With Time Interval Measuring Means Patents (Class 367/127)
  • Patent number: 8923885
    Abstract: The subject of the invention is in particular the real-time interfacing of a plurality of mobile elements with a computing system. After having selected at least one location module integrated into a mobile element, the at least one location module is activated sequentially. At least one signal is then received from the at least one activated location module and at least one item of information relating to the position of the mobile element including the at least one activated location module is calculated in real time on the basis of the at least one signal received. A single location module may be activated at a given instant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: Epawn
    Inventors: Valentin Lefevre, Christophe Duteil
  • Publication number: 20140313858
    Abstract: The relative positions of two or more electronic devices can be determined utilizing ultrasonic beacons. Each device can have a unique signature that can be included in the beacon broadcast by that device. A device having an array of ultrasonic detectors can receive a beacon and correlate the beacon received at each detector. The time of arrival then can be used to determine the relative position of the source of the beacon. The signature in that beacon can also be used to determine the identity of the device that broadcast the beacon, in order to determine the identity of the device, or a user of that device, at the determined relative position. The devices can be configured to transmit signals over the air or through a specific transmission medium, such as propagating surface. Further, a dedicated detector array can be used for determining multiple relative positions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 2, 2014
    Publication date: October 23, 2014
    Inventors: Andrew D. Price, Kah Kuen Fu, Kaixiang Hu
  • Patent number: 8861311
    Abstract: Systems and methods for estimating projectile trajectory and projectile source location are provided. A method for estimating location information associated with a supersonic projectile propelled from a source includes recording sound at a first location using a single microphone during travel of the supersonic projectile to produce an acoustic recording. The method further includes estimating a miss distance between the first location and a trajectory of the projectile based on the shockwave length. Locating a projectile source includes concurrently recording sound at multiple locations and generating data sets associated with the locations, each of the plurality of data sets including a miss distance, a range, a time of arrival of a muzzle blast from the source, and a time of arrival of a shockwave produced by the projectile. Additionally, the method includes calculating an approximate location of the source at each of the locations based on the data sets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Vanderbilt University
    Inventors: Akos Ledeczi, Peter Volgyesi, Janos Sallai
  • Publication number: 20140293748
    Abstract: A synchronization system for an acoustic signal-based positioning system is provided that generates a magnetic field as a synchronization signal. The magnetic synchronization signal is transmitted by a transmitter of the positioning system and received by the receiver of the positioning system. The receiver may include a magnetic synchronization signal receiver that may receive the magnetic synchronization signal on a same acoustic channel as an acoustic positioning signal. Moreover, the magnetic synchronization signal receiver may be a component already present in the receiver and capable of receiving a magnetic synchronization signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2014
    Publication date: October 2, 2014
    Applicant: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Nathan Altman, Noam Z. Kedem, Vadim Winebrand, Gal Rotem, Meir Agassy, Arye Lerner
  • Patent number: 8830792
    Abstract: Mobile device localization using audio signals is described. In an example, a mobile device is localized by receiving a first audio signal captured by a microphone located at the mobile device and a second audio signal captured from a further microphone. A correlation value between the first audio signal and second audio signal is computed, and this is used to determine whether the mobile device is in proximity to the further microphone. In one example, the mobile device can receive the audio signals from the further microphone and calculate the correlation value. In another example, a server can receive the audio signals from the mobile device and the further microphone and calculate the correlation value. In examples, the further microphone can be a fixed microphone at a predetermined location, or the further microphone can be a microphone located in another mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Stuart Taylor, Timothy Regan, Philip Gosset, Dinan Gunawardena, Eno Thereska
  • Patent number: 8804460
    Abstract: The relative positions of two or more electronic devices can be determined utilizing ultrasonic beacons. Each device can have a unique signature that can be included in the beacon broadcast by that device. A device having an array of ultrasonic detectors can receive a beacon and correlate the beacon received at each detector. The time of arrival then can be used to determine the relative position of the source of the beacon. The signature in that beacon can also be used to determine the identity of the device that broadcast the beacon, in order to determine the identity of the device, or a user of that device, at the determined relative position. The devices can be configured to transmit signals over the air or through a specific transmission medium, such as propagating surface. Further, a dedicated detector array can be used for determining multiple relative positions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2014
