NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Realizing Visual and Acoustic Near Field Communication Systems for Smartphones: Performance Optimization and Security Assurance

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Near-Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging wireless technology that expects to revolutionize a range of mobile applications. However, the widespread use of NFC is hindered by the fact that only a limited number of platforms have built-in NFC support. Moreover, while NFC's short communication range offers some degree of physical protection, recent findings have revealed NFC's vulnerability to malicious eavesdropping. This project develops alternative NFC technologies that are secure and compatible with legacy mobile devices and existing infrastructure (e.g., POS terminals). The key novelty of this approach is to leverage visible light and acoustic channels to realize NFC systems with robust performance and security assurance. Due to the high directionality of narrow light beams, visible light can enable secure and interference-free wireless links. Similarly, acoustic signal can be modulated for NFC communication in close proximity. This approach offers several key advantages over the existing NFC technology. Both visual and acoustic communication channels can be implemented using prevalent components such as LCD displays, microphones, and speakers, which lead to purely software-based solutions that can easily retrofit existing infrastructure with NFC functionality. Second, in contrast to RF channels, the direction and distance of screen-camera link are controllable, preserving the communication privacy and security. Similarly, integrated with physical self-jamming techniques, the acoustic link can achieve information-theoretic security without the need for pre-shared secrets.In this project, a new form of Visible Light Communication (VLC) is employed to implement NFC, where 2D barcodes are streamed between LCD display and camera. A new barcode design and several techniques are used to optimize the throughput of screen-camera link, which include code block adaptation and re-ordering to mitigate the impact of image blur in mobile environments, and lightweight image processing algorithms for real-time decoding of barcode stream. A systematic security study is conducted on barcode-based communication based on geometric analysis and a new acoustics-based NFC system is developed for smartphones without the need of a priori knowledge of security secrets. The emerging friendly jamming techniques are utilized for establishing an information-theoretically secure communication channel for NFC. This project also explores advanced coding techniques, high-level modulation schemes and other physical layer techniques for further improving the data transmission rates and ensuring confidentiality guarantee.This project is a multi-disciplinary research effort that integrates novel technologies from visual/acoustic communication, adaptive self-jamming, image processing, and cryptography. The results have impacts on a range of mobile applications such as payment, access control, and smart device paring. The PIs will integrate research results into several courses, and leverage the intriguing nature of the project for reaching out to pre-college students.