Digital electronic locator
First Claim
1. An apparatus for locating an object/animal/person within a vast area, comprising a portable transmitter unit carried by the searcher or locator and an object/animal mounted or a person carried receiver unit,said portable transmitter unit including:
- power supply means;
line driver means to generate an n-bit unique encoded digital signal in order to enable unique activation and locating in a field of locating apparatuses;
frequency shift keying means which modulates the encoded signal such that a logic one in the said signal is represented by an audio signal at a specified frequency and a logic zero is represented by an audio signal at a different frequency;
frequency modulation means where a carrier signal at a radio frequency is modulated by the frequency shift keying modulated encoded digital signal;
amplifying means to amplify the said signal prior to feeding it to the said frequency modulation means;
directional antenna means for transmitting the amplified signal outputted from the said amplifying means;
said object/animal mounted or person carried receiver unit including;
power supply means;
omni-directional antenna means for receiving the transmitted signal from the said portable transmitter unit;
frequency demodulation means to demodulate the said transmitted signal;
amplifying means which amplifies the demodulated signal outputted from the said frequency demodulation means;
frequency shift keying demodulation means to demodulate the output signal from the said amplifying means;
decoder means to decode the output signal from the said frequency shift keying demodulation means;
electronic control means triggered from the said decoder means;
alerting means fed from the said electronic control means.
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Abstract
A digital electronic locator which assists in locating the position and direction of an object/animal/person is described. Three configurations of the locator are presented; the first one is the basic configuration which gives an alerting means (Audio and/or visual) to indicate the location of an object/animal/person, the second configuration of the locator, in addition to providing the facility offered by the basic configuration, indicates the direction of an object/animal/person, the third configuration of the locator is used for locating person, in addition to providing the facilities offered by the basic and the second configuration it provides the direction of the searcher to the person being located who can, as well, acknowledge that he/she has been found.
74 Citations
40 Claims
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1. An apparatus for locating an object/animal/person within a vast area, comprising a portable transmitter unit carried by the searcher or locator and an object/animal mounted or a person carried receiver unit,
said portable transmitter unit including: -
power supply means;
line driver means to generate an n-bit unique encoded digital signal in order to enable unique activation and locating in a field of locating apparatuses;
frequency shift keying means which modulates the encoded signal such that a logic one in the said signal is represented by an audio signal at a specified frequency and a logic zero is represented by an audio signal at a different frequency;
frequency modulation means where a carrier signal at a radio frequency is modulated by the frequency shift keying modulated encoded digital signal;
amplifying means to amplify the said signal prior to feeding it to the said frequency modulation means;
directional antenna means for transmitting the amplified signal outputted from the said amplifying means;
said object/animal mounted or person carried receiver unit including;
power supply means;
omni-directional antenna means for receiving the transmitted signal from the said portable transmitter unit;
frequency demodulation means to demodulate the said transmitted signal;
amplifying means which amplifies the demodulated signal outputted from the said frequency demodulation means;
frequency shift keying demodulation means to demodulate the output signal from the said amplifying means;
decoder means to decode the output signal from the said frequency shift keying demodulation means;
electronic control means triggered from the said decoder means;
alerting means fed from the said electronic control means.- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
said visual means implies a bulb/lamp, which starts to flash at a recognized frequency and color.
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3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said portable transmitter unit is mounted on an object/animal or carried by a person to be found and wherein said object/animal mounted or person carried receiver unit is carried by the searcher.
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4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said receiver unit audio and visual alerting means intensity increases as the searcher comes closer to an object/animal/person implying that alerting audio means frequency increases and visual display means intensity increases as the searcher gets closer to an object/animal/person being located.
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5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said omni-directional antenna means is a helical whip antenna of the type used in wireless applications and is designed to operate around 902-928 MHz frequency range.
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6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the said electronic control means in the receiver unit comprises an oscillator or a pulse generator;
- logic device/devices;
analogue device/devices and passive circuit components;Said control means connects the said alerting means to the power supply to energize it when the transmitted signal from the portable transmitter is received by the object/animal or the person carried receiver.
- logic device/devices;
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7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the said frequency shift keying means logic one is represented by an audio signal of a frequency around 1800 Hz and logic zero is represented by an audio signal of a frequency around 1200 Hz.
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8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the said frequency modulation means the carrier frequency is around 173, 418 or 918 MHz.
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9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the said decoder means can trigger the activating mechanism of a car alarm/air-conditioning/heater, on/off switching locking mechanisms of doors, open/close operating mechanisms of windows . . . etc, implying that the said portable transmitter unit will contain several line drivers generating unique digitally encoded signals which upon being received by the receiver unit, will activate the above mentioned car apparatuses;
said line driver is controlled by an individual switch installed on the said portable transmitter unit and the switch is fitted with display means to indicate the status of the car apparatuses.
