US 2012/0269076 A1 · ANTENNA DIVERSITY FOR MAGNETIC INDUCTION RADIO

Abstract

A magnetic induction system is disclosed, which has antenna diversity at the transmitter side, but which does not require a bidirectional link to pass information regarding received signal quality back to the transmitter. The system uses a time division multiplexing access (TDMA) arrangement, to transmit the same, or correlated, information with a level of redundancy, from two, or more, antenna to at least a receiver. The or each receiver is configured to determine a received signal quality from the channel received from one antenna, and, in response to inadequate signal quality, to switch to another antenna. A receiver, and a transmitter for such a magnetic induction system are also disclosed, as is an associated method. A non-limiting application of such a system is in binaural hearing aids, in which antenna diversity is preferred at the transmitter because of space limitations.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A receiver for a magnetic induction transmission system and comprising:

an antenna for receiving a signal having at least a first part and a second part as a received first part and a received second part;
and a processor configured to process the received first part and to determine a first error rate from the received first part;
the processor being further configured to, in response to the first error rate not exceeding an error threshold, output the processed first part, and in response to the first error rate exceeding the error threshold, process the received second part, determine a second error rate from the received second part, and output the respective one of the processed first part and the processed second part corresponding to the lower of the first and second error rate.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Antenna diversity for magnetic induction radio

Life of this patent

Antenna diversity for magnetic induction radio

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims13