INTRODUCTION Billions of visible LEDs are produced each year, and the emergence of high brightness AlGaAs and

AlInGaP devices has given rise to many new markets. The surprising growth of activity in, relatively old, LED technology has been spurred by the introduction of AlInGaP devices. Recently developed AlGaInN materials have led to the improvements in the performance of bluish-green LEDs, which have luminous efficacy peaks much higher than those for incandescent lamps. This advancement has led to the production of large-area fullcolor outdoors LED displays with diverse industrial applications. The novel idea of this article is to modulate light waves from visible LEDs for communication purposes. This concurrent use of visible LEDs for simultaneous signaling and communication, called iLight, leads to many new and interesting applications and is based on the idea of fast switching of LEDs and the modulation visible-light waves for free-space communications. The feasibility of such approach has been examined and hardware has been implemented with experimental results. The implementation of an optical link has been carried out using an LED traffic-signal head as a transmitter. The LED traffic light can be used for either audio or data transmission. Audio messages can be sent using the LED transmitter, and the receiver located at a distance around 20 m away can play back the messages with the speaker. Another prototype that resembles a circular speed-limit sign with a 2-ft diameter was built. The audio signal can be received in open air over a distance of 59.3 m or 194.5 ft. For data transmission, digital data can be sent using the same LED transmitter, and the experiments were setup to send a speed limit or location ID information. The work reported in this article differs from the use of infrared (IR) radiation as a medium for short-range wireless communications. Currently, IR links and local-area networks available. IR transceivers for use as IR data links are widely available in the markets. Some systems are comprised of IR transmitters that convey speech messages to small receivers carried by persons with severe visual impairments. The Talking Signs system is one such IR remote signage system developed at the Smith-Kettle well Rehabilitation Engineering Research center. It can provide a repeating, directionally selective voice message that originates at a sign. However, there has been very little work on the use of visible light as a communication medium. The availability of high brightness LEDs make the visible-light medium even more feasible for communications. All products with visible-LED components (like an LED traffic signal head) can be turned into an information beacon. This iLight technology has many characteristics that are different from IR. The iLight transceivers make use of the direct line-of sight(LOS) property of visible light, which is ideal in applications for providing directional guidance to persons with visual impairments. On the other hand, IR has the property of bouncing back and forth in a confined environment. Another

advantage of iLight is that the transmitter provides easy targets for LOS reception by the receiver. This is because the LEDs, being on at all times, are also indicators of the location of the transmitter. A user searching for information has only to look for lights from an iLight transmitter. Very often, the device is concurrently used for illumination, display, or visual signage. Hence, there is no need to implement an additional transmitter for information broadcasting. Compared with an IR transmitter, an iLight transmitter has to be concerned with even brightness. There should be no apparent difference to a user on the visible light that emits from an iLight device. It has long been realized that visible light has the potential to be modulated and used as a communication channel. The application has to make use of the directional nature of the communication medium because the receiver requires a LOS to the audio system or transmitter. The locations of the audio signal broadcasting system and the receiver are relatively stationary. Since the relative speed between the receiver and the source are much less than the speed of light, the Doppler frequency shift observed by the receiver can be safely neglected. The transmitter can broadcast with viewing angle close to 180 . This article aims to present an application of high-brightness visible LEDs for establishing optical free-space links. Block diagram of AUDIO RECEIVER SYSTEM DESCRIPTION TRANSMITTER: A block diagram representation of the schematic diagram of the transmitter design is shown in figure above. The audio signal from the cassette tape or CD player has small amplitude,hence, amplification of this audio signal is necessary. The audio amplifier is used to amplify the weak audio signal and shift the average voltage level of the audio signal to an appropriate level so that the signal is within the capture range of a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). A VCO chip is used to modulate the incoming audio signal variations from the audio amplifier and generate the FM signal. A square wave VCO is used instead of sine wave because there are only two states (on & off) for the LEDs. The carrier frequency is set at 100 kHz with a maximum frequency deviation of or 50

