Portable device having directional BLE antenna

1. A portable device for analyzing user information broadcast from target user devices, the portable device including:

a directional antenna system for receiving the user information broadcast from the target user devices; and

a commodity user device including a touchscreen display and an integrated internal antenna, wherein the directional antenna system is coupled to the internal antenna of the commodity user device;

wherein an app executing on the commodity user device enables accessing of an account for a user corresponding to the user information by performing a lookup of the user information against stored user accounts within an access control system, wherein the stored user accounts include stored user information and stored image identification information of the users, the user device receiving the account for the user from the access control system in response to the user information matching the stored user information of the account for the user, and rendering a facial image of the user from the image identification information within the account for the user on the touchscreen display of the commodity user device.

2. The portable device of claim 1 , wherein the directional antenna system comprises four or more patch antenna elements.

3. The portable device of claim 1 , wherein the directional antenna system comprises antenna elements and a flexible circuit board on which the antenna elements are located.

4. The portable device of claim 1 , wherein the directional antenna system is capacitively and/or inductively coupled to the internal antenna of the commodity user device.

5. The portable device of claim 1 , wherein the directional antenna system is a Bluetooth antenna including one or more patch antenna elements.

6. The portable device of claim 1 , wherein the directional antenna system includes four (4) patch antenna elements, each of which are half-wavelength Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) antennas.

7. The portable device of claim 1 , wherein the directional antenna system is characterized by a receive pattern that has a half power beamwidth of a main lobe of less than 50 degrees.

8. The portable device of claim 1 , wherein the directional antenna system is characterized by a receive pattern that has a half power beamwidth of a main lobe of less than 30 degrees.

9. The portable device of claim 1 , wherein the directional antenna system is characterized by a receive pattern that has a half power beamwidth of a main lobe of less than 10 degrees.

10. The portable device of claim 1 , wherein the directional antenna system is foldable.

11. The portable device of claim 1 , wherein the directional antenna system further comprises a flexible ground plane that terminates on a back of the commodity user device.

12. A method for analyzing wireless signals from target user devices, comprising:

detecting the wireless signals using a directional antenna system;

extracting user information from the wireless signals; and

accessing an account for a user corresponding to the user information with a commodity user device including a touchscreen display and an integrated internal antenna, wherein the directional antenna system is coupled to the internal antenna of the commodity user device; and

wherein accessing an account for a user corresponding to the user information comprises:

an app executing on the commodity user device performing a lookup of the user information against stored user accounts within an access control system, wherein the stored user accounts include stored user information and stored video identification information of the users;

the app receiving the account for the user from the access control system in response to the user information matching the stored user information of the account for the user; and

the app rendering a facial image of the user from the video identification information within the account for the user on the touchscreen display of the commodity user device.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein detecting the wireless signals using the directional antenna system comprises:

pointing a boresight of the directional antenna system at the target user devices; and

receiving the wireless signals according to a receive pattern of the directional antenna system.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein receiving the wireless signals according to the receive pattern of the directional antenna system comprises receiving the wireless signals within a main lobe of the receive pattern.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein in response to detecting the wireless signals using the directional antenna system, sending a notification indicating that the directional antenna system has locked onto the wireless signals.

16. The method of claim 12 , further comprising a security guard determining whether a face of the user carrying the target user device matches the facial information of the user rendered from the video identification information within the account for the user to confirm an identity of the user carrying the target user device.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein in response to the security guard determining that the face of the user carrying the user device does not match the facial information of the user rendered from the video identification information within the account for the user, the security guard sending a message via the app to the access control system to disable the user account and/or deactivate the target user device associated with the user account.