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Comment by brianpgordon | Hacker News Reader

So the obvious question is... what happens when line-of-sight is lost between the endpoints? With near-visual wavelengths, someone walking past could interrupt the connection. I could see this being useful for very limited applications in settings where radio is completely unusable, but it's a stretch.

> In 25 years, every lightbulb in your house will have the processing power of your cellphone today

And in 50 years, every hammer and wrench in your toolbox will be able to beat Ken Jennings on Jeopardy!

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To be fair, I replaced every lightbulb in my house with a Philips Hue -- which does have some limited processing power (enough to manage a Zigbee mesh connection).

So the "every lightbulb in your house" comment doesn't seem completely unreasonable to me.

Do you like them? What benefit do you get from them compared to regular light bulbs. Other than that they're damn cool, of course.

Dim able and colour controlled without having to walk over to the switch on the wall. Integrate the controllers win IR sensors, you have lights that turn off when nobody is in the room. Built in sunrise alarm in every room! Turn the lights red when playing submarine simulators for extra authenticity :)

That sounds cool

And get poorly timed light effects when watching Sharknado!

http://www.syfy.com/sharknado/sync

I have Hue bulbs everywhere too, and I really like them. Being able to sunrise and sunset them automatically is really nice, and they're a great ambient information display: One of mine near the door is blue if there is rain forecasted for today!

It's actually a nice feature.

everybody needs line of sight. You, the FBI, the NSA, the local PD. Being able to kill a connection by closing a door is a win.

That seems naive. Current connections are encrypted. Those with the desire and means to break crypto aren't going to be deterred by line-of-sight issues.

It's another layer of isolation - decreases range and increases cost of surveillance.

Encryption is orthogonal, can be applied to both transports.

My hammer and wrench can already beat Ken Jennings.

Multiple lights is multiple paths, and maybe a slower connection off reflections on wall? Even if the above is not true, there is usually a very useful niche for every communication, especially a faster one. Wifi doesn't work all that well throughout the house. Wifi + LiFi might be a much better experience.

Maybe it would be good for people suffering from wifi interference.

If they can shield neighboring wifi.

I have another question, could be seriously stupid: Do you need to have a strong, glowing light on the top of your computer for this to work? Could it use the monitor backlight? Imagine if the Apple logo in a MacBook is actually a Li-Fi "antenna".

Heh, that would also be a good way for them to force their customers to display the branding, instead of e.g. covering it with stickers...

The article says they are using 5 milliwatt LEDs for this, so it doesn't seem like you need that much brightness at all.

Line-of-sight isn't strictly needed. IR remote controls can get along without; a white ceiling might reflect enough light for this as well.

If you've got a remote with a good quality IR LED you can point it just about anywhere.

Mmm.. led me think..

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