Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Duke University

Sergey Chemishkian

Jonathan J Hull

Stephen R Savitzky

John W Barrus

Matthew Stephen Reynolds

Ken Gudan

Kurt W Piersol

Edward L Schwartz

Bradley J Rhodes

Michael J Gormish

Max E McFarland

Haixia Yu

Kenneth F Gudan

Andrea Mariotti

Daja Phillips

Michael G E Griffin

Patty Case

Gregory J Wolff

Xu Liu

Richard D Kosoglow

Kathrin Berkner

Jamey Graham

Peter E Hart

Sapna A Shroff

Kanae Amemiya

Timothee Bailloeul

Joshua F Ensworth

Daniel Arnitz

Stewart Thomas

Mike Griffin

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.

Low power radio frequency communication

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.

A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for real-time wireless power transfer control. In one embodiment, a system comprises: an RF-energy harvesting sensor tag operable to generate a first backscatter signal and at least one base station operable to deliver RF power to the sensor tag by emitting a first waveform comprising a plurality of subcarriers, wherein the first backscatter signal is generated by the sensor tag by modulated scattering of the first waveform as incident upon the sensor tag, and further wherein the at least one base station subsequently emits a second waveform determined at least in part by a closed-loop feedback control algorithm responsive to measurements of the first backscatter signal.

Real-time wireless power transfer control for passive backscattering devices

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.

A distributed workflow-enabled system includes: a workflow-enabled provider and a workflow-enabled client communicatively coupled by a network. The workflow-enabled provider and the workflow-enabled client include a workflow unit. The workflow unit allows the workflow-enabled provider and the workflow-enabled client to communicate, distribute processes and present a user interfaces by providing a communication manager, a process control module and a user interface module. The present invention also includes a number of novel methods including a method for communication, a method for processing by a process control module, a method for creating and presenting the user interface and a method for retrieving processes executable by the process control module.

Distributed workflow-enabled system

A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for measuring radio-frequency energy. In one embodiment, the apparatus comprises one or more antennas, a wideband radio frequency detector (e.g., a logarithmic amplifier (LogAmp)) coupled to the one or more antennas to measure ambient RF energy, wherein the wideband radio frequency detector has an analog output indicative of RF input power received by the one or more antennas, and an analog-to-digital converter coupled to the wideband radio frequency detector to convert the analog output to a digital value, the digital value being applied to a calibration function, to provide a number representing RF energy.

Method and apparatus for measuring radio-frequency energy

A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for harvesting ambient energy. In one embodiment, an energy harvester comprises: a first RF rectifier to output a first voltage determined by rectified RF energy in response to received RF energy; a first energy reservoir coupled to the first RF rectifier to store energy at the first voltage; a DC/DC converter coupled to the first energy reservoir to convert the first voltage to a second voltage; a second reservoir coupled to the DC/DC converter to store energy at the second voltage, the second voltage being greater than the first voltage; and a third reservoir coupled to the second reservoir to receive energy transferred from the second reservoir periodically.

System for ambient energy harvesting

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.

Asymmetric wireless system

A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for controlling radio-frequency (RF) energy for wireless devices. In one embodiment, the method comprises determining to increase radio-frequency (RF) energy available to power a wireless tag and controlling the RF energy delivered to the wireless tag to provide tag energy, using one or more of: a) increasing transmission RF power of one or more wireless communication devices, b) increasing a duty cycle associated with wireless transmissions of one or more wireless communication devices, and c) decreasing path loss of the power to the wireless tag.

Method and system to control ambient RF energy for wireless devices

The present invention provides systems and methods for self-labeling access points with their geographic location from received beacon frames. In particular, the present invention transmits beacon frames including temporary location information from mobile devices. The beacon frames are received by an access point, filtered by the access point and then used to determine a location. Once the location has been determined, the access point uses the determined location to self-label itself by converting the location information to a geographic code and inserting it as part of the SSID of the access point's beacon signal. The present invention also includes a number of methods using geographic codes including a method for generating and transmitting geographic codes for mobile devices, a method for determining a location of an access point, a method for self-labeling an access point, and a method for filtering beacon frames.

Applications for geographically coded access points

A method, system and tag for low power radio frequency communication are described. In one embodiment, the RF tag comprises: a radio, an energy harvesting unit operable to convert incident RF energy to direct current (DC), a storage unit to store recovered DC power, one or more sensors for sensing and logging data, and a microcontroller coupled to the energy harvesting and storage units, the one or more sensors and the radio, 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.

A method, system and tag for low power radio frequency communication is described. In one embodiment, the RF tag comprises: an access point comprising: a first antenna; a first radio coupled to the first antenna; a central processing unit coupled to the first radio; a backscatter adapter coupled to the access point via a wired communication interface, the backscatter adapter comprising a backscatter radio and a second antenna coupled to the backscatter radio for use in communicating with an RF tag in the network via backscatter.

A portable computing device for automatic attachment of a captured image to a document being displayed triggered by the act of capturing the image is disclosed. A new page is added to the current document being reviewed and displayed on the portable computing device, and then the image and metadata are attached in that new page. In other variations, the document includes metadata having a location at which images may be stored and upon capture the image, the captured image is stored at the metadata location.

Automatic attachment of a captured image to a document based on context

Passive RFID devices are disclosed that perform image recognition. The device includes an antenna, circuitry, and a camera. The antenna receives a radio frequency (RF) signal from a RFID reader. The circuitry stores image data for objects that is used for image recognition. To operate, the circuitry derives power from the RF signal. With the power derived from the RF signal, the camera captures an image. The circuitry then identifies an object in the captured image based on the image data for the objects, and outputs information for the identified object, such as to the RFID reader.

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Sergey Chemishkian