Radio signal transmitter with multiple antennas for improved position detection

Abstract

A radio frequency (RF) signal transmission device (the “device”) is used as a tracked target in a position tracking system (the “system”). In the preferred embodiments, the device's position is determined by analyzing the time difference of arrival of the device's RF signals received at multiple receivers which are part of the system. The device has two antennas spaced a known distance apart and the device alternately transmits on these antennas or can use code-division multiplexing for individual antenna's signal detection. The system detects the position of both antennas at their respective phase center and determines the distance between the two calculated antenna positions. By comparing the calculated distance to actual known distance the system can assess the quality of the calculated positions.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.