Researchers at Fuji Xerox Co in Japan have come up with a novel method of distributing optical signals on a point to multi-point basis, which they claim will cost a tenth of conventional fiber systems. The new method, which can be deployed to link a source device, such as a video camera, to a number of destination devices, such as TV or computer monitors, uses a thin plastic sheet made of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and coated with fluorine. The PMMA sheet acts as a kind of universal junction. Light directed into one point at the edge of the sheet is immediately available to be extracted from any other point, with the fluorine coating acting as an insulator of the two major surfaces. Fuji Xerox did not indicate when the PMMA dispersal technology will be available in products.
