Location of cooperative tags with personal electronic device

• US 8,583,145 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2011
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Santa Mionica Semiconductor
• Original Assignee: RoundTrip, LLC
• Inventors: Karr, Lawrence J., Mankovitz, Roy J.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DANH C
• Application Number:
  US13/049,599
• Publication Number:
  US 20110207475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 972 Days
• Field of Search: 455/456.5, 455/456.6, 455/456.1, 342/357.2
• US Class Current: 455/456.5
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/825 with exchange of information between interrogator and responder
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0284 Relative positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0227 System arrangements with a plurality of child units
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/023 Power management, e.g. system sleep and wake up provisions
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0263 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect the direction in which child or item is located
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0266 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect the exact distance between parent and child or surveyor and item
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0272 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect exact location of child or item using triangulation other than GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to location and communication systems that can be utilized for locating people, pets and other objects with a software defined radio set. A personal electronic device (PED) such as a cellular telephone, personal data assistant (PDA) or other device that include a software defined radio set can be configured for operation as a locator device. The PED transmits a signal A transponder or micro-transponder (MT) that is tagged to an object is arranged to reply to a transmission received from the PED. The PED based locator is arranged to calculate a distance between the PED and the MT using the time-of-flight (TOF) between the transmission and the receipt of a reply. The absolute geographic position of the PED can be determined using satellite navigation information, while the position of the MT relative to the PED can be determined from the TOF information.

Claims

1. A method for determining the relative position of a transponder with a radio transceiver in a personal electronic device (PED) that also includes a satellite navigation system, the method comprising:

activating a locator mode in the personal electronic device;

identifying a target ID associated with the transponder;

transmitting a sequence that is coded for the identified target ID to the transponder with the radio transceiver;

capturing samples of a radio spectrum with the transceiver for receipt of a reply from the transponder;

retrieving velocity vectors from the satellite navigation system;

extracting apparent velocities associated with the captured samples and the transponder;

correlating the retrieved velocity vectors with the apparent velocities; and

determining a time-of-flight between the transmission of the sequence and the correlated receipt of the reply from the transponder and at least one of the direction, distance, and exact location of the transponder from the locator to the transponder using the correlation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the velocity vectors retrieved from the satellite navigation system are mapped to a time of receipt for the captured samples.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitted sequence is a structured multi-frame sequence.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining locations associated with the PED using the satellite navigation system during a path of travel associated with the PED, and determining the location of the transponder from the determined locations and distances associated with the PED during the path of travel.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing the samples of the radio spectrum with the transceiver occur at an expected time.

6. A system for determining the relative position of a transponder with a personal electronic device (PED), comprising:

a transponder;

a satellite navigation system;

a personal electronic device (PED) comprising a radio transceiver, wherein the PED is configured to perform operations, comprising;

activating a locator mode;

identifying a target ID associated with the transponder;

transmitting a sequence that is coded for the identified target ID to the transponder with the radio transceiver;

capturing samples of a radio spectrum with the transceiver for receipt of a reply from the transponder;

retrieving velocity vectors from the satellite navigation system;

extracting apparent velocities associated with the captured samples and the transponder;

correlating the retrieved velocity vectors with the apparent velocities; and

determining a time-of-flight between the transmission of the sequence and the correlated receipt of the reply from the transponder and at least one of the direction, distance, and exact location of the transponder from the locator to the transponder using the correlation.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the velocity vectors retrieved from the satellite navigation system are mapped to a time of receipt for the captured samples.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the transmitted sequence is a structured multi-frame sequence.

9. The system of claim 6, further comprising determining locations associated with the PED using the satellite navigation system during a path of travel associated with the PED, and determining the location of the transponder from the determined locations and distances associated with the PED during the path of travel.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein capturing the samples of the radio spectrum with the transceiver occur at an expected time.