2405 results about "Directional antenna" patented technology

System for obtaining information about a vehicle or a component therein includes sensors arranged to generate and transmit a signal upon receipt and detection of a radio frequency (RF) signal and a multi-element, switchable directional antenna array. Each antenna element is directed toward a respective sensor and transmitter RF signals toward that sensor and receive return signals therefrom. A control mechanism controls transmission of the RF signals from the antenna elements, e.g., causes the antenna elements to be alternately switched on in order to sequentially transmit the RF signals and receive the return signals from the sensors or cause the antenna elements to transmit the RF signals simultaneously and space the return signals from the sensors via a delay line in circuitry from each antenna element such that each return signal is spaced in time in a known manner without requiring switching of the antenna elements.

Some embodiments provide a system for charging devices. The system includes a master device and a slave device. Some embodiments provide a method for charging devices in a system that includes a slave device and a master device. The slave device includes (1) an antenna to receive a radio frequency (RF) beam and (2) a power generation module connected to the antenna that converts RF energy received by the slave antenna to power. The master device includes (1) a directional antenna to direct RF power to the antenna of the slave device and (2) a module that provides power to the directional antenna of the master device.

System for obtaining information about a vehicle or a component therein includes sensors arranged to generate and transmit a signal upon receipt and detection of a radio frequency (RF) signal and a multi-element, switchable directional antenna array. Each antenna element is directed toward a respective sensor and transmitter RF signals toward that sensor and receive return signals therefrom. A control mechanism controls transmission of the RF signals from the antenna elements, e.g., causes the antenna elements to be alternately switched on in order to sequentially transmit the RF signals and receive the return signals from the sensors or cause the antenna elements to transmit the RF signals simultaneously and space the return signals from the sensors via a delay line in circuitry from each antenna element such that each return signal is spaced in time in a known manner without requiring switching of the antenna elements.

Some embodiments provide a system for charging devices. The system includes a master device and a slave device. Some embodiments provide a method for charging devices in a system that includes a slave device and a master device. The slave device includes (1) an antenna to receive a radio frequency (RF) beam and (2) a power generation module connected to the antenna that converts RF energy received by the slave antenna to power. The master device includes (1) a directional antenna to direct RF power to the antenna of the slave device and (2) a module that provides power to the directional antenna of the master device.

A system and a method for position determination by impulse radio using a first transceiver having a first clock providing a first reference signal and a second transceiver placed spaced from the first transceiver. The system determines the position of the second transceiver. The second transceiver has a second clock that provides a second reference signal. A first sequence of pulses are transmitted from the first transceiver. The first sequence of pulses are then received at the second transceiver and the second transceiver is then synchronized with the first sequence of pulses. A second sequence of pulses are transmitted from the second transceiver. The first transceiver receives the second sequence of pulses and the first transceiver is synchronized with the second sequence of pulses. A delayed first reference signal is generated in response to the synchronization with the second sequence of pulses. A time difference between the delayed first reference signal and the first reference signal is then measured. The time difference indicates a total time of flight of the first and second sequence of pulses. The distance between the first and the second transceiver is determined from the time difference. The direction of the second transceiver from the first transceiver is determined using a directional antenna. Finally, the position of the second transceiver is determined using the distance and the direction.

A charging device (200) is provided for communicating with one or more consumer devices (300) for remotely charging at least one of them upon demand of the consumer. The charging device (200) comprises a transmitter unit associated with an antenna unit comprising a power antenna configured to define at least one charging zone for transmitting charging power to the at least one charging zone; a receiver for receiving signals from consumers (300) located within the charging zone; and a controller unit. The controller is configured and operable to be responsive to a request signal from a consumer (300) indicative of demand for charging, to initiate a charging process of the consumer by radiation from the power antenna toward said consumer (300) to supply power required for operating a functional unit of said consumer (300). The power antenna may comprise an array of directional antenna elements, each defining the charging zone within a different angular segment of entire charging space defined by a radiation pattern of the antenna array.

A remote vehicle control system having a base transceiver mounted in a vehicle and a mobile key fob. The base transceiver utilizes an omni-directional antenna to communicate wirelessly with the key fob via the IEEE 802.15.4 communication protocol. Additional antennas are mounted to the vehicle and are also tuned to communicate over the IEEE 802.15.4 bandwidth. The additional antennas have radiation patterns extending outwardly to various sides of the vehicle (e.g., driver, passenger and rear sides). The system provides remote control functions and enables passive keyless entry functions such as unlocking doors or trunk latches by detecting the presence of the key fob proximate to one or more sides of the vehicle based on the ability of the key fob to communicate over IEEE 802.15.4 via the additional antennas.

