The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 10, 2004
Filed:
Jul. 21, 2000
Robert Keller, Plano, TX (US);
Jose Melendez, Plano, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A method for controlling an optical, path-to-sight link, the optical link including a source of light having a beam of light, a controllable beam steering device and an actuator to permit steering the light beam, the beam steering device being controllable by predetermined control signals. The method includes the following steps. The beam steering device is controlled so as to scan the beam of light in a first predetermined pattern. First direction is received data from a remote receiver including a light detector, the direction data corresponding to a direction of the beam at which the scanned beam of light is detected by the light detector. Responsive to the first direction data, a first beam direction is determined for data communication from the link to the receiver. The beam steering device is controlled to maintain a communications beam direction corresponding to the first beam direction. The beam of light is modulated with electronic signals.