Detecting location within a network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10064014-B2
Application number	US-201715713309-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 22, 2017
Priority date	Sep 16, 2015
Publication date	Aug 28, 2018
Grant date	Aug 28, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods for detecting the presence of a body in a network without fiducial elements, using signal absorption, and signal forward and reflected backscatter of radio frequency (RF) waves caused by the presence of a biological mass in a communications network.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for detecting the presence of a human comprising:
providing a first transceiver disposed at a first location within a detection area;
providing a second transceiver disposed at a second location within said detection area;
a computer server communicably coupled to said first transceiver;
said first transceiver receiving a first set of wireless signals from said second transceiver;
said computer server:
receiving a first set of signal data from said first transceiver, said first set of signal data comprising data about properties of said first set of wireless signals;
inferring that said first set of signal data is indicative of the presence of a human in said detection area;
creating a detection signal profile for wireless communications from said second transceiver to said first transceiver based at least in part on said properties of said first set of wireless signals in said first set of signal data when a human is inferred present in said detection area;

said first transceiver receiving a second set of wireless signals from said second transceiver;
said computer server:
receiving a second set of signal data from said first transceiver, said second set of signal data comprising data about properties of said second set of wireless signals;
inferring that said second set of signal data is indicative of the absence of any humans in said detection area;
creating a baseline signal profile for wireless communications from said second transceiver to said first transceiver based at least in part on said properties of said second set of wireless signals in said second set of signal data when the absence of any humans in in said detection area is inferred;

said first transceiver receiving a third set of wireless signals from said second transceiver;
said computer server receiving a third set of signal data from said first transceiver, said third set of signal data comprising data about properties of said third set of wireless signals;
determining whether said third set of signal data is indicative of the presence of a human, or absence of any humans, in said detection area, said determining based at least in part a comparison of said third set of signal data to said detection signal profile and said baseline signal profile.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
in said inferring that said first set of signal data is indicative of the presence of a human in said detection area, said inferring is based at least in part on additional signal data sets for signals received by said first transceiver from other transceivers in the detection area; and
in said inferring that said second set of signal data is indicative of the absence of any humans in said detection area, said inferring is based at least in part on additional signal data sets for signals received by said first transceiver from other transceivers in the detection area.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
said computer server storing a plurality of historical data records indicative of whether a human was determined to be present in said detection area over a period of time, each of said historical data records comprising an indication of a number of humans determined to be present in said detection area and a date and time when each of said number of humans was determined to be present in said detection area; and
said computer server making at least some of said plurality of historical data records available to one or more external computer systems via an interface.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
said computer server is operatively coupled to a second system; and
only after said computer server determines a human is present in said detection area, said computer server operates said second system.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said first transceiver and said second system are configured to communicate using an identical communication protocol.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein said second system is selected from the group consisting of: an electrical system; a lighting system; a heating, venting, and cooling (HVAC) system; a security system; and, an industrial automation system, an electrical system.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said wireless communication utilizes a protocol selected from the group consisting of: Bluetooth™, Bluetooth™ Low Energy, ANT, ANT+, WiFi, Zigbee, Thread, and Z-Wave.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said wireless communications from said second transceiver to said first transceiver have a carrier frequency in the range of 850 MHz and 17.5 GHz inclusive.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said computer server determining whether said third set of signal data is indicative of the presence of a human includes a confidence metric.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said first transceiver and said second transceiver are configured to calculate their relative positions within said detection area automatically.

11. A method for estimating the number of humans present in an area comprising:
providing a first transceiver disposed at a first location within a detection area;
providing a second transceiver disposed at a second location within said detection area;
a computer server communicably coupled to said first transceiver;
said first transceiver receiving a first set of wireless signals from said second transceiver when no humans are present within said detection area;
said computer server receiving a first set of signal data from said first transceiver, said first set of signal data comprising data about properties of said first set of wireless signals;
said computer server creating a first baseline signal profile for wireless communications from said second transceiver to said first transceiver, said first baseline signal profile being based at least in part on said properties of said first set of wireless signals in said first set of signal data when no humans are present in said detection area;
said first transceiver receiving a second set of wireless signals from said second transceiver when a first plurality of humans is present in said detection area, said first plurality of humans having a total mass;
said computer server receiving a second set of signal data from said first transceiver, said second set of signal data comprising data about properties of said second set of wireless signals;
said computer server creating a second baseline signal profile for wireless communications from said second transceiver to said first transceiver, said second baseline signal profile being based at least in part on said properties of said second set of wireless signals in said second set of signal data when said first plurality of humans is present in said detection area;
said first transceiver receiving a third set of wireless signals from said second transceiver when a second plurality of humans is present within said detection area;
said computer server receiving a third set of signal data from said first transceiver, said third set of signal data comprising data about properties of said third set of wireless signals;
said computer server estimating the total mass of said second plurality of humans, said estimating based at least in part on a comparison of said properties of said third set of wireless signals in said third set of wireless signal data to said first baseline signal profile and to said second baseline signal profile;
said computer server estimating the total number of humans in said plurality of humans based at least in part on dividing said estimated total mass of said plurality of humans by an average mass per human.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein said computer server estimating the t

Assignees

• Ivani Llc

Inventors

• Wootton John
• Wootton Matthew
• Nissman Chris
• Preston Victoria
• Clark Jonathan
• Mckinney Justin
• Barnes Claire
• Wang Zhecan
• Xiao Xinyu

Classifications

• H04W4/023 Primary

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title

• H04W64/00

  Locating users or terminals {or network equipment} for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management · CPC title

• G11C11/2273

  Reading or sensing circuits or methods · CPC title

• G11C11/2297

  Power supply circuits · CPC title

• H04B17/27

  for locating or positioning the transmitter · CPC title