Visible Light Networking with Qr Codes a Project Report for Cse 561 Ryder Ziola and William Webb

Telecommunications networks and the internet have enabled many different forms of communication email, phone, instant messaging, etc. For most users, the fact that all of these are mediated by external networks is not important. However, some users, for instance, human rights activists operating in certain countries, may wish transfer digital data in a fashion that is anonymous, leaving no identifying traces on either participating machine nor any electronic record of the communication in the network. Physical storage media, such as CDs and portable hard drives are possible candidates if mail or an inperson handoff is allowed, but such media can also carry physical evidence, such as hair or fingerprints, and also serial numbers or metadata attached to the stored files. Any of these things could potentially compromise collaborators. Another possibility is to instead execute file transfers between portable machines in a way that uses no physical media and does not rely on any telecom network or exchange of addresses. Smart phones are natural candidates, being portable and increasingly ubiquitous, so for this project, we attempted to leverage common built-in functionality to create a secure channel with the desired properties. We note that many smart phones can communicate via IR ports, but there is always the possibility the that IR transmissions may be intercepted since they are one dimensional and monochromatic. A remaining feasible possibility is to use camera to screen communication, which is the approach we adopt.