Millimeter wave hand tracking

• US 10,451,707 B1
• Filed: 01/18/2018
• Issued: 10/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: META Platforms Technologies LLC (Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.))
• Original Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC (Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.))
• Inventors: Castaldi, Giuseppe, Cusano, Andrea, Galdi, Vincenzo, Mattera, Paolo, Parente, Roberto, Tien, Joseph Minh, Krogstad, Dustin Jeffery Gordon, DeSalvo, Riccardo, Zhao, Yi
• Primary Examiner(s): Bolotin, Dmitriy
• Application Number:
  US15/874,761
• Time in Patent Office: 642 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/74 Systems using reradiation of radio waves, e.g. secondary radar systems; Analogous systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0226 Transmitters
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0247 Determining attitude
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0289 of multiple transceivers, e.g. in ad hoc networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/014 Hand-worn input/output arrangements, e.g. data gloves
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors

Abstract

A system includes a locatable glove and a pose determination device. The locatable glove includes a glove body worn over a hand of a user, and a plurality of positioning transponders. The positioning transponders are coupled to the glove body at various positions on the glove body, and each re-radiates a received signal, the re-radiated signal unique to the positioning transponder. The pose determination device includes a plurality of antennas and a controller. The antennas are each configured to receive the unique signals re-radiated by the positioning transponders. The antennas are physically separated from each other. The controller is communicatively coupled to the plurality of antennas, and is configured to determine, for each of the received unique signals, a location of the position on the locatable glove of the positioning transponder corresponding to the unique signal.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a locatable glove comprising;

a glove body configured to be worn over a hand of a user; and

a plurality of positioning transponders coupled to the glove body at a corresponding plurality of positions on the glove body, each positioning transponder configured to re-radiate a received signal, the re-radiated signal unique to the positioning transponder; and

a pose determination device comprising;

a plurality of antennas each configured to receive the unique signals re-radiated by the plurality of positioning transponders, the antennas physically separated from each other; and

a controller communicatively coupled to the plurality of antennas, the controller configured to determine, for each of the received unique signals, a location of the position on the locatable glove of the positioning transponder corresponding to the unique signal.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine the location of the position on the locatable glove of the positioning transponder corresponding to the unique signal by:

identifying a subset of the received signals corresponding to the positioning transponder based on a characteristic of the subset of received signals, each received signal in the subset received by a corresponding one of the plurality of receiving antennas; and

triangulating the location of the positioning transponder based on the identified subset of the received signals.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to determine, based on the determined locations of the positions of the plurality of positioning transponders on the locatable glove, a position of the user'"'"'s hand.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein each positioning transponder of the plurality of positioning transponders is configured to re-radiate a signal within a unique band within a millimeter-wave band.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein each positioning transponder of the plurality of positioning transponders is configured to re-radiate a signal at a unique time relative to other positioning transponders.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein each positioning transponder of the plurality of positioning transponders is configured to re-radiate a signal that is different from other signals re-radiated by other positioning transponders of the plurality of positioning transponders.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a first positioning transponder of the plurality of positioning transponders is located proximate to a first fingertip of a first glove digit of the glove body, and a second positioning transponder of the plurality of positioning transponders is located proximate to a second fingertip of a second glove digit of the glove body.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the pose determination device comprises at least one of a head-mounted display (HMD) and a console.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second locatable glove with a second plurality of positioning transponders each configured to re-radiate a signal unique to the positioning transponder, and the controller of the pose determination device is configured to distinguish the plurality of positioning transponders on the locatable glove from the second plurality of positioning transponders on the second locatable glove.

10. A locatable glove comprising:

a glove body configured to be worn over at least a portion of a hand of a user; and

a plurality of transponders coupled to the glove body at a corresponding plurality of positions on the glove body, each transponder configured to re-radiate a received signal, the re-radiated signal unique to the transponder and in a millimeter-wave band; and

a controller communicatively coupled to the plurality of transponders and configured to control emission of the plurality of transponders.

11. The locatable glove of claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to independently control emission of each transponder of the plurality of transponders such that each transponder re-radiates a signal at a unique time relative to other transponders in the plurality of transponders.

12. The locatable glove of claim 10, wherein each transponder of the plurality of transponders is configured to re-radiate a signal within a unique band within the millimeter-wave band.

13. The locatable glove of claim 10, wherein each transponder of the plurality of transponders is configured to re-radiate a signal that is different from other signals re-radiated by other transponders of the plurality of transponders.

14. The locatable glove of claim 10, wherein the controller is further configured to:

receive a request to modify an emission property of an transponder of the plurality of transponders; and

responsive to the request, instruct the transponder to re-radiate a signal according the modified property.

15. The locatable glove of claim 14, wherein a first transponder of the plurality of transponders is located proximate to a first fingertip of a first glove digit of the glove body, and a second transponder of the plurality of transponders is located proximate to a second fingertip of a second glove digit of the glove body.

16. A pose determination device comprising:

a plurality of receiving antennas physically separated from each other on the pose determination device, each receiving antenna configured to receive a plurality of signals corresponding to a plurality of unique signal re-radiated by a corresponding plurality of positioning transponders on a locatable glove; and

a controller communicatively coupled to the plurality of receiving antennas, the controller configured to;

receive, from each receiving antenna, the plurality of signals received by the receiving antenna;

identify, for each positioning transponder of the plurality of positioning transponders, a set of received signals corresponding to the positioning transponder based on a characteristic of the signals in the set of received signals, each received signal in the set was received by a corresponding one of the plurality of receiving antennas;

determine, for each positioning transponder of the plurality of positioning transponders, a location of the position on the locatable glove of the positioning transponder; and

determine, based on the locations, a position of the locatable glove.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the controller is configured to triangulate the location of the positioning transponder based on the identified set of the received signals.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein the controller is further configured to identify, for each positioning transponder of the plurality of positioning transponders, the set of received signals corresponding to the positioning transponder based on one of a time at which the set of received signals were transmitted, a frequency of the set of received signals, and a code of the set of received signals.

19. The device of claim 16, further comprising a memory for storing data describing, for each positioning transponder of the plurality of positioning transponders, a characteristic of the signal associated with the positioning transponder and a corresponding position on the locatable glove associated with the positioning transponder.

20. The device of claim 16, wherein the controller is further configured to:

determine a second position of the locatable glove; and

identify, based on the position of the locatable glove and the second position of the locatable glove, a type of motion of a hand of a user wearing the locatable glove.