Optical lens can transfer digital information without loss | Hacker News Reader

Optical lens can transfer digital information without loss

phys.org

54 pointsdnetesn10 comments

Yes, 36 bits or even more I would think.

It seems like they are suggesting that it's feasible to make fiber optics which transmit a picture with extremely low distortion. So a single fiber could carry an optical image instead of a serial bit stream while maintaining nearly perfect clarity.

So you could potentially encode a lot of data (I would think a lot more than 36 bits) into a 2D pattern (like a QR code, essentially) which would enable the transfer of large blocks of data in each frame of visual information.

Of course encoding & decoding the data would incur some overhead...

> It seems like they are suggesting that it's feasible to make fiber optics which transmit a picture with extremely low distortion. So a single fiber could carry an optical image instead of a serial bit stream while maintaining nearly perfect clarity.

If this is the case, it could be useful in many fiber array imaging applications, not just data transmission. Endoscopy, special cameras like Huygens' DISR etc.

there is already research into transmitting optical images directly via single fibers that don't require this kind of lens.

The title is confusing. Of course an optical lens can transfer digital information without loss. The lenses in my glasses do this all the time.

Keep in mind that multiple wavelengths are already used in parallel in optical signaling -- "Modern systems can handle 160 signals and can thus expand a basic 100 Gbit/s system over a single fiber pair to over 16 Tbit/s." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelength-division_multiplexi...

Also keep in mind that running multi-mode communication brings a new set of problems and challenges (dispersion, non-linear effects, ...) and thus the "expansion" usually comes with some sort of trade-off for a successful implementation (frequency of repeaters etc).

The systems the parent cites are single-mode. You can run 160 wavelengths through a single-mode fiber. This is done in optical transport systems for "long haul". The wavelengths are close together just far enough apart to accommodate the bandwidth needed for each channel.

Multimode fiber is used for short distances after demultiplexing the wavelengths, typically in data centers.

Although I would not say that 100 Gb/s on a single wavelentgh is "basic" at this point in time.

Can anyone describe the difference between this and standard optical connections?

Is it saying that it would give a 36 bit bandwidth over that of today's optics?

So theoretically, 36 bits at a time vs 1 bit for today's serial optical? Or is that overly simplistic?

So is there a picture of the lens somewhere? I don't see what shape it is.

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