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Image Sensor Based Optical Wireless Communications– Selected Papers from the 7th International Conference on Ubiquitous and Future Networks and the 3rd International Workshop on Optical-Wireless LED Communication Networks

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 May 2016) | Viewed by 36566

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Wireless Communications and Artificial Intelligence Lab., Kookmin University, Seongbuk-Gu, Seoul 136-702, Republic of Korea
Interests: AI; artificial intelligence; big data; internet of energy; health; 5G/6G wireless communications; multimedia; computer vision; IoT platform
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
ECE Department, Boston University, Boston, USA
Interests: OWC; VLC; LED lighting; image sensor communications; indoor positioning, heterogeneous networking

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Guest Editor
Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
Interests: OWC; VLC; image sensor communications; positioning; vision systems for vehicle automation

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Guest Editor
Smart City Department, China Telecom, Beijing, China
Interests: mobile communication; IoT; OWC; visible light communication; mobile communication and application; energy internet

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) technology has recently emerged as an alternative access communication method for both indoor and outdoor applications. OWC technology provides many useful and beneficial attributes including the access to several hundred THz of unlicensed spectrum, the immunity to electromagnetic interference thus allowing easy use in restricted areas such as aircraft and hospitals, and additional security options, especially in the visible, IR and UV spectra. OWC offers additional interesting features if the receiver incorporates a camera or an image sensor consisting of a massive number of photodiodes, also known as image sensor communications (ISC). Theoretical results show that ISC can achieve data rates of over 1 Gbps and can include capability to detect the angle of arrival for pose estimation and position measurement. This Special Issue focuses on topics related to design and development of image sensor based optical communication, which include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Optical Camera Communications (OCC). Image Sensor based OWC system
  • Physical layer and enabling technologies: Sub-system performance evaluation and design; transceiver design; channel modeling; modulation; coding and signal processing techniques
  • Hardware architectures capable of supporting high-dimension multiple-channel OWC
  • Networking and architecture; MAC layer design; mobility; cross-layer design and optimization; integration between optical-wireless and other wired/wireless networks.
  • Applications: Location Awareness and LBS Applications; smart lighting; applications of OWC in vehicular communications and ITSs; and short-range applications.
  • Standardization; demonstrations; and field tests
  • LED-ID; LiFi; and organic-LED based OWC
  • Image sensors for OWC

The seventh International Conference on Ubiquitous and Future Networks (ICUFN 2015) and co-located the third International Workshop on Optical-Wireless LED Communication Networks (OWLED 2015) (Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, 2015). ICUFN 2015 aimed at addressing advances in research on ubiquitous and future networks, covering topics ranging from technology issues to emerging applications and OWLED 2015 focused on recent developments and standardizations of the optical-wireless communication networks and promising areas of potential applications. The authors of selected papers of ICUFN 2015 and OWLED 2015 within the scope of this Special Issue will be invited to submit improved and extended versions of their papers to this Special Issue. We also will accept new contributions from international colleagues.

Prof. Dr. Yeong Min Jang
Prof. Dr. Thomas Litte
Prof. Dr. Takaya Yamazato
Dr. Yu Zeng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

