Passive wireless coil-based markers and tracking system

Abstract

A wireless passive marker device (1) to be tracked and a respective tracking system (3) are provided which make use of a sensing unit (10) comprising a resonator element (11) with piezoelectric properties and a coil element (13), whereby an externally applied excitation field having a particular frequency is applied to act on the sensing unit (10) and wherein the sensing unit (10) responds to the externally applied excitation field by the resonator element (11) performing persisting mechanical oscillations in resonant mode, the persisting mechanical oscillations resulting in a piezoelectric voltage causing the coil element (13) to generate a magnetic field that may then be detected by the tracking system (3) and used for determining the position of the marker device (1) and/or sensing a physical property in the surrounding environment of the marker device (1).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.