A low-cost NLOS ultra-violet V2I identification system for vehicular theft recovery

With increasing populations in urban areas, an intelligent means of vehicular identification, tracking, and communication becomes a necessity. In this paper, an optical alternative to radio frequency identification (RFID) using ultraviolet (UV) light is presented. A non-line-of-sight (NLOS) UV vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) system is proposed to establish proof of concept. The performance of a proto-type communication system demonstrating the use of UV lamps and on-off keying (OOK) to transmit an identification number over free space channels up to 30 m (~100 ft) is analyzed. Although a proto-type, the ultra-violet identification (UVID) system yields an effective, discrete solution towards unidentified terrestrial vehicle identification. Several applications of UVID within amber alert scenarios, recovery of stolen vehicles and vehicular networking are analyzed. Implementations in development including a low power UV LED-based transceiver adapted for car headlights capable of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication and its applications within intelligent vehicle design are discussed as well.