Highlights From Get A Grip On Lighting Podcast EP 293 - Tony Lawrence, CEO of LightRider Inc Gives Updates on His Quantum LiFi Now called Quantum Light
Today, we are writing an article on a recent Get a Grip On Lighting podcast episode 293. Michael Colligan and Greg Ehrich invited Tony Lawrence on the podcast. He is an entrepreneur and technologist and a prophet of quantum possibilities through his current role as CEO of LIGHTRIDER. Tony is a service disabled veteran of the US Army who began his career being recruited into the intelligence field by the National Security Agency. Serving in multiple high profile roles, Tony gained invaluable experience in counterterrorism and threat analysis as well as tracking high value targets and tactical intelligence collection.
They discussed on the LIGHTRIDER quantum light (previously known as quantum LiFi), quantum computers, some current cybersecurity developments and the future of quantum light products in the US within the next 2 years.
Get A Grip On Lighting Podcasts are hosted by Michael Colligan and Greg Ehrich, who have over 30 years of combined experience in the lighting industry. Michael Colligan is an entrepreneur and inventor. He’s a subject matter expert in commercial and industrial lighting supply, lighting retrofits, and finding recycling streams for hard-to-recycle waste. Greg Ehrich, LC is the former President of the National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors (NAILD) and owner of a progressive lighting distributorship. The podcast is sponsored by Keystone.
Below are some of the Podcast conversations. Some of the conversations have been edited by Chuks from LiFi Tech News:
Michael Colligan: “And, you know, Tony Lawrence, been on the show before he's an entrepreneur and technologist and a prophet of quantum possibilities through his current role as CEO of LIGHTRIDER. Tony is a service disabled veteran of the US Army who began his career being recruited into the intelligence field by the National Security Agency. Serving in multiple high profile roles, Tony gained invaluable experience in counterterrorism and threat analysis as well as tracking high value targets and tactical intelligence collection. This is a long one, you know, I want to try to sum it up a little bit here. He started in the military. And then he was part of the team that invented LiFi or built LiFi. He's gonna tell us a little bit more about it. But with LIGHTRIDER with years of R&D and investment in quantum technologies and applications Tony created LIGHTRIDER, a quantum communications company focused on the nexus of quantum based encryption and communications and light fidelity, LiFi technology. Using LiFi and quantum encryption, LIGHTRIDER mission is to provide unhackable communications to the planet at a price they can afford. With product lines covering encrypted storage, secure communications, networking and infrastructure. LIGHTRIDER has always captured the attention of emerging security and communications outlets across healthcare, military education, government, contracting and verticals.”
Tony Lawrence: “All right. Hey, it is a pleasure to be back with you gentlemen, really enjoy the last conversation we had. I've been hearing nothing about but great things across the lighting community. So, yeah, here at LIGHTRIDER, we've done a lot of R&D and things have changed. We're not offering quantum LiFi anymore. We're now calling our solution quantum light. All right, soon as that light bulb comes on, boom, you got quantum information flow into your device, your tablet, your phone, your computer, any sort of IoT device, we're streaming quantum keys and quantum entropy to your device while providing you internet service.
Now, right behind me, we have one of our demonstration units, or one of our quantum light lamps. And these lamps stream quantum keys. And you might be wondering, what are quantum keys? So, recently, President Biden has issued an executive order for quantum computing, right? They call it the post quantum cryptography executive order. And what's happening here is the president and the National Security Council are preparing the entire nation for the potential attack or potential exploitation from a quantum computer. Whether that quantum computer comes from Russia, or China, one day, our adversaries are going to have a working quantum computer. And with that computer, they can hack any system we have here currently in the United States.
So, what the president's doing is, he's using quantum keys and quantum cryptography to protect our websites, our critical infrastructure, and he's stood up a new organisation called the CISA, the cybersecurity infrastructure security agency. So, CISA is responsible for pushing quantum encryption across the government. Now, here in the United States, we're really good at software, right? We're not so good at making cell phones. We're now so good at making computers. And we're common good at making vehicles right. But software is our way of stopping these quantum computers here at LIGHTRIDER. We've just just through analysis, we realise that hey, here in America, we're amazing at making light bulbs. You guys know this. That's something that we do the best here in the United States. So, what we've done is we've integrated quantum computing quantum technologies and light bulbs, and we're able to mass produce these quantum light bulbs and distribute them across the United States to protect Americans against quantum computers.”
Tony Lawrence: “But we just talked about the software that the White House is pushing out, the PQC software, everybody has software, you know, the advanced cybersecurity companies, the folks that really know what they're doing, they're already creating PQC software, they're submitting it to the government to do a lot of good things so they can meet the President's objectives. Here at LIGHTRIDER, what we're doing is we're using that same software that same exact software, but guess what, but pushing it through light bulbs, right, but pushing it through light bulbs.”
So, you get the software from the light bulb, it goes to your computer, it goes to your tablet, it goes to your your phone. And in order to use your computer, tablet or phone, guess what you got to be underneath a specific light bulb, you got to be underneath this light bulb. If you're not underneath that light bulb, then your devices won't work. So, what we've done is we've taken something that's digital, something that's in cyberspace, and we've combined it with something that we use everywhere in our homes or offices, and we tethered the two together.”
