Abstract: A reconfigurable array antenna and system for including the same are described. In one embodiment, the antenna apparatus comprises a feeding network and an array coupled to the feeding network, wherein the array has a plurality of locations, with each location capable of having an antenna element attached thereto, and wherein the feeding network is operable to combine energy received by antenna elements in the array, and the energy is combined by the feeding network in RF.

Abstract: A DC-DC boost converter and apparatus including the same are disclosed. In one embodiment, the DC-DC converter comprises an input for receiving a first voltage at a first level, where the first voltage is negative; a transformer coupled to the input to convert the first voltage to a second voltage at a second level, where the second level is higher than the first level and the second voltage is positive; and an output connected to the transformer to output the second voltage.

Abstract: A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). The present invention provides systems, methods, and computer program products for modifying documents for shared use, and for collaborative discussion of shared documents. Captured digital images of documents or portions associated with a user are received, along with modifications to the images. Documents are recognized from the captured digital images, and the modifications to the images are applied to the documents. Alternatively, captured digital images of documents are received, and the documents are recognized along with a hotspot in the document. The user is authenticated to a website associated with the hotspot, and is provided access to an associated multimedia repository.

Abstract: A network sensor system and method for using the same are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the network sensor system comprises: a radio-frequency (RF) emitter; a first sensor tag including a transmitter, an energy harvesting unit operable to convert incident RF energy to direct current (DC) including RF energy from the RF emitter and RF energy from one or more ambient sources, a storage unit operable to store recovered DC power, one or more sensors for sensing and logging data, a controller coupled to the energy harvesting and storage units, the one or more sensors and the transmitter, to communicate data in the form of a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertising packet using energy previously harvested and stored by the energy harvesting and storage unit; and a first device to receive the BLE advertising packet.

Abstract: A method, system and tag for low power radio frequency communication is described. In one embodiment, the RF tag comprises: an energy harvesting unit operable to convert incident RF energy to direct current (DC); a storage unit operable to store recovered DC power; one or more sensors for sensing; a backscatter communicator to backscatter energy to communicate; and a microcontroller coupled to the energy harvesting and storage units, the one or more sensors, and the backscatter communicator, the microcontroller operable to wake up from a sleep state and cause the radio to communicate sensed data from at least one of the one or more sensors while powered by energy previously harvested and stored by the energy harvesting and storage unit.

Abstract: A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a media document that includes media of at least two types, such as printed paper as a first medium and a digital photograph, digital movie, digital audio file, or web link as a second medium. Furthermore, the MMR system facilitates business methods that take advantage of the combination of a portable electronic device, such as a cellular camera phone, and a paper document.

Abstract: A context-aware targeted information delivery system comprises a mobile device, an MMR matching unit, a plurality of databases for user profiles, user context and advertising information, a plurality of comparison engines and a plurality of weight adjusters. The mobile device is coupled to deliver an image patch to the MMR matching unit which in turn performs recognition to produce recognize text. The recognized text is provided to a first and second comparison engines to produce relevant topics and relevant ads. The relevant topics and relevant ads are adjusted with information from a user context database including information such as location, date, time, and other information from a user profile. The third comparison engine compares the relevant topics and relevant ads to produce a set of final ads that are most related to the topics of interest for the user and delivered for display on to the mobile device.

Abstract: An MMR system integrating image tracking and recognition comprises a plurality of mobile devices, a pre-processing server or MMR gateway, and an MMR matching unit, and may include an MMR publisher. The MMR matching unit receives an image query from the pre-processing server or MMR gateway and sends it to one or more of the recognition units to identify a recognition result. Image tracking information also is provided for determining relative locations of images to each other. The mobile device includes an image tracker for providing at least a portion of the image tracking information. The disclosure also includes methods for image tracking-assisted recognition, recognition of multiple images using a single image query, and improved image tracking using MMR recognition.

Abstract: An MMR system includes an analytics module for monitoring and analyzing the creation and usage of visual content search. The analytics module is part of an MMR gateway and provides a mechanism for administrators to determine the usage patterns and other information about users of the MMR system. The analytics module comprises a monitoring module, a usage database, an access analysis module and a presentation module. The monitoring module collects information about the retrieval request, image queries, context information and recognition results. The usage database stores the information collected by the monitoring module.

Abstract: A beam steered phased array antenna and system for including the same are described. In one embodiment, the antenna apparatus comprises an array of a plurality of antenna elements, the array having a single moveable feeding point coupled to the antenna elements, where the moveable feeding point is movable with respect to the antenna elements in the array.

