Light Used to Beam Songs Across a Room

As part of a yearly tradition of challenging previous students’ designs, electrical engineering students at Brigham Young University created a free-space optical transmission device that beams music across a room.

The device, created by senior electrical engineering major Jana Sardoni and fellow teammates Matt Seamons, Greg Loveland and Raymond Barrier, can transmit any song from an iPod to a receiver and speakers up to 20 ft away. Its battery life is more than two hours.

Jana Sardoni, BYU electrical engineering major, demonstrates the free-space optical transmission device that beams music from an iPhone to speakers using a laser. (Image: BYU)

The BYU students built a transmitter that plugs into an audio device, and a receiver that plugs into speakers. The transmitter directs a laser to flash in a distinct pattern. They also created a circuit that can compute the flashes of light and translate them into a recognizable format for the speakers.

Sardoni’s team produced this year’s winning design.

For more information, visit: www.byu.edu