Appeal No. 2000-2085
Application No. 08/803,937
the forward carriers. The amount of this late
arrival is interpreted as the instantaneous
round trip delay of signals traveling a path
from the fixed ground station to the object, and
back, through the first satellite.
. . .
Given this round trip delay, the known
velocity of propagation of the radio signal and
the known distance from the fixed station to the
first satellite, the distance from the first
satellite to the object is calculated. The
distance from the object to the second satellite
is calculated from the percent difference in
forward signal phase offset at the object, the
round trip delay through the first satellite,
the known velocity of propagation of the radio
signal and the distance from the second
satellite to the fixed station. Thus, the
method of the present invention determines the
distance from each of the satellites to the
object whose position is to be determined.
With the positions of the satellites known
relative to the center of the earth, and the
distances from the respective satellites to the
object whose position is to be determined are
known, trilateration may be employed to
determine the position of the object relative to
the center of the earth and the satellites
[column 3, line 52, through column 4, line 66].
In comparing the method and system recited in
independent claims 1 and 8, respectively, to the method
and system disclosed by Ames, the examiner (see pages 2
and 3 in the final rejection) has read the claim
limitations relating to the second and fourth ranging
7
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007