Sharp is not only committed to reducing power consumption in televisions, but also in mobile phones with internal optical wiring. Not only is power reduced but also the system can transmit data at 1.25Gbps. Currently the company is working to overcome so-called ‘glitches’ - instantaneous pulse signal that are generated when the clock signals are being switched, increasing the bit error rate of reproduced data - that which make the technology difficult to produce. If it can be overcame though, the mobile phone power reduces to 108mW and Sharp is working to drop that even more to the 50mW range; impressive.
I was thinking the other day – wireless communication will really have taken off when internal wiring is more expensive than wireless equipment. For example, the wiring in your car, between the switch to lower the window and the motor that makes it happen. What if some day that is all on a wireless system and doesn’t need someone to physically run a wire from the switch to the motor?
Even in large quantities, the cost of wireless transmitters and receivers needs to come down. The fewer the wires we have to deal with in general, the better. Something like this could also be applied to home theater equipment – maybe someday you’ll just have to have the equipment in the same room as your TV, and it will automatically configure everything over wireless networks. As in, all you would have to do is get power to the devices, no video cables, no audio cables, etc.