Vehicle communication using light projections

1 . A system for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, the system comprising:

a first light emitter and a second light emitter coupled to a vehicle; and

an electronic control unit (ECU) coupled to the first light emitter and the second light emitter and configured to:

encode a message using a binary communication protocol that employs on-off modulation of the first light emitter and the second light emitter, the binary communication protocol defining binary symbols that are represented by discrete illumination intervals and non-illumination intervals to create a first light pattern for the first light emitter and a second light pattern for the second light emitter, the first light pattern being a visible light pattern and the second light pattern being a non-visible, infrared, light pattern; and

simultaneously generate the first light pattern using the first light emitter and the second light pattern using the second light emitter to communicate the message to an adjacent vehicle using the binary communication protocol, the message configured to be received by the adjacent vehicle using optical pattern recognition of the first light pattern.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first light emitter is configured to emit the visible light pattern.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the second light emitter is configured to emit the non-visible, infrared, light pattern.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first light emitter is at least one of a head light for the vehicle, a running light for the vehicle, a brake light for the vehicle, a hazard light for the vehicle, or a turn signal light for the vehicle.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first light emitter is a head light, and the message includes at least one of:

a notification of a presence of an emergency vehicle; or

an intention of the vehicle to pass a lead vehicle.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first light emitter is a brake light, and the message includes at least one of a reason for a braking maneuver, a deceleration rate of the vehicle, a level of urgency in braking, or an indication of an upcoming road hazard.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first light emitter is a hazard light, and the message includes at least one of a reason for why the hazard light is activated, an indication of an upcoming road hazard, an indication of a medical emergency of a passenger in the vehicle, or an indication that the vehicle is stopped.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first light emitter is a turn signal light, and the message includes at least one of an indication of an intention for the vehicle to move to a particular lane, an indication of a particular exit to be used by the vehicle, or an indication of a road hazard in a particular lane.

9 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a sensor coupled to the ECU, the ECU is further configured to detect, via the sensor, a light pattern emitted from the adjacent vehicle, wherein the light pattern from the adjacent vehicle is configured to be processed by the ECU for controlling a state of the vehicle, the state of the vehicle includes at least one of a speed of the vehicle, an acceleration of the vehicle, a deceleration of the vehicle, or a route of the vehicle.

10 . The system of claim 9 , further comprising a user interface, wherein the ECU is configured to decode the light pattern received from the adjacent vehicle and translate the message from a binary language to a human-readable message for display via the user interface.

11 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the binary communication protocol is morse code.

12 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first light emitter is selected from a head light for the vehicle, a running light for the vehicle, a brake light for the vehicle, a hazard light for the vehicle, or a turn signal light for the vehicle, and

wherein the message includes vehicle-condition information corresponding to a function of the selected light emitter.

13 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the ECU encodes the message based on data indicating at least one of a vehicle condition, a passenger condition, or a roadway condition detected by one or more sensors coupled to the ECU.

14 . A method for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first electronic control unit (ECU) coupled to a first vehicle, data indicating at least one of a vehicle condition, a passenger condition, or a roadway condition;

encoding, by the first ECU, a message that includes the data using a binary communication protocol that employs on-off modulation of a first light emitter and a second light emitter, the binary communication protocol defining binary symbols that are represented by discrete illumination intervals and non-illumination intervals to create a first light pattern; and

generating, by the first ECU, the first light pattern as a sequence of light-on and light-off states using the first light emitter and the second light emitter simultaneously to communicate the message to an adjacent vehicle, the message configured to be received by the adjacent vehicle using optical pattern recognition of the first light pattern, and the first light emitter includes one of a head light for the vehicle, a tail light for the vehicle, a brake light for the vehicle, a hazard light for the vehicle, an infrared light for the vehicle, or a turn signal light for the vehicle and the second light emitter is the infrared light.

15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

detecting, by a sensor coupled to a second vehicle, the first light pattern from the first light emitter;

decoding, by a second ECU coupled to the second vehicle, the message using the binary communication protocol; and

controlling, by the second ECU, a rate of deceleration of the second vehicle based upon the message.

16 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the first light emitter is one of a front-facing light emitter or a rear-facing light emitter.