INFORMATION COMMUNICATION METHOD

• US 20140286644A1
• Filed: 12/27/2013
• Published: 09/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: OSHIMA, Mitsuaki, NAKANISHI, Koji, AOYAMA, Hideki, FUCHIGAMI, Ikuo, SHIN, Hidehiko, MUKAI, Tsutomu, MATSUSHITA, Yosuke, IIDA, Shigehiro, YAMADA, Kazunori
• Granted Patent: US 9,341,014 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/118
• CPC Class Codes: E05F 15/43 responsive to disruption of energy beams, e.g. light or sound
• CPC Class Codes: E05F 2015/435 by interruption of the beam
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/11 Arrangements specific to free-space transmission, i.e. transmission through air or vacuum
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/1149 Arrangements for indoor wireless networking of information
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/116 Visible light communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/541 Digital intensity or amplitude modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces

Abstract

An information communication method that enables communication between various devices is an information communication method of transmitting a signal using a change in luminance, and includes: determining a pattern of the change in luminance, by modulating the signal to be transmitted; and transmitting the signal, by a plurality of light emitters changing in luminance according to the determined pattern of the change in luminance, wherein the plurality of light emitters are arranged on a surface so that a non-luminance change area does not extend across the surface between the plurality of light emitters along at least one of a horizontal direction and a vertical direction of the surface, the non-luminance change area being an area in the surface outside the plurality of light emitters and not changing in luminance.

Claims

1. An information communication method of transmitting a signal using a change in luminance, the information communication method comprising:

determining a pattern of the change in luminance, by modulating the signal to be transmitted; and

transmitting the signal, by a plurality of light emitters changing in luminance according to the determined pattern of the change in luminance,

wherein the plurality of light emitters are arranged on a surface so that a non-luminance change area does not extend across the surface between the plurality of light emitters along at least one of a horizontal direction and a vertical direction of the surface, the non-luminance change area being an area in the surface outside the plurality of light emitters and not changing in luminance.

2. The information communication method according to claim 1,

wherein the transmitting includes

determining whether or not a level of brightness of at least one light emitter of the plurality of light emitters is less than or equal to a reference level which is predetermined brightness, and

in the transmitting, the transmission of the signal from the at least one light emitter is stopped in the case of determining that the level of brightness of the at least one light emitter is less than or equal to the reference level.

3. The information communication method according to claim 1,

wherein the transmitting includes

determining whether or not a level of brightness of at least one light emitter of the plurality of light emitters is greater than or equal to a reference level which is predetermined brightness, and

in the transmitting, the transmission of the signal from the at least one light emitter is started in the case of determining that the level of brightness of the at least one light emitter is greater than or equal to the reference level.

4. The information communication method according to claim 1,

wherein in the determining, a first luminance change pattern corresponding to a body which is a part of the signal and a second luminance change pattern indicating a header for specifying the body are determined, and

in the transmitting, the header and the body are transmitted by the plurality of light emitters changing in luminance according to the first luminance change pattern, the second luminance change pattern, and the first luminance change pattern in the stated order.

5. The information communication method according to claim 4,

wherein in the determining, a third luminance change pattern indicating an other header different from the header is determined, and

in the transmitting, the header, the body, and the other header are transmitted by the plurality of light emitters changing in luminance according to the first luminance change pattern, the second luminance change pattern, the first luminance change pattern, and the third luminance change pattern in the stated order.

6. The information communication method according to claim 1,

wherein in the determining:

luminance change patterns between which a timing at which a predetermined luminance value occurs is different are assigned to different signal units beforehand, to prevent two luminance change patterns from being assigned to signal units of a same parity, the timing at which the predetermined luminance value occurs in one of the two luminance change patterns being adjacent to the timing at which the predetermined luminance value occurs in the other one of the two luminance change patterns; and

for each signal unit included in the signal, a luminance change pattern assigned to the signal unit is determined.

7. The information communication method according to claim 4, further comprising:

setting an exposure time of an image sensor so that, in an image obtained by capturing at least one light emitter of the plurality of light emitters by the image sensor, bright lines corresponding to exposure lines included in the image sensor appear according to the change in luminance of the at least one light emitter;

obtaining a bright line image including the bright lines, by capturing the at least one light emitter changing in luminance by the image sensor with the set exposure time; and

obtaining information by demodulating data specified by a pattern of the bright lines included in the obtained bright line image,

wherein the obtaining of information includes;

specifying, in the pattern of the bright lines, a second part and a third part between which a first part corresponding to the second luminance change pattern is interposed in a direction perpendicular to the bright lines; and

obtaining the body by demodulating data specified by the second part and the third part, and

in the specifying, the second part and the third part are specified so that a sum of a length of the second part and a length of the third part in the direction perpendicular to the bright lines is a length associated with the body.

8. The information communication method according to claim 1, further comprising

determining whether or not a flash emitted in a predetermined rhythm is received,

wherein in the transmitting, the plurality of light emitters change in higher luminance, in the case of determining that the flash is received.

9. The information communication method according to claim 1, further comprising

at least one light emitter of the plurality of light emitters blinking to be visible to a human eye,

wherein the at least one light emitter repeatedly alternates between the transmitting and the blinking.

10. An information communication device that transmits a signal using a change in luminance, the information communication device comprising:

a determination unit configured to determine a pattern of the change in luminance, by modulating the signal to be transmitted; and

a transmission unit configured to transmit the signal, by a plurality of light emitters changing in luminance according to the determined pattern of the change in luminance,

wherein the plurality of light emitters are arranged on a surface so that a non-luminance change area does not extend across the surface between the plurality of light emitters along at least one of a horizontal direction and a vertical direction of the surface, the non-luminance change area being an area in the surface outside the plurality of light emitters and not changing in luminance.