At 1 year old, John Pederson ate a light bulb from his mother’s sewing machine. The glass didn’t do him any harm, but it’s a great coincidence for the St. Cloud man who has explored innovation using light.

As a 3-year-old, he would get out of bed, remove the outlet covers and play with them. It scared his mother, but his father said the boy seemed to know what he was doing.

“He seems like he has always been fascinated with lights and electrical stuff. Even when he was a little kid he liked flashbulbs,” said Pederson’s dad, Jack.

It’s no surprise to those who know John Pederson that he has made a career out of inventions involving light and electricity. He demonstrated his latest innovation earlier this month at Apollo High School for about 100 family, friends and local officials.

It is a wireless communication that uses light instead of radio waves. Experts in technology and computers say it could be the next step in the evolution of Internet and cell phone service providing a faster, more secure service.

It’s called visible-light embedded wireless data communications or the LVX System for short, and it uses a chip embedded in an LED to carry communications.

“A tremendous creative initiative would be one of (Pederson’s) attributes. He definitely has a vision and passion for seeing the impactfulness of the invention he is a part of,” said Paul Weitzel, the chief executive officer for LVX System who is a sales and marketing professional from St. Cloud. Weitzel has worked with Pederson about five years.

Pederson, now 50, plans to spend his time promoting the LVX System he spent more than 10 years perfecting. Much of the work was done in his Roosevelt Road home.

In the last year, Pederson moved operations across the street to a suite in the TCF Bank building that is a mix of technology past, present and future. Those who walk in the door are greeted by eight massive IBM tape drives, which were once used to store data, that dominate the main room. A few steps away is a punch-card system that once was used to program computers. Pederson’s first job was operating a punch-card. The offices are complete with today’s much smaller and simpler computers and around the corner is the future — the computer chips that make the LVX run.

The LVX System grew from the flashing LED lights Pederson invented that are common on many emergency vehicles across the country and were tested in St. Cloud. Pederson sold his share in that company, called 911EP, in 2002. He’s used the proceeds from that to finance his work on LVX, spending almost $3 million so far developing it.

For Pederson, who started a rocket club when he was at Apollo, the LVX is more than just a way to make money. He sees it as a service to the country that has endless possibilities in providing better communications, entertainment options and public safety improvements.

Pederson grew up on the west side on Rolling Ridge Road, one of six children of Jack and Naida Pederson. His mother recalls in the 1970s when her son made a pretend computer out of a big cabinet and enthralled the other children.

“All the neighborhood children thought it was a real computer,” Naida Pederson said.

At Apollo, Pederson was in the rocket club and was trying to find a way to create a central computer to link all the computers in the St. Cloud schools. He would write about electricity and technology, his parents said. He was always thinking up big plans and ideas.

He once got the plans for the IDS Tower in Minneapolis with dreams of building something similar in St. Cloud, Jack Pederson said. “He is just way ahead of the curve.”

John Pederson finished Apollo in 1977 and enrolled at St. Cloud State University. He never finished, saying he didn’t have the personality for it. It’s a move he doesn’t regret.

“I would have been another cog in a big company,” Pederson said.

He did a number of things before working his way to the completion of his first major innovation. At age 21, he created strobe light and digital turn signals. He sold his first one to the governor of Louisiana.

Later, he created uniform wiring for State Patrol cars, and he has created a number of innovations that are common in today’s emergency vehicles. The most noticeable is the light bars for emergency lights that made Pederson a recognizable name and provided him with wealth to support his family and pay for research and development of the LDX System.

“Without 911EP, I could not have done this,” Pederson says of LVX.

The LED light bars use less energy and are more durable and last for years rather than the months that the strobe or halogen systems did on police cars. Officers can change light patterns depending on the emergency.

The experience of 911EP, the promotional posters for which Pederson still keeps on his office walls, left Pederson burned in some ways and wary and cautious as he move along in his latest venture. He spent thousands of dollars on lawyers and years of his time to protect patents and copyrights and wrangling with companies. In 2002, 911EP was sold to Armor Holdings. He has secured more than 100 patents for LVX.

In 1998, he took out the first patent for LVX System, registering a company with the Secretary of State called Snowy Village, to develop light communication. The name was selected because the first device created for the system looked like a snow globe.

He spent some time in the late ‘80s in the Philippines, where his parents were doing mission work. He met his wife, Irene, who is a partner and bookkeeper in the business. They have three children, one who is at St. Cloud State and two who attend Apollo.

Pederson, who has silver hair and wears sweaters over collared shirts, drives a black limousine he got to help him with a bad back. He makes numerous trips to Minneapolis to meet with lawyers and needs the room to lay on his back. The car, which has a handicap tag hanging from the mirror, is about as twice as long as a standard car. He sometimes has to improvise to find parking spaces.

In the office suite are the relics of computers. A 7-foot semaphore with LED lights that Pederson used to test the LVX in the halls at Apollo. His office has a large model train and framed photos of Ronald Reagan and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who are ideological opposites.

“I am not into politics as much as I am into the man,” Pederson said.