“So, you can't have you know, your OP, you can't have your computer without being underneath of a specific light bulb. And the same thing applies to software, right we have programmes that are linked to the light bulbs. So, if you're not underneath this specific light bulb, you won't be able to open up your Facebook, you won't be able to open up your Instagram, things like that. And that's what we're doing to protect our users data. By the year 2024, Probably June 2024, you'll be seeing our technology in BestBuy and Home Depot, we're already working with major Realtors major construction companies right now. And they're looking at buying a large amount of our lightbulbs and putting them into new construction. So, soon you're going to see a wireless fidelity or WiFi which is very unsecure, you're gonna see that transition now. And you're gonna see quantum light transition.”
Michael Colligan: “What if you turn the light bulb off?”
Tony Lawrence: “So, we have an infrared backup channel, right? So, we broadcast an infrared into technology that we're using is very similar to the technology used for a TV remote, very, very similar. I mean, it's more advanced, but in theory is very similar. So yeah, it works without visible light. Visible light is great because you can see your data, right and with our lives if the lights start to flicker, things like that, you know, hey, something's wrong with my access point.”
Tony Lawrence: “So, my technology is a wireless version of fibre optics. So, as fibre optics becomes more prevalent, you have hollow core fibre, hollow core fibre can move information at the same rate as free space, free space communications are, you know, so hollow core fibre is the future and it’s very advanced, but as fibres laid throughout the country, you won't need data storage would change, right information doesn't have to rest information can keep moving, it can keep moving through the light, it can keep moving through fibre optics. And if it keeps moving, it's going to be very difficult for our adversaries to gain access to it, it'd be impossible for them again, they have to hunt it down, you know, like a dog or hunting rabbit, or chicken. So, you know, as the new technological infrastructure becomes more robust, more prevalent, then we have different means of storing and sending information, it doesn't have to be just the cloud.”
Tony Lawrence: “So, we have connected lights. Connected lights are a huge feature that I offer my customers, you will be able to turn the lights on and off through your computer, you'll also be able to store up to a terabyte worth of data inside your life. And if you have other lights connected to that network, guess what those lights all share the data, right? So instead of having a cloud system that's far away, or in Virginia, at a data centre or something somewhere, you will have a cloud lighting system inside of your home, everything stays inside your home, and never needs to leave.”
Greg Ehrich: “Just being curious. Why did you guys drop the name LiFi? You know, at the beginning, you mentioned that you get rid of that term. Now that you are quantum light.”
Tony Lawrence: “Yeah, quantum light, our technology is completely different than LiFi. It is nothing like LiFi. Originally, we use the term LiFi, because it was closely related to what we were doing. But I didn't start with lightbulbs. I started with two lasers, a whole room full of equipment spectrum analyzers. Guidance point, just huge amounts of equipment, just like your traditional quantum computing laboratories a day, right. But I was doing this stuff back in 2014, working at the National Security Agency working at NSA. So, we had amazing equipment. And one day I went into the laboratory. And I just started looking at things, I'm just like, This is too much, this is too much. And I just start throwing, I'll just start throwing things away, right throwing things away to some of this equipment was $10,000. Some of it was $100,000. I didn't care, I was just like this is not realistic. And at the end, I was left with one laser. And I was left with one box. And I looked at that laser. And I said, I turned it upside right. And I was like this is a light, this could be a light. And then that's where I created quantum light technology. It wasn't that I didn't get through this through lighting. I got through this through Quantum research, quantum analysis and quantum information science.”
Michael Colligan: “So I'm sitting in this room, these lights are hooked up to quantum light. That means anywhere that light is shining is a high speed, an incredibly high speed internet connection that's only going to get faster and faster and faster as it learns.”
Tony Lawrence: “Exactly, correct.”
Michael Colligan: “From the lighting distributor perspective, Tony, who do you think is the first initial adopter of this technology that's gonna run with it as a possible customer for lighting distributors?”
Tony Lawrence: “So, I believe Orion lighting is the furthest. We've been working with them for quite some time and after Orion, Philips Signify Trulifi. So, Philips has amazing LiFi technology. Trulifi is their company that oversees LiFi R&D, we're working with them as well. Trulifi internet speeds are fast; they work as they use infrared lighting to do so. Great technology. And this that's where that's working right now. Their technology works today.”
Michael Colligan: “If you could give us the who the early adopters would be customer wise, not just manufacturer wise, but who do you think is going to be the first type of people that will want to purchase their technology for their business? This technology?”
Tony Lawrence: “Great question. So, the United States government, foreign governments, and governments will be the first early adopters after them. I see it being colleges University of cities, and after education is going to be hospitals. I believe hospitals and emergency health organisations should be one of the first to use it because it's more secure.”
Michael Colligan: “Tony, any final thoughts for the Get a grip on lightning listeners to close it out?”
Tony Lawrence: “Hey, so my final thoughts are, this is a great time for the lightning community. What we're seeing here is the integration of, you know, in advance technology with your everyday life or so for innovators out there, inventors, inventors out there, this is your time to shine, please take opportunities that are presented by quantum technologies and Quantum Information Science and apply it anywhere you can. Right so I wish everyone luck and thank you guys again for having me.”
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