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10. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the said portable transmitter unit directional antenna carried by the searcher is mounted on a motorized means to facilitate the search for an object/animal/person in multi-directions without the need for the carrier of the said motorized transmitter unit to turn around in order to aim in the direction of an object/animal/person to be located.
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11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the said motorized means is a small electric motor.
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12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the said motorized means include an open or closed loop electronic circuit means for the motor shaft position.
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13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the said motor is a small flat structure direct current motor with printed circuit board armature to minimize power consumption.
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14. An apparatus for locating an object/animal/person within a vast area comprising a portable motorized transmitter/receiver unit carried by the searcher and an object/animal mounted or a person carried transmitter/receiver unit,
said portable motorized transmitter/receiver unit including: -
power supply means;
line driver means to generate an n-bit uniquely encoded digital signal in order to enable unique activation and locating in a field of locating apparatuses;
frequency shift keying means which modulates the encoded signal such that a logic one in the said signal is represented by an audio signal at a specified frequency and a logic zero is represented by an audio signal at a different frequency;
frequency modulation means where a carrier signal at a radio frequency is modulated by the frequency shift keying modulated encoded digital signal;
transmitter amplifying means to amplify the said coded signal prior to feeding it to the said radio frequency modulation means;
directional antenna means for transmitting the amplified signal outputted from the said amplifying means;
motorized means where the said directional antenna is mounted on a moving platform to facilitate the search for an object/animal/person in multi-directions without the need for the carrier of the said portable motorized transmitter unit to turn around in order to aim in the direction of an object/animal/person to be located;
antenna switching means to switch between the two functional states of the directional antenna in transmitting and receiving;
frequency demodulation means to demodulate the transmitted signal from the transmitter/receiver unit mounted on an object/animal or carried by a person;
receiver amplifying means that amplifies the demodulated signal outputted from the said frequency demodulation means;
frequency shift keying demodulation means to demodulate the output signal from the said receiver amplifying means;
decoder means to decode the output signal from the said frequency shift keying demodulation means;
electronic positioning means fed from the said decoder means to send a positioning signal to the said motorized means to aim it in the direction of an object/animal or person;
directional indicating means attached or shown on the body of the motorized means to visually indicate the direction of an object/animal/person;
said object/animal mounted or person carried transmitter/receiver unit including;
power supply means;
omni-directional antenna means for receiving the transmitted signal from the said portable motorized transmitter/receiver unit and for transmitting a signal to the portable motorized transmitter/receiver carried by the searcher;
antenna switching means to switch between the two functional states of the directional antenna in transmitting and receiving;
frequency demodulation means in order to demodulate the transmitted signal from the portable motorized transmitter/receiver unit;
receiver amplifying means which amplifies the demodulated signal outputted from the said frequency demodulation means;
frequency shift keying demodulator means which demodulates the signal outputted from the said receiver amplifying means;
decoder means to decode the signal outputted from the said receiver amplifying means;
decoder means to decode the signal outputted from the said frequency shift keying demodulator means;
line driver means to generate a unique encoded digital signal;
frequency shift keying means that modulates the encoded signal such that a logic one in the said signal is represented by an audio signal at a specified frequency and a logic zero is represented by an audio signal at a different frequency;
frequency modulation means where a carrier signal at a radio frequency is modulated by the frequency shift keying modulated encoded digital signal;
amplifying means to amplify the said encoded signal prior to feeding it to the said radio frequency modulation means.- View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
said audio means such as a buzzer, a message or a piece of song or music, which starts to buzz, play music/song or a message in a specially recognized sound;
said visual means implies a bulb/lamp, which starts to flash at a recognized frequency and color.
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17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said audio and visual alerting means intensity increases as the searcher comes closer to an object/animal/person implying that alerting audio means frequency increases and visual display means intensity increases as the searcher gets closer to an object/animal/person.
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18. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said object/animal mounted or person carried transmitter/receiver unit receiver part includes electronic control means triggered from the said decoder means in this part and an alerting means fed from the said electronic control means.
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19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein said alerting means implies audio or visual means to alert for an object/animal/person location;
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said audio means comprises a buzzer, a message or a piece of song or music, which starts to buzz, play music/song or a message in a specially recognized sound;
said visual means implies a bulb/lamp, which starts to flash at a recognized frequency and colour.
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20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein said decoder means in the said car mounted transmitter/receiver unit can trigger the activating mechanism of a car alarm/air-conditioning/heater, on/off switching locking mechanism of doors, open/close operating mechanisms of windows . . . etc., implying that the said portable motorized transmitter/receiver unit will contain several line drivers means generating unique digitally encoded signals which upon being received by the car installed receiver unit will activate the above mentioned car apparatuses;
said line driver means is controlled by an individual switch installed on the said portable motorized transmitter/receiver unit.
