Object location system and method
US6882315B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 18, 2001 |
| Grant date | Apr 19, 2005 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 16, 2022 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01S5/06
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An RF object locating system and method that uses or includes a set of N (N>2) receivers (monitoring stations) located at fixed positions in and/or about a region to be monitored, one or more reference transmitters that transmit a timing reference, a location processor that determines object location based on time-of-arrival measurements, and at least one object having an untethered tag transmitter that transmits RF pulses, which may additionally include object ID or other information. Free-running counters in the monitoring stations, whose phase offsets are determined relative to a reference transmitter, are frequency-locked with a centralized reference clock. Time-of-arrival measurements made at the monitoring stations may be stored and held in a local memory until polled by the location processor. The invention permits rapid acquisition of tag transmissions thereby enabling the monitoring of large numbers of objects, and also provides a unique approach to data correlation in severe multipath environments.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.