No, I’m not talking about travelling at LightSpeed. The US Navy is testing this short-range communications device called LightSpeed.

LightSpeed is an attachment that connects to binoculars or other “looking” devices and enables the user to communicate securely with the person he/she’s looking at.

Here are more details from the Wired News story on LightSpeed:

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.

Also interesting to note, is that LightSpeed technology stems from the same file sharing system Palm Pilots, PDAs and other mobile computers used to use for ‘beaming’ files back and forth, except it’s hugely amplified.

Go Navy!

[Source: Wired News]

LightSpeed, US Navy, Communications, Wired News