METHOD, APPARATUS, AND SYSTEM FOR OBJECT TRACKING AND NAVIGATION

• US 20180183650A1
• Filed: 01/17/2018
• Published: 06/28/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Origin Wireless, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Origin Wireless, Inc.
• Inventors: ZHANG, Feng, LAI, Hung-Quoc Duc, CHEN, Chun-I, WONG, Chau-Wai, WANG, Beibei, CHEN, Chen, AU, Oscar Chi-Lim, HAN, Yi, LIU, K. J. Ray
• Granted Patent: US 10,270,642 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/00 Systems using the reflection or reradiation of radio waves, e.g. radar systems; Analogous systems using reflection or reradiation of waves whose nature or wavelength is irrelevant or unspecified
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/003 Bistatic radar systems; Multistatic radar systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/46 Indirect determination of position data
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/48 using multiple beams at emission or reception
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2013/462 using multipath signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/38 Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 27/362 Modulation using more than one carrier, e.g. with quadrature carriers, separately amplitude modulated H04L27/366 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/21 in the uplink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards the network

Abstract

Method, apparatus and systems for object tracking are disclosed. In one example, a disclosed method includes obtaining at least one time series of channel information (CI) of a wireless multipath channel using: a processor, a memory communicatively coupled with the processor and a set of instructions stored in the memory. The at least one time series of channel information is extracted from a wireless signal transmitted between a Type 1 heterogeneous wireless device at a first position in a venue and a Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device at a second position in the venue through the wireless multipath channel. The wireless multipath channel is impacted by a current movement of an object in the venue. The method also includes determining a spatial-temporal information of the object based on at least one of: the at least one time series of channel information, a time parameter associated with the current movement, and a past spatial-temporal information of the object. The at least one time series of channel information is preprocessed. Associated computation may be shared among the processor, the Type 1 heterogeneous wireless device and the Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device.

Claims

1. A method performed by a system, comprising:

obtaining at least one time series of channel information (CI) of a wireless multipath channel using;

a processor, a memory communicatively coupled with the processor and a set of instructions stored in the memory,

wherein the at least one time series of channel information is extracted from a wireless signal transmitted between a Type 1 heterogeneous wireless device at a first position in a venue and a Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device at a second position in the venue through the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the wireless multipath channel is impacted by a current movement of an object in the venue; and

determining a spatial-temporal information of the object based on at least one of;

the at least one time series of channel information, a time parameter associated with the current movement, and a past spatial-temporal information of the object,

wherein the at least one time series of channel information is preprocessed,

wherein the spatial-temporal information is related to the current movement of the object and comprises at least one of;

a location, a horizontal location, a vertical location, a length, an area, a volume, a capacity, a distance, a direction, a displacement, a speed, a velocity, an acceleration, a rotational speed, a rotational acceleration, a gait cycle, a motion type, a motion classification, a motion characteristics, a sudden motion, a transient motion, a periodic motion, a period of the periodic motion, a frequency of the periodic motion, a transient motion, a time trend, a time stamp, a time period, a time window, a sliding time window, a history, a frequency trend, a spatial-temporal trend, a spatial-temporal change, and an event,

wherein computational workload associated with the method is shared among the processor, the Type 1 heterogeneous wireless device and the Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device, and

performing a task based on the spatial-temporal information,

wherein the task comprises at least one of;

locationing of the object, tracking the object, navigation for the object, obstacle avoidance for the object, tracking activity of the object, tracking behavior of the object, object identification, user identification, detecting motion of the object, detecting a vital sign of the object, detecting a periodic motion associated with the object, detecting breathing of the object, detecting an event associated with the current movement of the object, detecting a fall-down of the object, presenting the spatial-temporal information, and graphical display of the spatial-temporal information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a distance of the current movement of the object based on the at least one time series of channel information; and

obtaining an estimated direction of the current movement of the object,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on at least one of;

the distance and the estimated direction of the current movement of the object.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing at least one similarity score each based on a pair of temporally adjacent CI of the time series of CI associated with the current movement of the object;

computing a characteristic similarity score based on the at least one similarity score; and

determining a distance of the current movement of the object based on comparing the characteristic similar score to a reference decay curve,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the distance of the current movement of the object.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining at least one most recent CI each being most recent in one of the at least one time series of CI;

computing at least one time series of similarity scores, each similarity score being computed based on two CI of a particular time series associated with the similarity score;

the most recent CI, and a temporally adjacent CI within a time window associated with the current movement of the object;

determining at least one curve, each based on a time series of similar scores; and