4826 KiB  
Article
Reversed Three-Dimensional Visible Light Indoor Positioning Utilizing Annular Receivers with Multi-Photodiodes
by Yinfan Xu, Jiaqi Zhao, Jianyang Shi and Nan Chi
Sensors 2016, 16(8), 1254; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16081254 - 08 Aug 2016
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 6488
Abstract
Exploiting the increasingly wide use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) lighting, in this paper we propose a reversed indoor positioning system (IPS) based on LED visible light communication (VLC) in order to improve indoor positioning accuracy. Unlike other VLC positioning systems, we employ [...] Read more.
Exploiting the increasingly wide use of light emitting diodes (LEDs) lighting, in this paper we propose a reversed indoor positioning system (IPS) based on LED visible light communication (VLC) in order to improve indoor positioning accuracy. Unlike other VLC positioning systems, we employ two annular receivers with multi-photodiodes installed on the ceiling to locate the persons who carry LEDs. The basic idea is using multi-photodiodes to calculate the angle while using the received signal strength (RSS) method to calculate the distance. The experiment results show that the effective positioning range of the proposed system is 1.8 m when the distance between two receivers is 1.2 m. Moreover, a positioning error less than 0.2 m can be achieved under the condition that the radius of the PIN circle is between 0.16 m and 0.2 m, and the distance of the transmitter-receiver plane is less than 1.8 m, which will be effective in practice. Full article
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4711 KiB  
Article
LEA Detection and Tracking Method for Color-Independent Visual-MIMO
by Jai-Eun Kim, Ji-Won Kim and Ki-Doo Kim
Sensors 2016, 16(7), 1027; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16071027 - 02 Jul 2016
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5637
Abstract
Communication performance in the color-independent visual-multiple input multiple output (visual-MIMO) technique is deteriorated by light emitting array (LEA) detection and tracking errors in the received image because the image sensor included in the camera must be used as the receiver in the visual-MIMO [...] Read more.
Communication performance in the color-independent visual-multiple input multiple output (visual-MIMO) technique is deteriorated by light emitting array (LEA) detection and tracking errors in the received image because the image sensor included in the camera must be used as the receiver in the visual-MIMO system. In this paper, in order to improve detection reliability, we first set up the color-space-based region of interest (ROI) in which an LEA is likely to be placed, and then use the Harris corner detection method. Next, we use Kalman filtering for robust tracking by predicting the most probable location of the LEA when the relative position between the camera and the LEA varies. In the last step of our proposed method, the perspective projection is used to correct the distorted image, which can improve the symbol decision accuracy. Finally, through numerical simulation, we show the possibility of robust detection and tracking of the LEA, which results in a symbol error rate (SER) performance improvement. Full article
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683 KiB  
Article
VLC-Based Positioning System for an Indoor Environment Using an Image Sensor and an Accelerometer Sensor
by Phat Huynh and Myungsik Yoo
Sensors 2016, 16(6), 783; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16060783 - 28 May 2016
Cited by 76 | Viewed by 10002
Abstract
Recently, it is believed that lighting and communication technologies are being replaced by high power LEDs, which are core parts of the visible light communication (VLC) system. In this paper, by taking advantages of VLC, we propose a novel design for an indoor [...] Read more.
Recently, it is believed that lighting and communication technologies are being replaced by high power LEDs, which are core parts of the visible light communication (VLC) system. In this paper, by taking advantages of VLC, we propose a novel design for an indoor positioning system using LEDs, an image sensor (IS) and an accelerometer sensor (AS) from mobile devices. The proposed algorithm, which provides a high precision indoor position, consists of four LEDs mounted on the ceiling transmitting their own three-dimensional (3D) world coordinates and an IS at an unknown position receiving and demodulating the signals. Based on the 3D world coordinates and the 2D image coordinate of LEDs, the position of the mobile device is determined. Compared to existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm only requires one IS. In addition, by using an AS, the mobile device is allowed to have arbitrary orientation. Last but not least, a mechanism for reducing the image sensor noise is proposed to further improve the accuracy of the positioning algorithm. A simulation is conducted to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm. Full article
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5063 KiB  
Article
Design and Implementation of a Novel Compatible Encoding Scheme in the Time Domain for Image Sensor Communication
by Trang Nguyen, Mohammad Arif Hossain and Yeong Min Jang
Sensors 2016, 16(5), 736; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16050736 - 20 May 2016
Cited by 29 | Viewed by 6699
Abstract
This paper presents a modulation scheme in the time domain based on On-Off-Keying and proposes various compatible supports for different types of image sensors. The content of this article is a sub-proposal to the IEEE 802.15.7r1 Task Group (TG7r1) aimed at Optical Wireless [...] Read more.
This paper presents a modulation scheme in the time domain based on On-Off-Keying and proposes various compatible supports for different types of image sensors. The content of this article is a sub-proposal to the IEEE 802.15.7r1 Task Group (TG7r1) aimed at Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) using an image sensor as the receiver. The compatibility support is indispensable for Image Sensor Communications (ISC) because the rolling shutter image sensors currently available have different frame rates, shutter speeds, sampling rates, and resolutions. However, focusing on unidirectional communications (i.e., data broadcasting, beacons), an asynchronous communication prototype is also discussed in the paper. Due to the physical limitations associated with typical image sensors (including low and varying frame rates, long exposures, and low shutter speeds), the link speed performance is critically considered. Based on the practical measurement of camera response to modulated light, an operating frequency range is suggested along with the similar system architecture, decoding procedure, and algorithms. A significant feature of our novel data frame structure is that it can support both typical frame rate cameras (in the oversampling mode) as well as very low frame rate cameras (in the error detection mode for a camera whose frame rate is lower than the transmission packet rate). A high frame rate camera, i.e., no less than 20 fps, is supported in an oversampling mode in which a majority voting scheme for decoding data is applied. A low frame rate camera, i.e., when the frame rate drops to less than 20 fps at some certain time, is supported by an error detection mode in which any missing data sub-packet is detected in decoding and later corrected by external code. Numerical results and valuable analysis are also included to indicate the capability of the proposed schemes. Full article
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4750 KiB  
Article
Color-Space-Based Visual-MIMO for V2X Communication
by Jai-Eun Kim, Ji-Won Kim, Youngil Park and Ki-Doo Kim
Sensors 2016, 16(4), 591; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16040591 - 23 Apr 2016
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 6992
Abstract
In this paper, we analyze the applicability of color-space-based, color-independent visual-MIMO for V2X. We aim to achieve a visual-MIMO scheme that can maintain the original color and brightness while performing seamless communication. We consider two scenarios of GCM based visual-MIMO for V2X. One [...] Read more.
In this paper, we analyze the applicability of color-space-based, color-independent visual-MIMO for V2X. We aim to achieve a visual-MIMO scheme that can maintain the original color and brightness while performing seamless communication. We consider two scenarios of GCM based visual-MIMO for V2X. One is a multipath transmission using visual-MIMO networking and the other is multi-node V2X communication. In the scenario of multipath transmission, we analyze the channel capacity numerically and we illustrate the significance of networking information such as distance, reference color (symbol), and multiplexing-diversity mode transitions. In addition, in the V2X scenario of multiple access, we may achieve the simultaneous multiple access communication without node interferences by dividing the communication area using image processing. Finally, through numerical simulation, we show the superior SER performance of the visual-MIMO scheme compared with LED-PD communication and show the numerical result of the GCM based visual-MIMO channel capacity versus distance. Full article
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