PixNet: LCD-camera pairs as communication links

Given the abundance of cameras and LCDs in today's environment, there exists an untapped opportunity for using these devices for communication. Specifically, cameras can tune to nearby LCDs and use them for network access. The key feature of these LCD-camera links is that they are highly directional and hence enable a form of interferencefree wireless communication. This makes them an attractive technology for dense, high contention scenarios. The main challenge, however, to enable such LCD-camera links is to maximize coverage, that is to deliver multiple Mb/s over multi-meter distances, independent of the view angle. To do so, these links need to address unique types of channel distortions, such as perspective distortion and blur. In this demo, we show how these LCD-camera links can be used to wirelessly transmit information. We present PixNet, an LCD-camera communication system. PixNet generalizes the popular OFDM transmission algorithms to address the unique properties of the ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: SIGCOMM
• Authors: Samuel David Perli, Nabeel Ahmed, Dina Katabi
• Keywords: Communications, Distortion, Lcd-camera Link, Perspective Distortion, SIGCOMM 2010