identifying at least one feature point each associated with a curve,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the at least one feature point,

wherein the at least one feature point comprises at least one of;

a local maximum, a local minimum, a first maximum, a second maximum, another maximum, a first minimum, a second minimum, another minimum, a zero-crossing, a first zero-crossing, a second zero-crossing, another zero-crossing, a point having a pre-determined relationship with a second feature point, and another feature point.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing at least one second similarity score each based on an initial CI and a current CI,

wherein the initial CI is temporally close to a beginning of the current movement,

wherein the current CI is temporally close to an end of the current movement;

determining a characteristic second similarity score based on the at least one second similar score; and

determining the object to be stationary and the current movement to be a null movement if the characteristic second similarity score is greater than a threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

preprocessing the at least one time series of channel information, which comprises at least one of;

doing nothing, de-noising, smoothing, conditioning, enhancement, restoration, feature extraction, weighted averaging, low-pass filtering, bandpass filtering, high-pass filtering, median filtering, ranked filtering, quartile filtering, percentile filtering, mode filtering, linear filtering, nonlinear filtering, finite impulse response (FIR) filtering, infinite impulse response (IIR) filtering, moving average (MA) filtering, auto-regressive (AR) filtering, auto-regressive moving average (ARMA) filtering, thresholding, soft thresholding, hard thresholding, soft clipping, local maximization, local minimization, optimization of a cost function, neural network, machine learning, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, semi-supervised learning, transform, Fourier transform, Laplace, Hadamard transform, transformation, decomposition, selective filtering, adaptive filtering, derivative, first order derivative, second order derivative, higher order derivative, integration, zero crossing, indicator function, absolute conversion, convolution, multiplication, division, another transform, another processing, another filter, a third function, and another preprocessing; and

computing a similarity score based on a pair of temporally adjacent CI of a particular time series of CI,

wherein the similarity score is at least one of;

a time reversal resonating strength (TRRS), a correlation, a cross-correlation, an auto-correlation, a covariance, a cross-covariance, an auto-covariance, an inner product of two vectors, a distance score, a discriminating score, a metric, a neural network output, a deep learning network output, and another score, and

wherein the channel information is associated with at least one of;

signal strength, signal amplitude, signal phase,

attenuation of the wireless signal through the wireless multipath channel,

received signal strength indicator (RSSI),

channel state information (CSI),

an equalizer information,

a channel impulse response,

a frequency domain transfer function,

information associated with at least one of;

a frequency band, a frequency signature, a frequency phase, a frequency amplitude, a frequency trend, a frequency characteristics, a frequency-like characteristics, an orthogonal decomposition characteristics, and a non-orthogonal decomposition characteristics,

information associated with at least one of;

a time period, a time signature, a time amplitude, a time phase, a time trend, and a time characteristics,

information associated with at least one of;

a time-frequency partition, a time-frequency signature, a time-frequency amplitude, a time-frequency phase, a time-frequency trend, and a time-frequency characteristics,

information associated with a direction, an angle of arrival, an angle of a directional antenna, and a phase, and

another channel information,

of the wireless signal through the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the similarity score.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an initial spatial-temporal information of the object at an initial time prior to the current movement of the object based on another time series of another channel information (CI) associated with a prior movement of the object,

wherein the another time series of the another channel information is extracted from a second wireless signal transmitted between a second Type 1 heterogeneous device at a third position in the venue and a second Type 2 heterogeneous device at a fourth position in the venue through the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the wireless multipath channel is impacted by the prior movement of the object;

determining the initial spatial-temporal information of the object at the initial time to be a known location associated with at least one of;

the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device;

determining a time period in which essentially all corresponding CI of the another time series of the another CI is at least one of;

larger than a first adaptive threshold and smaller than a second adaptive threshold; and

determining the initial time as a characteristic point of the time period,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the initial spatial-temporal information of the object at the initial time,

wherein the characteristic point of the time period is at least one of;

a mid-point, a quartile point, a percentile point, a starting point, an ending point, a point at which the another CI is locally maximum, a point at which the another CI is locally minimum, a point at which the another CI has a certain characteristics, and another characteristic point.

