The six ships, one submarine, and more than 5,500 Sailors and Marines of Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG)-1 are getting the chance to test and evaluate a new low cost, low power, optical communications system. The Office of Naval Research supported development of four prototype systems, called LightSpeed, that use infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to communicate point to point.

The prototypes easily attach to current handheld and “Big Eyes” binoculars to allow transmission of digital voice over a range of two to five nautical miles, and could be used for communication between ships at sea and platforms in the air and on the ground. LightSpeed operates outside the radio frequency spectrum and has essentially unlimited bandwidth. Efforts are under way with Naval Network Warfare Command to seek approval of optical transmission of full motion video and data at 1Mb/s.

Fascinating stuff. There is bona fide innovation popping up all over the technology landscape. Obviously, first use for this will be secure communications. That doesn’t have to be limited to military tasks. What’s next?