Direction of travel motion detector with automatic gain control

1. A microwave direction of travel detector comprising:

a microwave transceiver that transmits and receives a microwave signal directed toward a protected area and that outputs a Doppler signal when a moving target is detected;

an amplifier chain including one or more amplifiers coupled to the microwave transceiver that receives and amplifies said Doppler signal from said microwave transceiver, wherein at least one amplifier having variable gain; and;

a controller that samples an output gain of each said variable gain amplifier and that controls each said variable gain amplifier by adjusting a gain of each said variable gain amplifier to keep said Doppler signal level constant and to avoid saturation of each said variable gain amplifier.

2. The microwave direction of travel detector of claim 1 , wherein if the output gain of each said variable gain amplifier is decreasing the controller indicates that an intruder is getting closer to the microwave transceiver, while if the said gain of each said variable gain amplifier is increasing the controller indicates that an intruder is receding from the microwave transceiver. In either case an alarm is generated.

3. The microwave direction of travel detector of claim 1 , wherein the controller is a microcontroller, a FPGA a ASIC or a DSP chip.

4. A direction of travel detection method using a microwave sensor comprising the steps of:

transmitting and receiving, by a microwave transceiver a microwave signal directed toward a protected area and outputting a Doppler signal if a moving targets is detected;

amplifying said Doppler signals, by an amplifier chain including one or more amplifiers coupled to the microwave transceiver, wherein at least one amplifier having variable gain;

sampling an output gain of each said variable gain amplifier by a controller and controlling each said variable gain amplifier by adjusting said gain of each said variable gain amplifier to keep said Doppler signal level constant and to avoid saturation of each said variable gain amplifier.

5. The direction of travel detection method of claim 4 , further including the step of:

determining, by the controller if the output gain of each said variable gain amplifier is increasing or decreasing; and

generating an alarm if the controller determines an increasing or decreasing output gain of each said variable gain amplifier.

6. The direction of travel detection method of claim 5 , wherein if the controller determines that the output gain of each said variable gain amplifier is increasing and determines that the output of gain of each said variable gain amplifier is decreasing, the controller indicates that an intruder is getting closer to the microwave transceiver, while if the feedback signals is decreasing and the output gain of each said variable gain amplifier is increasing the controller indicates that an intruder is receding from the microwave transceiver.

7. The direction of travel detection method of claim 6 , wherein if the output gains of each said variable gain amplifier is neither increasing or decreasing no alarm is triggered.

8. The direction of travel detection method of claim 1 , wherein said direction of travel detection method operates in two modes;

a first mode, wherein an alarm is triggered if both a PIR sensor and a microwave sensor detect motion; and

a second mode, wherein an alarm is triggered if said microwave sensor detects motion and a direction of travel of said target.

9. The direction of travel detection method of claim 8 , wherein the microwave sensor can identify said intruder in different zones.