Optical Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication System Using LED Transmitter and Camera Receiver

This paper introduces an optical vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication system based on an optical wireless communication technology using an LED transmitter and a camera receiver, which employs a special CMOS image sensor, i.e, an optical communication image sensor (OCI). The OCI has a “communication pixel (CPx)” that can promptly respond to light intensity variations and an output circuit of a “flag image” in which only high-intensity light sources, such as LEDs, have emerged. The OCI that employs these two technologies provides capabilities for a 10-Mb/s optical signal reception and real-time LED detection to the camera receiver. The optical V2V communication system consisting of the LED transmitters mounted on a leading vehicle and the camera receiver mounted on a following vehicle is constructed, and various experiments are conducted under real driving and outdoor lighting conditions. Due to the LED detection method using the flag image, the camera receiver correctly detects LEDs, in real time, in challenging outdoor conditions. Furthermore, between two vehicles, various vehicle internal data (such as speed) and image data (320 × 240, color) are transmitted successfully, and the 13.0-fps image data reception is achieved while driving outside.