A system that uses light to transmit secure data has been invented by a U.S. Navy engineer and been patented by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The Navy said the one-way data transmission system invented by Matthew Sheehan, a Research and Development system engineer at Naval Surface Warfare Center, Port Hueneme Division's Office of Engineering and Technology, has the potential allow the Navy to increase the security of classified systems.

"My invention, which is called a Light Information Transmitting Optical System, or LITOS, utilizes the transmission of data by way of visible light communication via free space optics," said Sheehan. "In other words, it's like communicating over fiber optics without the fiber.

"This invention ensures the ability to get message traffic from point A to point B in a safe and reliable manner. More specifically, the system allows communicating from the low or unclassified side, such as from NMCI, to the high or classified side, like the SIPR network, or basically the ability for less secure systems to talk to more secure systems.

"While difficult to visualize, this invention supports something the Navy calls an air gap or an actual gap around a network that allows it to stand alone with a gap or free space separating it from other systems," Sheehan said. "My invention preserves that gap with something called free space optics, which is another term for light that's propagated through the air. Think of a lighthouse as propagating light through the air. My invention is the same principle utilizing free space optics or light to transmit data from one location to another."

LITOS lays the groundwork for longer distance, higher speed communications without the constraints of wires to transmit information or data. It can put into place quickly to provided data in a faster, cheaper and more secure than current systems.