System and Method for Acoustic Data Transmission

• US 20080112885A1
• Filed: 09/06/2007
• Published: 05/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Innurvation Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Innurvation Incorporated
• Inventors: Davenport, Roger Allen, Bandy, William Robert, Okunev, Yuri, Powell, Kevin James
• Application Number:
  US11/851,236
• Publication Number:
  US 20080112885A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 424/9.1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00016 using wireless means
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/00036 Means for power saving, e.g. sleeping mode
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 1/041 Capsule endoscopes for imaging
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0028 Body tissue as transmission medium, i.e. transmission systems where the medium is the human body
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/073 Intestinal transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/411 Detecting or monitoring allergy or intolerance reactions to an allergenic agent or substance
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/42 Detecting, measuring or recording for evaluating the gastrointestinal, the endocrine or the exocrine systems A61B1/00, A61B5/4857, A61B5/486, A61B5/4866, A61B5/4869 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6861 Capsules, e.g. for swallowing or implanting
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/0833 involving detecting or locating foreign bodies or organic structures
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/4236 characterised by adhesive patches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/56 Details of data transmission or power supply
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 8/565 involving data transmission via a network
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 11/00 Transmission systems employing sonic, ultrasonic or infrasonic waves
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/0453 Resources in frequency domain, e.g. a carrier in FDMA

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to acoustic data transmission using a spreading code. A system for acoustic data transmission includes an ingestible capsule and an acoustic receiver. The ingestible capsule includes a modulator, a spreader, and an acoustic transmitter. The modulator modulates data according to a modulation scheme. The spreader spreads the modulated data according to a spreading code. The acoustic transmitter acoustically transmits the modulated and spread data through a body of an animal. The acoustic receiver includes an acoustic transducer a de-spreader and a demodulator. The acoustic transducer receives the acoustically transmitted signal and forms an electrical signal therefrom. The de-spreader de-spreads the received signal in accordance with the spreading code. The demodulator demodulates the received and de-spread signal in accordance with the modulation scheme, wherein a phase of the spreading code is synchronized with the received signal whereby a signal-to-noise ratio of the received signal is increased.

Claims

1. A method for communicating from an ingestible capsule, comprising:

modulating data from the ingestible capsule according to a modulation scheme;

spreading the modulated data according to a spreading code; and

acoustically transmitting the modulated and spread data through a body of an animal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the modulating comprises:

modulating data from the ingestible capsule according to a phase shift keying (PSK) modulation scheme.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the modulating comprises:

modulating data from the ingestible capsule according to at least one of a binary PSK modulation scheme, a multi-level PSK modulation scheme, and a differential PSK modulation scheme.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the modulating comprises:

modulating data from the ingestible capsule according to a first order differential PSK modulation scheme and a second order differential PSK modulation scheme.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the spreading comprises:

spreading the modulated data according to a Barker spreading code.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the acoustically transmitted signal;

de-spreading the received signal in accordance with the spreading code; and

demodulating the received and de-spread signal in accordance with the modulation scheme, wherein a phase of the spreading code is synchronized with the received signal whereby a signal-to-noise ratio of the received signal is increased.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the acoustically transmitted signal;

multiplying the received signal by a plurality of spread signals to form a corresponding plurality of received spread signals;

demodulating the corresponding plurality of received spread signals in accordance with the modulation scheme; and

forming a final data signal from the plurality of demodulated signals, whereby a signal-to-noise ratio of the final data signal is increased.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the forming comprising:

multiplying the plurality of demodulated signals by a corresponding plurality of signal-to-noise coefficients to form a plurality of weighted data signals; and

summing the plurality of weighted data signals to form the final data signal.

9. A system for communicating information, comprising:

an ingestible capsule comprising;

a modulator that modulates data according to a modulation scheme,

a spreader that spreads the modulated data according to a spreading code, and

an acoustic transmitter that acoustically transmits the modulated and spread data through a body of an animal.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the modulator comprises a phase shift keying (PSK) modulator.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the PSK modulator comprises at least one of a binary PSK modulator, a multi-level PSK modulator, and a differential PSK modulator.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the PSK modulator comprises:

a first order differential PSK modulator that modulates a first finite differences of the data; and

a second order differential PSK modulator that modulates a second finite difference of the data.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the spreader comprises a Barker spreading code generator.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the Barker spreading code generator comprises a cyclic shift register.

15. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a receiver comprising;

an acoustic transducer that receives the acoustically transmitted signal,

a de-spreader that de-spreads the received signal in accordance with the spreading code, and

a demodulator that demodulates the received and de-spread signal in accordance with the modulation scheme, wherein a phase of the spreading code is synchronized with the received signal whereby a signal-to-noise ratio of the received signal is increased.

16. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a receiver comprising;

an acoustic transducer that receives the acoustically transmitted signal,

a plurality of spread signal generators that generate a corresponding plurality of spread signals,

a plurality of multipliers that multiplying the corresponding plurality of spread signals with the received signal to form a plurality of received spread signals,

a demodulator that demodulates the corresponding plurality of received spread signals in accordance with the modulation scheme; and

a decision-making module that forms a final data signal from the plurality of demodulated signals, whereby a signal-to-noise ratio of the final data signal is increased.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the soft decision-making module comprises:

a plurality of signal-to-noise estimators that generate a corresponding plurality of signal-to-noise coefficients;

a plurality of multipliers that respectively multiply the plurality of demodulated signals and the plurality signal-to-noise coefficients to form a plurality of weighted data signals; and

a summation module that sums the plurality of weighted data signals to form the final data signal.