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US 10,754,002 B1Granted
Method and apparatus for determining the direction of arrival of radio or acoustic signals, and for transmitting directional radio or acoustic signals
OwnerGregory Dean Gibbonsinventor
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Abstract
A directional receiver system may include a receiver, a plurality of receive antenna elements, and a circuit. The receiver may include an input port and an output. The plurality of receive antenna elements may be fixedly configured into a known geometric relationship to each other, and each of the receive antenna elements may be connected to the input port of the receiver. The circuit may be coupled to the output of the receiver, configured to determine time differences at which signals from a source are incident upon the antenna elements, and configured to determine an angular orientation of the source to the receive antenna elements based on the time differences.
Claims35
A directional receiver system comprising:
- a receiver comprising at least a single input port and an output;
- a plurality of receive antenna elements configured into a known geometric relationship to each other, each of the receive antenna elements being connected to the single input port of the receiver by one of a plurality of circuits, each of the plurality of circuits adding one of a plurality of known, fixed delays such that outputs from each of the receive antenna elements are received at the single input port of the receiver;
- and
- a circuit, coupled to the output of the receiver, including a time of arrival estimator configured to determine, from the outputs received at the single input port of the receiver, time differences at which signals from a source are incident upon the antenna elements and an angle of arrival estimator configured to determine an angular orientation of the source to the receive antenna elements based on the time differences and the known, fixed delays.
1 more element
A directional antenna system comprising:
- a transmitter comprising at least a single output port;
- a plurality of transmit antenna elements fixedly configured into a known geometric relationship to each other, the transmit antenna elements each being coupled to the single output port by one of a plurality of circuits, each of the plurality of circuits adding one of a plurality of known, fixed delays;
- a receiver, comprising at least one receive antenna element and an output, configured to receive signals from the transmit antenna elements from the single output port of the transmitter;
- and
- a circuit, coupled to the output of the receiver, including a time of arrival estimator configured to determine, from the signals received from the single output port of the transmitter, time differences at which signals from the transmitter are incident upon the antenna elements and an angle of arrival estimator configured to determine an angular orientation of the transmit antenna elements to the at least one receive antenna element based on the time differences and the known, fixed delays.
2 more elements
A directional receiver, comprising:
- a processor element comprising at least a single input port;
- and
- a plurality of receive antenna elements, fixedly configured into a known geometric relationship to each other, each of the antenna elements being electrically connected to the single input port of the processor element by one of a plurality of circuits, each of the plurality of circuits adding one of a plurality of known, fixed delays such that outputs from each of the receive antenna elements are received at the single input port of the receiver;
- wherein a time interval from a time at which a signal is incident upon each of the antenna elements to a time of arrival of energy collected by each antenna element at the single input port of the processor element is known, and electrical connections of the receive antenna elements to the single input port of the processor element are so configured that a signal observed by the processor element is a time domain sum of the signals from the plurality of receive antenna elements;
- and
- wherein the processor element is configured to:
- perform analog-to-digital sampling to generate digital signals reflecting waveforms present in the observed signal,
- perform signal processing to apply signal conditioning and de-spreading processes to the digital signals to generate de-spread signal samples,
- calculate a signal to noise ratio (SNR) and complex amplitude of each de-spread signal sample,
- apply an algorithm for estimating time of arrival of signals of interest in the de-spread signal sample, and
- estimate a time difference of arrival of the observed signals originating in pairs of the plurality of receive antenna elements.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.