121 results about "Impulse radio" patented technology

A system, electronic monitor and method are provided that utilize the communication capabilities and positioning capabilities of impulse radio technology to enable people (e.g., broadcasters, fans, trainers, jockeys) to track a position of a horse as it moves around a race track and/or to enable people to monitor one or more vital signs of the moving horse. The present invention may also be used track and/or monitor other animals such as dogs and people.

A system for managing luggage handling includes: (a) a central information management appliance; (b) a plurality of portable impulse radio communication devices; and (c) at least one impulse radio transceiving instrument. The at least one impulse radio transceiving instrument, the plurality of communication devices and the central information management appliance are in communication. Selected portable impulse radio communication devices of the plurality of portable impulse radio communication devices are coded communication devices. Respective coded communication devices are attached with respective luggage items and communicate indication of at least one item relating to the respective luggage item.

An apparatus for transferring electromagnetic energy intermediate a host device and a medium or free space adjacent to the apparatus in an impulse radio system includes: (a) an energy guiding means for guiding the electromagnetic energy; the energy guiding means is connected with the host device; (b) an electromagnetic energy channeling structure effecting the transferring and including a plurality of gap interfaces; and (c) a transition means for coupling the energy guiding means with at least one gap interface of the plurality of gap interfaces. The transition means conveys the electromagnetic energy intermediate the energy guiding means and the at least one gap interface. The at least one gap interface intersects the transition means in a substantially continuous curve in selected planes intersecting the gap interface and the transition means.

A system for locating of objects in a three-dimensional space comprises: (a) an impulse radio network including at least three reference impulse radio units and at least one mobile position indicating apparatus; position information relating the impulse radio units is recorded by at least one indicating impulse radio unit; the impulse radio units are in communication; and (b) an affixing structure for affixing a respective mobile position indicating apparatus with a respective object. A respective mobile position indicating apparatus transmits an impulse radio identifying signal that is received by a receiving impulse radio unit. An indicating impulse radio unit cooperates with the receiving impulse radio unit in using the identifying signal for developing coordinate information for locating the respective mobile position indicating apparatus. The method comprises the steps of: (a) providing an impulse radio network including at least three reference impulse radio units and at least one mobile position indicating apparatus; position information relating the impulse radio units is recorded by at least one indicating impulse radio unit; the impulse radio units are in communication; (b) providing an affixing structure for affixing a respective mobile position indicating apparatus with a respective object; (c) transmitting an impulse radio identifying signal from a respective mobile position indicating apparatus; (d) Receiving the identifying signal by a receiving impulse radio unit; and (e) operating an indicating impulse radio unit in cooperation with the receiving impulse radio unit to determine the location of the mobile position indicating apparatus.

A semi-coaxial horn antenna transmits and receives electromagnetic waves, including impulse radio waves. The antenna includes an inner conductor that is surrounded by a cone-shaped dielectric, and an outer conductor that is conformally attached to the cone shaped dielectric. In embodiments, the inner conductor is a hollow metallic cylinder that is able to slide over a separate metal shaft, which may be part of a portable hand-tool device. The dielectric constant of the cone shaped dielectric may be selected to match a target medium. The outer conductor has a cross-section that is substantially an arc shape, and defines a sector angle phi that determines an impedance along the length of the antenna.

An impulse radio communications system using one or more subcarriers to communicate information from an impulse radio transmitter to an impulse radio receiver. The impulse radio communication system is an ultrawide-band time domain system. The use of subcarriers provides impulse radio transmissions added channelization, smoothing and fidelity. Subcarriers of different frequencies or waveforms can be used to add channelization of impulse radio signals. Thus, an impulse radio link can communicate many independent channels simultaneously by employing different subcarriers for each channel. The impulse radio uses modulated subcarrier(s) for time positioning a periodic timing signal or a coded timing signal. Alternatively, the coded timing signal can be summed or mixed with the modulated subcarrier(s) and the resultant signal is used to time modulate the periodic timing signal. Direct digital modulation of data is another form of subcarrier modulation for impulse radio signals. Direct digital modulation can be used alone to time modulate the periodic timing signal or the direct digitally modulated the periodic timing signal can be further modulated with one or more modulated subcarrier signals. Linearization of a time modulator permits the impulse radio transmitter and receiver to generate time delays having the necessary accuracy for impulse radio communications.

