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US 6,472,987 B1Granted
Wireless monitoring and identification using spatially inhomogeneous structures
AssigneeMassachusetts Institute of Technology
InventorsNeil Gershenfeld, Richard Fletcher
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Tags encode information by means of spatial inhomogeneities that may be detected in the time domain; in effect, characteristics in space are transformed into time for sensing purposes. Such tags may be very inexpensively produced yet carry appreciable quantities of data. The inhomogeneities may be obtained by simple physical modifications to, or externally applied field biases operating on, materials that are very inexpensive to procure.
Claims14
A method of sensing information, the method comprising the steps of:
- a. providing-a magnetically responsive element having a length;
- b. varying, along the length of the element, the responsiveness of the element to an applied field in a spatial pattern corresponding to the information, such that a propagation rate of a magnetic response along the length will vary in accordance with the spatial pattern;
- c. subjecting the element to an applied field to induce the magnetic response therein;
- and
- d. sensing changes in the response propagation rate to recover the spatially-encoded information.
2 more elements
A system for encoding and sensing information, the system comprising:
- a. a field-responsive element having a length along which is varied the responsiveness of the element to an applied field, the variation conforming to a spatial pattern corresponding to the information, such that a propagation rate of a magnetic response along the length will vary in accordance with the spatial pattern;
- and
- b. means for sensing a time-dependent response of the element to an applied field to recover the spatially encoded information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.