FLIGHT: Clock Calibration and Context Recognition Using Fluorescent Lighting

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel clock calibration approach called FLIGHT, which leverages the fact that the fluorescent light intensity changes with a stable period that equals half of the alternating current's. By tuning to the light emitted from indoor fluorescent lamps, FLIGHT can intelligently extract the light period information and achieve network wide time calibration by referring to such a common time reference. The light period can be also viewed as an indoor context indicator. As sampling the light sensor consumes substantially less energy, FLIGHT provides us a lightweight clock calibration and time synchronization solution. In addition, FLIGHT suits various mobility-enabled scenarios and it can work well even when the network is temporarily disconnected. We address a series of practical challenges and implement FLIGHT in TelosB motes. We conduct comprehensive experiments using a 12-node test-bed in both static and mobile environments. Over one-week measurement suggests that compared with existing technologies, FLIGHT can achieve tightly synchronized time with low energy consumption. We further leverage the periodical pattern and upgrade FLIGHT to recognize the ambient indoor/outdoor context, based on which the on/off states of a variety of location-based services can be controlled automatically for mobile devices.