Sweden-based Komani Corporation hopes to develop innovative technology in Cape Verde that transmits data by way of light, and has proposed a public-private partnership with the government and the University of Cape Verde. The project, called IR Vision AB, was presented last week to Minister of the Economy José Brito, the University of Cape Verde, the Operational Information Society Nucleus (NOSI) and a series of private business owners who could be interested in the technology.

The IR Vision AB concept is the development of mobile technology that receives and sends data using light, be it natural or electric. With the KnowledgeMan, a piece of equipment that may be used by itself or adapted to a mobile phone, an individual can become connected to an information network as long as he or she is close to a source of light.

The advantage of the product is that no special license is needed to receive or distribute the signal, because, as opposed to what takes place on the radio spectrum, for example, which is limited and thus “licensable,” the use of light is unlimited. In addition, the information that is circulated on the network is local: traffic data, restaurant menus, etc.

The Komani Corporation chose Cape Verde to set up its African headquarters because of the lack of “a culture of investigation” in the country, “which could be an advantage for the University of Cape Verde as a new institute, without traditional barriers of thought,” said a Komani Corporation representative during its presentation.

Source: A Semana