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Andrew D. Price
  • Publication number: 20140204716
    Abstract: Provided are methods and systems for finding the location of sensors (e.g., microphones) with unknown internal delays based on a set of events (e.g., acoustic events) with unknown event time. A localization algorithm may iteratively run to compute the acoustic event times, the observation delays, and the relative locations of the events and the sensors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 22, 2013
    Publication date: July 24, 2014
    Applicant: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Willem Bastiaan KLEIJN, Nikolay D. Gaubitch, Richard Heusdens
  • Publication number: 20140204715
    Abstract: An acoustic positioning device includes an acoustic emitter and receiver. The device emits a sequence of at least one first acoustic signal (S1) and one second acoustic signal (S2), separated by a time interval T, and to receive and measure the arrival phase ?1 of S1 and the arrival phase ?2 of S2. The device measures a relative displacement between the acoustic emitter and the acoustic receiver and determines the approximate difference (R2?R1)AUX between the distance R1 travelled by S1 between the acoustic emitter and receiver, and the distance R2 travelled by S2 between the acoustic emitter and the acoustic receiver, and calculates the relative displacement (R2?R1) between the acoustic emitter and the acoustic receiver as a function of the approximate difference (R2?R1)AUX, of the time interval T and of the arrival phases ?1, ?2 respectively of S1 and of S2.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 6, 2012
    Publication date: July 24, 2014
    Inventors: Fabien Napolitano, Sebastien Pennec, Didier Charlot
  • Patent number: 8750076
    Abstract: To enable precise calculation of a propagation time of a direct wave which arrives the earliest from an ultrasonic emission source without being affected by a reflected wave. A plurality of ultrasonic signals generated based on a plurality of M sequences different from each other are propagated from a transmission side to a reception side, whereby the reception side executes processing of correlation between each model waveform of the plurality of M sequences and a waveform of each ultrasonic signal and detects a subsidiary peak of a correlation value appearing when both waveforms partly coincide with each other to, starting with the smallest one of subsidiary peaks detected by all the correlation processing, determine a plurality of corresponding M sequences.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2009
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Junichi Miyamoto, Hiroshi Kajitani
  • Patent number: 8737168
    Abstract: The invention is directed to a system and method for automatic discovery of the physical location of at least one device in a data center, the device having an associated ultrasonic emitter. The system generally includes a plurality of ultrasonic detectors having known locations in the data center. A controller initiates the generation of an ultrasonic signal from an ultrasonic emitter associated with a device under test. Time of arrival circuitry generates time of arrival information associated with each ultrasonic detector based on the time of receipt of the ultrasonic signal. The controller determines the location of the device under test based on the known location of the ultrasonic detectors within the data center and the time of arrival information associated with each ultrasonic detector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Inventors: Siva Somasundaram, Naim R. Malik, Brian Wang
  • Publication number: 20140112104
    Abstract: A method and system for ultrasonic locationing using time difference of arrival measurements includes an ultrasonic receiver including three microphones each disposed on a periphery of a housing and a fourth centrally-positioned microphone.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 22, 2012
    Publication date: April 24, 2014
    Applicant: Symbol Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Russell E. Calvarese
  • Patent number: 8705320
    Abstract: Systems and methods for providing audio localization are provided. In some aspects, a method includes receiving phase offsets of a plurality of fixed transmitters from a source other than the plurality of fixed transmitters, detecting an audio localization signal from each of the plurality of fixed transmitters, determining a received phase of the audio localization signal from each of the plurality of fixed transmitters, determining time differences of flight from the mobile receiver to the plurality of fixed transmitters using the received phases, determining distance differences from the mobile receiver to the plurality of fixed transmitters using the time differences of flight, and determining the location of the mobile receiver by performing multilateration using the distance differences.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2014
    Assignee: Google Inc.