8. The method of claim 7:

wherein, at the initial time during the prior movement of the object, one of the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device is spatially close to and moves with the object;

wherein, at the initial time, the other one of the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device has a directional antenna;

wherein the initial spatial-temporal information of the object at the initial time is determined to be a known location associated with the other one of the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device with the directional antenna.

wherein, at a current time during the movement of the object, one of the first Type 1 heterogeneous device and the first Type 2 heterogeneous device is spatially close to and moves with the object;

wherein, at the current time, one of the first Type 1 heterogeneous device and the first Type 2 heterogeneous device is at least one of;

communicatively coupled with a network server, and

communicatively coupled with a local device that is communicatively coupled with the network server;

wherein the local device is at least one of;

a smart phone, a smart device, a smart speaker, a smart watch, a smart glasses, a smart clock, a smart television, a smart oven, a smart refrigerator, a smart air-conditioner, a smart chair, a smart table, a smart accessory, a smart utility, a smart appliance, a smart machine, a smart vehicle, an internet-of-thing (IoT) device, an internet-enabled device, a computer, a portable computer, a tablet, a smart house, a smart office, a smart building, a smart parking lot, a smart system, and another device.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing at least one time series of power information (PI) based on the at least one time series of CI,

wherein each PI is associated with a CI, with real part of the PI computed based on at least one of;

magnitude, square of magnitude, phase, real part, imaginary part and another function, of the CI;

computing a first function of the at least one time series of PI,

wherein the first function comprises an operation on at least one of;

an autocorrelation function, a square of autocorrelation function, an auto-covariance function, a square of auto-covariance function, an inner product, an auto-correlation-like function, and a covariance-like function,

wherein the operation comprises at least one of;

a polynomial function, a linear function, a nonlinear function, a filtering, a de-noising, a smoothing, a conditioning, an enhancement, a restoration, a feature extraction, a weighted averaging, a high-pass filtering, a low-pass filtering, a bandpass filtering, a median filtering, a quartile filtering, a percentile filtering, a mode filtering, a linear filtering, a nonlinear filtering, a finite impulse response (FIR) filtering, an infinite impulse response (IIR) filtering, a moving average (MA) filtering, an auto-regressive (AR) filtering, an auto-regressive moving average (ARMA) filtering, a selective filtering, an adaptive filtering, a thresholding, a soft thresholding, a hard thresholding, a soft clipping, a first derivative, a second derivative, a higher order derivative, a local maximization, a local minimization, an optimization of a cost function, a neural network, a machine learning, a supervised learning, an unsupervised learning, a semi-supervised learning, a zero crossing, an absolute function, an indicator function, a Fourier transform, a Laplace transform, a Hadamard transform, another transform, a transformation, a decomposition, a derivative, a first order derivative, a second order derivative, a higher order derivative, a convolution, a multiplication, a division, zero crossing, an indicator function, an absolute conversion, a preprocessing, a post-processing, and another operation;

determining at least one characteristics of the first function,

wherein the at least one characteristics comprises;

a local maximum, a local minimum, a local extremum, a constrained (with argument within a constraint) maximum, a constrained minimum, a constrained extremum, a maximum slope, a minimum slope, a constrained maximum slope, a constrained minimum slope, a maximum higher order derivative, a minimum higher order derivative, a constrained higher order derivative, a zero-crossing, a constrained zero-crossing, a zero-crossing of slope, a zero-crossing of higher order derivative, and another characteristics; and

identifying at least one argument of the first function associated with the at least one characteristics of the first function,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the at least one argument of the first function.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing the Type 1 heterogeneous wireless device to switch wireless coupling from the Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device to a second Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device at another location in the venue,

wherein the Type 1 heterogeneous device is capable of wirelessly coupling with at least two Type 2 heterogeneous devices;

causing a second wireless signal to be transmitted between the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device through the wireless multipath channel that is impacted by the current movement of the object in the venue;

obtaining at least one second time series of channel information (CI) of the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the at least one second time series of channel information is extracted from the second wireless signal; and

determining the spatial-temporal information of the object based on the at least one second time series of channel information.

11. An object tracking server, comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled with the processor; and

a set of instructions stored in the memory which when executed by the processor causes the object tracking server to;

obtain at least one time series of channel information (CI) of a wireless multipath channel,

wherein the at least one time series of channel information is extracted from a wireless signal transmitted between a Type 1 heterogeneous wireless device at a first position in a venue and a Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device at a second position in the venue through the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the wireless multipath channel is impacted by a current movement of an object in the venue;

determine a spatial-temporal information of the object based on at least one of;

the at least one time series of channel information, a time parameter associated with the current movement, and a past spatial-temporal information of the object,

wherein the at least one time series of channel information is preprocessed,

wherein the spatial-temporal information is related to the current movement of the object and comprises at least one of;

