METHOD FOR DETERMINING DIRECTIONALITY USING BLUETOOTH LOW ENERGY COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20160105761A1
• Filed: 10/13/2015
• Published: 04/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Polo, Angel Arturo, Baker, Thomas Francis, Herndon, Michael David, Jin, Arthur H, Chen, Fredrick Lee
• Granted Patent: US 9,674,644 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/00 Beacons or beacon systems transmitting signals having a characteristic or characteristics capable of being detected by non-directional receivers and defining directions, positions, or position lines fixed relatively to the beacon transmitters; Receivers co-operating therewith position fixing by co-ordinating a plurality of determinations of direction or position lines G01S5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/046 Displays or indicators
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/46 using antennas spaced apart and measuring phase or time difference between signals therefrom, i.e. path-difference systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02216 Timing or synchronisation of the receivers
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0247 Determining attitude
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 56/001 Synchronization between nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/006 with additional information processing, e.g. for direction or speed determination
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A method and system detect directionality between two objects by measuring angles of signals incident on antenna arrays on at least one side to determine angle of incidence. The methods utilize Bluetooth Low Energy communications as the means for both the control protocol and for providing updated information for deriving directionality. Directionality information is broadcast on selected BLE advertising or data channels, or broadcast using a hopping pattern over the BLE data channels, both at a specific interval duty cycle. If a hopping pattern is selected to transmit directionality information, then anchor information is simultaneously broadcast on the BLE advertising or data channels at a different, asynchronous duty cycle. In additional embodiments, signals incident on antenna arrays located on both target and tracking sides are used to determine angle of incidence, separate antennas are combined to form new antennas and antenna models are used to anticipate known antenna structure responses.

Claims

1. A method for operating a communication device, comprising:

operating a plurality of antennae for receiving a transmitted low energy communications signal, the transmitted low energy communications signal transmitted from at least one additional proximate communication device;

monitoring for one or more received low energy communication signals;

synchronizing with at least one channel of the low energy communication signals;

decoding directionality information included within at least one of the received low energy communication signals located in the at least one channel; and

processing the decoded directionality information thereby generating at least one estimate of an angle of incidence corresponding to the transmitted low energy communications signal transmitted from at least one additional communication device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

when an incoming low energy communication signal is received, determining if this signal is to be used to determine angle of incidence.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

when an incoming low energy communication signal is received, determining if this signal is to be used in a connection model or in a connectionless model.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

when an incoming low energy communication signal is to be used in a connection model, synchronizing with at least one channel of the low energy communication signals by securing a data channel.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

when an incoming low energy communication signal is to be used in a connectionless model, synchronizing with at least one channel of the low energy communication signals by decoding synchronizing information from a least part of an advertising channel payload.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the processing the decoded directionality information includes identifying repetition coded bits within directionality information and, based on the repetition coded bits, determining the angle of incidence to the plurality of antennas during a selected bit within the repetition coded bits.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the repetition coded bits comprise phase shifted data signals.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the low energy communications signal is compliant with any of:

Bluetooth low energy (BLE), Bluetooth basic range/enhanced data rate (BR/EDR), or Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein Directionality information may be broadcast on any of:

selected Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertising channels;

selected Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) data channels;

BLE data channels following a hopping pattern at a specified interval duty cycle.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein, if a hopping pattern is selected to transmit directionality information, then including anchor information on either the three selected Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertising channels or the three selected Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) data channels at a different, asynchronous duty cycle.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing the decoded directionality information thereby generating at least one of an estimate of an angle of incidence includes obtaining predetermined antenna models corresponding to a structure of the plurality of antennae.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of an estimate of an angle of incidence includes a plurality of angles of incidence processed from a unique configuration of the plurality of antennas to determine the at least one estimate.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the plurality of angles of incidence processed together is based on a coalescence of a set of first multiple angle measurements for the plurality of antennas of the communication device and a received set of second multiple angle measurements of a plurality of antennas located on the at least one additional communication device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the decoding directionality information included within at least one of the received low energy communication signals located in the at least one channel further comprises ancillary position information.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the ancillary position information comprises any of:

sensor data from any of;

platform sensors, compass, gyroscope, sensors which detect an angle of a device, sensors which detect alignment of antenna patterns with angle of the communicating device;

coordinates;

or beacon information.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the beacon information includes any of:

beacon identification or beacon diagnostic information.

17. An apparatus, comprising:

a wireless communications device including one or more antennas for receiving and synchronizing with a low energy wireless signal, including a directionality field, transmitted from at least one additional apparatus;

antenna angle of incidence circuitry receiving the directionality field and determining at least one angle of incidence; and

processing circuitry, coupled to the antenna angle of incidence circuitry, configured for processing the at least one angle of incidence with at least one ancillary position data input to determine a relative position of the wireless communications device with the at least one additional apparatus.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the wireless communications device is further configured to identify repetition coded bits within the directionality field.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the at least one ancillary position data input includes a determined location corresponding to the at least one additional apparatus.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein:

the low energy wireless signal is compliant with any of;

Bluetooth low energy (BLE), Bluetooth basic range/enhanced data rate (BR/EDR), or Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11.