The present invention relates to a wireless transmitter comprising a transmitter radio unit working a wireless transmitter comprising a transmitter radio unit working in the millimeter wave frequency band using a directional antenna and a bidirectional radio unit working in a frequency range different from said transmitter radio unit and using an omnidirectional antenna. The invention further relates to a wireless receiver and a wireless relay.

An antenna system that includes a directional antenna designed to reduce the occurrence of side lobes, thus reducing the possibility of interference with other radio frequencies is disclosed. The directional antenna includes an antenna member and a reflecting tube. The reflective tube is sleeved over the antenna member. The reflective serves to block unwanted radial side lobes. The directional antenna can also include provisions that assist in suspending the antenna member within the reflective tube.

A system and method for determining the attitude of a platform is provided. The method includes: (a) Searching and scanning for one or more GPS satellite(s) to determine initial platform position; wherein a single directionally steered antenna scans for the GPS / GNSS satellite; (b) pointing and scanning the antenna to GPS / GNSS satellite to determine a first angular measurement of a direction of a GPS / GNSS signal; (c) measuring carrier to noise ratio of the GPS / GNSS satellite; (d) dithering the single directionally steered antenna to obtain an angular measurement relative to an antenna pattern bore-sight reference; (e) repeating steps (b)-(d) to determine a second angular measurement of the direction of a second GPS signal; (f) determining the attitude error of the platform using the first and second angular measurements; (g) updating the platform position and attitude.

Methods and apparatus for high throughput wireless cells, capable of functioning as access points, are described. The wireless cells may be equipped with multiple radios to increase the amount of throughput available through a single wireless cell. Multiple antennas attached to the radios through RF switches may enable the wireless cell to service multiple clients simultaneously. The physical sectors of the antennas may overlapped to form virtual sectors that provide greater flexibility in client load management and in simultaneously servicing multiple clients. Attenuators may reduce interference from foreign wireless cells or clients. Systems and methods for assigning minimally interfering channels to either physical sectors or to radios to reduce interference between adjacent sectors and overlapping sectors are also disclosed. An antenna horn may also allow any antenna to be used as a directional antenna and may enable the antenna's angle of coverage to be adjusted. The use of multiple antennas on a client to reduce interferences is also described.

A terrestrial data communications wireless link includes a first link end that has a first directional antenna, a first beacon and a first redirecting assembly coupled to the first directional antenna. The wireless link also includes a second link end having a second directional antenna, a second beacon and a second redirecting assembly coupled to the second directional antenna. In use the first directional antenna and the second directional antenna are maintained in mutual alignment by the first redirecting assembly redirecting the first directional antenna in response to a signal from the second beacon and the second redirecting assembly redirecting the second directional antenna in response to a signal from the first beacon.

Provided are a method and apparatus for transmitting / receiving data by using a multi-path. The multi-path is established between two transceivers, data is transmitted via each path at a predetermined time, a data receipt acknowledge control signal ACK of each path is received, and a path by which the data receipt acknowledge control signal ACK is not received is determined. Therefore, the path by which the data receipt acknowledge control signal ACK is not received is not used any further but data is transmitted via a path by which the data is previously transmitted, so that the data can be transmitted even if a line of sight (LOS) of the two transceivers comprising a directional antenna is blocked by a person or an obstacle.

A wireless device having an improved antenna system is disclosed comprising one or more antenna, preferably circularly polarized antenna, for transmitting or receiving a signal, and one or more floating ground planes, wherein the floating ground plane preferably is electrically isolated from and in sufficient proximity to the antenna so that it is inductively coupled to the antenna. The floating ground plane may comprise one or more of a strip, band, foil, plate, block, wire mesh, sheet or coating of conductive material and, for example, may be a relatively thin copper strip, band, foil or coating. The circularly polarized antenna, preferably comprises a flat planar shaped radiating element sized and configured to resonate at a predetermined, desired frequency, frequencies or band of frequencies, and a flat planar shaped antenna ground, both radiating element and antenna ground formed on the same printed circuit board. The radiating element is electrically isolated from the antenna ground but sufficiently close to resonate at the desired frequencies. Preferably the floating ground plane is larger than or more massive than the antenna ground, and preferably larger than or more massive than the radiating element. In a further embodiment the wireless device comprises a housing for interfacing with a user, the housing comprising a conductive contact exposed to the exterior of the housing and configured to be contacted by a user, wherein the conductive contact is electrically connected to the floating ground plane, preferably so that the user is coupled to the antenna and becomes part of the antenna system. The floating ground plane may also preferably be configured to substantially cover or overlap the antenna, and may also be configured to distribute and propagate the electromagnetic signals away from the head of the user.

