Acquisition Or Tracking Of Signals Transmitted By The System (ipc) Patents (Class 342/357.63)
  • Publication number: 20110163915
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for obtaining Global navigation Satellite System (GNSS) time in a GNSS receiver are provided. The following steps are included: obtaining a time relationship between a first clock signal and the received GNSS time; obtaining a first clock value of a second clock signal and an first associated clock value of the first clock signal at a first time point; calculating a first GNSS time corresponding to the first clock value of the second clock signal according to the first associated clock value and the time relationship; obtaining a second clock value of the second clock signal and an second associated clock value of the first clock signal at a second time point; and calculating a second GNSS time corresponding to the second associated clock value, according to the first GNSS time, the first clock value and the second clock value of the second clock signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 18, 2011
    Publication date: July 7, 2011
    Inventors: Kung-Shuan Huang, Hsien-Chang Liu, An-Bang Chen
  • Patent number: 7973710
    Abstract: A method for adjusting a measurement cycle in a satellite signal receiver is described. The method includes adjusting a measurement cycle in a satellite signal receiver by computing a position state comprising at least one of a velocity and a heading of the satellite signal receiver, detecting a change in the position state, and automatically adjusting a frequency of the measurement cycle in response to the change in the position state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventor: Charles Abraham
  • Patent number: 7953553
    Abstract: Provided is a navigator, which reduces current consumption in a gap of an orbiting GPS satellite signal. A method for reducing the current consumption of the navigator is disclosed. The method includes measuring the strength of a geostationary GPS satellite signal; stopping the tracking of an orbiting GPS satellite signal when the measured geostationary GPS satellite signal strength is less than a critical value and such a state passes a preset time; performing a navigation mode where an orbiting GPS satellite signal and a geostationary GPS satellite signal are tracked when the measured geostationary GPS satellite signal strength exceeds the critical value. The navigator reads a gap of an orbiting GPS satellite signal using a geostationary GPS satellite signal and stops tracking the orbiting GPS satellite signal in the gap, thereby reducing its current consumption.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Sung Jun Choi
  • Patent number: 7948434
    Abstract: Aspects of a method and system for maintaining a GNSS receiver in a hot-start state are provided. A GNSS receiver in a standby mode may transition from a sleep state to a wakeup state to acquire ephemeris from, for example, GPS signals, GALILEO signals, and/or GLONASS signals. The acquired ephemeris may be stored and utilized for the GNSS receiver to generate a navigation solution in a normal mode. The GNSS receiver may transition from the normal mode to the sleep state or the wakeup state in standby mode. A sleep period and a wakeup period for the full sleep-wakeup cycle in the standby mode may be predetermined or dynamically adjusted based on required QoS, quality of satellite signals, and/or user inputs. The sleep period and the wakeup period may be selected in a way to ensure a valid and complete ephemeris to be acquired.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2011
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Frank van Diggelen, Charles Abraham
  • Publication number: 20110102258
    Abstract: A signal processing system for processing satellite positioning signals is described. The system comprises at least one processor and a signal processor operating under a number of operational modes. The signal processor includes at last one of a signal processing subsystem, a fast Fourier transform (FFT) subsystem, and a memory subsystem that are each dynamically and independently configurable in response to the operational modes. Further, the system includes a controller that couples to control transfer of data among the signal processing subsystem and the FFT subsystem via the memory subsystem. Configurability of the memory subsystem includes configuring the memory subsystem into regions according to the operational modes where each region is accessible in one of a number of manners according to the operational modes.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 2, 2004
    Publication date: May 5, 2011
    Applicant: SIRF TECHNOLOGY, INC.
    Inventors: Paul A. Underbrink, Henry D. Falk, Steven A. Gronemeyer, Chittharanjan Dassannacharya, Charles P. Norman, Nicolas Vantalon, Vojislav Protic
  • Patent number: 7936642
    Abstract: A method for determining portions of a GPS satellite signal may use non-coherent integration to determine a repeated pattern such as a preamble. Once the repeated pattern is determined, portions of the GPS satellite signal that may be determined with partial correlation sums. Sensitivity to satellite signals may be increased by computing more partial correlation sums on portions of the GPS satellite signal. In one embodiment, time of day information may be determined from the GPS satellite signal with partial correlation sums.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2011
    Assignee: Atheros Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Yi-Hsiu Wang, Dennis Hilgenberg
  • Patent number: 7932857
    Abstract: Methods and systems are disclosed for enhancing line records with Global Positioning System coordinates. Global Positioning System information is acquired and a line record is assembled for an address using the Global Positioning System information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2011
    Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I, L. P.
