Multiframe superimposed pilot-based reference frame estimation for display field communication

Display field communication (DFC), a form of screen-to-camera communication, offers a promising channel for data transmission; however, its performance is severely limited by interference from the host image, especially in blind reception scenarios, where the original reference is unavailable. This paper proposes a novel framework to overcome this challenge by leveraging temporal redundancy in static scenes. Our method employs a multiplicative embedding scheme, where a constant pilot symbol is superimposed on randomized data symbols across multiple frames. At the receiver, ensemble averaging of these frames effectively cancels the zero-mean data and channel noise. This allows for a highly accurate, self-referenced estimation of the host frame’s multiplicative effect, which is then used to decode the data from each individual frame. We analyze the critical trade-off governed by the pilot-to-data power allocation factor, α , and identify, through empirical simulation, its optimal value that minimizes the symbol error rate. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme achieves a significantly higher achievable data rate than conventional methods by eliminating the overhead of explicit reference frames, without compromising visual imperceptibility. The proposed framework provides a practical and efficient solution for robust, high-throughput blind data hiding in DFC systems. • A novel superimposed pilot-based DFC scheme using multiframe temporal averaging is proposed. • Superimposed pilots enable robust host estimation in a multiplicative framework. • Pilot power is optimized to balance estimation accuracy and data robustness. • Achieves high data rates by eliminating the overhead of explicit reference frames.