Patent ID: 7778651

Claim:
A wireless communications system comprising: a plurality of wireless communications devices, each wireless communications device having a device type associated therewith from among a plurality of different device types and having a unique identifier (UID) associated therewith, and each device type having a known latency profile associated therewith; and a wireless device detector comprising at least one antenna and a transceiver connected thereto, and a controller for cooperating with said transceiver for transmitting a plurality of device finding signals to a target wireless communications device from among said plurality of wireless communications devices and for inserting the UID for said target wireless communications device in each of said device finding signals; said target wireless communications device transmitting a respective reply signal for each of said device finding signals based upon the UID in the device finding signals; said controller of said wireless device detector also for cooperating with said transceiver for receiving the reply signals, generating an observed latency profile for said target wireless communications device based upon the transmission of device finding signals and the received reply signals therefor, determining a propagation delay associated with said target wireless communications device based upon the observed latency profile and the known latency profile of said target wireless communications device, and estimating a range to said target wireless communications device based upon the determined propagation delay.