Apparatus and method for robust indoor/outdoor object localization and tracking using multiple antennas technique

Abstract

This disclosure describes novel schemes and utilities that promote sustainable usage of smartphones. It describes apparatus and methods to prevent phone loss, prevent overheating problems, decrease energy waste of the battery, prevent overcharging, decrease packaging waste, and encourage sustainable behavior among users to increase the life of the electronic product. In addition, this application characterize mechanism for localization of people and objects. The apparatus and methods may be applied to promote sustainable usage of other electronic devices such as tablets, laptops, pocket PCs, personal digital assistants (PDAs), e-readers, wearable devices, and etc. In addition, a framework has been presented which can be applied to promote sustainable behavior for any consumer electronics products including smartphones. In addition, novel localization apparatus and methods is presented in this application that can be applied for general localization/tracking purposes.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A localization system for localization of an object, said system comprising:
 At least one beacon disposed at a location, said at least one beacon comprising a plurality of antennas, each antenna adapted to transmit one radio frequency (RF) signal, wherein said at least one beacon is configured to be attached to the object; and   a localizer device comprising at least two antennas and said localizer device is configured to receive said RF signals from said plurality of antennas of said at least one beacon via said at least two antennas of said localizer device and said localizer device is configured to estimate a distance between the object and said localizer device based on a plurality of received signal strength indicators (RSSI) of said radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted from said plurality of antennas of said at least one beacon and said RF signals measured at said at least two antennas of said localizer device to yield the location of the object,   wherein at least two of said plurality of RSSIs are originated from two distinct antennas of said at least one beacon, said RSSIs measured at one of said at least two antennas of said localizer device.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein at least two of said plurality of received signal strength indicators (RSSI) are originated from two distinct antennas of said at least one beacon and measured at said at least two antennas of said localizer device. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein at least two radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted from said at least one beacon via said plurality of antennas have different polarities; and
 wherein between RSSIs measured from signals from with different polarities   
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein a maximum of said at least two of said plurality of RSSIs
 is used to estimate the distance between the object and said localizer device.   
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said localizer device is configured to produce a notification when said distance exceeds a threshold. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said localizer device further comprises a plurality of antennas; and
 wherein said localizer device calculates an RSSI value for each signal path between each of said plurality of transmitting antennas attached to said at least one beacon and each of said plurality of receiving antennas attached to said localizer device; and   wherein the localizer device calculates maximum value of all RSSIs originated from each said transmitting antenna over all said plurality of received antennas, and then average the maximum RSSI values corresponding to all transmitting antennas in order to derive a combined reference RSSI; and   wherein the localizer device use said derived reference RSSI for distance estimation in order to increase accuracy of said distance estimation.   
     
     
         7 . The localization system of  claim 1  wherein,
 Said at least one beacon, comprising a plurality of antennas is capable of beamforming and receive feedback from said localizer device regarding one quality of signals received at said localizer device, and 
 Wherein said at least one beacon adapt a precoding for beamforming scheme based on a received feedback from the said localizer through an iterative algorithm such that it the beacon's beam is directed towards said localizer device, 
 Wherein the at least one beacon provide an information about which direction the beacon's beam is aligned with to said localizer device, and 
 Wherein the localizer device uses said information about the direction of said beam along with the distance estimation calculated by it the localizer to fully identify the location of the object with respect to the localizer. 
 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising at least one speaker functionally couple to said localizer device, wherein said at least one speaker is configured to selectively generate an alarm. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the alarm sounds softer as said at least one beacon gets closer to the localizer device. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said at least one beacon comprises a low energy Bluetooth RF tag. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said at least one beacon is configured to periodically transmit on a configurable wakeup cycle. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said localizer device is a smartphone. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein said at least one beacon transmit an ultra-wideband signal. 
     
     
         14 . A localization system for revealing an object's position, said system comprising:
 At least one beacon disposed at a location, comprising a plurality of antennas and each antenna adapted to transmit one radio frequency (RF) signal, wherein said at least one beacon is configured to be attached to the object; and   a localizer device comprising a plurality of antennas and said localizer device is configured to receive said RF signals from said plurality of antennas of said at least one beacon via said plurality of antennas of said localizer device; and   wherein the localizer device measures time difference of arrival between received signals from each of said plurality of antennas of said at least one beacon at each of said plurality of antennas of said localizer device, and determine direction of arrival of the signal from each transmitting antennas; and   wherein the localizer device estimates the localizer's distance from the transmitting antennas; and   wherein the localizer device uses said direction of arrival of the signal from each transmitting antennas along with said estimated distance from the transmitting antennas of said at least one beacon to identify the location of said at least one beacon with respect to the localizer; and   wherein said localizer device is aware of spatial distances between said plurality of antennas of the beacon.   
     
     
         15 . A localization system for revealing the position of an object, said system comprising:
 A first type of beacon capable of transmitting a wave;   A second type of beacon capable of transmitting a second type of wave;   Localizer equipped with first sensor(s) capable of measuring said first type of wave and second sensor(s) capable of measuring said second type of wave;   Wherein said first and second type of beacons are collocated in a target object;   Wherein the first sensor(s) will be used to provide a first estimate of the target object at the localizer; and   Wherein the second sensor(s) will be used to identify and correct the inaccuracies of the estimate of the target object at the localizer; and   wherein the correction is done through a self-trained machine learning algorithm.