Method for the optical transmission of data in free space from a transmitter to at least one receiver wherein the transmitter is an imaging apparatus having a multiplicity of pixels that are actuated by image data (s i (x,y)) in an image sequence (s n (x,y)) that represent images, and the data provided for transmission are split into a data sequence (d n (x,y)) comprising data packets that comprise a number of data bits, with each data bit being assigned to at least one of the pixels, and the data packets each being modulated onto the image data (s i (x,y)) of at least one image in the image sequence (s n (x,y)) in pixel-based fashion, and the modulation of the image data (s i (x,y))) being differential in time and/or space, wherein the value of a data bit is split into two amplitude values so that, by calculating the difference between these amplitude values, the data bit being transmitted is recovered, characterised by - two images that are sequential in time being assigned the same image data (s i (x,y)) in the image sequence (s n (x,y)) for the time differential modulation, with the modulation changing the image content of the two images so that the difference between the two images in each pixel corresponds to the value of the respective data bit to be transmitted by the respective pixel and the mean of the two images remains the same for each pixel, or - the rows/and or columns of the images in the image sequence (s n (x,y)) being doubled in the space differential modulation, so that there is an identical second pixel next to each pixel and two adjacent pixels are controlled with identical field signals, and two adjacent pixels forming a pixel pair within the same image are used for the transmission of a data bit, wherein the individual data bits of a data packet are modulated on the field signals that respectively control the first pixel of the pixel pair and the other field signals that respectively control the second pixel of the pixel pair are respectively modulated inversely, and the receiver being a camera capable of video recording, to be arranged at a distance from the imaging apparatus, which records the pixels and, from the light emissions of the pixels, decodes the data bits of a packet and transforms them back into the original data. - two images that are sequential in time being assigned the same image data (s i (x,y)) in the image sequence (s n (x,y)) for the time differential modulation, with the modulation changing the image content of the two images so that the difference between the two images in each pixel corresponds to the value of the respective data bit to be transmitted by the respective pixel and the mean of the two images remains the same for each pixel, or - the rows/and or columns of the images in the image sequence (s n (x,y)) being doubled in the space differential modulation, so that there is an identical second pixel next to each pixel and two adjacent pixels are controlled with identical field signals, and two adjacent pixels forming a pixel pair within the same image are used for the transmission of a data bit, wherein the individual data bits of a data packet are modulated on the field signals that respectively control the first pixel of the pixel pair and the other field signals that respectively control the second pixel of the pixel pair are respectively modulated inversely,