Dolphin: Real-Time Hidden Acoustic Signal Capture with Smartphones

Dual-channel screen-camera communication has been proposed to enable simultaneous screen viewing and hidden screen-camera communication. However, it strictly requires a well-controlled camera-screen alignment and an obstacle-free access. In this paper, we propose Dolphin, a novel real-time acoustics-based dual-channel communication system. Leveraging masking effects of human auditory system and readily available audio signals, Dolphin enables real-time unobtrusive speaker-microphone data communication without affecting the primary audio-hearing experience of human users. Compared with screen-camera communication, Dolphin supports non-line-of-sight transmissions and more flexible speaker-microphone alignments. Dolphin can also automatically adapt the data rate to various channel conditions. We further develop a secure data broadcasting scheme on Dolphin, where only designated privileged users can recover the embedded information in the acoustic signals. Our Dolphin prototype, built using COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) smartphones, realizes (potentially secure) real-time hidden information communication, supports up to 8-meter signal capture distance and ± 90° listening angle, and achieves an average goodput of 240 bps at 2 m.