Using a Car’s Ductwork to Carry Data

Researchers at Warwick University in Coventry, England, say beaming pulses of visible light through hollow doors and ventilation ducts could replace portions of a car's hard-wired electrical system.

The engineers are using an LED that encodes data in the form of rapid pulses that are read by a sensor. They say the technique is similar to transmitting data through optical fiber, except that it works through open air.

The advantages of so-called visible light communication (VLC) is that it eliminates the weight and cost of copper wire and is not affected by electrical interference.

Prof. Roger Green, who is leading the work, tells The Engineer that beaming light through enclosed spaces in a car prevents the signal from being affected by ambient light.

Green notes that multiple light frequencies could be used to carry large amounts of information simultaneously through the same airspace. The challenge is bouncing the data-carrying light beams off surfaces and around corners without affecting their content.