Researchers at University of Virginia use LEDs to create wireless networks

University of Virginia (UVA) researchers have come up with a new way of using light as a form of enhancement to Wi-Fi-based networks, creating a method of using light waves from light-emitting diode fixtures to carry signals to wireless devices at 300 megabits per second from each light. Maite Brand-Pearce, a professor in the Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mohammad Noshad, now a postdoctoral fellow in the Electrical Engineering Department at Harvard University, have filed a patent, along with the university, on their idea. Noshad also created a company called VLNComm, for Visible Light Network Communications, a firm that is developing a desk lamp prototype to provide an Internet connection through light.