Narrowband interference excision in the external controller of an implanted microstimulator network

• US 7,860,476 B1
• Filed: 12/13/2007
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alfred E. Mann Foundation For Scientific Research
• Original Assignee: Alfred E. Mann Foundation For Scientific Research
• Inventors: Karr, Lawrence J., Schulman, Joseph H., Stover, Howard H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; Thanh C
• Application Number:
  US12/002,202
• Time in Patent Office: 1,111 Days
• Field of Search: 455/41.1, 455/63.1, 455/67.11, 455/67.13, 455/296, 455/303, 455/304, 455/305, 455/306, 455/307, 375/345, 375/349, 375/350, 235/375, 235/392
• US Class Current: 455/296
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/1036 with automatic suppression of narrow band noise or interference, e.g. by using tuneable notch filters H04B1/123 takes precedence; filter circuits H03H

Abstract

Communication techniques are described that can improve signal reception from an implanted wireless device to a main control unit (MCU) while in the presence of a narrowband interferer. The implanted wireless device can be any appropriate device such as a microtransponder, microstimulator, a sensor device or a drug delivery device. The MCU captures samples of signals emanating from the wireless device during an expected transmission time interval. The captured samples are evaluated and transformed into a series of spectral terms that are then evaluated to identify narrowband interference signals. The identified narrowband interference terms can be initialized to a null value to remove the signal spectrum resulting from the communication, and an inverse transformation can be used to generate a time domain signal that is free from interference. Overlapping windows and other signal processing techniques can also be applied to improve overall communications.

Claims

1. An external communication system for communicating with a limited energy body implanted wireless device that is substantially shielded from a narrowband interference source, wherein the external communication system is arranged to mitigate effects of narrowband interference signals from the narrowband interference source, the external communication system comprising:

a receiver that is arranged to capture signals associated with a transmission from the limited energy body implanted device during a capture interval for the receiver, wherein a duration of the capture interval for the receiver is substantially greater than a transmit time associated with the transmission, wherein the captured signals include at least one member of the group consisting of;

a portion of a message from the limited energy body implanted device, narrowband interference signals, and noise signals;

a buffer that is arranged to store samples associated with the captured signals; and

a signal processor that is arranged to process the stored samples, wherein the signal processor is arranged to;

transform the stored samples from at least a portion of the capture interval into a series of spectral terms by performing a transformation from a time domain into a transformed domain;

evaluate the series of spectral terms in the transformed domain to identify one or more spectral terms associated with the narrowband interference signals from the narrowband interference source, wherein the identified spectral terms are unrelated to the message from the limited energy body implanted device; and

initialize the identified terms associated with the narrowband interference source to a desired value to generate a filtered series of spectral terms.

2. The external communication system of claim 1, wherein the desired value for the identified spectral terms for the narrowband interferer is initialized to either a null value or a clipping value.

3. The external communication system of claim 1, wherein the signal processor corresponds to either an analog signal processor or a digital signal processor.

4. The external communication system of claim 1, wherein the signal processor is arranged such that the transformation corresponds to one member of the group consisting of:

a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), a Cosine transform, a Walsh transform, and a Wavelet transform.

5. The external communication system of claim 1, wherein the signal processor is further arranged such that stored samples that are grouped together within a time domain window are transformed together into the series of spectral terms.

6. The external communication system of claim 5, wherein the signal processor is further arranged overlap successive time domain windows with one another.

7. The external communication system of claim 1, wherein the capture interval for the receiver is at least five times longer than the transmit time associated with the transmission.

8. The external communication system of claim 1, wherein the capture interval for the receiver comprises a time domain window that is greater than the transmit time required for the transmission of multiple messages from the limited energy body implanted device, and wherein the signal processor is further arranged to process the captured samples for the time window such that the one or more narrowband interference signals are identified by the signal processor.

