US Patent 11483071 Optical wireless communication device

An optical wireless communication device for transmitting data comprises a transmitter comprising a light source, a controller configured to control operation of the light source to produce modulated light comprising an optical wireless communication signal representative of said data, at least one proximity determining component configured to determine a proximity of an object, and a processing resource configured to determine whether the determined proximity is within a threshold distance, wherein the controller is configured to control operation of the transmitter and/or of at least one other component of the optical wireless communication device in dependence on whether the determined proximity is within the threshold distance.