Abstract: A method, system and tag for low power radio frequency communication is described. In one embodiment, the RF tag comprises: an access point coupled to provide access to a network; an RF tag comprising an energy harvesting unit operable to convert incident RF energy to direct current (DC); a storage unit operable to store recovered DC power; a passive wakeup pattern detector operable to generate an interrupt in response to detecting a set of one or more subcarriers; one or more sensors for sensing; a communication mechanism; and a microcontroller coupled to the energy harvesting and storage units, the one or more sensors, and the backscatter communicator, the microcontroller operable to wake up from a sleep state in response to the interrupt and cause the communication mechanism to exchange data wirelessly with another while powered by energy previously harvested and stored by the energy harvesting and storage unit.

Abstract: A method, system and tag for low power radio frequency communication is described. In one embodiment, the RF tag comprises: an energy harvesting unit operable to convert incident RF energy to direct current (DC); a storage unit operable to store recovered DC power; a passive wakeup pattern detector operable to generate an interrupt in response to detecting a set of one or more subcarriers; one or more sensors for sensing; a communication mechanism; and a microcontroller coupled to the energy harvesting and storage units, the one or more sensors, and the backscatter communicator, the microcontroller operable to wake up from a sleep state in response to the interrupt and cause the communication mechanism to exchange data wirelessly with another while powered by energy previously harvested and stored by the energy harvesting and storage unit.

Abstract: A backscatter modulation radio-frequency (RF) sensor and method for using the same are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the RF sensor comprises: an energy harvesting unit operable to convert incident RF energy to direct current (DC); a storage unit operable to store recovered DC power; one or more sensors for sensing; a backscatter communication interface to backscatter energy to communicate one or more packets using a frequency-shift keying (FSK) modulator; and a microcontroller coupled to the energy harvesting and storage units, the one or more sensors, and the backscatter communicator, the microcontroller operable to cause the backscatter communication interface to communicate sensed data from at least one of the one or more sensors while powered by energy previously harvested and stored by the energy harvesting and storage unit.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for using inertial navigation for obtaining calibration data for an indoor positioning system are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises tracking motion of a device between known locations within a structure using inertial navigation, collecting a plurality of Wi-Fi signatures with the device while tracking the motion of the device between the known locations, and matching each of the plurality of Wi-Fi signatures to a point between the known locations, where the matched Wi-Fi signatures are for use in comparing to Wi-Fi signatures being received by the indoor positioning system to identify an indoor location of a device within the structure.

Abstract: Apparatuses and methods are disclosed for accessing and distributing data that includes a portable first device and a second device wherein both devices have unconscious capture capability. The first device has a first memory wherein at least one document is stored in the first memory of the first device. The first device has a transceiver, an identifier, and a public key to access a second device.

Abstract: A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). The present invention provides a system, method, and computer program product for annotating unindexed documents. Captured digital images of unknown paper documents or portions associated with a user are received with annotations. Features are extracted from the captured digital image and are stored, along with the captured digital image and the annotations.

Abstract: An MMR system for searching across multiple indexes comprises a plurality of mobile devices, a pre-processing server or MMR gateway, and an MMR matching unit, and may include an MMR publisher. The MMR matching unit receives an image from the pre-processing server or MMR gateway and sends it to one or more of the recognition units to identify a result including a document, the page, and the location on the page. The MMR matching unit includes a distributor for distributing the image to corresponding content type specific index tables and an integrator for integrating recognition results. The result is returned to the mobile device via the pre-processing server or MMR gateway. The techniques described herein also include a number of novel methods including a method for processing content-type specific image queries and for processing queries across multiple indexes.

Abstract: A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for sensor node and access point communication. In one embodiment, the method comprises embedding, by a sensor node, data from one or more sensor readings in a field of a first message, the field being designated as part of a standardized protocol to send information other than the data sensor readings; determining without the use of a receiver, by the sensor node, whether a wireless communication channel is at a predetermined quality level to send the first message; and broadcasting the first message wirelessly to a component according to the standardized protocol.

Abstract: A network sensor system and method for using the same are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the network sensor system comprises: a radio-frequency (RF) emitter; a first sensor tag including a transmitter, an energy harvesting unit operable to convert incident RF energy to direct current (DC) including RF energy from the RF emitter and RF energy from one or more ambient sources, a storage unit operable to store recovered DC power, one or more sensors for sensing and logging data, a controller coupled to the energy harvesting and storage units, the one or more sensors and the transmitter, to communicate data in the form of a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) advertising packet using energy previously harvested and stored by the energy harvesting and storage unit; and a first device to receive the BLE advertising packet.

Abstract: A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). In one particular embodiment, the MMR system includes a content-based retrieval database configured with an index table to represent two-dimensional geometric relationships between objects extracted from a printed document in a way that allows look-up using a text-based index. A ranked set of document, page and location hypotheses can be computed given data from the index table. The techniques effectively transform features detected in an image patch into textual terms (or other searchable features) that represent both the features themselves and the geometric relationship between them. A storage facility can be used to store additional characteristics about each document image patch.