
Brilliant minds at Fujitsu have figured out how to use an LED lamp as a sort of replacement for QR codes. Fujitsu’s lamp sends a stream of zeroes and ones by varying the intensity of the red, green, and blue LEDs.
The fluctuations don’t need to be dramatic, either. Small changes work just fine, and they’re virtually undetectable to viewers. It’s pretty much the same way Li-Fi transmits data among devices.Reflected light gets picked up by a phone or tablet’s camera, and Fujistu’s app interprets the pattern to download additional information from the ‘net — just like Amazon’s app does when you snap a picture of a bar code. It’s an interesting alternative to a QR code; no need to slap an unsightly label on an item or stick a sign next to it; the lamp and a compatible app take care of everything.
Shop owners and museum curators would still need to stick up a poster or a sign somewhere. Otherwise, how would their patrons know that Fujitsu’s system was at work? The light these lamps are throwing doesn’t really look any different than a Philips Hue or any other LED bulb on the market.
Maybe one day in the not-too-distant future, if Fujitsu’s tech becomes ubiquitous, we’ll come to expect that just about everything around us is hyperlinked.