9. The external communication system of claim 1, wherein the signal processor is further arranged to store each spectral term in a respective bin from an array of bins after the transformation from the time domain into the transformed domain, wherein each bin from the array of bins represents a portion of a predetermined baseband frequency bandwidth.

10. The external communication system of claim 9, wherein the signal processor is further arranged to transform the stored samples from at least another portion of the capture interval into another series of spectral terms by performing another transformation from the time domain to the transformed domain, and accumulate each respective spectral term from the another transformation in their respective bin from the array of bins.

11. The external communication system of claim 10, wherein the signal processor is further arranged to evaluate the series of spectral terms by comparing the accumulated values in each bin to a threshold value.

12. The external communication system of claim 11, wherein the threshold value for each bin is determined at least in part by the average value associated the respective bin.

13. The external communication system of claim 1, wherein the signal processor is further arranged to inverse transform the filtered series of spectral terms to generate processed time domain data.

14. The external communication system of claim 13, further comprising a demodulator that is arranged to generate a demodulate signal from the processed time domain data, wherein the demodulator corresponds to either an analog demodulator or a digital demodulator.

15. The external communication system of claim 1, wherein the signal processor is further arranged to evaluate the filtered series of spectral terms to identify a signature associated with a demodulated signal.

16. An external communication system for communicating with multiple limited energy body implanted wireless device that is substantially shielded from a narrowband interference source, wherein the external communication system is arranged to mitigate effects of narrowband interference signals from the narrowband interference source, the external communication system comprising:

a receiver that is arranged to capture signals associated with a transmission from multiple limited energy body implanted devices during an extended capture interval for the receiver, wherein a duration of the extended capture interval for the receiver is substantially greater than a transmit time associated with the transmission from each of the limited energy body implanted devices, wherein the captured signals include at least one member of the group consisting of;

a portion of a message from each limited energy body implanted device, narrowband interference signals, and noise signals;

a buffer that is arranged to store samples associated with the captured signals; and

a signal processor that is arranged to process the stored samples, wherein the signal processor is arranged to;

transform the stored samples from at least a portion of the capture interval into a series of spectral terms by performing a transformation from a time domain into a transformed domain;

evaluate the series of spectral terms in the transformed domain to identify one or more spectral terms associated with the narrowband interference signals from the narrowband interference source, wherein the identified spectral terms are unrelated to the message from the limited energy body implanted device; and

initialize the identified terms associated with the narrowband interference source to a desired value to generate a filtered series of spectral terms, whereby the extended capture interval for the receiver is sufficiently long so that a common narrowband interferer can be identified for the multiple limited energy body implanted devices.

17. The external communication system of claim 16, wherein the extended capture interval is sufficiently long so that messages from more than one-hundred captures from the body implanted devices can be correlated to the common narrowband interferer.

18. A method for a main control unit top process communications from at least one limited energy body implanted wireless device that is substantially shielded from a narrowband interference source, wherein the main control unit is arranged to mitigate effects of narrowband interference signals from the narrowband interference source, the method for the main control unit comprising:

receiving an RF signal from an antenna;

mixing the RF signal with a local oscillator signal to generate a baseband difference signal with a limited frequency bandwidth;

sampling the difference signal to generate time domain samples;

storing the time domain samples in a capture memory as time domain data;

transforming at least a portion of the time domain data from the capture memory into a series of spectral terms by performing a transformation from a time domain into a transformed domain;

evaluating the series of spectral terms in the transformed domain to identify one or more spectral terms associated with the narrowband interference signals from the narrowband interference source, wherein the identified spectral terms are unrelated to the message from the limited energy body implanted device; and

initializing the identified terms associated with the narrowband interference source to a desired value to generate a filtered series of spectral terms.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising overlapping successive time domain windows of transformed data.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising overlapping successive time domain windows of transformed data from multiple capture time intervals over an extended capture interval such that a common narrowband interferer can be identified for each of a plurality of messages from a plurality of limited energy body implanted wireless devices.