    Inventors: Jason Holt, Richard Francis Lyon
  • Publication number: 20140064034
    Abstract: Some implementations provide techniques and arrangements for distance measurements between computing devices. Some examples determine a distance between devices based at least in part on a propagation time of audio tones between the devices. Further, some examples determine the arrival time of the audio tones by performing autocorrelation on streaming data corresponding to recorded sound to determine a timing of an autocorrelation peak indicative of a detection of an audio tone in the streaming data. In some cases, cross correlation may be performed on the streaming data in a search window to determine a timing of a cross correlation peak indicative of the detection of the audio tone in the streaming data. The location of the search window in time may be determined based at least in part on the timing of the detected autocorrelation peak.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2012
    Publication date: March 6, 2014
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Zengbin Zhang, David Chiyuan Chu, Thomas Moscibroda, Xiaomeng Chen, Feng Zhao
  • Patent number: 8654611
    Abstract: A method for detecting series of substantially periodic bursts of substantially sinusoidal signals, in particular, but not exclusively, series of bursts of signals transmitted recurrently (by pingers for example), this method making it possible to ensure the quick and reliable detection of such signals in the presence of significant interference noise. This method includes slightly delayed processing of received signals, spectral analysis and time integration, and presentation of the results in the form of a two-dimensional image of the successive recurrences of the bursts according to time slots of the received signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2014
    Assignee: IXWaves SARL
    Inventors: Laurent Kopp, Michel Eyries
  • Publication number: 20140036627
    Abstract: A method for determining relative location of an acoustic event along a channel such as a wellbore includes obtaining two acoustic signals at are obtained at two different and known depths in the wellbore, dividing the acoustic signals into windows, and determining the relative loudnesses of pairs of the windows. The power of the acoustic signals may be used as a proxy for the loudness of the acoustic event, and this determination can be made in the time or frequency domains. The relative depth of the acoustic event can then be determined relative to the two known depths from the relative loudnesses. The acoustic event may be, for example, casing vent flow, gas migration, a leak along a pipeline, or sounds observed in an observation well from a nearby well in which fracking is being performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 2, 2013
    Publication date: February 6, 2014
    Applicant: HiFi Engineering Inc.
    Inventors: John Hull, Seyed Ehsan Jalilian, Philip Cheuk
  • Patent number: 8644113
    Abstract: A receiving device captures sounds signals (e.g., ultrasonic) from multiple sound signal sources, selects the sound signals satisfying a reliability condition for use in determining an initial position of the receiving device relative to the corresponding sound signal sources, determines the initial position of the receiving device using multilateration of the selected sound signals, and updates the current position of the receiving device as the reliability of individual sound signals varies in the presence of dynamically changing environmental interference, multipathing, and movement between the receiving device and the sound signal sources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Riley Harrell, William Hayden Connor, Marzban R. Palsetia, John Charles Curlander, Heinrich Frick, Jesse Wright, Mark Joseph Barkmeier
  • Patent number: 8638641
    Abstract: The trajectory of at least one marine animal emitting sound signals in the form of series of clicks, such as a cetacean, is passively determined. During successive processing time windows, raw analog signals are acquired from a plurality of hydrophones disposed in a marine environment and converted into digital data. Digital data filtering eliminates spurious noises and keeps the data, for each pair of hydrophones and each processing window, that corresponds to potential values (TDOAs) for the time-difference of arrival of the sound signals at two different hydrophones. For each hydrophone pair, the consistency of the TDOAs is checked and a number of filtered and mutually-consistent TDOAs are selected. Based on the filtered and mutually-consistent TDOAs, the successive instantaneous positions of the click sources are determined by means of nonlinear regression, and the trajectory of at least one marine animal in the environment is deduced in real time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2014
    Assignee: Universite du Sud Toulon Var
    Inventors: Hervé Gilles Pierre Glotin, Pascale Véronique Giraudet, Frédéric Caudal
  • Patent number: 8630147
    Abstract: A position determining method and a work result management device. A position where work is done inside a space surrounded by surfaces is determined, wherein the position where work is done inside the space is a sidewall, wave receivers that receive an acoustic wave signal are placed at three or more points, which are on the same plane substantially parallel to the sidewall but not collinear with one another and whose position coordinates are known. The signal is transmitted from a wave transmitter that transmits an acoustic wave and is placed at the position on the sidewall where work is done, and the respective arrival times of the signal at the three or more wave receivers that are not collinear with one another are measured to determine the position coordinates of the wave transmitter using the arrival times and the position coordinates of the three or more wave receivers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2014
    Assignee: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
    Inventors: Masakazu Miyachi, Tetsuya Yamada, Satoshi Tasaki, Masaaki Fujita, Keiji Ida, Naoki Suganuma
  • Patent number: 8625392
    Abstract: A system and method of remote sound speed measurement are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system for estimating a sound speed comprises a plurality of transducers configured to i) transmit a first acoustic signal from a first location, ii) receive a first scattered signal at a second location, iii) receive a second scattered signal at a third location, and iv) receive a third scattered signal at a fourth location; and a microprocessor configured to i) estimate a travel time based on at least one of the first, second, or third scattered signals, ii) generate a cross-correlation signal comprising a product of at least two of the first, second, and third scattered signals, iii) estimate a travel time difference based on at least the cross-correlation signal, and iv) estimate a sound speed based on at least the estimated travel time and the estimated travel time difference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2014
    Assignee: Teledyne RD Instruments, Inc.