A reconfigurable directional antenna for transmission and reception of electromagnetic radiation includes a transmission line aligned with and adjacent to a metal antenna element with an evanescent coupling edge having a selectively variable electromagnetic coupling geometry. The shape and direction of the beam are determined by the selected coupling geometry of the coupling edge, as determined by the pattern of electrical connections selected for physical edge features of the coupling edge. The electrical connections between the edge features are selected by the selective actuation of an array of “on-off” switches that close and open electrical connections between individual edge features. The selection of the “on” or “off” state of the individual switches thus changes the electromagnetic geometry of the coupling edge, and, therefore the direction and shape of the transmitted or received beam. The actuation of the switches may be accomplished under the control of an appropriately-programmed computer.

Multi-directional antenna apparatuses, which may include phased array antennas and / or arrays of multiple antennas, and methods for operating these directional antennas. In particular, described herein are apparatuses configured to operate as an access point (AP) for communicating with one or more station devices by assigning a particular directional beam to each access point, and communicating with each station device using the assigned directional beam at least part of the time. Methods and apparatuses configured to optimize the assignment of one or more directional beam and for communicating between different station devices using assigned directional beams are described. Also described are methods of connecting a radio device to an antenna by connecting a USB connector on the radio device to a USB connector on an antenna and identifying the antenna based on a voltage of the ground pin on the antenna's USB connector.

A fully automated package identification and measuring system, in which an omni-directional laser scanning system are used to read bar codes on packages entering the tunnel, while a package dimensioning subsystem is used to capture information about the package prior to entry into the tunnel. Mathematical models are created on a real-time basis for the geometry of the package and the position of the laser scanning beam used to read the bar code symbol thereon. The mathematical models are analyzed to determine if collected and queued package identification data is spatially and / or temporally correlated with package measurement data using vector-based ray-tracing methods, homogeneous transformations, and object-oriented decision logic so as to enable simultaneous tracking of multiple packages being transported through the scanning tunnel.

A system to improve safety of workers who are in proximity to mobile machines includes a machine mountable radio-frequency identification reader that wirelessly monitors radio-frequency identification tags worn by workers moving relative to and in proximity to a mobile machine when the reader is mounted on the machine. The reader includes a processor and an antenna front-end which is switchable between an omni-directional antenna or at least one directional antenna. The omni-directional antenna is mountable so as to monitor a machine circumference completely around the mobile machine. Each directional antenna is mountable so as to monitor only either a front or a back of the mobile machine relative to the machines direction of motion.

An access point operates in an 802.11 wireless communication network communicating with a client station, and includes a smart antenna for generating directional antenna beams and an omni-directional antenna beam. An antenna steering algorithm scans the directional antenna beams and the omni-directional antenna beam for receiving signals from the client station. The signals received via each scanned antenna beam are measured, and one of the antenna beams is selected based upon the measuring for communicating with the client station. The selected antenna beam is preferably a directional antenna beam. Once the directional antenna beam has been selected, there are several usage rules for exchanging data with the client station. The usage rules are directed to an active state of the access point, which includes a data transmission mode and a data reception mode.

An antenna is provided comprising a pair of driven elements and a pair of passive elements. The driven elements are disposed on opposite sides of a reference plane, and the passive elements are also disposed on opposite sides of the reference plane. One or both passive elements may be provided in a different plane than the driven elements. By varying placement of the passive elements the antenna radiation pattern can be altered. An antenna array is also provided, comprising two or more oppositely directed directional antennas at least one of which is as described above. The passive elements of the antennas can be adjusted for a desired coverage pattern of the array, such as an azimuthal omnidirectional pattern, for example through simulation. The antenna or array may be embodied on a printed circuit board.

Methods and systems for configuring an access point (AP) are provided. According to one embodiment, a dual radio AP includes: two radios, a first operating at 2.4 GigaHertz (GHz) or 5 GHz and a second operating at 5 GHz; first and second directional antennas coupled to the first and second radios, respectively; first and second transmit queues buffering packets for transmission by the first and second radios, respectively; a location determination module configured to compute locations of recipient devices of the packets; a direction identification module configured to calculate angles to direct the directional antennas based on the computed locations; an interference detection module configured to determine whether interference would take place if the packets are transmitted based on the calculated angles and estimated timing of transmission; and a transmission module configured to transmit the packets without interference between the directional antennas by rescheduling packets if necessary.

A wireless communication system can implement beamforming across multiple omni-directional antennas to create beams at different spatial directions. The communication system can arrange the beams in sets, with each set arranged to provide substantially complete coverage over a predetermined coverage area. The communication system can arrange the multiple SDMA beam sets to support substantially complementary coverage areas, such that a main beam from a first set provides coverage to a weak coverage area of the second beam set. The wireless communication system assigns or otherwise allocates substantially orthogonal resources to each of the beam sets. The wireless communication system allocates resources to a communication link using a combination of beam sets and substantially orthogonal resources in order to provide improved coverage without a corresponding increase in interference.

