Enlighten

 

This project focused on sending data to a mobile device using the camera.

Through the use of an off the shelf smart bulb, we were able to send location specific bits of data to an iPhone.

Hardware

We have chosen the $80 LIFX multicolored LED smart bulb. It has two ARM Cortex-M3 processors onboard to handle WiFI and 802.15.4 radios. What makes this bulb more appropriate for the project, as compared to the “CREE Connected” or the “Connected by TCP” bulb, is the fact that the onboard LED driver circuit is directly connected to the MCU IO pin and is capable of being PWM controlled. This allows us to send data using nothing other than frequency modulated light. The CREE and TCP bubs use a continuous current LED driver circuit that cannot be used without hardware modifications.

Software

The iPhone app used the Apple® Cocoa™ Touch library and OpenCV.

Links

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