Modular location tag for a real time location system network

• US 10,212,262 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2017
• Issued: 02/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zebra Technologies Corporation
• Original Assignee: Zebra Technologies Corporation
• Inventors: Richley, Edward A., Turner, Belinda, Ameti, Aitan, Stelfox, Jill, O'Hagan, James J., Mueggenborg, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Bee, Andrew W
• Application Number:
  US15/609,823
• Publication Number:
  US 20170272556A1
• Time in Patent Office: 629 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10306 ultra wide band
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7097 Interference-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/7163 using impulse radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/71635 Transmitter aspects H04B1/7174 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/71637 Receiver aspects H04B1/7183 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/719 Interference-related aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/324 in the data link layer [OSI layer 2], e.g. HDLC
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/47 using RFID associated with sensors
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/14 Calling by using pulses
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

An example disclosed method includes generating, by a microcontroller of a controller, a data packet; and causing the transmission of the data packet on blink data pulses from two or more individual transmit modules, wherein each individual transmit module is in comprises an antenna and a pulse generator configured to transmit the data packet and is in data communications with the controller, wherein the controller causes substantially simultaneous transmission of the blink data pulses from the respective transmit modules to encourage reliable receipt of the blink data pulses at one or more of a plurality of receivers.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

generating, by a controller, a data packet; and

causing the transmission of the data packet on blink data pulses from two or more individual transmit modules, wherein each individual transmit module comprises an antenna and a pulse generator configured to transmit the data packet and is in data communication with the controller, wherein the controller causes substantially simultaneous transmission of the blink data pulses from the respective transmit modules to encourage reliable receipt of the blink data pulses at one or more of a plurality of receivers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein cables which define a common length provide data communication between the two or more individual transmit modules and the controller.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the cables is disposed within an impact absorbent material.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the cables comprises a plurality of flexible cables.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein component based signal delays of the two or more individual transmit modules are matched, and wherein the substantially simultaneous transmission of the blink data pulses is based at least in part on the matched component based signal delays.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to trigger the transmission of the blink data pulses based on component based signal delays associated with the respective individual transmit modules, and wherein the substantially simultaneous transmission of the blink data pulses is based at least in part on the triggering of the transmission of the blink data pulses.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the controller or the two or more individual transmit modules are encased in an impact resistant enclosure.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the controller and the two or more individual transmit modules are configured to be mounted to a participant defining a front and back, wherein a first transmit module of the two or more individual transmit modules is configured to be mounted to the front the participant and a second transmit module of the two or more individual transmit modules is configured to be mounted to the back of the participant.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the controller and the two or more individual transmit modules are configured to be mounted to a participant defining a front and back, wherein a first transmit module of the two or more individual transmit modules is configured to be mounted to a right front portion of the participant, a second transmit module of the individual transmits modules is configured to be mounted to a front left portion of the participant, a third transmit module of the two or more individual transmit modules is configured to be mounted to a back right portion of a participant, and a fourth transmit module of the individual transmit modules is configured to be mounted to a back left portion of the participant.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the controller and the two or more individual transmit modules are incorporated into a participant protective equipment.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the controller and the two or more individual transmit modules are incorporated into a participant clothing.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to be mounted to a participant belt.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving environmental data from an environmental sensor.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the environmental sensor is an accelerometer.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the controller drives the substantially simultaneous transmission of the blink data pulses at a first blink data rate based on the accelerometer outputting accelerometer data in a first value range and at a second blink data rate based on the accelerometer outputting accelerometer data in a second value range.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the environmental sensor is at least one of a heart rate monitor, a humidity sensor, a temperature monitor, a moisture sensor, a breathing sensor, a global position sensor, a proximity sensor, or a pedometer.

17. The method of claim 13 further comprising including, by the controller, the environmental data in the data packet to be transmitted from the two or more individual transmit modules.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the blink data pulses comprise ultra-wideband blink data pulses.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing electrical power to the controller form a power supply.