Embodiments generally relate to an antenna. The antenna includes at least two slot radiators, where each slot radiator has an input port and a profile that has been defined to optimize the return loss bandwidth of the antenna. The antenna also includes a transmission line and a circuit configured to connect the transmission line and the at least two slot radiators at the respective input ports. The circuit is also configured to match the impedance of the at least two slot radiators and the co-planar waveguide.

Networks, devices and methods related to wireless networking. A wireless network using nodes that perform both distribution and backhaul functions is provided. These nodes constitute the key elements of a wireless network that would be deployed and controlled by a wireless network operator. Each node contains a distribution wireless module which is wirelessly coupled to the wireless end user device using a point to multipoint scheme. Also integrated into each node is at least one backhaul wireless module with a directional wireless antenna. Each backhaul wireless module communicates by way of a point to point wireless link with the backhaul module of one other node. The nodes in the wireless network are interconnected to form a mesh backhaul network. Because of the nature of a mesh network, data traffic can be routed around obstacles that may prevent line of site links. Furthermore, the mesh network allows dynamic routing of data traffic to avoid congestion points or downed links in the network.

A method of using a directional sensor for the purposes of detecting the presence of a vehicle or an object within a zone of interest on a roadway or in a parking space. The method comprises the following steps: transmitting a microwave transmit pulse of less than 5 feet; radiating the transmitted pulse by a directional antenna system; receiving received pulses by an adjustable receive window; integrating or combining signals from multiple received pulses; amplifying and filtering the integrated receive signal; digitizing the combined signal; comparing the digitized signal to at least one preset or dynamically computed threshold values to determine the presence or absence of an object in the field of view of the sensor; and providing at least one pulse generator with rise and fall times of less than 3 ns each and capable of generating pulses less than 10 ns in duration.

Method for radio communication in a wireless local area network and transceiving device refers to wireless local area networks (WLAN) consisting of a multitude of transceiving devices of users (14, 15, 16 . . . N). Simultaneous scanning by their antenna beams in different directions by the transceiving devices (with the transceiving devices being in reception mode) and transmission of an omnidirectional signal in the form of calibration signal and data package by one of the transceiving devices of the network (with the transceiving device being in transmission mode), reception of the signal by the transceiving devices operating in reception mode and subsequent orientation of their antenna beams in the direction of signal source. The recognition and orientation is performed during the period of reception of the calibration signal. The Method increases the range of a WLAN, reduces the transmission time and improves quality and reliability of communication. Each transceiving device (1) includes at least one directional antenna (3) featuring a controllable directional pattern, switched-over by unit (4), reception / transmission mode switch (5), receiver (8), transmitter (10) and controller (11). Additionally a unit for signal detection (13) is incorporated in the device.

A method for determining whether to reconfigure a self-organizing network (SON) comprising coverage areas each having a BTS and an antenna and mobile units operating in each coverage area. The method comprises: at each BTS, scanning an antenna beam, measuring performance data, and determining whether measured performance data indicates a network reconfiguration; if a result is negative, at a first BTS returning to the step of scanning the antenna beam; if the result is affirmative, selecting one or more of reconfiguring the SON by changing the RF output power of the first BTS, changing an antenna beam pattern of the antenna at the first BTS, changing an antenna tilt angle of the antenna at the first BTS, changing an operating frequency of the first BTS and updating a proximate cell site list of the first BTS.

Provided is a system for mobile video monitoring that includes camera means mounted to a mobile vehicle for generating a video signal corresponding to an observed scene. Steering means (such as a motor) rotates the camera means into an orientation specified by a control signal, and an antenna means receives a wireless signal, the antenna means including multiple directional antennas, each oriented at a different angle. Processor means inputs the wireless signal from each of at least two of the directional antennas, determines a direction based upon a comparison of the wireless signals (e.g., the received signal powers) input from the plural directional antennas, and generates and outputs the control signal to rotate the camera means based on the comparison.

A roaming videoconferencing (VTC) system incorporates a portable VTC device with client bridge wireless connectivity that couples to the closest access point (AP) assembly with FCC compliant, enhanced range. Use of APs in combination with amplified directional antennas is successfully demonstrated for two-way VTC, even given their generally-known low Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) and half-duplex broadcasting. Optional video, audio and data wireless and capabilities are incorporated into the portable VTC device. Facilities that have a connection to Internet or an ISDN public switched telephone network may thus flexibly provide high-quality VTC to widely spaced parts of the facilities, grounds or work site without the inconvenience or expense of placement of ISDN lines.