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US 7,049,965 B2Granted
Surveillance systems and methods
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsTimothy Patrick Kelliher, Jens Rittscher, Peter Henry Tu, Kevin Chean, Harold Woodruff Tomlinson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Surveillance systems and methods having both a radio frequency component and a video image are provided. The radio frequency component can determine the orientation and position of an RFID tag within a surveillance area. The orientation of the RFID tag is can be determined with respect to two or more orthogonal planes using inductance and a predetermined number of mutually orthogonal antenna loops.
Claims16
A surveillance system comprising:
- a first loop antenna;
- a second loop antenna substantially orthogonal to said first loop antenna, said first and second loop antennas being inductively couplable with a tag through magnetic fields;
- a first attenuator driving said first loop antenna;
- a second attenuator driving said second loop antenna;
- a z ramp generator to provide a z control signal to said first attenuator;
- a y ramp generator to provide a y control signal to said second attenuator;
- a signal processing component for estimating an orientation of said tag based on a magnitude of an inductively coupled modulated signal from said tag as an orientation of a coupling field generated from said first and second loop antennas is scanned through a range of angles;
- a splitter coupled to said signal processing component,
- wherein said signal processing component comprises:
- a bandpass filter coupled to said splitter;
- an envelope detector coupled to said bandpass filter;
- a modulation minimum detector coupled to said envelope detector;
- and
- an angle calculator coupled to said modulation minimum detector, said angle calculator configured to estimate said orientation.
11 more elements
A surveillance system comprising:
- a first loop antenna;
- a second loop antenna substantially orthogonal to said first loop antenna, said first and second loop antennas being inductively couplable with a tag through magnetic fields;
- a first attenuator driving said first loop antenna;
- a second attenuator driving said second loop antenna;
- a z ramp generator to provide a z control signal to said first attenuator;
- a y ramp generator to provide a y control signal to said second attenuator;
- a signal processing component for estimating an orientation of said tag based on a magnitude of an inductively coupled modulated signal from said tag as an orientation of a coupling field generated from said first and second loop antennas is scanned through a range of angles;
- a splitter coupled to said signal processing component;
- and
- a video-processing component in communication with said signal-processing component to receive said orientation,
- wherein said signal processing component comprises:
- a bandpass filter coupled to said splitter;
- an envelope detector coupled to said bandpass filter;
- a modulation minimum detector coupled to said envelope detector;
- an angle calculator coupled to said modulation minimum detector, said angle calculator configured to estimate said orientation.
12 more elements
A surveillance system comprising:
- a first loop antenna;
- a second loop antenna substantially orthogonal to said first loop antenna, said first and second loop antennas being inductively couplable with a tag through magnetic fields;
- a third loop antenna substantially orthogonal to both said first and second loop antennas;
- a first attenuator driving said first loop antenna;
- a second attenuator driving said second loop antenna;
- a z ramp generator to provide a z control signal to said first attenuator;
- a y ramp generator to provide a y control signal to said second attenuator;
- a signal processing component for estimating an orientation of said tag based on a magnitude of an inductively coupled modulated signal from said tag as an orientation of a coupling field generated from said first and second loop antennas is scanned through a range of angles;
- a splitter coupled to said signal processing component;
- and
- a video-processing component in communication with said signal-processing component to receive said orientation,
- wherein said signal processing component comprises:
- a bandpass filter coupled to said splitter;
- an envelope detector coupled to said bandpass filter;
- a modulation minimum detector coupled to said envelope detector;
- and
- an angle calculator coupled to said modulation minimum detector, said angle calculator configured to estimate said orientation.
14 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.