a location, a horizontal location, a vertical location, a length, an area, a volume, a capacity, a distance, a direction, a displacement, a speed, a velocity, an acceleration, a rotational speed, a rotational acceleration, a gait cycle, a motion type, a motion classification, a motion characteristics, a sudden motion, a transient motion, a periodic motion, a period of the periodic motion, a frequency of the periodic motion, a transient motion, a time trend, a time stamp, a time period, a time window, a sliding time window, a history, a frequency trend, a spatial-temporal trend, a spatial-temporal change, and an event,

wherein computational workload is shared by the processor with the Type 1 heterogeneous wireless device and Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device; and

perform a task based on the spatial-temporal information,

wherein the task comprises at least one of;

locationing of the object, tracking the object, navigation for the object, obstacle avoidance for the object, tracking activity of the object, tracking behavior of the object, object identification, user identification, detecting motion of the object, detecting a vital sign of the object, detecting a periodic motion associated with the object, detecting breathing of the object, detecting an event associated with the current movement of the object, detecting a fall-down of the object, presenting the spatial-temporal information, and graphical display of the spatial-temporal information.

12. The object tracking server of claim 11, wherein the set of instructions causes the object tracking server further to:

determine a distance of the current movement of the object based on the at least one time series of the channel information; and

obtain an estimated direction of the current movement of the object,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on at least one of;

the distance and the estimated direction of the current movement of the object.

13. The object tracking server of claim 11, wherein the set of instructions causes the object tracking server further to:

compute at least one similarity score each based on a pair of temporally adjacent CI of the time series of CI associated with the current movement of the object;

compute a characteristic similarity score based on the at least one similarity score; and

determine a distance of the current movement of the object based on comparing the characteristic similar score to a reference decay curve,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the distance of the current movement of the object.

14. The object tracking server of claim 11, wherein the set of instructions causes the object tracking server further to:

determine at least one most recent CI each being most recent in one of the at least one time series of CI;

compute at least one time series of similarity scores, each similarity score being computed based on two CI of a particular time series associated with the similarity score;

the most recent CI and a temporally adjacent CI within a time window associated with the current movement of the object;

determine at least one curve, each based on a time series of similar scores; and

identify at least one feature point, each associated with a curve,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the at least one feature point,

wherein the at least one feature point comprises at least one of;

a local maximum, a local minimum, a first maximum, a second maximum, another maximum, a first minimum, a second minimum, another minimum, a zero-crossing, a first zero-crossing, a second zero-crossing, another zero-crossing, a point having a pre-determined relationship with a second feature point, and another feature point.

15. The object tracking server of claim 11, wherein the set of instructions causes the object tracking server further to:

compute at least one second similarity score each based on an initial CI and a current CI,

wherein the initial CI is temporally close to a beginning of the current movement,

wherein the current CI is temporally close to an end of the current movement;

determine a characteristic second similarity score based on the at least one second similar score; and

determine the object to be stationary and the current movement to be a null movement if the characteristic second similarity score is greater than a threshold.

16. The object tracking server of claim 11, wherein the set of instructions causes the object tracking server further to:

preprocess the at least one time series of channel information, which comprises at least one of;

doing nothing, de-noising, smoothing, conditioning, enhancement, restoration, feature extraction, weighted averaging, low-pass filtering, bandpass filtering, high-pass filtering, median filtering, ranked filtering, quartile filtering, percentile filtering, mode filtering, linear filtering, nonlinear filtering, finite impulse response (FIR) filtering, infinite impulse response (IIR) filtering, moving average (MA) filtering, auto-regressive (AR) filtering, auto-regressive moving average (ARMA) filtering, thresholding, soft thresholding, hard thresholding, soft clipping, local maximization, local minimization, optimization of a cost function, neural network, machine learning, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, semi-supervised learning, transform, Fourier transform, Laplace, Hadamard transform, transformation, decomposition, selective filtering, adaptive filtering, derivative, first order derivative, second order derivative, higher order derivative, integration, zero crossing, indicator function, absolute conversion, convolution, multiplication, division, another transform, another processing, another filter, a third function, and another preprocessing; and

compute a similarity score based on a pair of temporally adjacent CI of the time series of CI,

wherein the similarity score is at least one of;

a time reversal resonating strength (TRRS), a correlation, a cross-correlation, an auto-correlation, a covariance, a cross-covariance, an auto-covariance, an inner product of two vectors, a distance score, a discriminating score, a metric, a neural network output, a deep learning network output, and another score, and

wherein the channel information is associated with at least one of;

