A novel multi-ary wireless optical communication technique is proposed, which utilizes a set of mutually distinguishable spatial patterns instead of convergent facula to transmit information.The communication capacity of the proposed communication scheme is analyzed.The results show that the spatial freedom of the wireless optical communication system can be utilized to increase the communication capacity highly by reasonably selecting parameters of the system geometry and designing signal patterns.A typical electro-optical system scheme of the proposed communication is presented.The signal processing scheme is described in detail, which includes the following three processes as 2D correlation, comparison and M/2 conversion.The error performance of the proposed communication scheme is analyzed and the average probability of error decision is obtained.For reducing error decision, the fundamental rules of designing spatial pattern signal are formulated.Finally, the proposed communication is experimentally demonstrated with a lenslet array processor.潘卫清|welcome.pan@163.com