Your ceiling lights now talk with computers.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Flickering ceiling lights are usually a nuisance, but in city offices in St. Cloud, they will actually be a pathway to the Internet.

The lights will transmit data to specially equipped computers on desks below by flickering faster than the eye can see. Ultimately, the technique could ease wireless congestion by opening up new expressways for short-range communications.

The first few light fixtures built by LVX System, a local startup, will be installed Wednesday in six municipal buildings in this city of 66,000 in the snowy farm fields of central Minnesota.

The LVX system puts clusters of its light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, in a standard-sized light fixture. The LEDs transmit coded messages — as a series of 1s and 0s in computer speak — to special modems attached to computers.

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I just thought this was spooky as heck.

you can get head pains from fluorescent lights.
god only know what this will do to people.
epileptic fits I bet you.

I'm thinking more of hacking into computers, adding viruses, etc.
Sounds far-fetched. . . . .

The new Christmas type fairy lights are LED and they strobe wildly. I can't stand them. Most persons seem to not care. It's part of the deal, along with CFL's and the technofascist crackdown on incandescents. These bulbs communicate with the 'authorities' and let them know what you are up to in the 'privacy of your home'.

The smart grid is the last straw. These bastards know exactly what they are doing. BTW, they expanded out of banking a long time ago.

reply to post by starless and bible black

Plausable, though all computers would need a device to interpret and input the strobing patterns into the computer.
Web cam?

I used to work in a grocery chain and there was this type of thing in the works from about 15 years ago. Each price "tag" was a sensor and the lights above it would be able to make price changes by flickering. Having worked on pricing/scanning, such a thing would be fraught with errors by customers blocking the light, loss of power, and the inability to know that the "tag" was actually placed at the right product. The last one is the biggy; customers move tags to see prices underneath, stockers aren't always careful with size/type placement, tags simply falling off.....when it concerns $$ it's just not worth it. I can imagine the simple placement of a plant on your desk, light from the sun for a few hours, even dust and dirt would make a system high maintenance requiring a lot of tweaking. Like the grocery industry, I'm guessing it's an idea whose time has not yet come.

And like some of the other posters, I can have a migraine triggered by flickering lights, including fluorescents. I would try it to see, but wouldn't actively pursue working in that environment.