Apple patents radar that maps rooms using moving objects
Apple describes a system that uses radio waves to detect when moving objects, like people, block the view of stationary walls or furniture. By tracking these blocks over time, the device builds a detailed map of the room's layout using very few antennas.
In the filing’s own words
An electronic device may include radio-frequency sensing circuitry that transmits sensing signals and that receives reflected signals using one or more antennas. The sensing circuitry may generate digital sensor data based on the reflected signals. The sensor data may be indicative of moving objects moving through positions that occlude lines of sight between the electronic device and stationary objects behind the moving objects. The sensor circuitry may detect the locations on the stationary objects based on changes to the sensor data associated with motion of the moving objects through the positions. The sensor circuitry may accumulate an environment map of the detected locations as the moving objects move about the environment over time. This may allow the sensor circuitry to generate the environment map with high spatial resolution using as few antennas as possible. The sensor circuitry may detect boundaries of the environment based on the environment map.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method of operating an electronic device comprising: transmitting, via one or more antennas, radio-frequency signals into an environment that contains a moving object and a stationary object; receiving, via the one or more antennas, reflected radio-frequency signals from the environment; and estimating, using one or more processors, a boundary of the environment based on a motion, as identified from the reflected radio-frequency signals, of the moving object into a position between the electronic device and the stationary object, wherein the boundary includes a point on the stationary object that is blocked by the moving object while the moving object is at the position.
Facts
- Company
- Apple (Apple Inc.)
- Official title
- Electronic devices with motion-based radio-frequency environment mapping
- Patent number
- US12724138B2
- Application number
- 18582625
- Filed
- Feb 20, 2024
- Granted
- Sep 1, 2026
- Inventors
- 7
- Claims
- 19
Classified under
G01S 13/56 Physics & computingH03M 1/12 Electricity & electronicsMore from Apple in Chips & hardware
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.