Apparatus and method for performing the delay estimation of signals propagating through an environment

A system for performing time delay estimation of signals propagating through an environment, comprising:

• a transmitter configured to transmit multiple signals through the environment, wherein the transmitted signals travel through the environment until they strike at least one object, thereby generating multiple signals reflected from the object;
• one or more sensors configured to receive the multiple reflected signals;
• and
• a time delay estimator operative to receive representations of the transmitted signals, to measure time delays between multiple pairs of signals, each pair comprising a respective reflected signal and a representation of a respective transmitted signal, thereby generating time delay estimation data from the measured time delays,
• wherein at least some of the time delays between the multiple pairs of signals are measured at different points in time.

A method of performing time delay estimation of signals propagating through an environment, comprising the steps of:

• receiving a plurality of signals by one or more sensors;
• measuring time delays between multiple pairs of the plurality of signals by a time delay estimator;
• and
• generating time delay estimation data from the measured time delays by the time delay estimator,
• wherein at least some of the time delays between the multiple pairs of signals are measured at different points in time.

A method of performing time delay estimation of signals propagating through an environment, comprising the steps of:

• transmitting multiple signals through the environment by a transmitter, wherein the transmitted signals travel through the environment until they strike at least one object, thereby generating multiple signals reflected from the object;
• receiving the multiple reflected signals by one or more sensors;
• receiving representations of the transmitted signals by a time delay estimator;
• measuring time delays between multiple pairs of signals by the time delay estimator, each pair comprising a respective reflected signal and a representation of a respective transmitted signal;
• and
• generating time delay estimation data from the measured time delays by the time delay estimator,
• wherein at least some of the time delays between the multiple pairs of signals are measured at different points in time.

A method of performing time delay estimation of signals propagating through an environment, comprising the steps of:

• receiving a plurality of signals by one or more sensors;
• estimating time delays between multiple pairs of the plurality of signals by a time delay estimator;
• generating time delay estimation data by the time delay estimator;
• generating a statistical distribution of the time delay estimation data by a data analyzer;
• calculating a first statistical estimate of time delay from the statistical distribution of the time delay estimation data by the data analyzer;
• determining a next set of boundaries of the time delay estimation distribution;
• removing at least one time delay estimate disposed outside of the boundaries from the time delay estimation distribution;
• calculating a second statistical estimate of time delay from the statistical distribution of the time delay estimation data by the data analyzer;
• and
• in the event the difference between the second statistical estimate and the first statistical estimate is greater than a predetermined threshold value, repeating the determining step, the removing step, and the second calculating step.

A method of performing time delay estimation of signals propagating through an environment, comprising the steps of:

• receiving multiple sets of signals by a plurality of sensors, each signal set comprising a plurality of signals;
• temporally aligning the multiple sets of signals;
• calculating the mean energy of the signals received by each sensor, thereby generating a mean signal energy distribution;
• identifying one or more peaks within the mean signal energy distribution based on a predetermined threshold;
• defining a respective temporal window around each peak;
• and
• calculating a statistical estimate of time delay corresponding to each respective peak, the statistical estimate being calculated from the mean signal energy distribution within each temporal window around the respective peak.