Google is already operating a fiber-optic system in Kansas City, Mo.

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Apple has embedded a fiber-optic lighting system to illuminate the keyboard and bolstered it with sensors that can tell when the ambient light in the room begins to dim.

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Since then the city has built the system outward along fiber-optic lines.

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The new optical networking system should not be seen as a replacement for fiber-optic systems, Szelag added.

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Nethercomm claims the system can provide twice as much bandwidth as a standard fiber-optic connection.

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The material uses what the researchers are calling 'shape-memory' polymers and have a fiber optic network embedded within them which acts as the damage sensor as well as the heat delivery system.

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