Electronic distance measurement equipment
AssigneeSecond Bridge Inc.
InventorsDennis Palatov, Marc Ganouna
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An assembly is provided combining a low power light source, a distance measuring radio, an electrical storage and an adapter compatible with an existing socket for a light unit. The unique configuration of the assembly enables deployment of distance measuring radios in buildings, vehicles and outdoor venues without the need to install dedicated infrastructure such as electrical grid connections. A method is further disclosed of automatically determining the location of a newly installed assembly by first learning the locations of already installed neighboring assemblies, measuring the distances to such known assemblies, and using the measured distances to determine the location of the newly installed assembly.
Claims8
An assembly comprising:
- a light source;
- an electrical energy storage;
- an adapter compatible with a standard light source socket;
- a distance measuring radio configured to scan, in a configuring mode as a tag, for neighboring anchors and tags whose position has already been determined and then configured to measure distance between the assembly and neighbors with known positions and once at least three neighbors with known positions are identified, distances to said at least three neighbors being measured by the distance measuring radio, such that a location of the assembly is geometrically computed by trilateration, the assembly being configured as an anchor;
- and
- wherein the distance measuring radio in a normal operating mode, since the assembly will remain stationary, a known position of the assembly is used to measure distances to moving tags, moving tags being able to use the known position and distance to a newly configured anchor consisting of the assembly, along with information from other configured anchors, to determine positions of the moving tags.
A method of configuring an assembly comprising
- a light source;
- a distance measuring radio;
- an electrical energy storage;
- and
- an adapter compatible with a standard light source socket and using the assembly to determine locations of moving tags, said method comprising successive steps of:
- a) checking whether a location of the assembly has already been determined,
- b) proceeding to step g) when the location of the assembly has been determined,
- c) configuring assembly as a tag and scanning for neighbors with known locations when the location of the assembly has not been determined,
- d) proceeding to step e) when at least 3 neighbors with known locations are detected, otherwise returning step c),
- e) measuring distances to said at least 3 neighbors with the known locations,
- f) calculating the location of the assembly by trilateration,
- g) configuring the assembly as an anchor, and
- wherein in a normal operating mode, since the assembly will remain stationary, a known location of the assembly is used to measure distances to the moving tags, the moving tags being able to use the known location and distance to a newly configured anchor consisting of the assembly, along with information from other configured anchors, to determine the locations of the moving tags.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.