A Reliable Asynchronous Protocol for VLC Communications Based on the Rolling Shutter Effect

In this paper we introduce a novel reliable asynchronous protocol that allows to establish a VLC link between a LED luminary and an off-the- shelf smartphone. Our protocol and decoding algorithms benefit from the access to advanced camera settings available in the latest generations of mobile devices to outperform previous VLC designs in the state of the art. In particular, in the paper we provide an experimental evaluation using a commercial Nexus 5 device where it is shown how our designed prototype can achieve transmission speeds of up to 700 bps and operating distances of up to 3 meters. The previous performance figures have the potential to spark a wide set of novel applications.