System and method of optical data communication with multiple simultaneous emitters and receivers
First Claim
1. A method of detecting and preventing vehicle collision between at least two vehicles, one vehicle being a leading vehicle, and another being the trailing vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing an infrared emitter at the rear of the leading vehicle so as to communicate data to at least the trailing vehicle behind it;
providing an infrared receiver at the front of a trailing vehicle so as to receive data from at least the leading vehicle;
providing radio frequency emitters in close proximity to the vehicles that transmit data about vehicle'"'"'s position;
providing an on-board computer for regularly gathering the vehicle'"'"'s velocity and vehicle'"'"'s position;
transmitting velocity and position data from the infrared emitter of the leading vehicle;
receiving data at the receiver of the trailing vehicle;
calculating, at the wailing vehicle, the distance from the leading vehicle to the trailing vehicle; and
predicting whether a collision will occur based on the distance calculated and the current velocity of the trailing vehicle.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The system and method of the present invention optically transmits redundant packets of data using infrared signals at pseudo-random intervals to allow a receiver to distinguish between multiple simultaneous sources. The emitters repeatedly transmit a short packet at randomized intervals much shorter than the frame rate. Statistical analysis shows that the probability of collision of the desired packet with a packet from some other source is sufficiently low such that timely reception of at least one uncorrupted packet in the required time frame is assured.
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Citations
33 Claims
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1. A method of detecting and preventing vehicle collision between at least two vehicles, one vehicle being a leading vehicle, and another being the trailing vehicle, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing an infrared emitter at the rear of the leading vehicle so as to communicate data to at least the trailing vehicle behind it; providing an infrared receiver at the front of a trailing vehicle so as to receive data from at least the leading vehicle; providing radio frequency emitters in close proximity to the vehicles that transmit data about vehicle'"'"'s position; providing an on-board computer for regularly gathering the vehicle'"'"'s velocity and vehicle'"'"'s position; transmitting velocity and position data from the infrared emitter of the leading vehicle; receiving data at the receiver of the trailing vehicle; calculating, at the wailing vehicle, the distance from the leading vehicle to the trailing vehicle; and predicting whether a collision will occur based on the distance calculated and the current velocity of the trailing vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A method of optical communication of data from a first object to a second object out of a plurality of objects, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing a wireless emitter at the first object; providing a wireless receiver at the second object; determining a frame rate, the frame rate being a time limit by which a data packet must be successfully transmitted from the first object to the second object; repeatedly transmitting the data packet at random intervals substantially shorter than the frame rate from the wireless emitter; reading each data packet received at the receiver; rejecting data packets tat have been corrupted; and analyzing the remaining data packets to see if they are intended for the second object based upon the applicability of at least a portion of the contents of the data packet. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 28, 29)
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15. A method of optical communication of data from a first object to a second object om of a plurality of objects, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing a wireless emitter at the first object; providing a wireless receiver at the second object; determining a frame rate, the frame rate being a time limit by which a data packet must be successfully transmitted from to first object to the second object; repeatedly transmitting the data packet at random intervals substantially shorter than the frame rate from the wireless emitter; reading each data packet received at the receiver; rejecting data packets that have been corrupted; and analyzing the remaining data packets to see if they are intended for the second object based upon applicability, and not based upon an address that is unique to each object. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30, 31)
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24. A method of optical communication of data from a first object to a second object out of a plurality of objects, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing each of the plurality of objects with an optical emitter for transmitting and an optical receiver for receiving data; determining a frame rate, the frame rate being a time limit by which a data packet must be successfully transmitted from a first object to a second object; repeatedly transmitting the data packet at random intervals substantially shorter than the frame rate from the optical emitter, the data packet containing information about the state or the first object; reading each data packet received at the receiver of the second object; rejecting data packets that have been corrupted; and comparing the information about the state of the first object from within the data packet with the state of the second object and determining if the data packet is intended for the second object based upon the relative states of the first and second objects. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 32, 33)
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Specification