Timeline for How does AirTag calculate the relative position from an iPhone?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 14 at 1:37 | comment | added | lxgr | What you're describing is AoA (angle of arrival), but that's most likely not what Apple devices do. One tell is that direction finding only works when there is enough light for the camera, and even then needs some initial movement of the device. That suggests ToF, as described here: reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/mvbm6f/comment/gwe9mk4 | |
| May 6, 2021 at 19:50 | comment | added | bmike♦ | Some day I hope to visit the Apple antenna lab and sound design labs. They are off the charts amazing places. | |
| May 5, 2021 at 12:55 | comment | added | jksoegaard | It was just to give a simplistic explanation of what is happening - in reality the UWB antenna is on the sides of the circular plastic element inside the AirTag, but not going all the way round the circle. There's also a circular antenna on the surface of the plastic element which goes around the full circle a few times. | |
| May 5, 2021 at 12:54 | history | edited | jksoegaard | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 5, 2021 at 9:58 | comment | added | bmike♦ | Are you mistaking a circular multipole antenna array on the receiver with the shape of the tag containing an emitter? Without references this seems a bit soft on the physics and what specific amplitude is responsible for a direction determination relative to the phone. Even the Wikipedia article on RDF might be good to link here and establish some clarity on terminology. | |
| May 3, 2021 at 16:04 | history | edited | jksoegaard | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 3, 2021 at 16:00 | comment | added | jksoegaard | ... which is what I wrote in the comment just above yours 😉 | |
| May 3, 2021 at 14:49 | comment | added | Barmar | Is it patented? The details would then be in the patent. | |
| May 3, 2021 at 12:39 | vote | accept | Vishnu Haridas | ||
| May 3, 2021 at 9:34 | comment | added | jksoegaard | [...] estimation with a single antenna - for example with a tag with dual-chip anchors. | |
| May 3, 2021 at 9:34 | comment | added | jksoegaard | Apple does not publish documentation describing precisely how their algorithms work. However, UWB (as in the U1) is used by lots of other actors for in-door localization and positioning, so you can read about the general ideas involved lots of places. You'll want to learn about ToF (time of flight) and AoA (angle of arrival). You can also read the patent applications for patents granted to Apple for this - they're publically available. For angle estimation, it is most commonly done by having two antennas and determining phase shifts. However, techniques also exist for done angle [...] | |
| May 3, 2021 at 9:24 | comment | added | nohillside♦ | Is there any documentation on this? | |
| May 3, 2021 at 8:40 | history | edited | jksoegaard | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 3, 2021 at 8:03 | history | answered | jksoegaard | CC BY-SA 4.0 |