Patents by Inventor Fadel Adib

Fadel Adib has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 12162169
    Abstract: A control system and method locates a partially or fully occluded target object in an area of interest. The location of the occluded object may be determined using visual information from a vision sensor and RF-based location information. Determining the location of the target object in this manner may effectively allow the control system to “see through” obstructions that are occluding the object. Model-based and/or deep-learning techniques may then be employed to move a robot into range relative to the target object to perform a predetermined (e.g., grasping) operation. This operation may be performed while the object is still in the occluded state or after a decluttering operation has been performed to remove one or more obstructions that are occluding light-of-sight vision to the object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2024
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Tara Boroushaki, Fadel Adib, Junshan Leng
  • Publication number: 20240259112
    Abstract: Described herein is a retroreflective underwater backscatter node comprising a receiver that receives an incoming acoustic signal from a first direction; a reflector that reflects back an incoming acoustic signal in a second direction; and a modulator coupled to the reflector to modulate the reflected incoming acoustic signal as a back-scattered signal. In some embodiments, the first direction and second direction are substantially the same such that the retroreflective underwater backscatter node retro-directs an incoming acoustic signal as a back-scattered signal and incoming and back-scattered acoustic signals propagate in the same but substantially opposite directions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 26, 2024
    Publication date: August 1, 2024
    Applicant: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Fadel ADIB, Waleed AKBAR, Aline EID, John Clayton RADEMACHER, JR., Purui WANG
  • Publication number: 20240230881
    Abstract: A handheld system radio frequency identification (RFID) system for fine-grained RFID localization of an RFID target. Also disclosed is a mechanism for localizing RFID targets at all orientations through software-controlled polarization of two LP antennas. The system may detect an RFID target using a generated circularly polarized (CP) RF signal and accurately localize the RFID target using a generated linearly polarized (LP) signal. The disclosed systems and techniques discover and localize RFID concurrently and regardless of RFID target orientation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 9, 2023
    Publication date: July 11, 2024
    Applicant: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Fadel ADIB, Laura Noelle DODDS, Aline EID, Isaac S. PERPER
  • Publication number: 20240096034
    Abstract: According to one aspect of the disclosure, a mobile augmented reality (AR) system can include: a receiver configured to receive radio frequency (RF) signals from one or more items located within an environment; a tracking module configured to generate tracking data responsive to a location of the system within the environment over time; a display device; and one or more processors configured to determine a location of at least one of the one or more items within the environment using the received RF signals and the tracking data, and generate a visual representation of the location of the at least one item for display on the display device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2023
    Publication date: March 21, 2024
    Applicant: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Fadel Adib, Tara Boroushaki, Laura Noelle Dodds, Aline Eid, Maisy Lilian Lam
  • Publication number: 20230371820
    Abstract: A contactless sensor includes a cardiac beamformer, a wireless-to- seismocardiogram translator, and an automatic labeler. The cardiac beamformer determines at least one beam for receiving wireless signals generated based on movement of a heart. The at least one beam is generated based on phase information and a heart signal extracted from a time-domain signal generated from one or more receiver elements. The wireless-to-seismocardiogram translator implements a convolutional neural network to transform time-series data detected from the at least one beam to a seismocardiogram. The automatic labeler identifies and labels one or more micro-cardiac events in the time-series data. The cardiac beamformer may be considered an optional feature in one or more implementations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 27, 2021
    Publication date: November 23, 2023
    Applicant: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Unsoo HA, Fadel ADIB
  • Publication number: 20230269530
    Abstract: An ultra-wide bandwidth acoustic transducer may include multiple layers, including an inner piezoelectric layer, a polymer coupling layer and an outer piezoelectric layer. The polymer layer may be located between, and may be bonded to, the inner and outer piezoelectric layers. The transducer may have multiple eigenfrequencies of vibration. These eigenfrequencies may include primary resonant frequencies of the inner and outer piezoelectric layers respectively and may also include resonant frequencies that arise due to coupling between the layers. An acoustic backscatter system may employ such a transducer in backscatter nodes as well as in a transmitter. The multiple eigenfrequencies may enable the system to perform spread-spectrum communication at a high throughput. These multiple eigenfrequencies may also enable each backscatter node to shift frequency of an uplink signal, which in turn may enable the system to mitigate self-interference and to decode concurrent signals from multiple backscatter nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2023
