IP Library › Granted Patent US 12669581

Granted Patent B2

US 12669581 · App. 18/385,109 · Granted Jun 30, 2026

Vibrational radar backscatter communications

Inventors: Jeffrey Krolik (Durham, NC); Jessica Centers (Durham, NC)

Assignee: DUKE UNIVERSITY

G01S7/414 G01S7/415 G01S13/931

View Patent ↗

Loading inventors, assignments & file history…

Monitor This Case

Get email alerts when status or documents change.

Order Certified Copies

Most orders are placed with the USPTO same day — all within 24 business hours.

Order via The Patent Place →

Pre-filled with this patent's details

Quick Facts

Patent No.: US 12669581
App. No.: 18/385,109
Granted: Jun 30, 2026
Kind: B2

External Links

USPTO Patent Center↗ Full Patent PDF↗

Abstract

A method of performing vibrational radar backscatter communications includes transmitting radar waveforms at millimeter wave frequencies, receiving, from a vibrating transponder, vibrational backscatter of radar waveforms, performing synchronization on the vibrational backscatter to determine a start of an encoded communication message sequence, calculating a predicted symbol sequence based on the encoded communication message sequence, identifying, from one or more predetermined messages, an actionable message from the predicted symbol sequence, and communicating the actionable message to a display of a vehicle or causing the vehicle to take an action. This method can also be performed on a computing system that includes a processor, memory, and instructions stored in the memory and the method can be stored on computer readable storage media.

Claims (64)

1 . A method comprising:

transmitting radar waveforms at millimeter wave frequencies;

receiving, from a vibrating transponder, vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms;

determining an angle and range of the vibrating transponder from the vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms;

performing synchronization on the vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms to determine a start of an encoded communication message sequence;

decoding a predicted symbol sequence based on the encoded communication message sequence;

identifying, from one or more predetermined messages, an actionable message from the predicted symbol sequence; and

communicating the actionable message to a display of a vehicle or causing the vehicle to take an action.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the vibrational backscatter are a phase modulation of the radar waveforms.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, from one or more second vibrating transponders, one or more second vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms;

determining a second angle and range of the one or more second vibrating transponders from the one or more second vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms;

isolating the vibrational backscatter from the vibrating transponder based on the determined angle and range of the vibrating transponder and isolating the one or more second vibrational backscatter from the one or more second vibrating transponders based on the angle and range of the one or more second vibrating transponders;

performing synchronization on the one or more second vibrational backscatter to determine a second start of a second encoded communication message sequence;

decoding a second predicted symbol sequence based on the second encoded communication message sequence;

identifying, from the one or more predetermined messages, a second actionable message from the second predicted symbol sequence; and

communicating the second actionable message to the display of the vehicle or causing the vehicle to take a second action.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing bandpass filtering on the vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms to separate the vibrational backscatter from any other vibrational backscatter in range.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising performing beamforming on the vibrational backscatter to separate the vibrational backscatter from any other vibrational backscatter in angle.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising performing clutter filtering on the vibrational backscatter to separate the vibrational backscatter from backscatter of non-vibrating objects,

wherein performing the synchronization on the vibrational backscatter comprises performing the synchronization on the clutter filtered vibrational backscatter to determine the start of the encoded communication message sequence.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving, from the vibrating transponder, the vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms comprises performing constant false alarm rate detection to detect the vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising analyzing Doppler frequencies of the vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms to determine that the vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms include indications of displacements of the vibrating transponder at frequencies of interest.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein performing the synchronization on the vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms to determine the start of the encoded message sequence comprises identifying a time index associated with a peak in a correlation or a peak in coherence between the vibrational backscatter and a known preamble to determine the start of the encoded communication message sequence.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein decoding the predicted symbol sequence based on the encoded communication message sequence comprises modeling a known set of symbols and characteristics of the vibrating transponder and comparing against the encoded communication message sequence.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein decoding the predicted symbol sequence based on the encoded communication message sequence further comprises:

employing message coding constraints on the encoded communication message sequence;

defining possible message sequences based on a Markov model; and

using a Viterbi algorithm to mitigate inter-symbol interference errors caused by vibrating surface resonant effects.

12 . A computing device comprising:

a processor, memory and instructions stored in the memory that when executed by the processor, direct the computing device to:

transmit radar waveforms at millimeter wave frequencies;

receive, from a vibrating transponder, vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms;

determine an angle and range of the vibrating transponder from the vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms;

perform synchronization on the vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms to determine a start of an encoded communication message sequence;

decode a predicted symbol sequence based on the encoded communication message sequence;

identify, from one or more predetermined messages, an actionable message from the predicted symbol sequence; and

communicate the actionable message to a display of a vehicle or causing the vehicle to take an action.

13 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the vibrational backscatter are a phase modulation of the radar waveforms.

14 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the instructions further direct the computing device to:

receive, from one or more second vibrating transponders, one or more second vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms;

determine a second angle and range of the one or more second vibrating transponders from the one or more second vibrational backscatter of the radar waveforms;

isolate the vibrational backscatter from the vibrating transponder based on the determined angle and range of the vibrating transponder and isolating the one or more second vibrational backscatter from the one or more second vibrating transponders based on the angle and range of the one or more second vibrating transponders;

perform synchronization on the one or more second vibrational backscatter to determine a second start of a second encoded communication message sequence;

decode a second predicted symbol sequence based on the second vibrational radar backscatter communication message sequence;

identify, from the one or more predetermined messages, a second actionable message from the second predicted symbol sequence; and

communicate the second actionable message to the display of the vehicle or causing the vehicle to take a second action.

15 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the instructions further direct the computing device to perform bandpass filtering on the vibrational backscatter to separate the vibrational backscatter from any other vibrational backscatter in range.

16 . The computing device of claim 15 , wherein the instructions further direct the computing device to perform beamforming on the vibrational backscatter to separate the vibrational backscatter from any other vibrational backscatter in angle.

17 . The computing device of claim 16 , wherein the instructions further direct the computing device to perform clutter filtering on the vibrational backscatter to separate the vibrational backscatter from backscatter of non-vibrating objects,

wherein the instructions that direct the computing device to perform the synchronization on the vibrational backscatter comprise instructions that direct the computing device to perform the synchronization on the clutter filtered vibrational backscatter to determine the start of the encoded communication message sequence.

18 . The computing device of claim 12 , wherein the instructions that direct the computing device to decode the predicted symbol sequence based on the encoded communication message sequence further direct the computing device to model a known set of sources symbols and characteristics of the vibrating transponder against the encoded communication message sequence.

19 . The computing device of claim 18 , wherein the instructions that direct the computing device to decode the predicted symbol sequence based on the encoded communication message sequence further direct the computing device to:

employ message coding constraints on the encoded communication message sequence;

define possible message sequences based on a Markov model; and

use a Viterbi algorithm to mitigate inter-symbol interference errors caused by vibrating surface resonant effects.

20 . One or more non-transitory storage media having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processing system direct the processing system to at least: