Optical Camera Communications: Survey, Use Cases, Challenges, and Future Trends

Abstract

Recently, a camera or an image sensor receiver based optical wireless communications (OWC) techniques have attracted particular interest in areas such as the internet of things, indoor localization, motion capture, and intelligent transportation systems. As a supplementary technique of high-speed OWC based on photo-detectors, communications hinging on image sensors as receivers do not need much modification to the current infrastructure, such that the implementation complexity and cost are quite low. Therefore, in this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of optical camera communication (OCC) techniques, and their use in localization, navigation, and motion capture. This survey is distinguishable from the existing reviews on this topic by covering multiple aspects of OCC and its various applications. The first part of the paper focuses on the standardization, channel characterization, modulation, coding, and synchronization of OCC systems while the second part of the article presents the literature on OCC based localization, navigation, and motion capture. Finally, in the last part of the paper, we present the challenges and future research directions of OCC.