Visible light control apparatus, visible light control circuit, visible light communication apparatus, and visible light control method

A visible light control circuit including:

• a modulation circuit that modulates a subcarrier signal by an input signal and thereby generates a modulated signal;
• driving circuit that controls, based on the modulated signal, blinking of visible light to be emitted from an optical element and allows the visible light to be emitted from the optical element at a predetermined emission time ratio;
• a dimming signal generation circuit that generates a dimming signal for changing the predetermined emission time ratio which is based on the modulated signal;
• and
• a driving signal generation circuit that generates, based on the dimming signal, a driving signal which is obtained by changing a period of the modulated signal, wherein
• the driving circuit controls the blinking of the visible light to be emitted from the optical element, based on the driving signal, and thereby allows the visible light to be emitted from the optical element at an emission time ratio which is obtained by changing the predetermined emission time ratio which is based on the modulated signal.

A visible light control method which is performed by a visible light control apparatus that controls blinking of visible light containing information, the method comprising:

• a modulation step of modulating a subcarrier by an input signal, whereby a modulated signal is generated;
• a visible light control step of controlling, based on the modulated signal, the blinking of the visible light and allowing the visible light to be emitted at a predetermined emission time ratio;
• and
• an emission time ratio control step of changing the predetermined emission time ratio and allowing the visible light to be emitted at the changed emission time ratio.