Optical Camera Communications

Abstract

Visible light communications (VLC) has been evolving at a much faster rate because of the development of high energy efficient white light emitting diodes (LED). For the first time, we see a unique device which offers triple functionalities of illumination, data communications and indoor localization, thus opening up the opportunities for applications at homes, offices, planes, trains, etc. In modern vehicles with LED-based head and tail lights, VLC can be used for car-to-car communications to convey regular traffic information to other vehicles as well as the road side infrastructure. Cameras are also being widely used in vehicles for monitoring speed, collision detection avoidance, traffic sign and object recognition. The VLC technology employing the camera as a receiver opens up new possibilities offering multiple functionalities including data communications. This chapter gives an overview of the optical camera communications and outlines the technological concept behind it.