    Inventor: Blair H. Brumley
  • Publication number: 20140003194
    Abstract: A locating device for locating at least one apparatus which is arrangeable on board a transport unit, for example an aircraft, a locating system having such a locating device and at least one apparatus to be located, an aircraft having a locating system of this type, an associated method for locating at least one apparatus which is to be located and is arrangeable on board a transport unit, for example on board an aircraft, and a computer program for carrying out the method. The locating device includes a detecting unit for detecting a wireless audio signal transmitted by the apparatus to be located; and a computing unit for determining the distance of the apparatus to be located from the detecting unit based on the wireless audio signal and on a first information signal assigned to the audio signal and transmitted via a first deterministic data connection.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2013
    Publication date: January 2, 2014
    Inventors: Peter KLOSE, Wolfgang Fischer, Stefan Schneele
  • Patent number: 8611188
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method and a device for locating at least one object, in which a) a microphone device of the at least one object at least one acoustic signal of at least one acoustic source is received, b) the temporal profile of the at least one acoustic signal is automatically searched by a data processing device by the means of pre-defined criteria for at least one pattern, whereby c) the at least one pattern is an onset of the at least one acoustic signal or comprises an onset of the at least one acoustic signal and d) the localization of the at least one object occurs in dependency of the reception of the pattern by the means of a time synchronization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Ilja Radusch, Jens Pontow
  • Publication number: 20130329525
    Abstract: Ultrasonic locationing of a tag with an emitter transducer operable to emit a single frequency ultrasonic burst. A receiver with at least two microphones is operable to receive the ultrasonic burst. Each microphone receiver contains two narrowband filters to extract frequencies above and below the ultrasonic burst frequency. A processor derives a low frequency waveform indicative of the phase difference between the dual frequency pulses coming from each microphone receiver. A correlator then determines the time difference of arrival (TDOA) between each microphone receiver by correlating the phase difference waveforms. This invention enables the creation of an ultrasonic locationing system requiring microsecond accuracy on TDOA data, as is necessary with microphone spacing of less than one foot, while using a simple single high frequency emitter source.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2012
    Publication date: December 12, 2013
    Applicant: Symbol Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Richard J. Lavery, Russell E. Calvarese
  • Publication number: 20130317669
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing sound from a sound source. The sound from the sound source is detected. Harmonics in the sound from the sound source are identified. A distance to the sound source is identified using the harmonics and a number of atmospheric conditions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2012
    Publication date: November 28, 2013
    Applicant: THE BOEING COMPANY
    Inventors: Qin Jiang, Michael J. Daily, Richard Michael Kremer
  • Patent number: 8593908
    Abstract: A method, which allows, in an acoustic pulse-echo ranging system, the direct use of a digitized raw echo signal for correlation-based echo distance estimation, where an acoustic pulse having a carrier frequency is transmitted, a digital expected echo shape is provided with a time resolution higher than the carrier frequency, an echo is received from the acoustic pulse, the received echo is sampled and digitized at a sampling frequency higher than the carrier frequency, correlation values are created from the digitized received echo and the digital expected echo shape, the correlation values are weighted by emphasizing stronger correlation values, and the echo distance is determined from the center of mass of the weighted values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2011
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2013
    Assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Edson Ferreira, Jean-René Larocque
  • Patent number: 8588029
    Abstract: An obstacle detection device mountable on a surface of a movable body includes a transmitting portion for transmitting a transmitting wave, a receiving portion for receiving a reflected wave from an obstacle, a distance calculating portion, a direction calculating portion, a distance storing portion, a direction storing portion, a distance change calculating portion, a direction change calculating portion, and a determining portion. The determining portion determines a shape of the obstacle and a relative position of the obstacle to the movable body based on a direction of the obstacle calculated by the direction calculating portion, the amount of distance change calculated by the distance change calculating portion, and the amount of direction change calculated by the direction change calculating portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2013
    Assignee: DENSO CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yasuyuki Okuda, Hiromi Ariyoshi
  • Patent number: 8570834
    Abstract: An acoustic surveying method includes computing at least one of a distance and direction between first and second subterranean boreholes. An acoustic pulsed is transmitted into a subterranean formation from the first borehole and received at three or more spaced receivers deployed in the second borehole. A distance between the two boreholes may be determined using longitudinally spaced receivers while a toolface to target direction (angle) may be determined using circumferentially spaced receivers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2013
