Transmitter location for ultra-wideband, transmitted-reference CDMA communication system
First Claim
1. A method for determining a location of an object within an area of interest, comprising:
- transmitting an RF signal from the object to at least three receivers;
transmitting a signal from a beacon transmitter to the at least three receivers, said beacon transmitters being at a known location, and having an independent local clock;
calculating, at each of the at least three receivers, a plurality of time differences of arrival data based on the signal from said beacon transmitter and the RF signal transmitted from the object; and
determining a location of the object within said area of interest based on said time differences of arrival data from said at least three receivers.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method involve tracking the location of objects within an area of interest using transmitted-reference ultra-wideband (TR-UWB) signals. The system includes at least three base stations communicating with a central processor, at least one mobile device and at least one fixed beacon transmitter of known location. The mobile device is equipped with a transmitter for transmitting a TR-UWB signal to a base station, which then determines a location of the mobile device based on time difference of arrival information between the beacon transmitters and mobile devices measured at all the base stations. Preferably, the area of interest includes a plurality of mobile devices each transmitting a delay-hopped TR-UWB signal according to a code-division multiple access scheme. The mobile devices may be attached to a patient and/or a medical asset within the hospital for tracking purposes. Additionally, patient medical information may be transmitted with the TR-UWB signals to allow patient monitoring to occur simultaneously with asset/patient tracking.
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Citations
11 Claims
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1. A method for determining a location of an object within an area of interest, comprising:
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transmitting an RF signal from the object to at least three receivers; transmitting a signal from a beacon transmitter to the at least three receivers, said beacon transmitters being at a known location, and having an independent local clock; calculating, at each of the at least three receivers, a plurality of time differences of arrival data based on the signal from said beacon transmitter and the RF signal transmitted from the object; and determining a location of the object within said area of interest based on said time differences of arrival data from said at least three receivers. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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Specification