Finland and VLC

Well, its been a while that we've been over here, and oh boy have we been having some fun. Since moving into Finland we have begun research in a developing field known as VLC, or Visible Light Communication.

In short, this means programming and setting up an LED to send information through the medium of air and open space. This requires modulation of data coming from a data source (computer, video, etc.), such that the electrical signals are converted into wavelengths that can be emitted through an LED.  The non-visible to the human eye signals sent through the LED are then picked up and received through a photodetector. The light is then broken down by a receiver that, similar to the transmitter, breaks down the data into readable electronic signals and is then amplified for the display of the information. There’s a really interesting short explanation from the researchers at Disney research about this  right here. Our personal test bed can be seen below in the picture.

We have spent the past two and a half weeks reading about and testing VLCs and have learned a great deal in just a short amount of time. As part of the department over here, we had to take that knowledge and host a presentation about our findings and our intentions for the future of this project. This was just yesterday and we ended up having the entire department come in and give us feedback on our presentation. This was an awesome opportunity and allowed us to tweak our design and get the rest of the Tele and wireless communications department introduced to VLC.

Enough about all the work stuff, on to the fun stuff, we’re in Finland and we love it! We’ve spent the last weeks planning trips and taking some local adventures. We’ve gone all over the city of Oulu and explored some of the more interesting places it has to offer on the pre-owned bikes we purchased for the summer. This included spending a day at the beach, enjoying center city, exploring our local lake, and making friends in our housing apartments. Also something we noticed over here is that people really love their ice-cream. There has to be an ice-cream stand every other block in Oulu.

Some pictures from our adventures are in the Album below!


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Jeff, Burim, and Alex