DETERMINING RELATIVE POSITION WITH A BLE BEACON

摘要

A beacon uses a plurality of co-located, unidirectional antennas each to transmit angular and/or ranging reference signals from substantially the same point. In some embodiments, two such antennas transmit the reference signals in substantially opposite directions, and in some embodiments four such antennas transmit in directions that are substantially at right angles to each other. In some embodiments, the transmitted signals overlap so they can be received at a single receiver. Some implementations include a receiver that interprets the reference signals from two or more of the co-located antennas to determine the direction of the receiver is in relative to the beacon or the location of the receiver relative to the beacon. Another implementation uses an omnidirectional antenna to provide ranging information and a rotating, unidirectional antenna to provide directional information. In some of these implementations, the antennas are co-located, while in others, they are separated in space.

主权项

1. A location reference system, comprising:
a controller; a beacon comprising a plurality of co-located unidirectional antennas, each selectively transmitting at least one of:
a directional reference signal anda ranging reference signal,each in a different center direction; and
a memory in communication with the controller, the memory being programmed with instructions executable by the controller to selectively activate each of the unidirectional antennas in a predetermined sequence.