    Publication date: August 24, 2023
    Applicant: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Reza GHAFFARIVARDAVAGH, Sayed Saad AFZAL, Osvy RODRIGUEZ, Fadel ADIB
  • Patent number: 11678112
    Abstract: An ultra-wide bandwidth acoustic transducer may include multiple layers, including an inner piezoelectric layer, a polymer coupling layer and an outer piezoelectric layer. The polymer layer may be located between, and may be bonded to, the inner and outer piezoelectric layers. The transducer may have multiple eigenfrequencies of vibration. These eigenfrequencies may include primary resonant frequencies of the inner and outer piezoelectric layers respectively and may also include resonant frequencies that arise due to coupling between the layers. An acoustic backscatter system may employ such a transducer in backscatter nodes as well as in a transmitter. The multiple eigenfrequencies may enable the system to perform spread-spectrum communication at a high throughput. These multiple eigenfrequencies may also enable each backscatter node to shift frequency of an uplink signal, which in turn may enable the system to mitigate self-interference and to decode concurrent signals from multiple backscatter nodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Reza Ghaffarivardavagh, Sayed Saad Afzal, Osvy Rodriguez, Fadel Adib
  • Patent number: 11604250
    Abstract: A transceiver may wirelessly transmit a communication signal at a first frequency and a sensing signal at a second frequency. The communication signal may include a command that causes a backscatter node to modulate impedance of an antenna, and thereby modulate reflectivity of the backscatter node. The communication signal may also deliver wireless power to the backscatter node. While the impedance is being modulated in response to the command, the transceiver may transmit the sensing signal and measure wireless reflections. The power of the sensing signal may be much lower than that of the communication signal. The transceiver may frequency hop the sensing signal in a wide band of frequencies and take measurements at each frequency in the hopping. Based on the measurements, a computer may determine time-of-flight or phase of a reflected signal from the backscatter node and may estimate location of the backscatter node with sub-centimeter precision.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Yunfei Ma, Nicholas Selby, Fadel Adib
  • Publication number: 20230056652
    Abstract: Described is the design, implementation, and evaluation of a robotic system configured to search for and retrieve RFID-tagged items in line-of-sight, non-line-of-sight, and fully-occluded settings. The robotic system comprises a robotic arm having a camera and antenna strapped around a portion thereof (e.g. a gripper) and a controller configured to receive information from the camera and (radio frequency) RF information via the antenna and configured to use the information provided thereto to implement a method that geometrically fuses at least RF and visual information. This technique reduces uncertainty about the location of a target object even when the object is fully occluded. Also described is a reinforcement-learning network that uses fused RF-visual information to efficiently localize, maneuver toward, and grasp a target object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 15, 2022
    Publication date: February 23, 2023
    Applicant: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Tara BOROUSHAKI, Isaac S. PERPER, Fadel ADIB
  • Publication number: 20230008918
    Abstract: A communication system may communicate by backscattered acoustic signals that propagate through a liquid or solid. In this system, one or more transmitters may transmit acoustic signals that travel to, and are reflected by, an acoustic backscatter node. The backscatter node may modulate the amplitude and/or phase of the reflected acoustic signals, by varying the acoustic reflectance of a piezoelectric transducer onboard the node. The modulated signals that reflect from the backscatter node may travel to a microphone and may be decoded. The backscatter node may include sensors, and the uplink signals may encode sensor readings. The backscatter node may harvest energy from the downlink acoustic signals, enabling the node and the sensors to be battery-free. Multiple backscatter nodes may communicate concurrently at different acoustic frequencies. To achieve this, each node may have a matching circuit with a different resonant frequency.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 22, 2022
    Publication date: January 12, 2023
    Applicant: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Junsu JANG, Fadel ADIB
  • Patent number: 11424839
