Systems and methods for determining an accurate location of a signal's source of transmission. The methods involve: demodulating a detected carrier signal modulated with a Pseudo Noise (“PN”) code sequence to obtain an original information-bearing signal therefrom; computing time delay offsets using correlations of PN code windows for each symbol of the original information-bearing signal; determining a high accuracy Time Of Arrival (“TOA”) of the detected carrier signal using the time delay offsets; and using the high accuracy TOA to determine an accurate location of the original information-bearing signal's source of transmission.

A system and bent-pipe transponder component for determining a location of an individual or object in three dimensional space. The system includes a transmitter configured to transmit a first wireless electromagnetic signal at a first frequency and at least one transponder that is configured to responsively emit a second wireless electromagnetic signal having a second frequency that is frequency-shifted from the first frequency. An included receiver detecting the first and second wireless electromagnetic signals is configured to provide an output of location information for the at least one transponder. A bent-pipe transponder component may include a receiving antenna, an emitting antenna, and a frequency shift stage comprising an oscillator and a first mixer, with the frequency stage mixing a received first wireless electromagnetic signal with the output of the oscillator via the first mixer to produce the emitted second wireless electromagnetic signal.

A system provides a way to determine angle of bearing to a target receiver/transmitter relative to plural beacon stations with rotating directional radiation patterns. The target is “cooperative” in that it transmits a “report” message when the target receives maximum signal strength from a beacon station. Triangulation from multiple beacon transmitter sites can be used to determine the target's position.

A method and system for estimation of the current location of a remote radio beacon, at a mobile device, based on two historical positions thereof provided via at least two satellite relays and one base station, particularly usable for Search and Rescue. A beacon is configured to periodically transmit short RF signals, relayed by a first satellite payload to a base station, at which the position of the beacon is resolved; then, the base station transmits a message, relayed by a second satellite payload and detectable by a mobile device, encoding two previous positions of the beacon, stamped with time tags. Finally, the mobile device decodes the information about said two previous positions of the beacon, and accordingly estimates the current position of the beacon, accounting for possible different time references.

Avalanche transceiver, and associated systems and methods are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a method for identifying a location of a victim buried in an avalanche includes: emitting a signal by a transmitting transceiver of the victim; receiving the signal by a receiving transceiver; and identifying an orientation from the receiving transceiver to the victim based on constructing a straight line from the receiving transceiver to the transmitting transceiver.

A system and bent-pipe transponder component for determining a location of an individual or object in three dimensional space. The system includes a transmitter configured to transmit a first wireless electromagnetic signal at a first frequency and at least one transponder that is configured to responsively emit a second wireless electromagnetic signal having a second frequency that is frequency-shifted from the first frequency. An included receiver detecting the first and second wireless electromagnetic signals is configured to provide an output of location information for the at least one transponder. A bent-pipe transponder component may include a receiving antenna, an emitting antenna, and a frequency shift stage comprising an oscillator and a first mixer, with the frequency stage mixing a received first wireless electromagnetic signal with the output of the oscillator via the first mixer to produce the emitted second wireless electromagnetic signal.

In one example embodiment, a certified location service enables a mobile device to access a location-based service when a determined location meets a location requirement and an overall confidence score for the determined location exceeds a confidence threshold. A data package is received including identifiers of beacons observed by the mobile device, and a location of the mobile device is determined based on a calculated location of one or more of the beacons. An overall confidence score for the determined location is calculated based on one or more individual confidence scores for the one or more beacons used in determining the location or composite confidence scores for types of the one or more beacons. The determined location and the overall confidence score are provided to one or more provider servers that allow the mobile device to access a location-based service based thereon.

An intelligent rescue method applied to a vehicle-mounted device and an airborne rescue device to enable semi-automatic warning and rescue of a broken-down, crashed, drowned, or stranded vehicle, enables communication between the vehicle-mounted device and the rescue device. The vehicle-mounted device determines by sensors a type of emergency of a vehicle, and performs a first assistance action and sends the rescue device a distress signal corresponding to the type of the emergency of the vehicle. The rescue device receives the distress signal and takes off from an initial position of the vehicle to a target position in response to the distress signal. Once the rescue device reaches the target position, the rescue device performs a second action for assistance.

Traditional “low-to-high waveform change” timing markers, in navigation or GPS signals, can be easily naturally or maliciously altered and require unshareable, high-resolution, high-capacity channels, often not government available. Whereas, message text format methods include proven error correction, redundancy, encryption, jam-resistance, concealability, spoof-resistance, multiuser, delayable messaging, channel efficiency, and downstream authentication. Herein, “virtual timing markers” exploit message format strengths and more. Because many navigating platforms also communicate voice, messages, or data, platforms and multiuser messages can simultaneously and unintrusively share the same transmission signal, which reduces onboard hardware, needed channel capacity, radio frequencies, costs, and infrastructure. FAA mandated, airliner collision avoidance broadcasts of their GPS location can unintrusively commingle navigation messages with aforementioned strengths as precise derivative GPS timing markers on existing, prolific broadcasts having 1000× greater power levels. “Relayed transmission pathways” can eliminate cumbersome traditional nanosecond synchronization of navigation transmitters or exploit inclusion of happenstance neighborhood transmitters. Additional features.

A mounting base for use with a wirelessly locatable tag may include a base portion defining a latching member configured to engage a wirelessly locatable tag to releasably retain the wirelessly locatable tag to the mounting base, a contact block attached to the base portion and configured to be positioned at least partially within a battery cavity of the wirelessly locatable tag, the contact block defining a top side and a peripheral side. The mounting base may further include a first conductive member positioned along the peripheral side of the contact block and configured to contact a first battery contact in the battery cavity of the wirelessly locatable tag, a second conductive member outwardly biased from the top side of the contact block, the second conductive member configured to contact a second battery contact in the battery cavity of the tag, and a power cable coupled to the base portion.