Apple Inc.

Shang-Te Yang

Alejandro J Marquez

Indranil S Sen

Mohit Narang

Xu Chen

Robert William Mayor

Brent Michael Ledvina

Robert W Brumley

William J Bencze

Amit S Sant

Peter M Agboh

Vusthla Sunil Reddy

Xiaoming Yu

Manjit S Walia

Ruben Caballero

Joachim S Hammerschmidt

Lei Li

Tushar Ramanlal Shah

Ali Pourghorban Saghati

Hung Kwan Oscar Au

Dineshan Poopalaratnam

Medini Guruprasad

Dinesh Poopalaratnam

Peiyu Chen

Pradeep K Marri

Methods and devices are provided for allowing a mobile device (e.g., a key fob or a consumer electronic device, such as a mobile phone, watch, or other wearable device) to interact with a vehicle such that a location of the mobile device can be determined by the vehicle, thereby enabling certain functionality of the vehicle. A device may include both RF antenna(s) and magnetic antenna(s) for determining a location of a mobile device relative to the vehicle. Such a hybrid approach can provide various advantages. Existing magnetic coils on a mobile device (e.g., for charging or communication) may be re-used for distance measurements that are supplemented by the RF measurements. Any device antenna may provide measurements to a machine learning model that determines a region in which the mobile device resides, based on training measurements in the regions.

Enhanced automotive passive entry

Wireless communication between two electronic devices may be used to determine a distance between the two devices, even in the presence of an otherwise-disruptive attacker. A wireless receiver system of one device may receive a true wireless ranging signal from a first transmitting device and a false wireless ranging signal from an attacker. The wireless receiver system may correlate the wireless signals with a known preamble sequence and perform channel estimation using the result, obtaining a channel impulse response for the wireless signals. The wireless receiver system may filter the channel impulse response for the plurality of wireless signals by removing at least part of the channel impulse response due to the false wireless ranging signal while not removing at least part of the channel impulse response due to the true wireless ranging signal. The receiver system may perform a wireless ranging operation using the filtered channel impulse response.

Secure channel estimation architecture

Methods and devices useful in performing precise indoor localization and tracking are provided. By way of example, a method includes locating and tracking, via a first wireless electronic device, a plurality of other wireless electronic devices within an indoor environment. Location ambiguity mitigation is performed using characteristics of signals received by a reference node used to generate a radio frequency map of electronic devices.

Precise indoor localization and tracking of electronic devices

Methods and devices useful in performing precise indoor localization and tracking are provided. By way of example, a method includes locating and tracking, via a first wireless electronic device, a plurality of other wireless electronic devices within an indoor environment. The method also includes performing front-back detection, performing stationary node detection, performing angle of arrival (AoA) error correction, and performing field of view (FOV) filtering. Performing indoor localization and tracking of the plurality of other wireless electronic devices includes providing an indication of a physical location of the plurality of other wireless electronic devices within the indoor environment.

Methods and apparatuses are presented to locate a wireless communication device. A target device may be out of range of a source device for normal ranging communications according to a first radio access technology (RAT), such as ultra wideband (UWB) communications. A source device may therefore modify communications according to the first RAT, to increase the transmit power, while removing the data payload. The target device may utilize the signal strength and angle of arrival of the modified communications to guide the user to move toward the source device, e.g., until the target device is within range to perform normal ranging communications. A second RAT, such as Bluetooth, may be used to communicate between the two devices while the target device is out of range of the first RAT. For example, the target device may use the second RAT to communicate to the source device to start/stop transmitting modified communications.

Ultra wideband range extension

A device implementing signal validation for secure ranging includes at least one processor configured to obtain a channel estimate based at least in part on a signal received from an other device over a channel. The at least one processor may be further configured to determine an average noise level of a beginning portion of the channel estimate and establish a direct path signal acceptance level for the channel estimate based at least in part on the average noise level. The at least one processor may further configured to identify a candidate direct path signal for the channel in a remaining portion of the channel estimate and validate the candidate direct path signal as a direct path signal for the channel when a signal level corresponding to the candidate direct path signal satisfies the direct path signal acceptance level, otherwise reject the candidate direct path signal as the direct path signal for the channel.

Signal validation for secure ranging

Some embodiments include a system, method, and computer program product for managing the Ultra Wideband (UWB) systems, especially when the UWB system is collocated with another wireless system (e.g., WiFi) to transmit and/or receive UWB signals with an occupied bandwidth (OBW) that satisfies a UWB OBW standard (e.g., a UWB OBW&#x3e;=500 MHz.) In some embodiments a TailBit signal (e.g., a periodic signal at a selected frequency) is added to a UWB packet to generate frequency components at the selected frequency that enables the power spectrum of the TailBit UWB signal to satisfy the UWB OBW standard. In some embodiments an altered code sequence is used to generate an altered spread signal, where the altered code sequence reduces or removes a frequency component peak near DC frequency of the power spectrum of an altered UWB signal, resulting in altered UWB OBW that satisfies the UWB OBW standard.

Apparatus and method for managing ultra wideband (UWB) occupied bandwidths

Methods for a data-less ranging procedure may include initiating a ranging procedure via a polling message transmitted at a first time and receiving response messages at second and third times. The time intervals between the first and second time and the second and third times may be pre-defined. A time of flight may be calculated based on the pre-defined time intervals and the first, second, and third times.

Data-less clock compensation for ranging

A user equipment (UE) including at least two antennas configured to allow the UE to communicate via a first connection. The UE selects a connection performance parameter associated with the first connection, generates historical measurement information for the at least two antennas based on the connection performance parameter, for the plurality of antennas, the historical measurement information indicating an expected performance associated with using a selected one of the at least two antennas for a packet transmission and selects, based at least on the historical measurement information, one of the at least two antennas for use in transmitting the packet.

Adaptive antenna selection

Methods and apparatuses are presented to reduce multiuser interference resulting from two or more overlapping ultra wideband (UWB) transmissions by randomizing the start time of packets and/or bursts within the packets. A random offset time may be generated for a packet, and transmission of the packet may be arbitrarily delayed by that random offset time, relative to an earlier time at which the packet is prepared for transmission. A random offset time may be generated for a pulse burst within a symbol of a packet, and transmission of the burst may be delayed by that random offset time, relative to a nominal transmission window within the symbol. The burst may therefore occupy a portion of a guard period following the nominal transmission window. Either procedure, or both procedures, may be used to reduce multiuser interference between two concurrently transmitted packets by randomizing overlap occurring between the bursts.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

Shang-Te Yang