signal strength, signal amplitude, signal phase,

attenuation of the wireless signal through the wireless multipath channel,

received signal strength indicator (RSSI),

channel state information (CSI),

an equalizer information,

a channel impulse response,

a frequency domain transfer function,

information associated with at least one of;

a frequency band, a frequency signature, a frequency phase, a frequency amplitude, a frequency trend, a frequency characteristics, a frequency-like characteristics, an orthogonal decomposition characteristics, and a non-orthogonal decomposition characteristics,

information associated with at least one of;

a time period, a time signature, a time amplitude, a time phase, a time trend, and a time characteristics,

information associated with at least one of;

a time-frequency partition, a time-frequency signature, a time-frequency amplitude, a time-frequency phase, a time-frequency trend, and a time-frequency characteristics,

information associated with a direction, an angle of arrival, an angle of a directional antenna, and a phase, and

another channel information,

of the wireless signal through the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the similarity score.

17. The object tracking server of claim 11, wherein the set of instructions causes the object tracking server further to:

determine an initial spatial-temporal information of the object at an initial time prior to the current movement of the object based on another time series of another channel information (CI) associated with a prior movement of the object,

wherein the another time series of the another channel information is extracted from a second wireless signal transmitted between a second Type 1 heterogeneous device at a third position in the venue and a second Type 2 heterogeneous device at a fourth position in the venue through the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the wireless multipath channel is impacted by the prior movement of the object;

determine the initial spatial-temporal information of the object at the initial time to be a known location associated with at least one of;

the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device;

determine a time period in which essentially all corresponding CI of the another time series of the another CI is at least one of;

larger than a first adaptive threshold and smaller than a second adaptive threshold; and

determine the initial time as a characteristic point of the time period,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the initial spatial-temporal information of the object at the initial time,

wherein the characteristic point of the time period is at least one of;

a mid-point, a quartile point, a percentile point, a starting point, an ending point, a point at which the another CI is locally maximum, a point at which the another CI is locally minimum, a point at which the another CI has a certain characteristics, and another characteristic point.

18. The object tracking server of claim 17:

wherein, at the initial time during the prior movement of the object, one of the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device is spatially close to and moves with the object;

wherein, at the initial time, the other one of the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device has a directional antenna;

wherein the initial spatial-temporal information of the object at the initial time is determined to be a known location associated with the other one of the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device with the directional antenna.

wherein, at a current time during the movement of the object, one of the first Type 1 heterogeneous device and the first Type 2 heterogeneous device is spatially close to and moves with the object;

wherein, at the current time, one of the first Type 1 heterogeneous device and the first Type 2 heterogeneous device is at least one of;

communicatively coupled with a network server, and

communicatively coupled with a local device that is communicatively coupled with the network server;

wherein the local device is at least one of;

a smart phone, a smart device, a smart speaker, a smart watch, a smart glasses, a smart clock, a smart television, a smart oven, a smart refrigerator, a smart air-conditioner, a smart chair, a smart table, a smart accessory, a smart utility, a smart appliance, a smart machine, a smart vehicle, an internet-of-thing (IoT) device, an internet-enabled device, a computer, a portable computer, a tablet, a smart house, a smart office, a smart building, a smart parking lot, a smart system, and another device.

19. The object tracking server of claim 11, wherein the set of instructions causes the object tracking server further to:

compute at least one time series of power information (PI) based on the at least one time series of CI,

wherein each PI is associated with a CI, with real part of the PI computed based on at least one of;

magnitude, square of magnitude, phase, real part, imaginary part and another function, of the CI;

compute a first function of the at least one time series of PI,

wherein the first function comprises an operation on at least one of;

an autocorrelation function, a square of autocorrelation function, an auto-covariance function, a square of auto-covariance function, an inner product, an auto-correlation-like function, and a covariance-like function,

wherein the operation comprises at least one of;

a polynomial function, a linear function, a nonlinear function, a filtering, a de-noising, a smoothing, a conditioning, an enhancement, a restoration, a feature extraction, a weighted averaging, a high-pass filtering, a low-pass filtering, a bandpass filtering, a median filtering, a quartile filtering, a percentile filtering, a mode filtering, a linear filtering, a nonlinear filtering, a finite impulse response (FIR) filtering, an infinite impulse response (IIR) filtering, a moving average (MA) filtering, an auto-regressive (AR) filtering, an auto-regressive moving average (ARMA) filtering, a selective filtering, an adaptive filtering, a thresholding, a soft thresholding, a hard thresholding, a soft clipping, a first derivative, a second derivative, a higher order derivative, a local maximization, a local minimization, an optimization of a cost function, a neural network, a machine learning, a supervised learning, an unsupervised learning, a semi-supervised learning, a zero crossing, an absolute function, an indicator function, a Fourier transform, a Laplace transform, a Hadamard transform, another transform, a transformation, a decomposition, a derivative, a first order derivative, a second order derivative, a higher order derivative, a convolution, a multiplication, a division, zero crossing, an indicator function, an absolute conversion, a preprocessing, a post-processing, and another operation;

