Catch Me If You Can: Demonstrating Laser Tethering with Highly Mobile Targets
Authors: 
Charles J. Carver, Hadleigh Schwartz, Qijia Shao, Nicholas Shade, Joseph P. Lazzaro, Xiaoxin Wang, Jifeng Liu, Eric R. Fossum, Xia ZhouAuthors Info & Claims
Charles J. Carver, Hadleigh Schwartz, Qijia Shao, Nicholas Shade, Joseph P. Lazzaro, Xiaoxin Wang, Jifeng Liu, Eric R. Fossum, Xia ZhouAuthors Info & ClaimsArticle No.: 108, Pages 1 - 3
Abstract
Conventional wisdom holds that laser-based systems cannot handle mobility due to the strong directionality of laser light. We challenge this belief by presenting Lasertag, a generic system framework that tightly integrates laser steering with optical tracking to maintain laser connectivity with high-velocity targets. Lasertag creates a constantly connected, laser-based tether between the Lasertag core unit and a remote target, irrespective of the target's movement. Key elements of Lasertag include (1) a novel optical design that superimposes the optical paths of a steerable laser beam and an image sensor, (2) a lightweight optical tracking mechanism for passive retroreflective markers, (3) an automated mapping method to translate scene points to laser steering commands, and (4) a predictive steering algorithm that overcomes limited image sensor frame rates and laser steering delays to quadruple the steering rate up to 151 Hz. We demonstrate Lasertag's tethering capabilty with various mobile targets, such as a VR headset worn during active game play, a remotely-controlled moving robot, and more. Lasertag paves the way for laser applications in highly mobile settings.
References
[1]
2023. Lasertag demonstration video. https://youtu.be/9JUNwBC88Ms.
[2]
Charles J. Carver, Qijia Shao, Samuel Lensgraf, Amy Sniffen, Maxine Perroni-Scharf, Hunter Gallant, Alberto Quattrini Li, and Xia Zhou. 2022. Sunflower: Locating Underwater Robots from the Air. In Proc. of MobiSys.
[3]
Charles J. Carver, Zhao Tian, Hongyong Zhang, Kofi M. Odame, Alberto Quattrini Li, and Xia Zhou. 2020. AmphiLight: Direct Air-Water Communication with Laser Light. In 17th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI 20).
[4]
Justin Chan, Ananditha Raghunath, Kelly E. Michaelsen, and Shyamnath Gollakota. 2022. Testing a Drop of Liquid Using Smartphone LiDAR. Proc. ACM Interact. Mob. Wearable Ubiquitous Technol. 6, 1, Article 3 (March 2022), 27 pages.
[5]
Max Curran, Md. Shaifur Rahman, Himanshu Gupta, Kai Zheng, Jon Longtin, Samir R. Das, and Thanvir Mohamed. 2017. FSONet: A Wireless Backhaul for Multi-Gigabit Picocells Using Steerable Free Space Optics. In Proc. of MobiCom.
[6]
Gerard E. Grossman, R. John Leigh, Larry Abel, Douglas J. Lanska, and S.E. Thurston. 1988. Frequency and velocity of rotational head perturbations during locomotion. Experimental Brain Research (1988).
[7]
Himanshu Gupta, Max Curran, Jon Longtin, Torin Rockwell, Kai Zheng, and Mallesham Dasari. 2022. Cyclops: An FSO-Based Wireless Link for VR Headsets. In Proc. of SIGCOMM.
[8]
Yuze He, Li Ma, Zhehao Jiang, Yi Tang, and Guoliang Xing. 2021. VI-Eye: Semantic-Based 3D Point Cloud Registration for Infrastructure-Assisted Autonomous Driving. In Proc. of MobiCom.
[9]
David J. Israel, Bernard L. Edwards, Richard L. Butler, John D. Moores, Sabino Piazzolla, Nic du Toit, and Lena Braatz. 2023. Early results from NASA's laser communications relay demonstration (LCRD) experiment program. In Free-Space Laser Communications XXXV.
[10]
Vikram Iyer, Elyas Bayati, Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, Arka Majumdar, and Shyamnath Gollakota. 2018. Charging a Smartphone Across a Room Using Lasers. Proc. ACM Interact. Mob. Wearable Ubiquitous Technol. 1, 4 (January 2018), 21 pages.
[11]
Johannes James, Vikram Iyer, Yogesh Chukewad, Shyamnath Gollakota, and Sawyer B. Fuller. 2018. Liftoff of a 190 mg Laser-Powered Aerial Vehicle: The Lightest Wireless Robot to Fly. In Proc. of ICRA.
[12]
Jordin Kare and Thomas Nugent. 2008. Laser Power Beaming On A Shoestring. AIP Conference Proceedings 997 (April 2008), 97--108.
