Motion detector

• US 20070057761A1
• Filed: 04/21/2006
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Johnson, Dennis
• Granted Patent: US 7,342,493 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/5.700
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/0209 Systems with very large relative bandwidth, i.e. larger than 10 %, e.g. baseband, pulse, carrier-free, ultrawideband
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/522 using transmissions of interrupted pulse modulated waves
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/01 Detecting movement of traffic to be counted or controlled G08G1/07 - G08G1/14 take precedence

Abstract

According to various illustrative embodiments, a motion-monitoring system comprises at least one antenna fixed within a barrier, the at least one antenna transmitting at least one first radio-frequency signal through the barrier to at least one volume outside the barrier, the at least one first radio-frequency signal reflecting from at least one object in the at least one volume to produce a plurality of second radio-frequency signals, which are received by the at least one antenna, at least one sensing circuit sensing the plurality of second radio-frequency signals and generating a plurality of time-domain output signals, and at least one processor receiving the plurality of time-domain output signals and comparing at least one successive time-domain output signal to at least one previous time-domain output signal to estimate at least one characteristic of the at least one object, including a motion of the at least one object.

Claims

1. A motion-monitoring apparatus comprising:

at least one antenna fixed within a barrier, the at least one antenna transmitting at least one first radio-frequency signal through the barrier to at least one volume outside the barrier, the at least one first radio-frequency signal reflecting from at least one object in the at least one volume to produce a plurality of second radio-frequency signals, the plurality of second radio-frequency signals being received by the at least one antenna;

at least one sensing circuit sensing the plurality of second radio-frequency signals, the at least one sensing circuit generating a plurality of time-domain output signals;

at least one processor receiving the plurality of time-domain output signals, the at least one processor comparing at least one successive time-domain output signal to at least one previous time-domain output signal to estimate at least one characteristic of the at least one object, the at least one characteristic including a motion of the at least one object; and

at least one monitor device remotely disposed from the at least one antenna, the at least one monitor device monitoring the at least one characteristic.

2. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensing circuit includes at least one ultra-wideband sensing circuit.

3. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 2, wherein the plurality of time-domain output signals are generated using a sample-down process.

4. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one antenna comprises a single antenna, the motion-monitoring apparatus further comprising at least one controllable switch switching the single antenna between a transmitting mode and a receiving mode.

5. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one antenna includes a first antenna and a second antenna, the first antenna operating in a transmitting mode, the second antenna operating in a receiving mode.

6. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensing circuit is collocated with the at least one antenna within the barrier.

7. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein the barrier comprises at least one building member.

8. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 7, wherein the at least one building member comprises at least one of a wall, a floor, and a roof.

9. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein the barrier comprises at least one in-ground barrier.

10. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one in-ground barrier includes at least one of a natural earth ground material, asphalt, concrete, wood, water, drywall, and brick.

11. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one characteristic comprises a plurality of characteristics, the plurality of characteristics further including at least one of a size of the at least one object, a type of the at least one object, a speed of the at least one object, a location of the at least one object, and a direction of movement of the at least one object.

12. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one visual display device providing at least one visual output representative of the at least one characteristic.

13. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 2, further comprising:

at least one visual display device providing at least one visual output representative of the at least one characteristic.

14. The motion-monitoring apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one antenna comprises at least three antenna sets, each of the at least three antenna sets spaced apart from others of the at least three antenna sets, the at least one first radio-frequency signal comprises a plurality of first radio-frequency signals, and each of the at least three antenna sets transmitting a respective one of the plurality of first radio-frequency signals into the at least one volume and receiving a respective one of the plurality of second radio-frequency signals to provide at least one triangulation for estimating the at least one characteristic.

15. A motion-monitoring system comprising:

at least one sensor set including at least one antenna fixed within a barrier, the at least one antenna transmitting at least one first radio-frequency signal through the barrier to at least one volume outside the barrier, the at least one first radio-frequency signal reflecting from at least one object in the at least one volume to produce a plurality of second radio-frequency signals, the plurality of second radio-frequency signals being received by the at least one antenna, the at least one sensor set including at least one sensing circuit sensing the plurality of second radio-frequency signals, the at least one sensing circuit generating a plurality of time-domain output signals;

at least one processor receiving the plurality of time-domain output signals, the at least one processor comparing at least one successive time-domain output signal to at least one previous time-domain output signal to at least one of estimate at least one characteristic of the at least one object and distinguish at least one characteristic of the at least one object, the at least one characteristic including a motion of the at least one object;

at least one monitoring station remotely disposed from the at least one sensor set, the at least one monitor station monitoring the at least one characteristic; and

at least one visual display device providing at least one visual output representative of the at least one characteristic.

16. The motion-monitoring system of claim 15, wherein the at least one volume is a plurality of volumes separated from each other, the at least one sensor set comprises a plurality of sensor sets, the at least one first radio-frequency signal comprises a plurality of first radio-frequency signals, the at least one sensing circuit comprises a plurality of sensing circuits, each of the plurality of volumes including a respective one of the plurality of sensor sets, the respective at least one antenna fixed within the respective barrier transmitting the respective one of the plurality of first radio-frequency signals and receiving the respective one of the plurality of second radio-frequency signals, and the respective one of the plurality of sensing circuits generating a plurality of time-domain output signals related to the respective one of the plurality of volumes, the motion-monitoring system further comprising:

a plurality of communication links, each of the plurality of communication links associated with the respective one of the plurality of sensing circuits for transmitting the respective plurality of time-domain output signals;

a hub receiving each of the respective plurality of time-domain output signals; and

a central communication link transmitting the respective plurality of time-domain output signals from the hub to the monitoring station.

17. The motion-monitoring system of claim 15, wherein the barrier comprises at least one roadway, the at least one object comprises a plurality of objects, and the at least one monitored characteristic comprises at least one traffic pattern.

18. The motion-monitoring system of claim 17, wherein the plurality of objects includes at least one of a plurality of vehicles and a plurality of pedestrians.

19. A method of motion-monitoring comprising:

transmitting at least one first radio-frequency signal through a barrier to at least one volume outside the barrier using at least one antenna fixed within the barrier, the at least one first radio-frequency signal reflecting from at least one object in the at least one volume to produce a plurality of second radio-frequency signals;

receiving the plurality of second radio-frequency signals with the at least one antenna;

generating a plurality of time-domain output signals using at least one sensing circuit sensing the plurality of second radio-frequency signals;

comparing at least one successive time-domain output signal to at least one previous time-domain output signal to estimate at least one characteristic of the at least one object using at least one processor receiving the plurality of time-domain output signals, the at least one characteristic including a motion of the at least one object; and

monitoring the at least one characteristic using at least one monitor device remotely disposed from the at least one antenna.

20. The method of motion-monitoring of claim 19, wherein the at least one antenna comprises at least three antenna sets, each of the at least three antenna sets spaced apart from others of the at least three antenna sets, the at least one first radio-frequency signal comprises a plurality of first radio-frequency signals, the method of motion-monitoring further comprising:

transmitting a respective one of the plurality of first radio-frequency signals into the at least one volume; and

receiving a respective one of the plurality of second radio-frequency signals using a respective one of the at least three antenna sets to provide at least one triangulation for estimating the at least one characteristic.