Provided are computer-implemented methods that include receiving one or more messages from a device in a transmit state, including: a first message received at a first power level, the first message including data associated with a power level at which the first message was transmitted by the device in the transmit state, and a second message received at a second power level, the second message including data associated with a power level at which the second message was transmitted by the device in the transmit state; and determining a heading toward the device in the transmit state based on the first message and the second message. In some non-limiting embodiments or aspects, the method may include outputting data associated with an indication of the heading toward the device in the transmit state. Systems and computer program products are also provided.

A method for transmitting electromagnetic signals by a vehicle moving towards a target device including a communication system provided with a radiating system that receives and transmits electromagnetic signals, performs an alignment step with the target device to establish a first communication direction with the target device, communicates with the target device by orienting the radiating system to receive and transmit data along the first communication direction, and performs a subsequent phase for maintaining the alignment with the target device to determine a future position and an orientation of the radiating system with a sensor being operatively connected to an electronic control unit of the vehicle configured to implement control and/or driving assistance functions of the vehicle based on information received from the sensor, and ultimately orientates the electromagnetic signals emitted by the radiating system on the basis of the determined direction of communication.

Disclosed herein are methods, devices, and system for beam forming and beam steering within ultra-wideband, wireless optical communication devices and systems. According to one embodiment, a free space optical (FSO) communication apparatus is disclosed. The FSO communication apparatus includes an array of optical sources wherein each optical source of the array of optical sources is individually controllable and each optical source configured to have a transient response time of less than 500 picoseconds (ps).

An optical communications system including two communications terminals in communication with each other using optical signals having the same wavelength. Both terminals include a half-wave plate polarizer for rotating linearly polarized optical signals and a quarter-wave plate polarizer for circularly polarizing the optical signals. The quarter-wave plate polarizers are oriented 90° relative to each other so that circularly polarized optical signals sent from one terminal to the other terminal are linearly polarized 90° relative to a transmission polarization orientation to be separable from the transmitted optical signals by a beam splitter.

A co-prime transceiver attains higher fill factor, improved side-lobe rejection, and higher lateral resolution per given number of pixels. The co-prime transceiver includes in part, a transmitter array having a multitude of transmitting elements and a receiver array having a multitude of receiving elements. The distance between each pair of adjacent transmitting elements is a first integer multiple of the whole or fraction of the wavelength of the optical. The distance between each pair of adjacent receiving elements is a second integer multiple of the whole or fraction of the wavelength of the optical signal. The first and second integers are co-prime numbers with respect to one another. The transceiver is fully realizable in a standard planar photonics platform in which the spacing between the elements provides sufficient room for optical routing to inner elements.

A receiver (30) for providing an activation signal (54) to transition a device from a dormant state to an operative state. The receiver includes a sensor (32), a super regenerative oscillator, SRO, circuit (34), and a processing device (36, 38). The sensor is one of an optical sensor, an acoustic sensor, and a magnetic field sensor, and generates detector signals (40) based on wireless signals (28) received from an external source (18). The SRO circuit is electrically coupled to the sensor to receive the detector signals, and electrically oscillates with a constant SRO frequency and with a SRO amplitude (As) that changes when a carrier frequency of the detector signal substantially matches the SRO frequency. The processing device monitors the SRO amplitude in time, and generates the activation signal when a temporal characteristic (Sc) of the monitored SRO amplitude matches a predetermined reference pattern (52).

A transmitter of a wireless power transfer and data communication system comprising a transmitter system including a transmitter housing, one or more high-power laser sources, a laser controller, one or more low-power laser sources, one or more photodiodes, a beam steering system and lens assembly, and a safety system. High-power and low-power beams are directed to corresponding receivers and transceivers of a transceiver system inside a remote receiver system by the controller and the beam steering system and lens assembly. Low-power beams include optical communication to the transceiver system. The photodiodes of the transmitter system receive optical communication from the transceiver system. Low-power beams are co-propagated with and in close proximity to high-power beams substantially along an entire distance between the transmitter housing and the receiver system. The safety system instructs the controller to reduce the high-power sources in response to detected events.

Methods, devices, and systems are described for free space optical communication. An example device can comprise a defocuser configured to receive an optical signal from a laser and control a beam divergence of the optical signal. The optical signal can comprise a data signal and a beacon signal. The device can comprise a controller configured to cause the defocuser to adjust the beam divergence based on an operational mode of the laser.

Embodiments of a satellite transceiver configurable for inter-satellite communication and configurable for satellite to ground communication are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the satellite transceiver comprises a micro-electromechanical (MEM) micro-mirror array (MMA) (MEM-MMA) configured to steer a beam of encoded optical data over a field-of-view (FOV). The MEM-MMA comprises a plurality of individual mirror elements. Each of the mirror elements is controllable by control circuitry to steer the beam over the FOV.

An asymmetric bidirectional optical wireless communication system based on orbital angular momentum comprises a system end device and a client end device. The system can split light into P-polarization beam and S-polarization beam, and utilize the orbital angular momentum multiplexing technology to increase the system capacity for uplink transmission in the client end device. In addition, the system also uses the combination of a beam homogenizer and a spatial light modulator to design an orbital angular momentum multiplexer with low energy loss, which can increase the number of orbital angular momentum channels by increasing the effective area of the components.