Method of Electronic Device Identification and Localization Based on Active Code Transmission

摘要

A method for uniquely identifying and locating one or more electronic devices by means of a data-bearing signal transmission is disclosed. The method is specifically configured to locate a large number of similar electronic devices. In one embodiment, a receiving side system assigns a unique digital identity to an electronic device by means of a data transmission network. The electronic device subsequently processes this unique digital identity and constructs a waveform to encode the identity in a manner that can be transmitted. The waveform is converted to a propagating signal by means of an optical transmitter. The signal is received by an optical receiver and converted to an electrical signal that is subsequently processed to determine the unique identity encoded. Methods of encoding the identity in the frequency domain representation of the waveform, and identifying device location by means of a sensor array, are disclosed.

主权项

1. A method of determining the unique identity and physical location of an electronic device, comprising:
a. storing a digital representation of the unique identity in a device memory; b. transmitting the digital representation of the unique identity through space by controlling the variation in time of the intensity of a light emitting element of the electronic device; c. measuring, by one or more elements of a sensor system, the variation in time of the intensity of the light emitting element of the electronic device and representing the measured variation as an electrical signal; d. processing the electrical signal to produce a digital representation of the unique identity; e. determining the physical location of the identified device by assessing which element or elements of the sensor system produced the electrical signal.