    Abstract: A communication system may communicate by backscattered acoustic signals that propagate through a liquid or solid. In this system, one or more transmitters may transmit acoustic signals that travel to, and are reflected by, an acoustic backscatter node. The backscatter node may modulate the amplitude and/or phase of the reflected acoustic signals, by varying the acoustic reflectance of a piezoelectric transducer onboard the node. The modulated signals that reflect from the backscatter node may travel to a microphone and may be decoded. The backscatter node may include sensors, and the uplink signals may encode sensor readings. The backscatter node may harvest energy from the downlink acoustic signals, enabling the node and the sensors to be battery-free. Multiple backscatter nodes may communicate concurrently at different acoustic frequencies. To achieve this, each node may have a matching circuit with a different resonant frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Junsu Jang, Fadel Adib
  • Publication number: 20220168899
    Abstract: A control system and method locates a partially or fully occluded target object in an area of interest. The location of the occluded object may be determined using visual information from a vision sensor and RF-based location information. Determining the location of the target object in this manner may effectively allow the control system to “see through” obstructions that are occluding the object. Model-based and/or deep-learning techniques may then be employed to move a robot into range relative to the target object to perform a predetermined (e.g., grasping) operation. This operation may be performed while the object is still in the occluded state or after a decluttering operation has been performed to remove one or more obstructions that are occluding light-of-sight vision to the object.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 19, 2021
    Publication date: June 2, 2022
    Inventors: Tara BOROUSHAKI, Fadel ADIB, Junshan LENG
  • Patent number: 11308291
    Abstract: A system may sense the contents of a closed container, by analyzing a wireless signal that reflects from an RFID tag on the outside of the container. The frequency response of the tag's antenna may be affected by the relative permittivity of the contents and by the tag's environment. The frequency response may be measured in a line-of-sight environment and in a multipath environment. Channel estimates may be calculated, based on the measurements. Channel ratios may be calculated by dividing line-of-sight channel estimates by multipath channel estimates. The resulting channel ratios may be fed into a variational autoencoder, which in turn generates synthetic data that contains information about multipath environments but not the contents. The output of the variational autoencoder may be converted into synthetic channel estimates, which may in turn be employed for anomaly detection, or to train a classifier to classify contents of the container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Unsoo Ha, Junshan Leng, Alaa Khaddaj, Yunfei Ma, Tzu Ming Hsu, Zexuan Zhong, Fadel Adib
  • Publication number: 20210345038
    Abstract: An ultra-wide bandwidth acoustic transducer may include multiple layers, including an inner piezoelectric layer, a polymer coupling layer and an outer piezoelectric layer. The polymer layer may be located between, and may be bonded to, the inner and outer piezoelectric layers. The transducer may have multiple eigenfrequencies of vibration. These eigenfrequencies may include primary resonant frequencies of the inner and outer piezoelectric layers respectively and may also include resonant frequencies that arise due to coupling between the layers. An acoustic backscatter system may employ such a transducer in backscatter nodes as well as in a transmitter. The multiple eigenfrequencies may enable the system to perform spread-spectrum communication at a high throughput. These multiple eigenfrequencies may also enable each backscatter node to shift frequency of an uplink signal, which in turn may enable the system to mitigate self-interference and to decode concurrent signals from multiple backscatter nodes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 11, 2021
    Publication date: November 4, 2021
    Inventors: Reza Ghaffarivardavagh, Sayed Saad Afzal, Osvy Rodriguez, Fadel Adib
  • Publication number: 20210132183
    Abstract: A transceiver may wirelessly transmit a communication signal at a first frequency and a sensing signal at a second frequency. The communication signal may include a command that causes a backscatter node to modulate impedance of an antenna, and thereby modulate reflectivity of the backscatter node. The communication signal may also deliver wireless power to the backscatter node. While the impedance is being modulated in response to the command, the transceiver may transmit the sensing signal and measure wireless reflections. The power of the sensing signal may be much lower than that of the communication signal. The transceiver may frequency hop the sensing signal in a wide band of frequencies and take measurements at each frequency in the hopping. Based on the measurements, a computer may determine time-of-flight or phase of a reflected signal from the backscatter node and may estimate location of the backscatter node with sub-centimeter precision.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2021
    Publication date: May 6, 2021
    Inventors: Yunfei Ma, Nicholas Selby, Fadel Adib
  • Patent number: 10998984
