A company that goes by the name Outernet is aiming to mass produce a device that is capable of delivering free Internet anywhere in the world. The device is called Lantern, and it is currently being crowd-funded on IndieGoGo.
It's an interesting concept, one that could solve thousands of problems in several countries around the world. Just imagine certain places in Africa that are without Internet, now having the ability to get information with relative ease.
Now, one should bear in mind that Lantern is not similar to a regular Internet connection as the device connects to Outernet servers from satellites in outer space. The radio wave signals Lantern receives are converted into digital files that can be stored on the device itself.
These digital files can be anything, from images, videos and webpages to music and other things.
"Lantern continuously receives radio waves broadcast by Outernet from space. Lantern turns the signal into digital files, like webpages, news articles, ebooks, videos, and music," says Outernet. "Lantern can receive and store any type of digital file on its internal drive. To view the content stored in Lantern, turn on the Wi-Fi hotspot and connect to Lantern with any Wi-Fi enabled device. All you need is a browser."
This project could be used for education in many countries around the world. However, one should keep in mind that Lantern is free to use, but it does not replace normal Internet and thus should not be relied upon for everything.
We should also point out that battery life for this device will likely be very terrible, so unless it comes with a plugin charger, we would not recommend giving it a spin at all.
The whole idea is great, though, and we would love to see how far the guys behind this project can take it. At the time of writing, Lantern has received over $200,000 on IndieGoGo with only 25 days left before the project wraps up.
The goal here was to raise $200,000, but that has been surpassed in just six days. There's a high chance this project could hit the million dollar mark.
