METHOD FOR DETERMINING THE POSITION OF AN OBJECT AND SYSTEM EMPLOYING SAME

• US 20180335502A1
• Filed: 05/17/2018
• Published: 11/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZeroKEY Inc.
• Original Assignee: ZeroKEY Inc.
• Inventors: LOWE, Matthew William, DEHGHANIAN, Vahid
• Granted Patent: US 10,627,479 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/16 using difference in transit time between electrical and acoustic signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/018 Involving non-radio wave signals or measurements
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02 using radio waves using satellite radio beacon systems for determining position G01S19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/021 Calibration, monitoring or correction G01S5/0252 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0242 Determining the position of transmitters to be subsequently used in positioning G01S5/0289 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/02522 The radio-map containing measured values of non-radio values
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/14 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/30 Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A positioning system has an initiator device configured for emitting a high-speed wireless signal, at least one reference device configured for receiving the high-speed wireless signal and emitting a low-speed wireless signal after receiving the high-speed wireless signal, at least one target device each having one or more components for receiving the low-speed wireless signals, and at least one engine configured for determining the position of each of the at-least-one target device by calculating the distance between the target device and each of the at-least-one reference device based on at least the times-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signals, each time-of-arrival being the time that the corresponding low-speed wireless signal being received by the target device, and determining the position of the target device based on the calculated distances.

Claims

1. A positioning system comprising:

an initiator device configured for emitting a high-speed wireless signal;

at least one reference device each configured for;

receiving the high-speed wireless signal, and

emitting a low-speed wireless signal after receiving the high-speed wireless signal;

at least one target device, each of the at-least-one target device comprising one or more components for receiving the low-speed wireless signals; and

at least one engine configured for determining the position of each of the at-least-one target device by;

calculating the distance between the target device and each of the at-least-one reference device based on at least the times-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signals, each time-of-arrival being the time that the corresponding low-speed wireless signal being received by the target device; and

determining the position of the target device based on the calculated distances.

2. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the high-speed wireless signal is a radio frequency (RF) signal.

3. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein the low-speed wireless signal is an acoustic signal.

4. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein said calculating the distance between the target device and each of the at-least-one reference device based on at least the times-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signals comprises:

calculating the distance between the target device and each of the at-least-one reference device based on at least the times-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signals and by using a time difference of arrival (TDOA) method.

5. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein each of the at-least-one target device further comprises one or more components for receiving the high-speed wireless signal emitted from the initiator device;

and

wherein said calculating the distance between the target device and each of the at-least-one reference device based on at least the times-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signals comprises;

calculating the distance between the target device and each of the at-least-one reference device based on the time difference at least between the time-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signal emitted from the reference device and the time-of-arrival of the high-speed wireless signal emitted from the initiator device.

6. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein each of the at-least-one target device further comprises at least one sensor for collecting sensor data regarding at least one of the motion status of the target device and the environmental status thereof;

and

wherein said determining the position of the target device based on the calculated distances comprises;

fusing the calculated distances with the collected sensor data for determining the location of the target device.

7. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the at-least-one initiator device is one of the at-least-one target device.

8. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the at-least-one engine is in one of the at-least-one target device.

9. The positioning system of claim 1, wherein each of the at-least-one reference device is configured for emitting the low-speed wireless signal after a determined delay from receiving said high-speed wireless signal.

10. The positioning system of claim 1 further comprising:

a database storing the information of the at-least-one reference device; and

wherein the at-least-one engine is configured for querying the database and excluding the low-speed signal emitted from any reference device that is marked as defective in the database.

11. A method for determining the position of a target device, the method comprising:

emitting a high-speed wireless signal;

receiving the high-speed wireless signal at one or more locations;

emitting one or more low-speed wireless signals from the one or more locations after receiving the high-speed wireless signal;

receiving the low-speed wireless signals at the target device;

for each of the one or more low-speed wireless signals, calculating the distance between the target device and the corresponding location based on at least the time-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signal, said time-of-arrival being the time that the low-speed wireless signal being received by the target device; and

determining the position of the target device based on the calculated distances.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the high-speed wireless signal is a radio frequency (RF) signal.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the low-speed wireless signal is an acoustic signal.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said for each of the one or more low-speed wireless signals, calculating the distance between the target device and the corresponding location based on at least the time-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signal comprises:

for each of the one or more low-speed wireless signals, calculating the distance between the target device and the corresponding location based on at least the time-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signal and by using a time difference of arrival (TDOA) method.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

receiving the high-speed wireless signal at the target device; and

wherein said for each of the one or more low-speed wireless signals, calculating the distance between the target device and the corresponding location based on at least the time-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signal comprises;

for each of the one or more low-speed wireless signals, calculating the distance between the target device and the corresponding location based on the time difference at least between the time-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signal emitted from the location and the time-of-arrival of the high-speed wireless signal.

16. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

collecting data regarding of at least one of the motion status of the target device and the environmental status thereof; and

wherein said determining the position of the target device based on the calculated distances comprises;

fusing the calculated distances with the collected data for determining the location of the target device.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein said emitting the high-speed wireless signal comprises:

emitting the high-speed wireless signal from the target device.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein said for each of the one or more low-speed wireless signals, calculating the distance between the target device and the corresponding location based on at least the time-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signal comprises:

for each of the one or more low-speed wireless signals, calculating, by the target device, the distance between the target device and the corresponding location based on at least the time-of-arrival of the low-speed wireless signal; and

wherein said determining the position of the target device based on the calculated distances comprises;

determining, by the target device, the position of the target device based on the calculated distances.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein said emitting the low-speed wireless signal after receiving the high-speed wireless signal comprises:

emitting the low-speed wireless signal after a determined delay from receiving said high-speed wireless signal.

20. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

storing the information of the at-least-one reference device in a database; and

querying the database and excluding the low-speed signal emitted from any reference device that is marked as defective in the database.