Patent ID: 6198693
Filing Date: 2001-03-06
Classification: G01S

Abstract:
A system for finding the direction of a wave source, comprising:an array of sensors arranged in a predetermined geometry including sensors arranged in a circular arrangement, each sensor for sensing waves from the wave source and generating analog signals representing the waves;an analog-to-digital converter, connected to the array of sensors, for converting the analog signals to digital signals;a bandpass filter for filtering the digital signals to generate filtered signals containing frequencies of a specific bandwidth;an approximate-direction finder, connected to receive the filtered signals, for processing the filtered signals to find the approximate direction of the wave source in terms of a sensor pair selected among the sensors;a precise-direction finder, connected to receive information from the approximate-direction finder, for finding the precise direction of the wave source by further processing the signals representing the waves based on the approximate direction; anda measurement qualification unit, connected to the precise-direction finder, for evaluating validity of the precise direction using a measurement criterion and invalidating the precise direction if the measurement criterion is not met.