    Assignee: Schlumberger Technology Corporation
    Inventor: Graham A. McElhinney
  • Publication number: 20130279297
    Abstract: A system and method for orientation of an ultrasonic signal includes at least two emitters in a mobile device that includes an orientation sensor that can determine a device orientation. A receiver at a fixed, known point includes at least two microphones operable to receive an ultrasonic signal from the device. The mobile device can drive the emitters to produce an ultrasonic signal that is oriented towards the receiver. A location engine can establish a location of the mobile device using the time delay of arrival of an ultrasonic burst from the mobile device impinging on each microphone of the receiver. In response to the location and/or the orientation, the mobile device operable to drive the emitters to produce a signal that is oriented towards the receiver.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2012
    Publication date: October 24, 2013
    Applicant: Symbol Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas E. Wulff, Russell E. Calvarese, Richard J. Lavery
  • Patent number: 8555726
    Abstract: The systems and methods described herein include an acoustic sensor having piezoelectric material housed in a cartridge and sealed with a solid nonporous stainless steel cover. The systems include additional elements to tune the performance of the acoustic sensor for measuring shockwaves on the surface of an aircraft, such as a helicopter. In particular, the system includes several vibration isolating elements including foam pads and O-rings disposed between the cartridge and the cover for isolating the piezoelectric material from aircraft vibration and turbulence. Additionally, the systems and methods include circuitry for converting analog electrical signals generated by the piezoelectric material, in response to acoustic signals, to digital electrical signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2013
    Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technology Corp.
    Inventors: James Edwin Barger, Ronald Bruce Coleman, John N. Stanley
  • Patent number: 8547798
    Abstract: The present invention allows the simple measurement of position and orientation with low cost setup and simple calibration using a small set of transmitting nodes and a simple handheld wand. This can be used in place of measuring tools such as non contact reflection based ultrasonic measurement tools or traditional tools such as tape measures and rulers where multiple high precision measurements are needed with minimal set up time. The present invention also provides true three dimensional output and orientation calculation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2013
    Inventor: Manjirnath Chatterjee
  • Patent number: 8531917
    Abstract: An apparatus for estimating a Direction of Arrival (DOA) of a wideband includes a first signal receiving unit and a second signal receiving unit to receive a wideband signal while satisfying d?Mc/2fs, wherein ‘d’ denotes a distance the first signal receiving unit and the second signal receiving unit are spaced apart from each other, ‘c’ denotes the speed of sound, ‘M’ denotes a number of wideband frequencies being a number of fast Fourier transformation (FFT) points of a wideband signal, and ‘fs’ denotes a sampling frequency, and a DOA calculating unit to calculate a DOA (?) using a normalized frequency ( f) which is obtained by performing an FFT on the respective wideband signals transmitted from the first signal receiving unit and the second signal receiving unit, and using the distance d.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2013
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Weiwei Cui, Ki Wan Eom, Hyung-Joon Lim
  • Patent number: 8509030
    Abstract: A positioning system has at least one underwater apparatus, which includes an acoustic receiver and a computer. The system includes a base station placed in the sea environment, the base station transmitting an acoustic signal received by the acoustic receiver, wherein the acoustic receiver includes a hydrophone, the base station includes at least two acoustic transmitters forming an antenna, the distances between the acoustic transmitters of the antenna being known and the transmitters being synchronized therebetween. According to the invention, the computer includes an element for calculating differences in arrival time and differences in phases of acoustic signals coming from the base station transmitters, and an element for calculating the possible geometric loci of the position of the apparatus relative to the base station and to the orientation thereof, and the position of the underwater apparatus is predetermined from these possible geometric loci.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 13, 2013
    Assignee: IXBLUE
    Inventors: Fabien Napolitano, Francois Cretollier
  • Publication number: 20130188456
    Abstract: Systems and methods for determining the location of a microphone by using sounds played from loudspeakers at known locations. Systems and methods may thereby require a minimal level of infrastructure, using sounds that would naturally be played in the environment. Systems and methods may thereby allow devices such as smart-phones, tablets, laptops or portable microphones to determine their location in indoor settings, where Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems may not work reliably.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 25, 2012
    Publication date: July 25, 2013
    Applicant: FUJI XEROX CO., LTD.
