Methods and apparatus for locating RFID tags

• Main Authors: Hewett, Spencer, Adlin, Tamara, Blair, Adam, Murphy, Michael, Seiff, Ken, Wieman, Mark
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 18.06.2024
• Subjects: ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS OR METHODS, SPECIALLY ADAPTED FORADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORYOR FORECASTING PURPOSES; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; HANDLING RECORD CARRIERS; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; MEASURING; PHYSICS; PRESENTATION OF DATA; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; RECOGNITION OF DATA; RECORD CARRIERS; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE,COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORY OR FORECASTINGPURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; TESTING

A radio frequency identification (RFID) system includes an array of antennas to distinguish line-of-sight (LOS) paths from non-line-of-sight (NLOS) paths. The distance between adjacent antennas in the array of antennas is less than half the wavelength of the radio frequency (RF) signal of the system. Each antenna in the antenna array is also digitally controlled to change relative phase difference among the antennas, thereby allowing digital steering of the array of antennas across angles of arrival (AOAs) between 0 and π. The digital steering generates a plot of signal amplitudes as a function of AOAs. LOS paths are distinguished from NLOS paths based on the shapes (e.g., depth, gradient, etc.) of local extremes (e.g., maxima or minima) in the plot.