Experimental demonstration of RGB LED-based optical camera communications

Red, green, and blue (RGB) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are widely used in everyday illumination, particularly where color-changing lighting is required. On the other hand, digital cameras with color filter arrays over image sensors have been also extensively integrated in smart devices. Therefore, optical camera communications (OCC) using RGB LEDs and color cameras is a promising candidate for cost-effective parallel visible light communications (VLC). In this paper, a single RGB LED-based OCC system utilizing a combination of undersampled phase-shift on off keying (UPSOOK), wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques is designed, which offers higher space efficiency (3 bits/Hz/LED), long-distance, and nonflickering VLC data transmission. A proof-of-concept test bed is developed to assess the bit-error-rate performance of the proposed OCC system. The experimental results show that the proposed system using a single commercially available RGB LED and a standard 50-frame/s camera is able to achieve a data rate of 150 bits/s over a range of up to 60 m

A fully integrated audio, video, and data VLC transceiver system for smartphones and tablets

Today, the Bluetooth transceiver is integrated into almost all modern mobile devices. Although it can transmit audio signals, it is unable to transmit video signals. But VLC can. With advances in visible light communication (VLC) research, it is likely that one day mobile equipments would include the visible-light transceiver for wireless optical access to the Internet and visual and audio information. An audio/video (A/V) transceiver and a data transceiver that can connect to Android platforms are presented here. Real-time video and pulse-position modulated stereo audio signals are transmitted by a white LED over free space. For file exchanges, a USB Android host IC FT311D is used to bridge smartphones to any external VLC UART peripheral

Experimental demonstration of RGB LED-based optical camera communications

Red, green, and blue (RGB) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are widely used in everyday illumination, particularly where color-changing lighting is required. On the other hand, digital cameras with color filter arrays over image sensors have been also extensively integrated in smart devices. Therefore, optical camera communications (OCC) using RGB LEDs and color cameras is a promising candidate for cost-effective parallel visible light communications (VLC). In this paper, a single RGB LED-based OCC system utilizing a combination of undersampled phase-shift on off keying (UPSOOK), wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques is designed, which offers higher space efficiency (3 bits/Hz/LED), long-distance, and nonflickering VLC data transmission. A proof-of-concept test bed is developed to assess the bit-error-rate performance of the proposed OCC system. The experimental results show that the proposed system using a single commercially available RGB LED and a standard 50-frame/s camera is able to achieve a data rate of 150 bits/s over a range of up to 60 m

An Arduino-based indoor positioning system (IPS) using visible light communication and ultrasound

A versatile outdoor and indoor position detection mobile prototype has been successfully constructed and tested. The receiver consists of a GPS module, a GSM shield, a visible-light data receiver, and two ultrasonic sensors, all controlled by an Arduino Mega and an Arduino Uno microcontroller. Each ultrasonic sensor detects distance in the X and Y axis respectively. The transmitter system consists of four LED shields each attached to an Arduino Uno which is programmed to transmit the global position relevant to the indoor position of the LED lamp. When a person is outdoors, the GPS module receives global position from the satellite. When a person goes indoors, his or her global position will be given by the LEDs and ultrasound sensors. The location data can be transmitted via GSM to a monitoring system or to an individual smartphone. This system is extremely useful in elderly care service. It ensures specific accuracy in locating senior citizens during cases of emergency.Accepted versio

Designs of a free-space white-LED mass-storage transceiver for SD-card file transfer

Two visible-light mass-storage prototypes have been constructed. They enable file transfers between the SD (Secure Digital) memory card and the PC via white-LED light. The entire system consists of a pair of identical white-LED transceivers: one is connected to the PC, whereas the other is connected to the SD-card subcircuit. File transfer operation is able to execute at 19200 bps. Prototype 1 is based on pulse-position modulation (PPM), while Prototype 2 is based on pulse-width modulation (PWM). It was found that the PPM design consumes less power and is more stable. Full-speed (12 Mbps) USB 2.0 VLC transceiver designs for slave and host devices are also included

Designs of VLC transceiver circuits for reading light transmission of high-quality audio signals on commercial airliners

Based on visible light communication (VLC) technology, three designs of audio transmitters and receivers have been built and tested successfully. The simplicity of these circuits and the very few components that are used enable them to be mass manufactured for use on passenger aircrafts. The receiver circuits can be implemented on headphones. The transmitter circuits can be integrated with LED reading lights above passengers' seats. The circuits presented here have different performance characteristics and sound qualities, depending on the type of audio ICs that are used.Accepted versio