    Inventors: John ADCOCK, Donald KIMBER, Ish RISHABH
  • Patent number: 8488413
    Abstract: An indicated position detecting apparatus includes a display module having a display screen, and a plurality of microphones to detect a contact sound to the display screen. The plurality of microphones are arranged at an outer peripheral portion of the display screen to be apart from each other. A time difference acquisition unit acquires arrival time differences of the contact sound between two microphones in each of two combinations of the plurality of microphones. A positional information acquisition unit derives two hyperbolas corresponding to the arrival time differences acquired by the time difference acquisition unit, each hyperbola having focal points at the two microphones in each of the two combinations of the plurality of microphones, and acquires an intersection of the two derived hyperbolas as information of a position where the contact sound is generated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2013
    Assignee: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshiharu Nishino, Tetsushi Yoshida, Kunpei Kobayashi, Makoto Iwasaki
  • Patent number: 8490002
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and devices are provided for creating a shared workspace where images may be shared between projected displays. In one embodiment, electronic devices each may include a projector that produces a projected display and a camera that detects gestures made with respect to the projected displays. The electronic devices may interpret gestures on the projected displays to identify image sharing commands for sharing images between the projected displays. The electronic devices may be connected through a communication link that allows the electronic devices to share image data for producing images on any of the projected displays included within the shared workspace.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2013
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventor: Anthony Y S Fai
  • Publication number: 20130170320
    Abstract: A system and method of remote sound speed measurement are disclosed. In one embodiment, a system for estimating a sound speed comprises a plurality of transducers configured to i) transmit a first acoustic signal from a first location, ii) transmit a second acoustic signal at a second location, iii) receive a first reflected signal at a third location, and iv) receive a second reflected signal at a fourth location, the reflected signals comprising at least one echo from at least one of the acoustic signals; and a microprocessor configured to i) estimate a travel time based on at least the first or second reflected signals, ii) estimate a travel time difference based on at least the first and second reflected signals, and iii) estimate a sound speed based on at least the estimated travel time and estimated travel time difference.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 25, 2013
    Publication date: July 4, 2013
    Applicant: TELEDYNE RD INSTRUMENTS, INC.
    Inventor: Teledyne RD Instruments, Inc.
  • Patent number: 8478319
    Abstract: A distributed sensor network has a base station and clusters of sensor nodes. In a method of locating and classifying signal sources, at each node divides a received signal into blocks, performs Fourier-based transform on the blocks, selects peaks from the transformed blocks, selects subbands with features of interest based on the frequency of occurrence of the peaks across the blocks, collaborates with other nodes in the cluster to make a final selection of the subbands, encodes the subband features of the signal, and transmits the subband features to the base station. The base station processes the received subband features to locate and classify the signal sources.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2013
    Assignee: Information System Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Mahmood R. Azimi-Sadjadi, SaravanaKumar Srinivasan, Michael V. McCarron
  • Publication number: 20130163382
    Abstract: Systems and methods are described for determining device positions in a video surveillance system. A method described herein includes generating a reference sound; emitting, at a first device, the reference sound; detecting, at the first device, a responsive reference sound from one or more second devices in response to the emitted reference sound; identifying a position of each of the one or more second devices; obtaining information relating to latency of the one or more second devices; computing a round trip time associated with each of the one or more second devices based on at least a timing of detecting the one or more responsive reference sounds and the latency of each of the one or more second devices; and estimating the position of the first device according to the round trip time and the position associated with each of the one or more second devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2011
    Publication date: June 27, 2013
    Applicant: Pelco, Inc.
