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:
Aug. 11, 2009
Filed:
Mar. 02, 2005
Making time-of-flight measurements in master/slave and ad hoc networks by eaves-dropping on messages
Adam S. Leitch, Brighton, GB;
Martin S. Wilcox, Redhill, GB;
Paul M. Fulton, Redhill, GB;
Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Eindhoven, NL;
Abstract
Method for obtaining range and/or positional information of electronic devices typically rely on a device (A) re-questing that another device (B) supplies a reply message (), which contains some timing information (T, T) on the signals received and sent. Problems that arise in such networks comprise: firstly, some devices (C) may be out of range of the device (A) that initiates the ranging measurements, and secondly, some devices (B, C) may not be allowed to communicate with each other and thus, the distance between these devices cannot be found. This invention discloses that in these cases, eavesdropping on messages () passing between other devices (A, B, C) in the system can result in that distances between additional devices are found. Furthermore, by using eavesdropping the number of transmissions, and therefore the potential for collisions, is reduced. Thus, the power consumption of the nodes in the network can be lowered.