In an ultra-wideband (“UWB”) receiver, a received UWB signal is periodically digitized as a series of ternary samples. During a carrier acquisition mode of operation, the samples are continuously correlated with a predetermined preamble sequence to develop a correlation value. When the value exceeds a predetermined threshold, indicating that the preamble sequence is being received, estimates of the channel impulse response (“CIR”) are developed. When a start-of-frame delimiter (“SFD”) is detected, the best CIR estimate is provided to a channel matched filter (“CMF”). During a data recovery mode of operation, the CMF filters channel-injected noise from the sample stream. Both carrier phase errors and data timing errors are continuously detected and corrected during both the carrier acquisition and data recovery modes of operation. The phase of the carrier can be determined by accumulating the correlator output before it is rotated by the carrier correction. By comparing the carrier phases of two receivers separated by a known distance, d, the angle of incidence, θ, of the signal can be determined.

Systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for calibrating beam orientation errors for improved positioning. For example, certain embodiments may utilize collection of various measurements to compute, and correct for, beam orientation errors. Additionally, or alternatively, certain embodiments may collect information about propagation conditions in a network and may establish virtual anchors for the network.

The subject matter discloses a casing of a mobile electronic device, comprising: a body, comprising: two or more antennas for exchanging wireless signals with a target device; an electromagnetic absorbing material located between the two or more antennas; electrical circuitry for sending information concerning the wireless signals exchanged between the two or more antennas and the target device to a direction finding module, wherein the direction finding module is operative to determine a relative direction of the target device based on the wireless signals exchanged between the two or more antennas and the target device.

A feed circuit for feeding an antenna includes: a first coupler including a first pair of opposing conductive elements; a second coupler including a second pair of opposing conductive elements; a third coupler including a third pair of opposing conductive elements; a delay line; first terminals configured to connect to the antenna; second terminals connected to a ground reference; and a feed terminal connected to the first coupler and configured to receive at least one of a transmit signal to be transmitted from the antenna or a combined received signal from the antenna. The first terminals are connected to the second coupler and the third coupler and configured to output a signal at different phases to conductive elements of the antenna. The second terminals are connected to the first coupler, the second coupler and the third coupler.

An electronic device may be provided with wireless circuitry that includes first, second, and third antennas used to determine the position and orientation of the electronic device relative to external equipment. The antennas may include patch elements on respective substrates mounted to a flexible printed circuit. Each substrate may include fences of conductive vias that are coupled to ground and that laterally surround the corresponding patch element. Control circuitry may identify phase differences between the first and second antennas and between the second and third antennas and may identify an angle of arrival of received ultra-wideband signals using the phase differences. The control circuitry may compare the phase differences to a set of predetermined surfaces of phase differences to identify environmental loading conditions for the antenna. The control circuitry may correct the angle of arrival using offsets identified based on the environmental loading conditions.

An ultra-wideband (“UWB”) communication system comprising a transmitter and a receiver having two antennas. An UWB signal transmitted by the transmitter is received at each of the antennas. By comparing the carrier phases of the received signals, the phase difference can be determined. From this phase difference and the known distance, d, between the antennas, the Cartesian (x,y) location of the transmitter relative to the receiver can be directly determined.

Example techniques relate to playback based on acoustic signals in a system including a first network device and a second network device. A first network device may detect a presence of a user using a camera and/or infrared sensors. The first network device sends, in response to detecting the presence of the user, a particular signal via the first network interface. The second network device receives data corresponding to the particular signal and plays back an audio output corresponding to the particular signal.

A method is provided for estimating a signal’s angle of arrival (AOA) in a communications system. Starting values for each of a horizontal AOA and a vertical AOA are estimated. The estimated vertical AOA starting value is used to select a horizontal PDOA trace of horizontal PDOA calibration data. The selected horizontal PDOA trace is interpolated to determine a best horizontal AOA estimate for a current iteration. The estimated horizontal AOA starting value is used to select a vertical PDOA trace of vertical PDOA calibration data. The selected vertical PDOA trace is interpolated to determine a best vertical AOA estimate for the current iteration. After each iteration, determining if a maximum number of iterations has been reached or if the best horizontal or vertical AOA estimate has not changed by a predetermined amount. When one of these is true, the best horizontal and vertical AOA estimates are used.

The present invention, Methods for RF or Acoustic Boresighting, is a collection of various methods of accounting for and correcting for the errors that occur in a receiver during signal collection, and are an extension of patent Ser. No. 10/185,022, by using Radio Frequency coupling as opposed to switches. These updated methods enable a means to ensure a collected signal can be calibrated at any point during the signal collection period without having to cease signal collection in order to switch in a reference signal. These methods also account for signal bandwidth and signal type, including wideband, pulse, and continuous signals.

Example techniques relate to playback based on acoustic signals in a system including a first network device and a second network device. A first network device may detect a presence of a user using a camera and/or infrared sensors. The first network device sends, in response to detecting the presence of the user, a particular signal via the first network interface. The second network device receives data corresponding to the particular signal and plays back an audio output corresponding to the particular signal.