Methods and apparatus for user equipment to differentiate human grip from protective covers

An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

• multiple antenna arrays;
• a receiver configured to receive a plurality of cross-polarization captures from the multiple antenna arrays;
• a memory;
• a processor coupled to the memory, the processor and the memory being configured to:
• detect that the plurality of cross-polarization captures from the multiple antenna arrays correspond to a first open space (OS) circle in an in-phase/quadrature (IQ) plane out of a set of possible OS circles for the apparatus,
• assign the first OS circle as an active OS circle for the apparatus and deactivate other possible OS circles in the set, based on the detection, and
• determine an environmental scenario corresponding to the active OS circle;
• and
• a transmitter configured to transmit a signal using a transmission power based on the determined environmental scenario.

An apparatus for wireless communications, comprising:

• means for receiving a plurality of cross-polarization captures from multiple antenna arrays of the apparatus;
• means for detecting that the plurality of cross-polarization captures from the multiple antenna arrays correspond to a first open space (OS) circle in an in-phase/quadrature (IQ) plane out of a set of possible OS circles for the apparatus;
• means for assigning the first OS circle as an active OS circle for the apparatus and deactivating other possible OS circles in the set, based on the detection;
• means for determining an environmental scenario corresponding to the active OS circle;
• and
• means for transmitting a signal using a transmission power based on the determined environmental scenario.