Practical Implementation of HSSK Modulation for Optical Camera Communication with Consumer-Grade Devices

Abstract

The increasing demand for efficient communication systems in the Internet of Things (IoT) era has motivated the exploration of Optical Camera Communication (OCC) as a cost-effective alternative to traditional Radio Frequency (RF) technologies. This study presents a practical implementation of a modulation scheme inspired by APSK-CSK, introducing a novel Hue and Saturation Shift Keying (HSSK) design based on the Hue Saturation Value (HSV) color space. The system enables reliable data transmission using a single RGB LED and a regular smartphone camera, targeting low-power and low-cost IoT applications where simplicity and robustness are prioritized over throughput. This implementation employs a single LED to validate the feasibility of the system and lays the foundation for future multitransmitter OCC systems. Using Hue-based circular constellations, the proposed approach simplifies the modulation process while achieving a reliable data rate of 100 bps at 5 meters with a BER of 10-3 under realistic lighting conditions. These results highlight the potential of HSSK-based OCC as a practical and scalable solution for IoT applications utilizing existing camera and lighting infrastructures. While this work demonstrates feasibility with an ESP32 and a consumer smartphone (Poco X3 Pro), higher data rates could be achieved with more powerful hardware. However, the advantage of this system lies in its use of standard cameras without losing their primary functionality.