Qualcomm · Networking · Filed May 7, 2025 · USPTO published Nov 12, 2026 · This week's release

Qualcomm Patents Phones That Use Radio Signals as Radar and Report Back in Plain Words

Your phone's radio could double as a radar, and instead of sending back a pile of raw data it would send a short note like "person running near the crosswalk." A new Qualcomm patent application lays out how a cell network would ask for that kind of report.

By Patentlyze Team · Updated Nov 12, 2026 · 3 min read

Cell towers bounce radio signals off a mobile phone to calculate its exact distance and direction. Drawing from patent filing US 2026/0362095 A1. — Cell towers bounce radio signals off a mobile phone to calculate its exact distance and direction.All 18 drawings ↓

Publication number: US 2026/0362095 A1(US20260362095A1)
Applicant: QUALCOMM Incorporated
Filed · Published: May 7, 2025 · Nov 12, 2026
Inventors: Mohammed Ali Mohammed HIRZALLAH, Srinivas YERRAMALLI, Marwen ZORGUI
Status when we published: Waiting for an examiner
Document: 30 claims
US classification: 455/456.1

What Qualcomm's radio-radar reports actually say

You're crossing a busy street at dusk, and a cell tower down the block is bouncing radio waves off everything around you, the way radar does. Sensing like that usually produces huge piles of raw numbers that someone has to crunch before they mean anything.

Qualcomm's patent application flips that around. The network can ask a phone or a tower to watch for specific things, such as pedestrians in a park or vehicles at an intersection, and report back in a short, text-like description. Think "pedestrian running across the street" instead of a spreadsheet of signal readings.

The request can also set a trigger. Tell a device to speak up only if it spots an injured person or a fire, and it stays silent otherwise. The device can even say how confident it is, or admit when it can't trust its own answer.

From the filing · CLAIM 1

receive, from a network entity, an indication to perform radio frequency (RF) sensing for a set of objects and to report context information of the set of objects; …

Translation: The phone gets an order from the network to scan nearby things using radio waves and explain what they are.

How the network asks a phone to watch an area

The filing describes an exchange between a network entity (a carrier server that manages location or sensing) and a wireless device (a phone, base station, or similar radio unit). The server asks the device to use RF sensing (sending radio waves and reading the echoes, like radar) on a set of objects and to report context information.

Objects can be targets (people, vehicles, drones) or environment objects (trees, buildings). Context information is a description of a status or event: safe or hazard, walking or biking, busy or smooth traffic, how many. The request can also include:

The report format and when to report
An area of interest
Background on the objects
An AI model to use (a trained program that spots patterns)
The radio signal setup

The device can add camera or microphone input, and its report can include a quality score, the raw measurements, or a warning that an answer should not be trusted.

The claims cover both sides: the device that senses and the network entity that asks and listens. A device can also announce what it supports first.

From the filing · THE ABSTRACT

Aspects presented herein may improve the overall performance of sensing by enabling a wireless device to indicate its support for contextual sensing and obtain request/configuration related to the contextual sensing from a network entity.

Translation: This patent helps phones tell the network they can use radio waves as radar to understand their surroundings.

Why plain-word radar reports could ease networks

For you, the payoff would arrive indirectly. The filing lists uses like intrusion detection on highways, smart parking, sleep and health monitoring, and gesture recognition. Sending a short description instead of a heavy radar data set could make those services lighter for a network to run, and the trigger rules mean a device can stay quiet until something happens.

It also points to cell networks doing double duty as sensors. The filing ties these messages into the positioning procedures phone networks already use, which suggests Qualcomm is aiming for something that slots into existing network standards.

Qualcomm's 594th filing in our Qualcomm coverage since May continues the thread from carriers choosing AI versions and towers tuning phone predictions, adding another piece to how networks may shape on-device AI.

Editorial take

Most of the benefit lands far from your screen. The filing points to things like spotting an intruder at home, flagging an injured person, or counting cars at an intersection, and you would feel it as faster alerts.

The privacy side deserves attention. A network that can report that someone is coughing, running, or hurt is sensing people who may never have agreed to it, and the claims say nothing about consent or about letting you switch it off.

One detail earns credit: the device can flag that its own answer should not be trusted and attach a confidence score. A sensor that admits doubt is more useful than one that guesses loudly. Overall the filing is mostly messaging plumbing between devices and networks, so the real test is who gets to ask and what you are told.

Source: US 2026/0362095 A1 at the USPTO (PDF). Full patent text and figures are in the official publication.

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The drawings · 18 sheets

18 drawing sheets from US 2026/0362095 A1 · click any drawing to enlarge

Connecting cell towers and phones into a sensing grid, drawing sheet 1 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 1 Connecting cell towers and phones into a sensing grid

Timing 5G radio traffic to track moving devices, drawing sheet 2 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 2 Timing 5G radio traffic to track moving devices

Antennas and chips inside a phone and tower, drawing sheet 3 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 3 Antennas and chips inside a phone and tower

Bouncing radio beams off towers to pinpoint a phone, drawing sheet 4 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 4 Bouncing radio beams off towers to pinpoint a phone

Translating raw radio measurements into exact map coordinates, drawing sheet 5 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 5 Translating raw radio measurements into exact map coordinates

How AI pinpoints a phone from radio signals, drawing sheet 6 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 6 How AI pinpoints a phone from radio signals

Running AI location models directly inside the handset, drawing sheet 7 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 7 Running AI location models directly inside the handset

Splitting tracking tasks between phone-based AI and network servers, drawing sheet 8 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 8 Splitting tracking tasks between phone-based AI and network servers

Show the other 10 sheets

Cell towers and servers run AI to track a phone, drawing sheet 9 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 9 Cell towers and servers run AI to track a phone

Radar signals bounce off objects using one device or two, drawing sheet 10 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 10 Radar signals bounce off objects using one device or two

Converting raw radio reflections into spatial 3D maps, drawing sheet 11 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 11 Converting raw radio reflections into spatial 3D maps

AI turns wireless radar echoes into plain-language scene descriptions, drawing sheet 12 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 12 AI turns wireless radar echoes into plain-language scene descriptions

How networks ask devices to scan surroundings and explain hazards, drawing sheet 13 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 13 How networks ask devices to scan surroundings and explain hazards

Steps a device follows to detect surroundings and report findings, drawing sheet 14 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 14 Steps a device follows to detect surroundings and report findings

Internal parts of a phone equipped for radar sensing, drawing sheet 15 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 15 Internal parts of a phone equipped for radar sensing

Cellular network hardware that coordinates wireless sensing scans, drawing sheet 16 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 16 Cellular network hardware that coordinates wireless sensing scans

How the network requests and collects radar observations from phones, drawing sheet 17 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 17 How the network requests and collects radar observations from phones

Computer hardware that handles radar reports from nearby devices, drawing sheet 18 from US 2026/0362095 A1 — Sheet 18 Computer hardware that handles radar reports from nearby devices

The drawings · 18 sheets

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