    Inventors: James Millar, Farzin Aghdasi, Greg Millar
  • Publication number: 20130155816
    Abstract: A method includes detecting a signal at a first set of receivers of a plurality of receivers of a device. The plurality of receivers includes the first set of receivers and a second set of receivers. The first set of receivers corresponds to selected receivers and the second set of receivers corresponds to non-selected receivers. The method includes predicting, based on the signal, an expected blockage of a signal path between a source of the signal and a first selected receiver of the first set of receivers, and selecting a particular receiver of the second set of receivers as a newly selected receiver in response to predicting the expected blockage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2012
    Publication date: June 20, 2013
    Applicant: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventor: QUALCOMM Incorporated
  • Publication number: 20130128700
    Abstract: A method for the global acoustic positioning of the USBL or SBL type of a marine or submarine target is more accurate than the method used by known USBL or SBL systems, while applying a network of sensors having the same material dimensions as those of these known systems. The method makes use of the movements of the network of sensors to apply principles of the processings by synthetic antenna. The principle of the synthetic antenna transposed to the present problem consists in using the signals received by the hydrophones of a physical antenna placed on a moveable platform at K different moments in succession, and therefore at K locations in succession in order to provide an estimate of the position of the beacon by virtue of an antenna of virtually greater dimensions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2012
    Publication date: May 23, 2013
    Applicant: iXBlue Industries S.A.S
    Inventors: Sebastien PENNEC, Pierre-Yves MORVAN
  • Publication number: 20130083631
    Abstract: A receiving device captures sounds signals (e.g., ultrasonic) from multiple sound signal sources, selects the sound signals satisfying a reliability condition for use in determining an initial position of the receiving device relative to the corresponding sound signal sources, determines the initial position of the receiving device using multilateration of the selected sound signals, and updates the current position of the receiving device as the reliability of individual sound signals varies in the presence of dynamically changing environmental interference, multipathing, and movement between the receiving device and the sound signal sources.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 30, 2011
    Publication date: April 4, 2013
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Michael Riley Harrell, William Hayden Connor, Marzban R. Palsetia, John Charles Curlander, Heinrich Frick, Jesse Wright, Mark Joseph Barkmeier
  • Patent number: 8400877
    Abstract: Provided is a method and device for measuring a position of an ultrasonic generating device for generating ultrasonic signals and inputting information by using position measurement values of the ultrasonic generating device. Accordingly, a plurality of broadband microphones that can be used as general microphones provided to an electronic device are used in a case where information is input by using an ultrasonic generating device. In this case, a position of the ultrasonic generating device is measured by extracting an ultrasonic signal generated by the ultrasonic generating device from signals received by the broadband microphones, and information is input by using the position of the ultrasonic generating device and a trajectory of the moving ultrasonic generating device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 19, 2013
    Assignee: PNF Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Do Young Ko
  • Patent number: 8393412
    Abstract: A system and method of closed loop control whereby groupings of surface sonic transmitters disposed along the planned path of a well send sonic wave energy to a downhole sonic receiver (or alternatively a downhole sonic transmitter signalling to grouping of surface sonic receivers) in a manner that facilitates the downhole positioning of the well. Subsequent offset well positioning, relative to the first well, may be achieved in a similar manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2013
    Assignee: Xact Downhole Telemetry, Inc.
    Inventors: Paul L. Camwell, John G. McRory, David D. Whalen, James M. Neff
  • Patent number: 8374055
    Abstract: A system and method are described for locating and communicating with miners in an underground mine, in which miners carry a battery-powered signal unit with an impact actuator engagable with a wall, floor, or ceiling surface of the mine to transmit acoustic signals through the ground, and actuate controls on the unit to send a predefined message or a specific message via the impact actuator to ground-coupled acoustic receivers coupled with a base station that includes a decoder to determine the message sent by the miner and a location component to determine the miner's location based on the received signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 12, 2013
    Assignee: The United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Tsih C Yang, Altan Turgut
  • Publication number: 20130033965
    Abstract: An apparatus is described that can monitor the sounds and voices of infants and children in a house by judicially placing nodes in key locations of the home. The network has intelligence and uses voice recognition to enable, disable, reroute, or alter the network. The network uses voice recognition to follow a child from node to node, monitors the children according to activity and uses memory to delay the voices so the adult can hear the individual conversations. An adult that has been assigned privilege can disable all nodes from any node in the network. Another apparatus can locate an individual by voice recognition or sounds they emit including walking, breathing and even a heartbeat. The sound is detected at several microphones that have a specific positional relationship to a room or an enclosement. Triangulations of the time differences of the audio signal detected by the microphones are used to determine the location or position of the audio source in the room.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 5, 2011
    Publication date: February 7, 2013
    Inventor: Thaddeus Gabara
  • Patent number: 8369184
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed associated with processing origin/location information of a source or event. In one exemplary implementation, there is provided a method of performing improved three-dimensional source location processing including constraint of location solutions to a two-dimensional plane. Moreover, the method includes obtaining a plane of constraint characterized as a plane in which the source is likely to occur, providing one or more virtual sensing elements each characterized as being located on a first side of the plane of constraint in a mirror image/symmetrical position across from a corresponding actual sensing element on an opposite side of the plane, and constraining possible origin locations to be located in the plane of constraint. Other exemplary implementations may include determining the origin location as a function of positions of the sensing elements and the virtual sensing elements as well as time-of-arrival and/or angle-of-arrival information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: Shotspotter, Inc.
