In a September 2015 TED Talk, Harald Haas walked onto a stage and streamed a video. But his laptop wasn't connected to the web via a cable or Wi-Fi, only a solar panel.
It was one of the first public demonstrations that light - in this case an LED - can beam data from the internet to a computer.
Called Li-Fi, the technology allegedly consumes less energy and is more secure than Wi-Fi. Since a device has to physically be in a room to get internet from Li-Fi, it's also less prone to hacking.
But Li-Fi doesn't stop with a cool demo. Haas, an inventor and mobile technology researcher at the University of Edinburgh, wants turn solar cells of all kinds into data receivers, including translucent ones that look like regular windows.
Haas and his colleagues initially developed Li-Fi using an LED lamp and a "standard, off-the-shelf solar cell," he said in the TED video.
The researchers then spun their research into a company called pureLiFi. Their technology is based on the idea that solar panels can detect normally imperceptible fluctuations in light. Paired with a programmable LED, Haas said, they had a way "to receive information from the light and the solar cell."
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