The U.S. Navy is field-testing a new short-range communications device called LightSpeed that could soon let sailors talk securely up to two miles away — just by looking at each other.
The device uses infrared, similar to that of a television remote control, to transmit audio and visual information. To overcome range limits, LightSpeed connects to ordinary binoculars and uses the optical lenses to amplify the signals. Then soldiers on either end can simply plug headphones and a microphone into their binoculars to talk to one another.
“Out of the right eye there is an invisible beam that goes out and the LED is the same LEDs that you have in your remote control,” said Leo Volfson, president of Torrey Pines Logic, the company that makes LightSpeed. “If the user on the other side has a similar device he will be able to talk to you or pass data.”