kHz. The switching of LEDs transmits the modulated signal. The frequency of switching is high enough that the perceivable light appears to be constantly illuminated to the human eye. RECIEVER: A block diagram schematic of the audio receiver is shown in figure above. The photo-detector is used to detect a light signal from the transmitter and convert it into an electrical signal. The limiting pre-amplifier is used to amplify the electrical signal from the photo-detector for the next stage. The data-reproducing circuit is used to reconstruct the square wave. The differentiator circuit is used to produce pulses according to the square wave. The pulse generator is used to convert the pulses from the

differentiator into sharp pulses for use by the integrator and envelope detector in the next stage for demodulation of the signal. The band-pass filter is used to smooth out the distortions from the integrator and envelope detector to produce an appropriate waveform. Finally, the power amplifier is used to amplify the weak signal from the band-pass filter so that the audio signal would be comfortable for hearing. Below is a more detailed description of the each stage. Photo-Detector Circuit: The photo detector circuit consists of a photo diode and a resistor. One end of the photo diode is coupled to the current limiting resistor with the other end coupled to the ground. Since the signal from the photo-detector circuit is very small, amplification is needed for the next stage. The limiting pre-amplifier circuit consists of two op-amplifiers as well as some resistors and diodes. The diodes are used to limit the input voltage level to a desired level (such as between 0.7 and 0.7V). This

circuit aims to amplify the input voltage to a certain level, and a comparator is used to produce rectangular signal pulses. Two pre-amplifiers are used in this circuit because using one pre-amplifier will require a very high gain amplifier. Hence, two pre-amplifiers, each with lower gain, are used to achieve high gain with reduced noise. Data -Reproducing Circuit: Next, a data reproducing circuit, which consists of an operational amplifier, a resistor, and two NAND Schmitt triggers is used. Its function is to produce rectangular pulses from the amplified signal in the previous stage. An operational amplifier is used as a comparator, which uses a virtual ground as a reference. The NAND Schmitt trigger gates are used to enhance the noise immunity and to correct the edges from low to high voltage levels due to slew rate of the amplifier. Two NAND Schmitt trigger gates are used instead of one so that the signal will not be inverted. Then, a differentiator circuit consisting of a capacitor and a resistor is used to detect the leading edges of the pulse with the trailing edge blocked by the diode. Next, there is a circuit of a pulse generator. A Schmitt trigger gate is used as a pulse generator, and the output gives the inverted version of pulses from the differentiator. Integrator & Envelope Detector: An integrator and envelope detector can be found next. The integrator is an envelope detector, and double integration is carried out. If the inverted pulses from the pulse generator contain high frequency, the frequency of integration is higher and the voltage level of output would be higher. However, if the inverted pulses contain low frequency, the frequency of integration is lower and the voltage level of output would be lower. In this way, the modulated signal would be reconstructed. Band-Pass Filter: Next, a band-pass filter is used. The output signal from the previous stage, integrator and envelope detector has many distortions. A band-pass filter is used to filter out all the

high-frequency distortions. The higher cut-off frequency depends on a capacitor and a resistor. A lower cutoff is also used to filter out the low-frequency noise, such as the 50-Hz power line frequency. The output signal from the band-pass filter is an audio signal. Power Amplifier: The final stage of the receiver circuit is a power amplifier, the output of which is connected to the speaker. The objective is for the delivery of the audible messages through a speaker or Headphone/ear jack. IMPLEMENTATION & EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS An LED traffic-signal head made up of 441 highbrightness LEDs has been implemented in the Industrial Automation Research Laboratory at The University of Hong Kong. Each LED is a Hewlett Packard high intensity AlInGaP type with a luminous intensity of 2000 mcd at 20-mA rated driving current, and the viewing angle is 30 . The specifications of the LED traffic signal head are given in table below. LED TRAFFIC SIGNAL HEAD SPECIFICATIONS Signal color Red Construction 441 red ultra-bright LEDs with a luminous intensity of 2000mcd @ 20mA Diameter 8 in Nominal usage 17V, 2A Nominal power consumption 8-34W Luminous intensity 300cd Viewing angle 2q1/2 (half power) 30 deg The radiation pattern of the LED traffic light is given in fig. below. The same Intelligent Traffic Light has also been used for digital data transmission. Digital data can be sent using the same LED transmitter, and experiments have been set up to send digital information. A receiver, which resembles a portable traveler location system, has been implemented to obtain the demodulated signal. The block diagram of the receiver is shown in fig. below. A bit error rate (BER) experiment for the LED traffic light has been performed (figure shown below). In the experiment, frames of data were transmitted continuously from a