    Abstract: An underwater transmitter may generate underwater pressure waves that encode bits of data. The pressure waves may travel to, and created minute vibrations in, the water's surface. An airborne radar may detect radar signals that reflect from the water's surface. The surface vibrations may modulate the phase of the reflected radar signal. The radar receiver may, based on the variation in the phase of the reflected radar signal, decode the data that was initially encoded in the underwater pressure waves. The underwater pressure waves may be frequency modulated, such as by orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing. Alternatively, the surface vibrations may be detected by a camera, interferometer or other light sensor. Alternatively, the pressure waves may propagate through a media other than water. For instance, the pressure waves may propagate through bodily tissue, or may propagate through oil or a liquid fracking mixture in an oil or gas well.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: Massachuusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Francesco Tonolini, Fadel Adib
  • Publication number: 20210110121
    Abstract: A system may sense the contents of a closed container, by analyzing a wireless signal that reflects from an RFID tag on the outside of the container. The frequency response of the tag's antenna may be affected by the relative permittivity of the contents and by the tag's environment. The frequency response may be measured in a line-of-sight environment and in a multipath environment. Channel estimates may be calculated, based on the measurements. Channel ratios may be calculated by dividing line-of-sight channel estimates by multipath channel estimates. The resulting channel ratios may be fed into a variational autoencoder, which in turn generates synthetic data that contains information about multipath environments but not the contents. The output of the variational autoencoder may be converted into synthetic channel estimates, which may in turn be employed for anomaly detection, or to train a classifier to classify contents of the container.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2020
    Publication date: April 15, 2021
    Inventors: Unsoo Ha, Junshan Leng, Alaa Khaddaj, Yunfei Ma, Tzu Ming Hsu, Zexuan Zhong, Fadel Adib
  • Patent number: 10921419
    Abstract: A transceiver may wirelessly transmit a communication signal at a first frequency and a sensing signal at a second frequency. The communication signal may include a command that causes a backscatter node to modulate impedance of an antenna, and thereby modulate reflectivity of the backscatter node. The communication signal may also deliver wireless power to the backscatter node. While the impedance is being modulated in response to the command, the transceiver may transmit the sensing signal and measure wireless reflections. The power of the sensing signal may be much lower than that of the communication signal. The transceiver may frequency hop the sensing signal in a wide band of frequencies and take measurements at each frequency in the hopping. Based on the measurements, a computer may determine time-of-flight or phase of a reflected signal from the backscatter node and may estimate location of the backscatter node with sub-centimeter precision.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2021
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Yunfei Ma, Nicholas Selby, Fadel Adib
  • Patent number: 10879983
    Abstract: Multiple antennas of a beamformer may simultaneously transmit wireless signals at different frequencies. The signals may comprise synchronized, identical wireless commands, each at a different carrier frequency. The transmitted signals may constructively and destructively interfere with each other at a receiver antenna, to form a beat signal. When the transmitted signals constructively interfere, the beat signal may cause a voltage in the receiver to exceed a threshold voltage. The threshold voltage may be a minimum voltage at which a device, which is operatively connected to the receiver antenna, is able to perform energy harvesting or wireless communication. The beamformer may operate under blind channel conditions, because the transmitted frequencies may be selected in such a way as to maximize peak power delivered under all possible channel conditions. The beamformer may deliver wireless power to a sensor or actuator that is located deep inside bodily tissue.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Yunfei Ma, Zhihong Luo, Christoph Steiger, Carlo Giovanni Traverso, Fadel Adib
  • Patent number: 10872209
    Abstract: A system may sense the contents of a closed container, by analyzing a wireless signal that reflects from an RFID tag on the outside of the container. The frequency response of the tag's antenna may be affected by the relative permittivity of the contents and by the tag's environment. The frequency response may be measured in a line-of-sight environment and in a multipath environment. Channel estimates may be calculated, based on the measurements. Channel ratios may be calculated by dividing line-of-sight channel estimates by multipath channel estimates. The resulting channel ratios may be fed into a variational autoencoder, which in turn generates synthetic data that contains information about multipath environments but not the contents. The output of the variational autoencoder may be converted into synthetic channel estimates, which may in turn be employed for anomaly detection, or to train a classifier to classify contents of the container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 22, 2020
    Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    Inventors: Unsoo Ha, Junshan Leng, Alaa Khaddaj, Yunfei Ma, Tzu Ming Hsu, Zexuan Zhong, Fadel Adib