Communicating through physical vibration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017179986-A1
Application number	US-201715449621-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 3, 2017
Priority date	Oct 22, 2014
Publication date	Jun 22, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A data receiver includes a vibration sensor to sample data from vibrations in an incoming signal at a predetermined sampling rate, and a microcontroller, coupled to the vibration sensor, to control the sampling rate through an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) protocol or the like. A memory card, coupled to the microcontroller, stores the data with a serial peripheral interface (SPI) protocol or the like.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A data receiver comprising:
a vibration sensor to sample data, at a predetermined sampling rate, from vibrations in an incoming signal received over a physical media; a microcontroller, coupled to the vibration sensor, to control the sampling rate through an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) protocol; and a memory card, coupled to the microcontroller, to store the data with a serial peripheral interface (SPI) protocol.

2 . The data receiver of claim 1 , wherein the vibration sensor comprises an accelerometer that is in a first-in-first-out sampling mode that queues the data and reads the data in bursts of a plurality of bits.

3 . The data receiver of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined sampling rate comprises 1600 Hz and 10-bit output resolution.

4 . The data receiver of claim 1 , wherein the microcontroller is further to:
detect a pilot frequency in a pilot carrier signal; measure an offset in sampling rate with respect to the pilot frequency; and interpolate the incoming signal to adjust for the offset.

5 . The data receiver of claim 1 , wherein the incoming signal includes a first carrier signal and a second carrier signal along an axis orthogonal to that of the first carrier signal, and the microcontroller is further to:
detect the first carrier signal and the second carrier signal; and save the data to the memory card separately for the first carrier signal and the second carrier signal, respectively.

6 . The data receiver of claim 5 , wherein the microcontroller further comprises:
a first raised cosine filter to filter symbols of the first carrier signal; a second raised cosine filter to filter symbols of the second carrier signal; and a demodulator to demodulate the first carrier signal separately from the second carrier signal using, in part, envelope detection.

7 . The data receiver of claim 5 , wherein the second carrier signal includes a first spill onto the first carrier signal and the first carrier signal includes a second spill onto the second carrier signal, and wherein the microcontroller is further to:
amplify the first carrier signal and the first spill, to generate an amplified first carrier signal and an amplified first spill; and add the amplified first carrier signal and the amplified first spill to the second carrier signal and second spill, to cancel out the second carrier signal with the amplified first spill, and to leave an amplified version of the first carrier signal to demodulate free from the first spill.

8 . The data receiver of claim 7 , wherein the microcontroller is further to:
adaptively scale and cancel the second carrier signal to remove an effect of the first spill; and demodulate the second carrier signal.

9 . The data receiver of claim 5 , wherein the vibration sensor comprises an inertial sensor.

10 . A method comprising:
sampling, at a predetermined sampling rate and with a vibration sensor coupled to a physical media, data from vibrations in an incoming signal received over the physical media; controlling, with a microcontroller coupled to the vibration sensor, the sampling rate through an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) protocol; and storing, in a memory card coupled to the microcontroller, the data with a serial peripheral interface (SPI) protocol.

11 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
queuing the data using an accelerometer, of the vibration sensor, that is in a first-in-first-out sampling mode; and reading, using the accelerometer, the data in bursts of a plurality of bits.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the predetermined sampling rate comprises 1600 Hz and 10-bit output resolution.

13 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
detecting a pilot frequency in a pilot carrier signal; measuring an offset in sampling rate with respect to the pilot frequency; and interpolating the incoming signal to adjust for the offset.

14 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the incoming signal includes a first carrier signal and a second carrier signal along an axis orthogonal to that of the first carrier signal, further comprising:
detecting the first carrier signal and the second carrier signal; and saving the data to the memory card separately for the first carrier signal and the second carrier signal, respectively.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the microcontroller further comprises:
filtering, using a first raised cosine filter of the microcontroller, symbols of the first carrier signal; filtering, using a second raised cosine filter of microcontroller, symbols of the second carrier signal; and demodulating, using a demodulator of the microcontroller, the first carrier signal separately from the second carrier signal using, in part, envelope detection.

16 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the second carrier signal includes a first spill onto the first carrier signal and the first carrier signal includes a second spill onto the second carrier signal, further comprising:
amplifying the first carrier signal and the first spill, to generate an amplified first carrier signal and an amplified first spill; and adding the amplified first carrier signal and the amplified first spill to the second carrier signal and second spill, to cancel out the second carrier signal with the amplified first spill, and to leave an amplified version of the first carrier signal to demodulate free from the first spill.

17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
adaptively scaling and cancelling the second carrier signal to remove an effect of the first spill; and demodulating the second carrier signal.

18 . A data receiver comprising:
a vibration sensor to sample data, at a predetermined sampling rate, from vibrations in an incoming signal received over a physical media, wherein the incoming signal includes a first carrier signal and a second carrier signal along an axis orthogonal to that of the first carrier signal; a memory card to store the data with a serial peripheral interface (SPI) protocol; and a microcontroller, coupled to the vibration sensor and to the memory card, the microcontroller to:
detect the first carrier signal and the second carrier signal; and
save the data to the memory card separately for the first carrier signal and the second carrier signal, respectively.

19 . The data receiver of claim 18 , wherein the microcontroller is further to control the sampling rate through an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) protocol.

20 . The data receiver of claim 18 , wherein the microcontroller is further to:
detect a pilot frequency in a pilot carrier signal; measure an offset in sampling rate with respect to the pilot frequency; and interpolate the incoming signal to adjust for the offset.

Assignees

• Univ Illinois

Inventors

• Roy Nirupam
• Choudhury Romit Roy
• Gowda Mahanth K

Classifications

• H04B11/00

  Transmission systems employing ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves · CPC title

• H04B1/16 Primary

  Circuits · CPC title

• H04L25/4902 Primary

  Pulse width modulation; Pulse position modulation · CPC title

• H04B1/04

  Circuits · CPC title