    Inventors: Robert M. Ingman, Charles E. Reddick, Steven G. Smith, Marvin R. Hamrick
  • Publication number: 20110084875
    Abstract: An execution method of a position calculating circuit that calculates a position by receiving a satellite signal transmitted from a positioning satellite and that has an externally readable storage section includes: receiving a selection signal for selecting acquired information, which is information acquired from information obtained from the satellite signal, from the outside; selecting the acquired information on the basis of the selection signal; and storing the acquired information in the storage section and outputting a notice signal, which indicates that the acquired information has been obtained, when the acquired information selected from the satellite signal being received is obtained.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2010
    Publication date: April 14, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toshikazu Akiyama, Hidekazu Maezawa, Norio Teruuchi, Kazunari Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20110080321
    Abstract: The use of multiple GPS sensors provides the conceptual framework for novel techniques for reducing the minimum signal strength required by a GPS assistance system to acquire and accurately track GPS satellites at or near the horizon. A strong signal attenuation system for synthesizing GPS satellite-specific I/F signals, enabling more efficient and effective acquisition of GPS satellites, is disclosed, comprising N+1 reference GPS sensors, each with an omni-directional antenna and front end, for down converting composite GPS satellite signals, and strong signal suppression (SSS) means for synthesizing, from the I/F signals produced by the N+1 reference GPS sensors, a set of one or more I/F signals (corresponding to a set of designated satellites), each with at least N of the strongest potentially-interfering satellite signals suppressed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2009
    Publication date: April 7, 2011
    Inventors: Farrokh Farrokhi, Dickson T. Wong, Arthur J. Collmeyer
  • Patent number: 7916076
    Abstract: A method for calculating current position coordinate is applied to a global positioning system (GPS) receiver. When positioning at a current time point, the GPS receiver directly calculates a code delay and a carrier frequency of each satellite and position coordinate of the GPS receiver at a current positioning time point by utilizing an ephemeris data of each satellite and position coordinate of the GPS receiver at a last positioning time point, thereby greatly lowering an operation amount, so as to reduce the power consumption.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: Altek Corporation
    Inventor: Hung-Sheng Chen
  • Patent number: 7917362
    Abstract: A method for determining a bit boundary of a repetition-coded signal including bits each having a plurality of epochs includes (a) counting the epochs repeatedly from an initial number to a predetermined number in a predetermined time, (b) sensing sign changes in the epochs, (c) recording each sensed sign change with a weighting function to a corresponding counting number of the epoch, and (d) determining the bit boundary according to a result of step (c).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: MediaTek Inc.
    Inventor: Jia-Horng Shieh
  • Patent number: 7916075
    Abstract: A satellite signal adaptive time-division multiplexing receiving device is disclosed. The receiving device operates in time-division multiplexing distributed for various domains such as satellite number, Doppler frequency, code phase and accuracy. When some specific time slots of the time-division multiplexing distribution are unnecessary to be searched, the receiving device uses a disable signal to deactivate specific components such as correlator and memory thereof during those time slots to reduce power consumption.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: MEDIATEK Inc.
    Inventor: Chun-nan Chen
  • Publication number: 20110050495
    Abstract: A method for obtaining GNSS time in a GNSS receiver includes: obtaining a time relationship between a first clock signal and the received GNSS time; obtaining a clock value B1 of a second clock signal and further obtaining an associated clock value A1 of the first clock signal to obtain a first pulse relationship at a first time point; calculating a GNSS time C1 corresponding to the clock value A1 according to the time relationship; obtaining a clock value B2 of the second clock signal and further obtaining an associated clock value A2 of the first clock signal to obtain a second pulse relationship at a second time point; and calculating a GNSS time C2 according to the GNSS time C1, the clock value B1, and the clock value B2. Exemplary values of A1, B1, C1, A2 B2, and C2 can be TTick1, FN1, TOW1, TTick2, FN2, and TOW2, respectively.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2008
    Publication date: March 3, 2011
    Inventors: Kung-Shuan Huang, Hsien-Chang Liu, An-Bang Chen
  • Publication number: 20110037650
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein to use what is referred to as adaptive continuous tracking (ACT) to reduce the power consumption of GNSS receivers. In GNSS receivers, performance as measured by position accuracy is a function of the observation time of the satellites. A longer observation time translates into more reliable range measurements and demodulated data, and ultimately into better positioning accuracy of the receivers. However, a longer observation time also means more power consumption. ACT allows satellite observation time to be tuned to the desired positioning performance by dynamically adjusting the on time period of the receivers while maintaining a minimum performance metric. The performance metric may be formed from a combination of the estimated position error, the horizontal dilution of precision (HDOP), the data collection state, and the receiver operating environment as characterized by the carrier to noise ratio (CN0).
