Elevated floor with integrated antennas
AssigneeJohnson Controls Technology Company
InventorsZhongYi Jin, Youngchoon Park, Wenwen Zhao
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A floor tile for an elevated floor in a building includes a non-through aperture defining a pocket within the floor tile having a base and one or more walls, an antenna disposed within the non-through aperture and configured to be communicably coupled to an access point, the antenna configured to transmit wireless signals, one or more reflective surfaces positioned on an inner surface of the non-through aperture and configured to reflect the wireless signals, and a shielding layer disposed on top of the antenna and configured to cover the non-through aperture to protect the antenna from an external environment.
Claims20
A floor tile for an elevated floor, the floor tile comprising:
- a non-through aperture defining a pocket within the floor tile having a base and one or more walls;
- an antenna disposed within the non-through aperture and configured to be communicably coupled to an access point, the antenna configured to transmit wireless signals;
- one or more reflective surfaces positioned on an inner surface of the non-through aperture and configured to reflect the wireless signals;
- and
- a shielding layer disposed on top of the antenna and configured to cover the non-through aperture to protect the antenna from an external environment.
A system for locating assets within a building, the system comprising:
- one or more access points positioned under an elevated floor of the building and configured to periodically transmit a unique identifier;
- one or more antennas coupled to the one or more access points and configured to wirelessly broadcast the unique identifier for a corresponding one of the one or more access points, the one or more antennas disposed within a non-through aperture of one or more tiles of the elevated floor;
- and
- one or more memory devices having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
- receiving, from a first asset, first data comprising a unique identifier for a first access point of the one or more access points;
- identifying the first access point based on the unique identifier;
- and
- determining location coordinates of the first asset within the building based on a location of the identified first access point.
A method of locating an asset within a building, the method comprising:
- transmitting, by a first access point located under an elevated floor of the building, a wireless signal comprising a unique identifier associated with the first access point, the wireless signal transmitted by a first antenna disposed within a non-through aperture of a tile of the elevated floor and coupled to the first access point;
- receiving, by a one or more processors and from a first asset with the building, first data comprising a copy of the unique identifier associated with the first access point and a signal strength associated with a wireless transmission of the unique identifier;
- identifying, by the one or more processors, the first access point based on the unique identifier;
- and
- determining location coordinates for the first asset within the building based on a location of the identified first access point and the signal strength.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.