System, method and computer-accessible medium for real time imaging using a portable device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12326511-B2
Application number	US-202217668941-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 10, 2022
Priority date	May 24, 2018
Publication date	Jun 10, 2025
Grant date	Jun 10, 2025

Abstract

Exemplary system, method and computer-accessible medium for selecting at least one location of (i) at least one receiver or transceiver or (ii) at least one transmitter or transceiver can be provided. For example, it is possible to facilitate a receipt, from the at least one transmitter or transceiver, of a plurality of signals by the receiver(s) or transceiver(s). Each of the signals has a multipath component. Then, it is possible to determine time of flight (ToF) information and angle of arrival (AoA) information of the multipath components present in the signals. Further, it is possible to determine one or more possible locations of (i) the receiver(s) or transceiver(s) or (ii) the transmitter(s) or transceiver(s) based on the ToF information, the AoA information, and a model of physical surroundings. The location(s) of (i) the receiver(s) or transceiver(s), or (ii) the transmitter(s) or transceiver(s) can be selected based on the one or more possible locations and an extended Kalman filter (“EKF”).

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for selecting at least one location of at least one portable device (PD) in an environment that includes at least one separate device (SD), wherein the at least one PD includes a PD receiver and/or a PD transmitter and the at least one SD includes an SD transmitter and/or an SD receiver, the method comprising:
facilitating a receiving by the PD of radio frequency (RF) signals and transmission information from the SD, the RF signals including at least two multipath components of an RF SD signal from the SD transmitter, and the transmission information including an angle of departure (AoD) information indicating the AoD of the RF SD signal transmission;
determining time of flight (ToF) information for the at least two multipath components;
determining, using a map-assisted positioning with angle and time (MAP-AT) processing, one or more possible locations of the at least one portable device, wherein the MAP-AT processing comprises accessing a model of physical surroundings of the portable device and generating, based at least in part on an information content of the model, in combination with the determined ToF information and the received AoD information, the one or more possible locations; and
selecting the at least one location of the at least one portable device based at least in part on the one or more possible locations.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the RF signals comprise millimeter wave (mmWave) signals.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising a step of generating, prior to the determining the one or more possible locations of the at least one portable device, at least a portion of the model of physical surroundings, wherein the generating of at least the portion of the model of the physical surroundings is based at at least in part on any among, or any combination or sub-combination one of:
one or more video recordings of an environment obtained using a visible-light camera,
one or more pictures of the environment obtained using the visible-light camera,
one or more light detection and ranging (LIDAR) generated 2D models or 3D models of the environment,
radar imaging results of a millimeter wave (mmWave) radiofrequency (RF) radar,
a computer-aided design (CAD) software application,
a hand drawing, and/or
floorplans or blueprints of a building.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the RF signals has (i) an oscillating frequency in a range that includes 6 GHz and extends from 6 GHz up to and includes 1 THz, or (ii) a bandwidth that is in a range that includes a bandwidth of 100 MHz and extends from the bandwidth of 100 MHz up to and includes a bandwidth of 10 GHz, or has (i) and (ii).

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining of the one or more possible locations comprises using at least one site-specific computer rendered simulation that is at least one of
in real-time,
by a cloud server,
on the PD, or
on the SD.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the separate device is a base station and the at least one portable device is a cellphone.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising an updating of at least a portion of the model of the physical surroundings.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the SD is a base station, and wherein the determining of the one or more possible locations is performed by a computer system arranged as (i) a mobile computer system, (ii) a fixed computer system provided at the base station, (iii) a cloud computing system, or any combination or sub-combination of two or more among (i), (ii), and (iii).

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a velocity and/or an acceleration of the at least one portable device using at least one of a Kalman filter, and/or an extended Kalman filter, and/or or a particle filter.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the separate device is a base station, and wherein the selecting of the at least one location of the at least one portable device comprises:
clustering the one or more possible locations into one or more clusters of the possible locations, the clustering being based on a maximum allowed distance between possible location within the same cluster, and
selecting among the one or more clusters, the cluster that contains the highest number of possible locations.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a carrier phase of at least one of the at least two multipath components received at the PD receiver, wherein determining the at least one location of the at least one PD is further based, at least in part, on the carrier phase.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the SD is a base station and the base station comprises a BS phased antenna array, wherein the AoD and AoD information is determined by the BS using the BS phased antenna array.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining, with onboard sensors in the at least one portable device:
an orientation of (i) the at least one portable device, or
z-coordinates (i) the at least one portable device, or
both.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the onboard sensors is configured to determine the orientation of the at least one portable device and comprises a gyroscope or an accelerometer or both.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the onboard sensors is configured to determine the z-coordinates and comprises a barometer.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the PD further includes a PD antenna array,
the SD is a first base station, and the environment further includes, respectively positioned within an RF range distance from the PD, at least a second base station and a third base station and the method further comprises, and
the method further comprises the PD determining:
a first angle of arrival (AoA) of one or more RF first BS signals received, at the PD receiver via the PD antenna array, from the first BS,
a second angle of arrival (AoA) of one or more RF second BS signals received, at the PD receiver via the PD antenna array, from the second BS,
a third angle of arrival (AoA) of one or more RF third BS signals received, at the PD receiver via the PD antenna array, from the third BS; and
wherein selecting the at least one location of the at least one portable device is further based at least in part on accessing, using at least the first AoA, the second AoA, and the third AoA, a look-up table which includes, for each location among a plurality of locations within the environment, respective location-specific AoA measurements, comprising a location-specific first BS AoA measurement, a location-specific second BS AoA measurement, and a location-specific third BS AoA measurement.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the RF SD signals comprises a pulsed RF signal, or a signal that is discretized over a plurality of individual RF frequencies.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein the PD further includes an antenna array communicatively coupled to the PD receiver and to the PD transmitter, and a computer-based logic communicatively coupled to the PD receiver and to the PD transmitter, and the method further comprises the computer-based logic performing, prior to facilitating the receiving by the PD of RF signals and transmission information from the SD, an RF radar imaging based generating of at least a portion of the model of physical surroundings of the portable device, comprising the computer-based logic:
controlling the RF transmitter of the portable device, in a manner causing a transmitting and spatial scanning of an RF radar beam f

Assignees

• Univ New York

Inventors

• Rappaport Theodore S
• Kanhere Ojas

Classifications

• G01P15/00

  Measuring acceleration; Measuring deceleration; Measuring shock, i.e. sudden change of acceleration · CPC title

• G01C19/00

  Gyroscopes; Turn-sensitive devices using vibrating masses; Turn-sensitive devices without moving masses; Measuring angular rate using gyroscopic effects · CPC title

• G01S5/0218

  Multipath in signal reception · CPC title

• G01S2013/464

  using only the non-line-of-sight signal(s), e.g. to enable survey of scene 'behind' the target only the indirect signal is evaluated · CPC title

• G01C21/383

  Indoor data · CPC title