Mobile Technology

Oledcomm lights the way with Li-Fi-enabled Android tablet

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The LiFiMAX Tab is reported to be the first Android tablet with integrated Li-Fi technology
Oledcomm
The LiFiMAX Tab is reported to be the first Android tablet with integrated Li-Fi technology
Oledcomm
The 10.1-inch tablet comes wrapped in a protective silicone case that's home to the light fidelity wireless comms technology
Oledcomm
The chunky LiFiMAX Tab's chunky case has its own adjustable kickstand
Oledcomm
LiFiMAX Tab users will also need to invest in a LiFiMAX Photonic Antenna before being able to wirelessly connect to the internet using modulated light signals
Oledcomm
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When we wirelessly connect a laptop to a home router or a smartphone to a streaming speaker, we do so over radio waves. We were first introduced to wireless data transmission using light back in 2014, and now France's Oledcomm is looking to bring the technology to home users with the first Android tablet sporting integrated Li-Fi.

Light fidelity technology – or Li-Fi – transmits data at high speeds by modulating light signals, "a process invisible to the naked eye." And spin-off from the University of Paris-Saclay, Oledcomm says it launched the first "Li-Fi luminaire" aimed at the general public at CES 2018, in the shape of the MyLiFi desk lamp.

The company returned to Las Vegas the following year with a prototype of its LiFiMAX system, which subsequently went on to be installed and tested in more than 500 projects worldwide. Last year, the first classroom was equipped with the tech and an integrated circuit that enabled native integration of Li-Fi in smartphones, tablets and PCs was launched at MWC 2021 in Barcelona, Spain.

Now Oledcomm is back at CES to show off the LiFiMAX Tab.

The 10.1-inch tablet comes wrapped in a protective silicone case that's home to the light fidelity wireless comms technology
Oledcomm

"Every year since 2018, Oledcomm accentuates a little more its leadership in the field of LiFi," said the company's Benjamin Azoulay. "After having announced the miniaturization of its technology and reached 3Gbps in vehicle-to-infrastructure data transfer, Oledcomm announces the first Android tablet with integrated Li-Fi.

"The tablet allows all family members to connect to the internet via invisible light, providing a robust, stable, radio frequency-free connection with a signal that cannot be intercepted outside the room. LiFiMAX Tab is ideal for home office use, for parents and children at home or at school.”

The tablet comes wrapped in a chunky blue silicone case that includes the photonic antenna, allowing for up to 150 Mbps downstream and 150 Mbps up with AES 128-bit security. Naturally, users of the device will need to be within range of a light-emitting access point or antenna that's connected to a home network, which the company also produces (and you may need more than one if you want to roam around indoors).

The LiFiMAX's blue case also comes with a built-in kickstand, and hosts one USB-C ports, a 3.5-mm audio jack and a TransFlash card reader slot. The tablet has a 10.1-inch 1,920 x 1,200 resolution touchscreen, runs Android 10 and is powered by a Mediatek MTK6762 octa-core processor supported by 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage.

There's an 8,000-mAh battery for up to seven hours of use, plus an additional 6,000-mAh battery to power the integrated Li-Fi module. And completing the given specs are a 2-MP webcam to the front and a 5-MP snapper to the back, and two 1-W integrated speakers.

The LiFiMAX Tab is due to go on sale from February for €400 (about US$450), though there's no word on how much it will cost you to have the necessary LiFiMAX access points or antennas installed. The video below has more.

Source: Oledcomm

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3 comments
paul314
So the LiFi unit takes as much wattage (almost) as the whole rest of the tablet? As long as LiFi remains a niche technology, tablets like these will be attractive to schools and other places that want to control distribution, because a tablet that only does LiFi is useless to borrowers and thieves.
Daishi
Back when Li-Fi was first pitched we were still on 802.11n (wifi 4) and the wifi frequencies were badly congested. Wifi 6E improves the situation significantly by offering a ton of spectrum (3x the amount) in the 6 Ghz frequency range. There are wide 160Ghz channels and high throughput speeds. 6Ghz achieves shorter ranges (60-70%) than the 5Ghz spectrum but it's both bad and good in that it allows higher density use-cases without interfering with other AP's. It's a little expensive because you will probably end up buying tri-band backwards compatible WiFi equipment to use it but it seems well positioned to solve some of the issues Li-Fi would have been useful for.
christopher
Stupid idea, and only rooms with no windows would prevent "interception" - a "problem" that was solved more than a decade ago via encryption anyhow.