Adaptive visible light integrated sensing and communication for cable-free virtual reality

Abstract Visible light communication plays an essential role in the next-generation 6G network due to its extremely high bandwidth and ultrafast transmission speed. Incorporating position sensing functionality into the communication system is highly desired, for achieving target-oriented beamforming and accommodating high-speed data service. However, a universal solution to integrated sensing and light communication remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate an integrated system that accomplishes concurrent high-accuracy sensing and high-speed data transmission by leveraging the spatio-temporal characteristics of the light field. Utilizing a compressive angular projection imaging scheme and jointly optimized waveform design, the integrated system allows approximately 3Gbps transmission and real-time three-dimensional localization from the user's perspective with 1 mm lateral resolution and 4 cm in depth within 0.6m×0.6m×0.6m volume over 2 m distance. This capability enables adaptive beamforming, which significantly enhances data rate by 122% (up to 6.18 Gbps), permitting errorless transmission of high-throughput virtual reality video. Furthermore, the system’s localization precision is improved by 2-fold laterally and 4-fold vertically using focused structured illumination. Our work offers a promising route for intelligent wireless light communication systems with perception faculty and high capacity, presenting the possibility of cable-free, immersive virtual reality experiences.