determine at least one characteristics of the first function,

wherein the at least one characteristics comprises;

a local maximum, a local minimum, a local extremum, a constrained (with argument within a constraint) maximum, a constrained minimum, a constrained extremum, a maximum slope, a minimum slope, a constrained maximum slope, a constrained minimum slope, a maximum higher order derivative, a minimum higher order derivative, a constrained higher order derivative, a zero-crossing, a constrained zero-crossing, a zero-crossing of slope, a zero-crossing of higher order derivative, and another characteristics; and

identify at least one argument of the first function associated with the at least one characteristics of the first function,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the at least one argument of the first function.

20. The object tracking server of claim 11, wherein the set of instructions causes the object tracking server further to:

obtain at least one second time series of channel information (CI) of the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the at least one second time series of channel information is extracted from a second wireless signal; and

determine the spatial-temporal information of the object based on the at least one second time series of channel information,

wherein the Type 1 heterogeneous device is capable of wirelessly coupling with multiple Type 2 heterogeneous devices;

wherein the Type 1 heterogeneous wireless device to switch wireless coupling from the Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device to a second Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device at another location in the venue,

wherein the second wireless signal is transmitted between the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device through the wireless multipath channel that is impacted by the current movement of the object in the venue.

21. A system for object tracking, comprising:

a Type 1 heterogeneous wireless device at a first position in a venue;

a Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device at a second position in the venue wirelessly coupled with the Type 1 heterogeneous device through a wireless multipath channel associated with the venue; and

an object tracking server including a processor, a memory communicatively coupled with the processor and a set of instructions stored in the memory executed by the processor,

wherein the object tracking server, the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the Type 2 heterogeneous device are configured to;

obtain at least one time series of channel information (CI) of the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the at least one time series of channel information is extracted from a wireless signal transmitted between the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the Type 2 heterogeneous device through the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the wireless multipath channel is impacted by a current movement of an object in the venue;

determine a spatial-temporal information of the object based on at least one of;

the at least one time series of channel information, a time parameter associated with the current movement, and a past spatial-temporal information of the object,

wherein the at least one time series of channel information is preprocessed,

wherein the spatial-temporal information is related to the current movement of the object and comprises at least one of;

a location, a horizontal location, a vertical location, a length, an area, a volume, a capacity, a distance, a direction, a displacement, a speed, a velocity, an acceleration, a rotational speed, a rotational acceleration, a gait cycle, a motion type, a motion classification, a motion characteristics, a sudden motion, a transient motion, a periodic motion, a period of the periodic motion, a frequency of the periodic motion, a transient motion, a time trend, a time stamp, a time period, a time window, a sliding time window, a history, a frequency trend, a spatial-temporal trend, a spatial-temporal change, and an event;

perform a task based on the spatial-temporal information,

wherein the task comprises at least one of;

locationing of the object, tracking the object, navigation for the object, obstacle avoidance for the object, tracking activity of the object, tracking behavior of the object, object identification, user identification, detecting motion of the object, detecting a vital sign of the object, detecting a periodic motion associated with the object, detecting breathing of the object, detecting an event associated with the current movement of the object, detecting a fall-down of the object, presenting the spatial-temporal information, and graphical display of the spatial-temporal information; and

share computational workload among the processor, the Type 1 heterogeneous wireless device and Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the object tracking server, the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the Type 2 heterogeneous device are further configured to:

determine a distance of the current movement of the object based on the at least one time series of the channel information; and

obtain an estimated direction of the current movement of the object,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on at least one of;

the distance and the estimated direction of the current movement of the object.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the object tracking server, the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the Type 2 heterogeneous device are further configured to:

compute at least one similarity score each based on a pair of temporally adjacent CI of the time series of CI associated with the current movement of the object;

compute a characteristic similarity score based on the at least one similarity score; and

determine a distance of the current movement of the object based on comparing the characteristic similar score to a reference decay curve,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the distance of the current movement of the object.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the object tracking server, the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the Type 2 heterogeneous device are further configured to:

determine at least one most recent CI each being most recent in one of the at least one time series of CI;

