Abstract: A handy information display system is disclosed. The system has three main components: a light emitting diodes (LED) array display board, an information server and a portable unit. The LED array display board includes a plurality of light emitting diodes and photodetectors. It can be used to display alphabets, numbers and simple graphics. While it visually gives an effectively stationary message display, the LED can also be modulated to transmit high frequency signals. The modulating frequency should be high enough to be imperceptible by humans. Both message display and signal transmission are controlled by an information server. The system further comprises at least one portable unit. The portable unit is equipped with an optical transceiver and a visual display unit. The optical transceiver can detect the signals transmitted from the LED array display board. The visual display unit then shows the information corresponding to the received signals.