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21. The apparatuses in claims 15 or 18 wherein said electronic control means comprises an oscillator or a pulse generator, logic and analogue device/devices and passive circuit components;
said control means connects the said alerting means to the power supply when the transmitted signal from the portable motorized transmitter/receiver is received by the object/animal mounted or the person carried transmitter/receiver unit.
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22. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said antenna switching means comprises analogue and/or digital switching devices and passive circuit components.
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23. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said directional indicating means comprises an aluminum disc with an arrow engraved on its surface attached to the motorized means to indicate the direction of an object/animal/person.
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24. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said frequency shift keying means logic one is represented by a signal of a frequency around 1800 Hz and logic zero is represented by a signal of a frequency around 1200 Hz.
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25. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said motorized means is a small motor.
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26. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein said motor is a small flat structure direct current motor with printed circuit board armature to minimize power consumption.
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27. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein said motorized means include an open or closed loop electronic circuit means for the motor shaft.
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28. An apparatus for locating a person within a vast area comprising a motorized portable transmitter/receiver unit carried by the searcher and another identical portable motorized transmitter/receiver unit carried by the person to be located or trying to locate the searcher.
said portable motorized transmitter/receiver unit including: -
power supply means;
line driver means to generate an n-bit uniquely encoded digital signal in order to enable unique activation and location in a field of locating apparatuses;
frequency shift keying means which modulates the encoded signal such that a logic one in the said signal is represented by an audio signal at a specified frequency and a logic zero is represented by an audio signal at a different frequency;
frequency modulation means where a carrier signal at a radio frequency is modulated by the frequency shift keying modulated encoded digital signal;
transmitter amplifying means to amplify the said encoded signal prior to feeding it to the said radio frequency modulation means;
directional antenna means for transmitting the amplified signal outputted from the said amplifying means and for receiving the signal transmitted from a similar apparatus carried by the person to be located;
motorized means where the said directional antenna is mounted on a moving platform to facilitate the search for a person in multi-directions without the need for the carrier of the said portable motorized transmitter unit to turn around in order to aim in the direction of the person to be located;
antenna switching means to switch between the two functional states of the directional antenna in transmitting and receiving;
frequency demodulation means to demodulate the received signal transmitted from a similar apparatus carried by the person to be located;
receiver amplifying means that amplifies the demodulated signal outputted from the said frequency demodulation means;
frequency shift keying demodulation means to demodulate the output signal from the said receiver amplifying means;
decoder means to decode the output signal from the said frequency shift keying demodulation means;
electronic positioning means fed from the said decoder means to send a positioning signal to the said motorized means to aim it in the direction of the person to be located;
directional indicating means attached or shown on the body of the motorized means to visually indicate the direction of the person to be located.- View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
said audio means comprises a buzzer, a message or a piece of song or music, which starts to buzz, play music/song or a message in a specially recognized sound;
said Visual means implies a bulb/lamp, which starts to flash at a recognized frequency and color.
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31. The apparatus of claim 30 wherein said audio and visual alerting means intensity increases as the searcher comes closer to the person to be located or as the person to be located comes closer to the searcher implying that alerting audio means frequency increases and visual display means intensity increases as the searcher gets closer to the person to be located or as the person to be located gets closer to the searcher.
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32. The apparatuses in claim 29 wherein said electronic control means comprises an oscillator or a pulse generator, logic and analogue device/devices and passive circuit components;
Said control means connects the said alerting means to the power supply when the transmitted signal from the motorized transmitter/receiver unit carried by the person to be located is received by the searcher or vice versa.
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33. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein said antenna switching means comprises analogue and/or digital switching devices and passive circuit component in order to realize automatic switching of the antenna to the transmission mode in order to acknowledge the reception of the signal forwarded from the searcher to the person searched.
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34. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein said directional indicating means comprises an aluminum disc with an arrow engraved on its surface attached to the motorized means to indicate the direction of the person to be located by the searcher or vice versa.
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35. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein said frequency shift keying means logic one is represented by a signal of a frequency around 1800 Hz and logic zero is represented by a signal of a frequency around 1200 Hz.
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36. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein said motorized means is a small electric motor.
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37. The apparatus of claim 36 wherein said motor is a small flat structure direct current motor with printed circuit board armature to minimize power consumption.
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38. The apparatus of claim 36 wherein said motorized means include an open or closed loop electronic circuit means for the motor shaft.
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39. The apparatus of claim 28 where identical apparatuses to the said portable transmitter/receiver unit are carried by many persons being located;
said unit will contain several line drivers means generating different unique digital encoded signals which will be routed to the transmitter part in the said portable transmitter/receiver unit using switching means which activate the alerting means in this unit, thus enabling them to acknowledge to the searcher that they have been found.
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40. The apparatus of claim 39 wherein the alerting means in said portable transmitter/receiver unit carried by the searcher contains a number of visual display means matching the number of the said line drivers so as to enable the persons being located to acknowledge the searcher that they have been found.
Specification