Computer vision methods for visual MIMO optical system

Cameras have become commonplace in phones, laptops, music-players and handheld games. Similarly, light emitting displays are prevalent in the form of electronic billboards, televisions, computer monitors, and hand-held devices. The prevalence of cameras and displays in our society creates a novel opportunity to build camera-based optical wireless communication systems based on a concept called visual MIMO. We extend the common term MIMO from the field of communications (“multiple-input multiple-output”) that is typically used to describe multiple antenna, multiple transmitter radio frequency communications channel. In the visual MIMO communications paradigm, the transmitters are light-emitting devices such as electronic displays and cameras are the receivers. In this paper we discuss and address several challenges in creating a visual MIMO channel. These challenges include: (1) electronic display detection, (2) embedding the transmission signal in the display video, and (3) system characterization for electronic display appearance.