Unleashing the power of LED-to-camera communications for IoT devices

In this paper, we propose a line of sight LED-to-camera communication system based on a small color LED and a smartphone. We design a cheap prototype as proof of concept of a near communication framework for the Internet of Things. We evaluate the system performance, its reliability and the environment influence on the LED-to-camera communication, highlighting that a throughput of a few kilobits per second is reachable. Finally, we design a real time, efficient LED detection and image processing algorithm to leverage the specific issues encountered in the system.