After a brief overview of unguided optical communications, this paper presents a system for intelligent photo-buoying of vehicles which has been implementad into a public transport controlling system in a urban traffic environment. The system utilizes a infrared bidirectional communication link for demanded data transmission from buoy to vehicle. Experimental results clearly show that infrared radiation-based systems, instead of the more frequently used microwaves-based, may offer a feasible and competitiva solution in certain types of traffic flow improvement applications.

Peer Reviewed