[BlameTheEx]

Freethinker

"A receiving "antenna" is a device for ACCUMLATING and perhaps secondarily CONVERTING energy"

Sadly it is the converting part that is the problem. Until you connect some sort of electronics to an antenna it is just an accumulator. There is no suitable electronics, not even a rectifier, available. In this situation the antenna is no more than an alternative to lenses or filters.

Should somebody invent something (presumably a large molecule) that can directly use the output from the antenna, things will be much more exciting. To emphasise the relative difficulty of this....

A group of scientist in communist Russia were given 5 years to turn cow shit into butter. After 2 1/2 years they were asked for a progress report. They replied "well we are half way there. It still tastes like shit, but it spreads like butter."

[Freethinker]

Originally posted by: BlameTheEx
Sadly it is the converting part that is the problem. Until you connect some sort of electronics to an antenna it is just an accumulator. There is no suitable electronics, not even a rectifier, available.

Actually information could be transmitted using simple binar. A string of photons for a given duration would indicate a "ON" state, or binary "1". A rectifier would only be needed as a detector for analog decoding. And even that isn't needed in PCM.

In this situation the antenna is no more than an alternative to lenses or filters.

Perhaps, but as an advancement over existing options.
Half full?

[BlameTheEx]

Freethinke.

Could you elaborate a tad? How do expect to transmit or receive information without any electronics?

Half full? Er, no. The glass is barely damp.

[Freethinker]

Originally posted by: BlameTheEx
Could you elaborate a tad? How do expect to transmit or receive information without any electronics?

Half full? Er, no. The glass is barely damp.

Ah see, one of the big differences. I see the glass as always full. It's just a matter of with what?

As to the antenna, the article states

The light excites miniature electrical currents

Which specifies that no other electronics are needed to produce the electrical current. Even if the frequency of this current is too high to pass thru current electrical devices, binary states can be. By producing pulses of appropriate duty cycles, data can be transmitted. A simple digital PCM design can decode the data based only on digital (on/ off) state of the pulses.

This would not allow for maximum utilization of the spectrum by any means. But because of the pilot/ carrier freq being in the light spectrum the duty cycle could be such that the data rate would still be extremely high.