Innovative new systems and method of operating the systems, wherein the system comprises an airborne platform comprising an unmanned balloon comprising a gas enclosure; a geographic locator or tracking system configured to determine geographical coordinates of the unmanned balloon; a payload comprising a transceiver, wherein the transceiver is capable of communicating with communication devices that are separate from the unmanned balloon; first and second flight-termination devices each configured to cause termination of a flight of the unmanned balloon; and at least two power sources each configured to provide power to at least one of the first and second flight-termination devices.

A directional receiver system may include a receiver, a plurality of receive antenna elements, and a circuit. The receiver may include an input port and an output. The plurality of receive antenna elements may be fixedly configured into a known geometric relationship to each other, and each of the receive antenna elements may be connected to the input port of the receiver. The circuit may be coupled to the output of the receiver, configured to determine time differences at which signals from a source are incident upon the antenna elements, and configured to determine an angular orientation of the source to the receive antenna elements based on the time differences.

Methods and apparatus for determining a direction of interest based upon coordinates derived from wireless communication between wireless transceivers. A smart device assembly is operative to communicate via multiple antennas with a reference point transceiver. A set of coordinates is generated indicating a relative position and/or angle of the wireless transceiver in relation to the reference position transceiver. A query may be made based upon the relative position and angle of the wireless transceiver in relation to the reference position transceiver. A response to the query may include a human readable interface indicating one or more of: direction of travel, a virtual image based upon location and location and direction, and annotative and pictorial information.

Various aspects of the disclosure relate to millimeter wave ranging with six degrees of freedom. For example, a multi-gigabyte link (e.g., an IEEE 802.11ad link or an 802.11ay link) and RF/Antenna diversity modules can be used to conduct round trip time (RTT) distance measurements between an anchor point and a station. Relative location information (e.g., degrees of freedom) between the wireless devices can then be determined based on the distance measurements.

Various aspects of the disclosure relate to millimeter wave ranging with six degrees of freedom. For example, a multi-gigabyte link (e.g., an IEEE 802.11ad link or an 802.11ay link) and RF/Antenna diversity modules can be used to conduct round trip time (RTT) distance measurements between an anchor point and a station. Relative location information (e.g., degrees of freedom) between the wireless devices can then be determined based on the distance measurements.

A system for managing a paper roll includes an IC tag for long distance that is a non-contact passive type mounted on each of a plurality of paper rolls; a transmitter that transmits a radio wave toward the plurality of paper rolls; a receiver that receives a response radio wave from each of the paper rolls for the transmitted radio wave; a control device including a tag position calculation unit that calculates a three-dimensional position of the IC tag which has emitted the response radio wave, based on information regarding the received response radio wave; and a storage unit that stores three-dimensional position information of each of the plurality of paper rolls from information regarding the calculated three-dimensional position and paper information, which is specific to each of the paper rolls, as linked information.

A communication device includes: receiving circuitry which, in operation, receives a radio signal transmitted by a mobile station; and processing circuitry which, in operation, estimates a position of the mobile station based on a signal waveform profile including information about at least two of a direction of arrival, an arrival time, and a received power of the radio signal. A position estimating method includes: receiving a radio signal transmitted by a mobile station; and estimating a position of the mobile station based on a signal waveform profile including information about at least two of a direction of arrival, an arrival time, and a received power of the radio signal. A communication system includes: a mobile station; and a communication device.

A system and method for vehicle-tracking and localization with a distributed sensor network is provided that includes a plurality of cellular station. A pilot signal is received from the vehicle with an arbitrary station. The pilot signal is compared to each vehicle profile with the arbitrary station in order to identify a matching profile. Spatial positioning data is received for the vehicle with the arbitrary station. The vehicle profile and the spatial positioning data is relayed from the arbitrary station to the at least one proximal station from the plurality of cellular stations. A plurality of iterations is executed. The spatial positioning data is compiled from each iteration into a predicted path for the vehicle with the cellular stations. A warning notification is sent from the arbitrary station of the current iteration to the vehicle, if the predicted path is intersected by at least one hazard.

UE location determined by collecting and preprocessing signal data at a detector and sending extracted data to a remote locate server. The detector buffers samples from signals provided by receive channels, detects known reference signals from receive channels based on reference signal parameters, isolates symbols carrying the reference signal from frames, extracts data from symbols, and sends extracted data to locate server. The locate server receives the extracted data, estimates locate observables based on the extracted data and calculates the UE location based on the estimated locate observables, the reference signal parameters and the extracted data. The detector and/or the server may also generate correlation coefficients between reference signals carrying spectrum received from a serving cell and utilize the correlation coefficients to cancel a serving cell signal in symbols that include known in advance reference signals from the serving cell and one or more neighboring cells of the wireless system.

Methods and apparatus for wireless communication area augmentation. A plurality of Nodes or Tags assist in aligning real-world with virtual-world content. Using augmented reality, an Agent may detect one or more Tags by the reflection or other reception of wireless energy in a Radio Target Area. This may be correlated with information in a database about an object proximate to the Tag. In this way, messages, history, and other information about the object may be easily conveyable to the Agent.