Ethernet is something of the aspirin of the telecommunications space: It can do everything but cure the common service outage.
Now comes word that 3M (NYSE: MMM), the company best known for Scotch Tape, has figured a way to use Ethernet to power LCD TV screens and, as a benefit for users, reduce some the huge power appetite for these devices. The company builds a polarizer that sits between a liquid crystal and the glass on the TV's front and, it claims, can hook to an Ethernet cable.
Of course no good idea goes unpunished. To power TVs with Ethernet, consumers will need an Ethernet port that itself requires Power over Ethernet (PoE). 3M, according to a story in Smart House, also likes the idea of Ethernet cables throughout the home network because WiFi signals are "playing havoc with many homes' wireless networks."
For more:
- Smart House has this story
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