Patent ID: 7369043

Claim:
A method of operating a tire pressure monitoring system for a vehicle having a plurality of tire locations and a memory, said method comprising the steps of: (a) activating and transmitting a first initiator signal from a first initiator positioned at a first tire location of said plurality of tire locations, said first initiator signal being generated from both a first coil having a first longitudinal axis and a second coil having a second longitudinal axis that is substantially orthogonal to said first longitudinal axis, and said first initiator signal having a duty cycle of less than about 50 percent; (b) receiving said first initiator signal with a sensor coil; (c) periodically detecting the presence of an electric field induced by said first initiator signal on said sensor coil; (d) when said electric field is detected and determined to exist, generating and transmitting a first sensor signal having a first tire identification in response to said first initiator signal; (e) receiving said first sensor signal with a receiver; (f) storing said first tire identification as received in said memory associated with said first tire location of said plurality of tire locations when said first tire identification is not in said memory; and (g) repeating steps (a) through (f) similarly for each of said plurality of tire locations.