Modern technology has catapulted the world into the age of the smartphone over the course of the last ten or so years.


People the world over have the entirety of the internet resting snugly in their pockets, able to browse the web at a whim.


Designing gaming apps is now a legitimate and sometimes incredibly profitable market niche, as app designer Rovio found with their multinational smash hit, Angry Birds.


Hands-free internet radio, endless games, instant access to private bank accounts and social media, all of these have been made possible by one astounding innovation created in the mid-80s.


Wi-Fi is the catalyst that made the digital world bloom and boom.


It gave everyone from the president of the United States to a random bum in Taiwan access to the internet without having to sit down at a desktop.


This is an unprecedented gift the world has received, but WiFi technology has always faced two main problems, broadband range and battery consumption.


Wi-Fi gets good range outdoors, but that is only because there are no obstructions blocking the signal.


In a more practical environment, say, inside a house, broadband is weakened by furniture, walls, and interfering appliances.


The worst part of the broadband situation, however, is that because it is a category of radio wave, we cannot see it to get in its range.


However, a recent innovation, Li-Fi could have found a way to negate both the absorption factor of the broadband waves and the inability to see where coverage is best.


Li-Fi is short for visual light communications, and it is poised to be the next big leap for the world of the internet.


Li-Fi is able to transmit broadband information through visible light instead of radio waves.


More importantly, Li-Fi is staggeringly faster than the current radio wave based set up, boasting a transmission rate of over 250 times faster than the current module.


Now imagine, you are out on the town one night and you need to send a message to one of your friends through Facebook, but you have just left the range of your home’s Wi-Fi.


You see a friendly streetlight ahead and simply stand underneath it to gain access to the Li-Fi recently installed by your city.


This scenario could soon be a reality, seeing how as of last year scientists have been hard at work finding practical applications of this new innovation.


The only real problem would be people squabbling over the brightest areas of the coverage zones.


The other obvious problem of the realm of Wi-Fi is the inherent battery usage that such tech uses.


Fear no longer, battery drainers, the future is here!


Witricity is a relatively new development in the technological world, one allowing for the wireless transmission of energy to any mobile device in its coverage zone.


This is an exciting concept that is currently being worked on by scientists from Beijing to Portland, one that the entire world can get behind.


If a single energy company were to get behind this breakthrough, then it is quite possible that the technology could become available to the public within a feasible period of time.


Imagine a world where instead of having to return to your home in order to recharge your electronic device, you could simply insert a dollar into a public wireless energy junction and allow your it to charge for a short while.


Hopefully within our lifetime, we will be able to experience these technological wonders firsthand.