Wednesday, January 15, 2020

The magic of fiber optics!







"The decade of the 2020's is going to be exciting for sure in the field of fiber optics. I can't even begin to imagine what this technology will look like in a hundred years. Heck, it is hard to imagine what it will look like in ten years."



Saw an interesting YouTube the other night on fiber optics and holograms. But more on that later. I just did a bit of research on fiber optics as I will admit, I did not know a lot about how they came about. Seems they have been toyed with for over a hundred years or so. In fact, Alexander Graham Bell invented something called a photo-phone (using a crude form of light cables) in 1880. But he also was working on the telephone at the same time, and since the telephone was more reliable, he focused on that invention.

The person who gets the credit however, for the invention of the fiber optic cable, is a man of Indian decent. And he did it in 1956. Some think this invention was one of the things which changed the world in the 20th century. The more I have learned about fiber optics, I agree. For without fiber optics, there would be no internet. No email. Our phone system would be a mess. No, fiber optics has propelled us into the information age, and we are just getting started.

The future of fiber optics is brighter than bright. (Hint: If you are a young engineer, this would be a GREAT field to get into right now.) The evolving field of 5g communications is married to having an extensive fiber optic system, like peanut butter is to jelly in a kid's sandwich. New fiber optic cabling is either being laid or is planned on being laid under all the oceans. The speed, the security, the capacity of fiber optics, leaves all other methods of communications in the dust. And the new stuff is really amazing. 

Back to holograms for a minute. And what this has to do with fiber optics? Many of us have watch science fiction movies where holograms are common. Guess what? They exist today. Mostly in the labs. Soon, very soon, they will be "go to market" ready. What does all that mean? Phone calls may become video calls, with the image of whom you are talking to, projected in 3D form in front of your eyes. Some TV shows and movies will be in 3D, and special glasses will not be required. By 2030, 3D will be more common than uncommon.

The next step for fiber optics is higher density. Companies are already working on ways to pack more capability into smaller fiber optic packages. Fiber optics will be used extensively in the medical field. Plus, we will be putting fiber optics in more and more devices we use. Bottom line? If we really want computing and communications to operate at the "speed of light", we need more "light" in devices. Yes, that includes our home computers. Some day, in the not too distant future, our laptops and tablets might really operate at the speed of light, rather than at the speed of turtles. 

The decade of the 2020's is going to be exciting for sure in the field of fiber optics. I can't even begin to imagine what this technology will look like in a hundred years. Heck, it is hard to imagine what it will look like in ten years. But it is here, it is growing, and it soon will be in everything. Now that we are in the "Roaring Twenties", fiber optics is part of what will allow this decade to "roar".   

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