Microsoft patents method to design passive metasurfaces for better signal coverage
This patent describes a computer method for designing and placing passive metasurfaces in a 3D environment to improve signal strength at specific target locations. The system uses the 3D model to calculate signal paths and optimize the design and placement of these low-cost surfaces to achieve a specific communication objective.
In the filing’s own words
A method of designing a passive metasurface system within an environment includes receiving a three-dimensional model of the environment including one or more transmitter locations and one or more target locations, and determining one or more metasurface designs and placements to achieve a given objective. The method may also include computing a received signal strength at the one or more target locations based on the three-dimensional model of the environment, computing the received signal strength at the one or more target locations based on the three-dimensional model of the environment and the one or more metasurface designs and placements, and/or calculating ray traces and/or using machine learning to determine the received signal strength at the one or more target locations on the three-dimensional model of the environment and the one or more metasurface designs and placements.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method, implemented by a computing device, of designing a passive metasurface system for deployment within an environment, the method comprising: receiving, by the computing device, a three-dimensional model of the environment including one or more transmitter locations and one or more target locations; and determining, using the three-dimensional model, at least one structural design of one or more passive metasurfaces of the passive metasurface system and at least one placement of the one or more passive metasurfaces within the environment to achieve a given objective during the deployment, wherein the objective is to optimize the designs of low-cost passive metasurfaces.
Facts
- Company
- Microsoft (Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC)
- Official title
- Metasurface design and placement
- Patent number
- US12743849B2
- Application number
- 18757113
- Filed
- Jun 27, 2024
- Granted
- Sep 22, 2026
- Inventors
- 4
- Claims
- 22
Classified under
G06T 17/00 Physics & computingMore from Microsoft in Networks & wireless
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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.