Optical analog-signal transmission and retrieval through turbid water

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new, to the best of our knowledge, and robust method to optically transmit analog signals in free space through turbid water. In the proposed method, each pixel of original signal is sequentially encoded into random amplitude-only patterns as information carrier. A single-pixel detector is utilized to collect light intensity at the receiving end. To verify feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, a number of optical experiments are carried out in different kinds of water conditions, e.g., clean water, water mixed with milk, water with salt, and water with salt and milk. In addition, real seawater samples are also tested. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method shows high robustness against different propagation distances through turbid water and resists the effect of various turbulence factors. The proposed method is applicable to transmit information with high fidelity and high robustness against light wave diffusion in free space through complex environment. Furthermore, the proposed method is easy to operate and is cost-effective, which could open up a novel insight into optical signal transmission in free space through turbid water.