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2009
    Publication date: February 17, 2011
    Inventor: Gary Lennen
  • Patent number: 7884761
    Abstract: A method for tracking a satellite signal by a GPS includes the following steps. Data is continuously received from one of satellites by using tracking frequencies updated one by one based on an average phase difference of received data. Phase inversion points in the plurality of received data are interpreted. A time difference between each two adjacent phase inversion points among the phase inversion points is calculated. It is determined whether each time difference is an integral multiple of 20 ms. When each time difference is an integral multiple of 20 ms, 1-bit data is retrieved for every 20 ms from the satellite signal by taking a first phase inversion point among the plurality of phase inversion points as a starting point. Thus, a positioning speed is increased and a required positioning time is reduced by finding out a precise tracking frequency and a correct phase inversion point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2011
    Assignee: Altek Corporation
    Inventor: Hung-Sheng Chen
  • Patent number: 7884760
    Abstract: The location of a mobile terminal in a given area is determined by including the mobile terminal both in a satellite-based positioning system and in a cellular communications system. The mobile terminal is thus adapted to receive satellite signals from the satellite-based system and to be covered by at least one cell of the cellular communications system. The mobile terminal is configured for determining at least approximately its coordinates, including an altitude coordinate in the area, based on both satellite signals received from the satellite-based system and information related to the cellular communications system. An estimate of the altitude coordinate is derived from the information related to the cellular communications system, whereby satisfactory location performance is ensured also when one or more satellites in the satellite-based system are not visible at the mobile terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2011
    Assignee: Telecom Italia S.p.A.
    Inventors: Gianluca Boiero, Davide Cavallo
  • Publication number: 20110001666
    Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus, system and method for location determination following a search discontinuity utilizing early sampling of a satellite positioning system signal to determine a common code phase offset, pseudorange rate and mode of location calculation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2010
    Publication date: January 6, 2011
    Applicant: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Dominic Gerard Farmer, Lalitaprasad V. Daita, Jie Wu
  • Patent number: 7859456
    Abstract: The present invention provides systems and methods for enabling a navigation signal receiver to perform both data assisted and non-data assisted integration to provide better integration during signal acquisition, reacquisition and tracking. In data assisted integration mode, a receiver uses known or predicted data bits to remove the modulated data bits of a received signal prior to integration. In non data assisted integration mode, when the data bits are not known or predictable, the receiver uses an optimal estimation or maximum likelihood algorithm to determine the polarities of the modulated data bits of the received signal. This may be done by determining which of various possible bit pattern yields the maximum integrated power. When the modulated data bits are not known or predictable over a limited range, the receiver carries out data assisted integration over the known or predictable data bits and additional non data assisted integration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2010
    Assignee: Sirf Technology Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Chi-Shin Wang, Zongde Qiu, Zhike Jia
  • Publication number: 20100283680
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed herein to dynamically vary supply voltages and clock frequencies, also known as dynamic voltage scaling (DVS), in GPS receivers to minimize receiver power consumption while meeting performance requirements. For the baseband circuitry performing satellite acquisition and tracking, supply voltages and clock frequencies to the baseband circuitry are dynamically adjusted as a function of signal processing requirements and operating conditions for reducing baseband power consumption. Similarly, the supply voltage and clock frequency to the processor running navigation software and event processing are dynamically adjusted as a function of navigation performance requirements and event occurrences to reduce processor power consumption.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 5, 2009
    Publication date: November 11, 2010
    Inventors: Sanjay Vishin, Steve Gronemeyer
  • Publication number: 20100284246
    Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for providing simplified seismological surveys with increased accuracy and ease of use. The present invention uses data received from satellite positioning systems to obtain time and position information. The information is used to determine transmission times of pressure waves between a seismic source and a seismic sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2007
    Publication date: November 11, 2010
    Inventors: Conor Keegan, Elio Vecchione
  • Publication number: 20100265131
    Abstract: A device tracking system for tracking location coordinates of a portable device in real time is provided. The system includes a microprocessor chip in which a GPS transceiver is embedded. The microprocessor chip is installed in the portable device. The system also includes at least one GPS satellite capable of communicating with the GPS transceiver for obtaining location coordinates of the portable device, at least a second GPS transceiver coupled with the GPS satellite via a satellite antenna for receiving the obtained location coordinates; and a computer server coupled with the second GPS transceiver for communicating the obtained location coordinates to an authorized user via a web-enabled program.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 16, 2010
    Publication date: October 21, 2010
    Inventor: CHARLES FABIUS
  • Patent number: 7812763
    Abstract: A time adjustment device has a reception unit that receives a satellite signal transmitted from a positioning information satellite, a time information generating unit that generates internal time information, and a time information adjustment unit that adjusts the internal time information. The satellite signal contains satellite time information that is kept by the positioning information satellite. The reception unit includes a signal level acquisition unit that searches for positioning information satellites and acquires the signal level of the satellite signal transmitted from each positioning information satellite, a reception satellite selection unit that selects a positioning information satellite based on the acquired signal level, and a satellite time information acquisition unit that receives the satellite signal transmitted from the positioning information satellite selected by the reception satellite selection unit, and acquires the satellite time information contained in the satellite signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2010
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Norimitsu Baba, Jun Matsuzaki