computer to the serial communication interface circuit via the printer port of the computer. The modulated signal is transmitted by the LED traffic light. The visible-light signal was transmitted to the receiver, and the serial communication interface performs demodulation of the data. The computer at the receiver side would compare the received data with transmitted data. The number of error bits would be recorded. The transmission speed of the visible-light communication channel is 128 kbps. Table shows the result of the BER test. BER EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Power of visible-light signal at the receiver BER 0.5W 2.1315*10^-3 0.6W 5.2177*10^-7 0.7W 2.4835*10^-7 0.8W 9.1982*10^-8 1.8W <2.2155*10^-10 It is observed that the BER decreases as the power (or luminance) transmitted by the LED traffic light increases. In other words, the brighter the traffic light, the smaller is the BER. It has been found by another experiment that BER increases with the separation between traffic light and the receiver. A graph of log (BER) plotted against log (separation) is approximately linear. In a real situation, there will be other visible-light sources nearby. One example would be the head light of a vehicle travelling in the opposite lane. Thus, the effect of a headlight was evaluated. This situation was simulated by placing a lamp with a 100W light bulb beside the LED traffic light. The BERs for the traffic light signal at 0.7 W were compared. Without the headlight, the BER is 2.4835 10E 7. With the headlight, the BER is 1.1232 10E 6. This shows the light source interference would increase the BER. COMPARING TABLE TRADITIONAL SYSTEM (Standard bulb) NEW SYSTEM (LEDs) Safety Max. lamp lifetime six months Max. LED lifetime 10 years Big brightness loss after only 5000 hours Brightness loss after 10,000 hours between 6% and 12%

Not uniform brightness Uniform brightness Low contrast with sunlight Long distance visualization problems High contrast with sunlight Long distance better view "Phantom" effect due to the direct sunlight reflex on the parabole through the lens No "Phantom" effect (no parabole) Delay of the bulb in the on/off cycle On/off cycle delay is negligible The damage in the bulb can cause a short-circuit Low lamp reliability Each color is obtained by many diodes LED Damage possibility at 70C >> 1,500,000 hours Maintenance Yearly interior (parabole and lens) and exterior cleaning of the lamp Yearly exterior cleaning of the lamp. No interior cleaning is necessary Six-monthly replacement of the exhausted bulbs, possible damages for vibrations and shocks Preventive six-monthly maintenance Replacement of the LED card after more than 10 years

Low sensibility to vibrations and shocks No preventive maintenance COST WITH 70 W BULB WITH 8 W LED CARD

ANALYSIS: 200 mm lens Energetic: W/h 70 x 24h x 365days = KW 613 per year Cost for 1 KW = Lit. 200 Total Lit. 122,600 W/h 8 x 24h x 365days = KW 70 per year Save 88.6% Cost for 1 KW = Lit. 200 Total Lit. 14,000 Save Lit. 108,600 Hypothesis of system composed by 8 standard lamps + 8 pedestrian lamps Lit. 122,600 x 16 bulbs = Lit. 1,961,600 Lit. 14,000 x 16 cards = Lit. 224,000 Yearly save on energetic cost Lit. 1,737,600 The save must be increased using 300 mm. lens and 100 Watt bulbs. Maintenance: The costs have been obtained by the average data supplied by some companies working in traditional traffic lights maintenance and based on the periodic replacement of the bulbs, the labour of two persons, the costs of the necessary equipments and at least one extraordinary intervention. With a led traffic light system, only one yearly intervention can be considered for the exterior lens cleaning: Average cost Lit. 1,000,000 Estimated cost Lit. 150,000 approx. Estimated yearly save on the maintenance cost: Lit. 850,000. Total yearly save on the hypotetic system: Lit. 2,587,600 The City of Vancouver is currently in the process of converting its 670 traffic signals. The upgrade will save the City an estimated $247,500 in annual energy savings and $110,000 in annual traffic light maintenance, a budget reduction of 65%. A total of 6.9 GWh of electricity per year will be saved, equal to the amount of energy that it would take to power almost 700 homes. APPLICATIONS OF VISIBLE -LED SYSTEM

