Magnetic communication method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10367265-B2
Application number	US-201615230045-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 5, 2016
Priority date	Aug 5, 2016
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a magnetic communication method that does not use induction. For example, a transmitter device may generate a magnetic field in a controlled direction and rotate the magnetic field around one or more axes. As such, an angle according to which the magnetic field is rotated at the transmitter device may be used as a variable upon which to encode data transmitted to a receiver device that can sense a direction of the magnetic field along two or more axes. Furthermore, to achieve higher data rates, multiple rotation angles could be used to encode the data transmitted from the transmitter device to the receiver device, which may further improve security because reading and/or generating the modulated magnetic field may be increasingly difficult from any significant distance away from the transmitter device and the receiver device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for transmitting data using magnetic communication, comprising:
generating, at a transmitter device, one or more communication symbols, wherein the one or more communication symbols represent an authentication code configured to enable authentication of a wireless connection between the transmitter device and a receiver device;
transferring the authentication code to the receiver device, wherein the transferring comprises:
generating a magnetic field at the transmitter device; and
rotating the magnetic field around one or more axes to encode the one or more communication symbols; and

establishing the wireless connection between the transmitter device and the receiver device in response to a determination that the authentication code has been transferred to the receiver device.

2. The method recited in claim 1 , wherein the one or more communication symbols comprise one or more binary data bits.

3. The method recited in claim 2 , wherein rotating the magnetic field around the one or more axes to encode the one or more communication symbols to be transmitted to the receiver device comprises:
rotating the magnetic field around a first axis according to a first angle to encode a binary digit zero; and
rotating the magnetic field around the first axis according to a second angle to encode a binary digit one.

4. The method recited in claim 1 , wherein the one or more communication symbols each represent multiple data bits.

5. The method recited in claim 4 , wherein the magnetic field is rotated around at least a first axis according to a first angle and further rotated around a second axis according to a second angle to represent each communication symbol.

6. The method recited in claim 4 , wherein the magnetic field rotated within a two-dimensional plane according to at least a first angle that has a first size and according to a second angle that has a second size to represent each communication symbol.

7. The method recited in claim 1 , wherein the transmitter device comprises a magnetic field source configured to generate the magnetic field.

8. The method recited in claim 7 , wherein the transmitter device further comprises an electrical power source configured to drive the magnetic field source and to cause the magnetic field source to rotate the magnetic field.

9. The method recited in claim 7 , wherein the magnetic field source comprises a permanent magnet configured to generate a persistent magnetic field and one or more mechanical components coupled to the permanent magnet that are configured to cause the permanent magnet to rotate such that the persistent magnetic field rotates.

10. A transmitter device, comprising:
a processor configured to generate one or more communication symbols, wherein the one or more communication symbols represent an authentication code configured to enable authentication of a wireless connection between the transmitter device and a receiver device;
a magnetic field source configured to transfer the authentication code to the receiver device, wherein to transfer the authentication code, the magnetic field source is configured to:
generate a magnetic field at the transmitter device; and
rotate around one or more axes to encode the one or more communication symbols;

a transceiver system, wherein the processor and transceiver system are configured to establish the wireless connection between the transmitter device and the receiver device in response to a determination that the authentication code has been transferred to the receiver device.

11. The transmitter device recited in claim 10 , wherein the one or more communication symbols comprise one or more binary data bits.

12. The transmitter device recited in claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
cause the magnetic field to rotate around a first axis according to a first angle to encode a binary digit zero; and
cause the magnetic field to rotate around the first axis according to a second angle to encode a binary digit one.

13. The transmitter device recited in claim 10 , wherein the one or more communication symbols each represent multiple data bits.

14. The transmitter device recited in claim 13 , wherein the processor is further configured to rotate the magnetic field around one or more axes according to multiple different angles to represent each communication symbol.

15. The transmitter device recited in claim 10 , further comprising:
an electrical power source configured to drive the magnetic field source and to cause the magnetic field to rotate according to instructions from the processor.

16. The transmitter device recited in claim 10 , wherein the magnetic field source comprises a permanent magnet and the transmitter device further comprises one or more mechanical components coupled to the permanent magnet, the one or more mechanical components arranged to cause the permanent magnet to rotate such that the magnetic field rotates when energy is applied to the one or more mechanical components.

17. An apparatus, comprising:
means for generating, at a transmitter device, one or more communication symbols, wherein the one or more communication symbols represent an authentication code configured to enable authentication of a wireless connection between the transmitter device and a receiver device;
means for transferring the authentication code to the receiver device, wherein the means for transferring comprises:
means for generating a magnetic field; and
means for rotating the magnetic field around one or more axes to encode the one or more communication symbols; and

means for establishing the wireless connection between the transmitter device and the receiver device in response to a determination that the authentication code has been transferred to the receiver device.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions, the stored computer-executable instructions configured to cause a transmitter device to:
generate, at a transmitter device, one or more communication symbols, wherein the one or more communication symbols represent an authentication code configured to enable authentication of a wireless connection between the transmitter device and a receiver device;
transfer the authentication code to the receiver device, wherein the transferring comprises:
generate a magnetic field; and
rotate the magnetic field around one or more axes to encode the one or more communication symbols; and

establish the wireless connection between the transmitter device and the receiver device in response to a determination that the authentication code has been transferred to the receiver device.

19. A method for receiving data using magnetic communication, comprising:
sensing, at a receiver device, a direction associated with a magnetic field vector experienced at the receiver device;
detecting, at the receiver device, one or more rotations in the magnetic field vector experienced at the receiver device based on one or more changes in the sensed direction associated with the magnetic field vector;
decoding, at the receiver device, one or more communication symbols based on the one or more rotations in the magnetic field vector, wherein the one or more decoded communication symbols represent an authentication code configured to enable authentication of a wireless connection between the receiver device and a transmitter device
authenticate the transmitter device for the wireless connection based on the authentication code; and
establish the

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Richardson Laurence
• Batra Mayank

Classifications

• H01Q3/44 Primary

  varying the electric or magnetic characteristics of reflecting, refracting, or diffracting devices associated with the radiating element · CPC title

• H04B14/006

  Angle modulation · CPC title

• H01Q1/241

  used in mobile communications, e.g. GSM (H01Q1/247, H01Q1/248 take precedence) · CPC title

• H01Q7/00

  Loop antennas with a substantially uniform current distribution around the loop and having a directional radiation pattern in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the loop · CPC title

• H04B5/0075

  Electricity · mapped topic