compute at least one time series of similarity scores, each similarity score being computed based on two CI of a particular time series associated with the similarity score;

the most recent CI, and a temporally adjacent CI within a time window associated with the current movement of the object;

determine at least one curve, each based on a time series of similar scores; and

identify at least one feature point each associated with a curve,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the at least one feature point,

wherein the at least one feature point comprises at least one of;

a local maximum, a local minimum, a first maximum, a second maximum, another maximum, a first minimum, a second minimum, another minimum, a zero-crossing, a first zero-crossing, a second zero-crossing, another zero-crossing, a point having a pre-determined relationship with a second feature point, and another feature point.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the object tracking server, the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the Type 2 heterogeneous device are further configured to:

compute at least one second similarity score each based on an initial CI and a current CI,

wherein the initial CI is temporally close to a beginning of the current movement,

wherein the current CI is temporally close to an end of the current movement;

determine a characteristic second similarity score based on the at least one second similar score; and

determine the object to be stationary and the current movement to be a null movement if the characteristic second similarity score is greater than a threshold.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the object tracking server, the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the Type 2 heterogeneous device are further configured to:

preprocess the at least one time series of channel information, which comprises at least one of;

doing nothing, de-noising, smoothing, conditioning, enhancement, restoration, feature extraction, weighted averaging, low-pass filtering, bandpass filtering, high-pass filtering, median filtering, ranked filtering, quartile filtering, percentile filtering, mode filtering, linear filtering, nonlinear filtering, finite impulse response (FIR) filtering, infinite impulse response (IIR) filtering, moving average (MA) filtering, auto-regressive (AR) filtering, auto-regressive moving average (ARMA) filtering, thresholding, soft thresholding, hard thresholding, soft clipping, local maximization, local minimization, optimization of a cost function, neural network, machine learning, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, semi-supervised learning, transform, Fourier transform, Laplace, Hadamard transform, transformation, decomposition, selective filtering, adaptive filtering, derivative, first order derivative, second order derivative, higher order derivative, integration, zero crossing, indicator function, absolute conversion, convolution, multiplication, division, another transform, another processing, another filter, a third function, and another preprocessing; and

compute a similarity score based on a pair of temporally adjacent CI of the time series of CI,

wherein the similarity score is at least one of;

a time reversal resonating strength (TRRS), a correlation, a cross-correlation, an auto-correlation, a covariance, a cross-covariance, an auto-covariance, an inner product of two vectors, a distance score, a discriminating score, a metric, a neural network output, a deep learning network output, and another score, and

wherein the channel information is associated with at least one of;

signal strength, signal amplitude, signal phase,

attenuation of the wireless signal through the wireless multipath channel,

received signal strength indicator (RSSI),

channel state information (CSI),

an equalizer information,

a channel impulse response,

a frequency domain transfer function,

information associated with at least one of;

a frequency band, a frequency signature, a frequency phase, a frequency amplitude, a frequency trend, a frequency characteristics, a frequency-like characteristics, an orthogonal decomposition characteristics, and a non-orthogonal decomposition characteristics,

information associated with at least one of;

a time period, a time signature, a time amplitude, a time phase, a time trend, and a time characteristics,

information associated with at least one of;

a time-frequency partition, a time-frequency signature, a time-frequency amplitude, a time-frequency phase, a time-frequency trend, and a time-frequency characteristics,

information associated with a direction, an angle of arrival, an angle of a directional antenna, and a phase, and

another channel information,

of the wireless signal through the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the similarity score.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the object tracking server, the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the Type 2 heterogeneous device are further configured to:

determine an initial spatial-temporal information of the object at an initial time prior to the current movement of the object based on another time series of another channel information (CI) associated with a prior movement of the object,

wherein the another time series of the another channel information is extracted from a second wireless signal transmitted between a second Type 1 heterogeneous device at a third position in the venue and a second Type 2 heterogeneous device at a fourth position in the venue through the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the wireless multipath channel is impacted by the prior movement of the object;

determine the initial spatial-temporal information of the object at the initial time to be a known location associated with at least one of;

the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device;

determine a time period in which essentially all corresponding CI of the another time series of the another CI is at least one of;

larger than a first adaptive threshold and smaller than a second adaptive threshold; and

determine the initial time as a characteristic point of the time period,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the initial spatial-temporal information of the object at the initial time,

wherein the characteristic point of the time period is at least one of;

a mid-point, a quartile point, a percentile point, a starting point, an ending point, a point at which the another CI is locally maximum, a point at which the another CI is locally minimum, a point at which the another CI has a certain characteristics, and another characteristic point.

