Low-cost tracking system

A tracking circuit in an electronic console for detecting the position of a target device, the tracking circuit comprising:

• a reference signal generator to generate a reference signal and to transmit the reference signal along a first fixed wired path and along a second fixed wired path;
• first gating logic coupled to receive the reference signal from the reference signal generator via the first fixed wired path, and to gate the reference signal to pass the reference signal through the first gating logic only during time intervals when the first gating logic is enabled;
• a wireless transmitter coupled to receive the gated reference signal from the first gating logic and to generate a wireless reference burst signal representing the gated reference signal, the wireless reference burst signal comprising a plurality of signal bursts during the time intervals when the first gating logic is enabled;
• a plurality of receivers to receive a retransmitted wireless reference burst signal transmitted from the target device, the retransmitted wireless reference burst signal retransmitted by the target device to the plurality of receivers in response to the target device receiving the wireless reference burst signal;
• a plurality of phase comparison circuits corresponding to the plurality of receivers, each phase comparison circuit having a first input to receive the reference signal and a second input to receive the retransmitted wireless reference burst signal received by an associated one of the plurality of receivers, each phase comparison circuit comparing a first phase of the reference signal to a second phase of the retransmitted wireless reference burst signal when it is respectively received by each of the phase comparator circuits to generate respective phase comparison signals for each of the phase comparator circuits;
• second gating logic in each of the plurality of receivers that are enabled during respective second time intervals following detection of the retransmitted wireless reference burst signal, each second gating logic gating respective phase comparison signals to pass through respective phase comparison signals of each of the plurality of receivers only during the second time intervals to generate respective gated phase comparison signals for each of the plurality of receivers;
• and
• state machines in each of the plurality of receivers to receive the respective gated phase comparison signals and determine a coordinate of the target device in three-dimensional space with respect to a reference coordinated based on the respective gated phase comparison signals.