[13]
Abhishek Kasturi, Veljko Milanovic, Bryan H. Atwood, and James Yang. 2016. UAV-borne lidar with MEMS mirror-based scanning capability. In Laser Radar Technology and Applications XXI.
[14]
Andreas Kotsopoulos, Angeliki Pantazi, and Theodore Antonakopoulos. 2010. Control for high-speed archimedean spiral nanopositioning. In 2010 17th IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Circuits and Systems. 998--1001.
[15]
Xiaobao Lee and Chunhui Wang. 2015. Optical design for uniform scanning in MEMS-based 3D imaging lidar. Appl. Opt. 54, 9 (March 2015), 2219--2223.
[16]
Veljko Milanovic, Kenneth Castelino, and Daniel T. McCormick. 2007. Highly adaptable MEMS-based display with wide projection angle. In IEEE 20th International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS).
[17]
Veljko Milanovic, Abhishek Kasturi, James Yank, and Frank Hu. 2017. A fast single-pixel laser imager for VR/AR headset tracking. In MOEMS and Miniaturized Systems XVI.
[18]
Veljko Milanovic and Wing Kin Lo. 2008. Fast and high-precision 3D tracking and position measurement with MEMS micromirrors. In 2008 IEEE/LEOS International Conference on Optical MEMs and Nanophotonics.
[19]
Veljko Milanovic, N. Siu, Abishek Kasturi, M. Radojičić, and Yu Su. 2011. MEMSEye for optical 3D position and orientation measurement. In MOEMS and Miniaturized Systems X.
[20]
Hamada Rizk, Yuma Okochi, and Hirozumi Yamaguchi. 2022. Demonstrating Hitonavi-: A Novel Wearable LiDAR for Human Activity Recognition. In Proc. of MobiCom.
[21]
John Rzasa. 2012. Pointing, acquisition, and tracking for directional wireless communications networks. Ph. D. Dissertation.
[22]
Carlo De Santi, Matteo Meneghini, Alessandro Caria, Ezgi Dogmus, Malek Zegaoui, Farid Medjdoub Boris Kalinic, Tiziana Cesca, Gaudenzio Meneghesso, and Enrico Zanoni. 2018. GaN-based laser wireless power transfer system. Materials 11, 1 (2018), 153.
[23]
Jan Zizka and Alex Olwal nd Ramesh Raska. 2011. SpeckleSense: Fast, Precise, Low-Cost and Compact Motion Sensing Using Laser Speckle. In Proc. of UIST.
Index Terms
- Catch Me If You Can: Demonstrating Laser Tethering with Highly Mobile Targets
Recommendations
Semiconductor laser sources at 760 nm wavelength for nanometrology
MINO'10: Proceedings of the 9th WSEAS international conference on Microelectronics, nanoelectronics, optoelectronicsMeasurement with nanometer resolution is required for the next advance in nanotechnology. Especially the noncontacting methods of measurement are very .promising. We present the set-up of the laser interferometer with nanometer resolution. A stabilized ...
Terrestrial laser scanner and retro-reflective targets: an experiment for anomalous effects investigation
Artificial targets are generally used in terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) practice for data georeferencing. This is because they are well recognized and modelled from the point cloud and their positions can be contemporarily measured by topographical ...
High frequency stability semiconductor laser sources at 760 nm wavelength
Measurement with nanometer resolution is required for the next advance in nanotechnology. Especially the non contacting methods of measurement are very promising. We present the set-up of the laser interferometer with nanometer resolution. We developed ...
Comments
Information & Contributors
Information
Published In
October 2023
1605 pages
ISBN:9781450399906
DOI:10.1145/3570361
- Chairs:
- Xavier Costa,
- Joerg Widmer,
- Co-chairs:
- Diego Perino,
- Domenico Giustiniano,
- Program Chair:
- Haitham Al Hassanieh,
- Program Co-chairs:
- Arash Asadi,
- Landon Cox
Copyright © 2023 Owner/Author(s).
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s).
Sponsors
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
New York, NY, United States
Publication History
Published: 02 October 2023
Check for updates
Qualifiers
- Demonstration
Funding Sources
Conference
ACM MobiCom '23
Sponsor:
ACM MobiCom '23: 29th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking
October 2 - 6, 2023
Madrid, Spain
Acceptance Rates
Overall Acceptance Rate 440 of 2,972 submissions, 15%
Contributors
Other Metrics
Bibliometrics & Citations
Bibliometrics
Article Metrics
- 0Total Citations
- 239Total Downloads
- Downloads (Last 12 months)187
- Downloads (Last 6 weeks)23
Reflects downloads up to 03 Jan 2025
Other Metrics
Citations
View Options
Login options
Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.
Sign in