28. The system of claim 27:

wherein, at the initial time during the prior movement of the object, one of the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device is spatially close to and moves with the object;

wherein, at the initial time, the other one of the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device has a directional antenna;

wherein the initial spatial-temporal information of the object at the initial time is determined to be a known location associated with the other one of the second Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device with the directional antenna.

wherein, at a current time during the movement of the object, one of the first Type 1 heterogeneous device and the first Type 2 heterogeneous device is spatially close to and moves with the object;

wherein, at the current time, one of the first Type 1 heterogeneous device and the first Type 2 heterogeneous device is at least one of;

communicatively coupled with a network server, and

communicatively coupled with a local device that is communicatively coupled with the network server;

wherein the local device is at least one of;

a smart phone, a smart device, a smart speaker, a smart watch, a smart glasses, a smart clock, a smart television, a smart oven, a smart refrigerator, a smart air-conditioner, a smart chair, a smart table, a smart accessory, a smart utility, a smart appliance, a smart machine, a smart vehicle, an internet-of-thing (IoT) device, an internet-enabled device, a computer, a portable computer, a tablet, a smart house, a smart office, a smart building, a smart parking lot, a smart system, and another device.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein the object tracking server, the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the Type 2 heterogeneous device are further configured to:

compute at least one time series of power information (PI) based on the at least one time series of CI,

wherein each PI is associated with a CI, with real part of the PI computed based on at least one of;

magnitude, square of magnitude, phase, real part, imaginary part and another function, of the CI;

compute a first function of the at least one time series of PI,

wherein the first function comprises an operation on at least one of;

an autocorrelation function, a square of autocorrelation function, an auto-covariance function, a square of auto-covariance function, an inner product, an auto-correlation-like function, and a covariance-like function,

wherein the operation comprises at least one of;

a polynomial function, a linear function, a nonlinear function, a filtering, a de-noising, a smoothing, a conditioning, an enhancement, a restoration, a feature extraction, a weighted averaging, a high-pass filtering, a low-pass filtering, a bandpass filtering, a median filtering, a quartile filtering, a percentile filtering, a mode filtering, a linear filtering, a nonlinear filtering, a finite impulse response (FIR) filtering, an infinite impulse response (IIR) filtering, a moving average (MA) filtering, an auto-regressive (AR) filtering, an auto-regressive moving average (ARMA) filtering, a selective filtering, an adaptive filtering, a thresholding, a soft thresholding, a hard thresholding, a soft clipping, a first derivative, a second derivative, a higher order derivative, a local maximization, a local minimization, an optimization of a cost function, a neural network, a machine learning, a supervised learning, an unsupervised learning, a semi-supervised learning, a zero crossing, an absolute function, an indicator function, a Fourier transform, a Laplace transform, a Hadamard transform, another transform, a transformation, a decomposition, a derivative, a first order derivative, a second order derivative, a higher order derivative, a convolution, a multiplication, a division, zero crossing, an indicator function, an absolute conversion, a preprocessing, a post-processing, and another operation;

determine at least one characteristics of the first function,

wherein the at least one characteristics comprises;

a local maximum, a local minimum, a local extremum, a constrained (with argument within a constraint) maximum, a constrained minimum, a constrained extremum, a maximum slope, a minimum slope, a constrained maximum slope, a constrained minimum slope, a maximum higher order derivative, a minimum higher order derivative, a constrained higher order derivative, a zero-crossing, a constrained zero-crossing, a zero-crossing of slope, a zero-crossing of higher order derivative, and another characteristics; and

identify at least one argument of the first function associated with the at least one characteristics of the first function,

wherein the spatial-temporal information of the object is determined based on the at least one argument of the first function.

30. The system of claim 21, wherein the object tracking server, the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the Type 2 heterogeneous device are further configured to:

obtain at least one second time series of channel information (CI) of the wireless multipath channel,

wherein the at least one second time series of channel information is extracted from a second wireless signal; and

determine the spatial-temporal information of the object based on the at least one second time series of channel information,

wherein the Type 1 heterogeneous device is capable of wirelessly coupling with multiple Type 2 heterogeneous devices;

wherein the Type 1 heterogeneous wireless device to switch wireless coupling from the Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device to a second Type 2 heterogeneous wireless device at another location in the venue,

wherein the second wireless signal is transmitted between the Type 1 heterogeneous device and the second Type 2 heterogeneous device through the wireless multipath channel that is impacted by the current movement of the object in the venue.