    Inventor: Robert B. Calhoun
  • Publication number: 20120327746
    Abstract: Acoustic signals may be localized such that their position in space is determined. Time-difference-of-arrival data from multiple microphones may be used for this localization. Signal data from the microphones may be degraded by reverberation and other environmental distortions, resulting in erroneous localization. By detecting a portion of the signal resulting from sound directly reaching a microphone rather than from a reverberation, accuracy of the localization is improved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2011
    Publication date: December 27, 2012
    Inventor: Kavitha Velusamy
  • Publication number: 20120314542
    Abstract: Systems and methods for estimating projectile trajectory and projectile source location are provided. A method for estimating location information associated with a supersonic projectile propelled from a source includes recording sound at a first location using a single microphone during travel of the supersonic projectile to produce an acoustic recording. The method further includes estimating a miss distance between the first location and a trajectory of the projectile based on the shockwave length. Locating a projectile source includes concurrently recording sound at multiple locations and generating data sets associated with the locations, each of the plurality of data sets including a miss distance, a range, a time of arrival of a muzzle blast from the source, and a time of arrival of a shockwave produced by the projectile. Additionally, the method includes calculating an approximate location of the source at each of the locations based on the data sets.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 22, 2011
    Publication date: December 13, 2012
    Applicant: Vanderbilt University
    Inventors: Akos Ledeczi, Peter Volgyesi, Janos Sallai
  • Publication number: 20120307595
    Abstract: The systems and methods described herein relate to an airborne shooter detection system having a plurality of sensors coupled to the body of an aircraft such as a helicopter. The sensors are arranged to receive shockwave-only signals. The received signals are analyzed to determine an unambiguous shooter location. The analysis may include measuring the arrival times of the shockwaves of projectiles at each of the sensors, determining the differences in the arrival times among sensors, computing a set of ambiguous solutions corresponding to a shooter, and clustering this set of solutions to determine the unambiguous shooter location. The systems and methods described herein may also be used to determine if multiple shooters are present, and subsequently determine the shooter locations for each of the multiple shooters.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2009
    Publication date: December 6, 2012
    Applicant: BBN Technologies Corp.
    Inventors: James Edwin Barger, Richard James Mullen, Daniel Ramsay Cruthirds, Ronald Bruce Coleman
  • Patent number: 8325563
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for locating a weapon fire incident such as an acoustic transient from a gunshot, explosion, weapons launch, etc. In one exemplary implementation, there is provided a method of locating the incident from a combination of propagation phenomena including a discharge time of the weapon fire incident. Moreover, the method may include obtaining a first propagation parameter of the incident from one or more first sensors, obtaining the discharge time from another sensor, and processing the data to determine a location using a common time basis among sensor measurements. According to further exemplary implementations, the discharge time may include a transient event that has a different propagation velocity than that of sound in the atmosphere.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Shotspotter, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert B. Calhoun, Robert L. Showen, James G. Beldock, Scott M. Manderville, Jason W. Dunham
  • Patent number: 8324517
    Abstract: A pen transcription system and method for locating a moveable signal source are disclosed. The transcription system includes a base having a planar base surface, first and second acoustical sensors that detect an acoustical signal emitted by a moveable signal source, the acoustical sensors being mounted on the base and separated from one another. The difference in time of detection between an EM signal and the acoustical signals is measured to determine the position of the moveable source. The acoustical sensors include a housing surrounding a detector. The housing has an aperture having a width that is less than the wavelength of said acoustical signal divided by 6.28 and a height that is substantially equal to an integer multiple of a wavelength of an interfering acoustical signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Luidia, Inc.
    Inventor: David James Conrad