High-brightness LEDs are increasingly being used in traffic lights due to their low power consumption and minimal required maintenance, which can be translated into considerable cost savings each year. For example, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, is replacing all of its 28,000 red signals with LEDs, with an estimated annual cost savings of $1.2 million. The next stage of development will involve the threecolor LED signals. In Singapore, there has been a complete change of traffic signals from the incandescent to LED. The $12.7 million project has replaced all 60,000 incandescent lamps in 1,600 intersections of the city. Again, power and maintenance savings, as well as safety, are cited as the reasons for the replacement. An LED traffic signal can use only 18 ultra-brigh LEDs and is warranted for five years. LED power consumption is only 8-12 W, compared with around 150 W used by its incandescent counterpart. With ideas and developments described in this article, an LED traffic light can be used as an audio broadcasting device, in addition to their normal function of being an indication and signaling device. A receiver some distance away pointing at the traffic light can receive voice messages. For drivers, the message can announce the time until the next signal change. For pedestrians or people with visual impairments, the voice message can tell the location or directional information. The above development allows a concurrent use of traffic lights because it can broadcast local traffic information, location and road information to both pedestrians and road users, and simultaneously perform its normal function of being a traffic signaling-device. The LED traffic light, called Intelligent Traffic Light, becomes a new kind of short-range information beacon. Essentially, all LED-based traffic signs, displays, or illumination devices can perform the above functions. Other applications can be found in a museum or exhibit-hall environment. The information on an individual exhibit can be broadcast via a plurality of LEDs, which is also used for the purpose of illumination. With the guest pointing the\receiver to the relevant LEDs on a transmitter, with the head phone or ear jack attached to a portable receiver, he can listen to the audio message about the specific exhibit item he is interested. Thus, the indoor environment can remain quiet while the guests stroll in the museum. This is the major advantage over conventional broadcasting systems in that individuals with receivers have the freedom of choice to receive specific messages without hearing any unwanted announcement, music, or commercials. ADVANTAGES OF LED SYSTEM As a medium for wireless short-range communication, visible light has both advantages and disadvantages when compared with IR, microwave, and radio media. On one hand, LEDs and photo detectors capable of highspeed operation are available at low cost. Like the IR, the visible spectral region is unregulated worldwide and FCC licenses are not necessary, as the commission does not regulate the visible light frequencies. Both IR and visible light penetrate through glasses, but not through walls. For

transmission to be possible there must be no obstructions standing in the way of the visible- LED light beam as it requires a clear LOS between the sending side (LED) and the receiving side, whereas IR also allows a nondirected and non-LOS link design. Like microwaves, visible-LED light beams follow a straight-line path and are well suited for the wireless delivery of large quantities of voice and data information. In practical use, one should take the advantage of this highly directional feature of LEDs. DISADVANTAGES OF LED SYSTEM On the other hand, LEDs also have many drawbacks. They are suitable for short range only, as the photodetector current is proportional to the received power. Intensity modulation with direct detection seems the only practical transmission method. It should also be mentioned that the relationship between the radiant intensity and the distance from the receiver follows the inverse square law. Hence, as a communication medium, it has limited range and is subjected to noise arising from sunlight, incandescent lighting, and fluorescent lighting. It is not suitable for broadcasting signals over a wide coverage area or over long ranges. CONCLUSION High brightness LEDs are getting more popular and are opening up a number of new applications, especially with the improved efficiency and new colors. In this article, the novel idea is based on the fast switching of LEDs and the modulation of visible light is developed into a new kind of information system. A visible-LED audio system that makes use of visual light rays to transmit audio messages to remotely located receiver is described. Such a system made up of high-brightness visible LEDs can provide the function of open space, wireless broadcasting of audio signals. It can be used as an information beacon for short-distance radio communication. Any illumination device making using of high brightness visible LEDs can be used as a kind of short-range information beacon.. One example is an LED traffic light for the support of roadside-tovehicle communications. There are many potential novel uses of visible light from LEDs as a communication medium. This concurrent use of LEDs for simultaneous signaling and communications will open up many new applications.