Optical wireless network using laser pointers

Wi-Fi isn't always practical, such as in hospitals or labs where it's prohibited, and wired connections can be cumbersome, so engineers at Taipei University of Technology have designed a low-cost, easy-to-implement optical device that uses a traditional laser pointer to transmit data at twice the speed of USB 2.0.

The device uses red and green laser pointers and cost only $600 in total. They switched the laser pointer from battery to power, making it switch faster - 500 million times per second, and the two pointers can transmit 1 billion times per second at a distance of 30 feet, with an error rate of less than one billionth. This makes it easy to establish a data connection in laboratories, hospitals or other places where wireless signals are easily interfered with by other devices. Although atmospheric interference also makes this technology impractical for long distances outdoors, this $600 device is still very useful for point-to-point data exchange.