Potential interference is reduced in an impulse radio. A signal including an impulse signal and potential interference is received by the impulse radio. The impulse signal includes a sequence of impulses. The sequence of impulses of the received signal is sampled at a sequence of data sample times to produce a sequence of data samples. The received signal is also sampled at a plurality of time offsets from each of the data sample times to produce a plurality of nulling samples corresponding to each of the data samples. A separate sequence of nulling samples for each of the time offsets is thereby produced. Each of the data samples is then separately combined with a corresponding nulling sample from each of the separate sequences of nulling samples to produce a separate sequence of adjusted samples corresponding to each of the time offsets. A separate quality metric, representative of a signal-to-interference level, is then determined for each of the separate sequences of adjusted samples. A preferred sequence of samples is selected for further signal processing based on the determined quality metrics. Alternatively or additionally, one of the plurality of time offsets is selected as the preferred time offset based on the determined quality metrics.

The present invention relates to a method for generating and apparatus for employing code families having desirable correlation properties. Regardless of code length, maximum autocorrelation of the codes is 4 for any nonzero offset and maximum cross-correlation of any two codes from a code family is 4 for any offset. The codes can be used in impulse radio systems and non-impulse radio systems including CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDM and various other frequency hopping and direct sequence systems. The codes can be used to specify various impulse radio and non-impulse radio signal characteristics including pulse position in time, amplitude, width, type, phase, phase difference, frequency, spreading code, etc. The codes have the unique property that they can specify as many as two components in which a signal is not present. A method of code compression is provided.

A wireless local area network is provided that uses impulse radio technology to improve communications between a mobile node and access point. In one embodiment of the present invention, a wireless network, a mobile node and a method are provided that use the communication capabilities of impulse radio technology to overcome the problematical "dead zones" and "multipath interference" associated with a traditional wireless LAN. In another embodiment of the present invention, a wireless network, a mobile node and a method are provided that have an improved roaming scheme due to the use of the positioning and tracking capabilities of impulse radio technology. These embodiments and several other embodiments of the present invention are described herein.

A method for processing radio frequency reflections is provided. The method applies an RF waveform to a transmission line that is a conductor used for providing a utility service. The method uses a RF waveform generator to transmit UltraWideband (UWB) RF waveforms through the conductors of a building. The RF waveforms are emitted at emission points that can be impedance discontinuities along the transmission line or impulse radios. The emitted RF waveforms reflect off of objects in the building and are received at reception points that can be impedance discontinuities or impulse radios. These reflections are processed to determine movement of objects within or near the building. Based on the reflections of the RF waveforms, the position of the objects within or near the building can be determined.

The present invention provides a system and method for transmitting an ultrawideband (UWB) signal that is composed of an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) based signal that is transmitted in an underlay manner and an impulse radio based signal that is transmitted in an overlay manner. The system and method are effective in determining an interference temperature for each of multiple carriers within the UWB signal and classifying each one of the multiple carriers of the channel as being an interfered carrier or a non-interfered carrier based on the interference temperature for each one of multiple carriers. The desired signal is then transmitted on the interfered carriers at a signal power that is not greater than the power limit of the underlay UWB policy and on the non-interfered carriers at a signal power that is greater than the power limit of the underlay UWB policy.

An asymmetric bandwidth communication system enables wireless communication between interrogators/readers and transponders/tags. A transponder transmits TDCIR (Time Domain Carrierless Impulse Radio) signals in the uplink direction and receives non-TDCIR signals, such as electromagnetic continuous waves, in the downlink direction. The transponder may receive partial or whole power from non-TDCIR signals. The TDCIR utilizes electromagnetic impulses with short duration and ultra wide bandwidth. It offers high data rate reliable communication at low power and design complexity. It also demonstrates resilience against path fading, selective absorption and reflection by physical matters and excellent location determination capabilities.

A baseband signal converter device for an impulse radio receiver combines multiple converter circuits and an RF amplifier in a single integrated circuit package. Each converter circuit includes an integrator circuit that integrates a portion of each RF pulse during a sampling period triggered by a timing pulse generator. The integrator capacitor is isolated by a pair of Schottky diodes connected to a pair of load resistors. A current equalizer circuit equalizes the current flowing through the load resistors when the integrator is not sampling. Current steering logic transfers load current between the diodes and a constant bias circuit depending on whether a sampling pulse is present.