Millimeter wave hand tracking

• US 10,613,188 B1
• Filed: 09/12/2019
• Issued: 04/07/2020
• 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:
  US16/568,918
• Time in Patent Office: 208 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 locatable garment comprising:

one or more positioning transponders that are coupled to the locatable garment; and

a controller that is coupled to the locatable garment, the controller configured to instruct at least one positioning transponder of the one or more positioning transponders to re-radiate a received signal such that the re-radiated signal is unique to the at least one positioning transponder,

wherein a pose determination device is configured to determine a location of the at least one positioning transponder based in part on the re-radiated signal.

2. The locatable garment of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to instruct each of the one or more positioning transponders to re-radiate a signal within a different band within a millimeter-wave band.

3. The locatable garment of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to instruct each of the one or more positioning transponders to re-radiate a signal at a unique time relative to other positioning transponders.

4. The locatable garment of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to instruct each of the one or more positioning transponders to re-radiate a signal with a code that is different from other signals with codes re-radiated by other positioning transponders.

5. The locatable garment of claim 1, wherein the locatable garment is a glove.

6. The locatable garment of claim 5, wherein the one or more positioning transponders includes a first positioning transponder and a second positioning transponder, and the first positioning transponder is located proximate to a first fingertip of a first glove digit of the glove, and the second positioning transponder is located proximate to a second fingertip of a second glove digit of the glove.

7. The locatable garment of claim 5, wherein the one or more positioning transponders includes a first group of positioning transponders and a second group of positioning transponders, and the controller is configured to instruct the first group of positioning transponders to all re-radiate respective signals at a first time and in different respective bands, and to instruct the second group of positioning transponders to all re-radiate respective signals at a second time and using the different respective bands.

8. The locatable garment of claim 5, wherein the pose determination device is further configured to determine, based in part on the determined location of the position of the at least one positioning transponder on the glove, a position of a user'"'"'s hand.

9. The locatable garment of claim 1, wherein the one or more positioning transponders includes a plurality of positioning transponders, and the controller is further configured to instruct at least a portion of the plurality of positioning transponders to function as a phased array and re-radiate a signal in a direction of the pose determination device.

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

11. A system comprising:

a locatable garment comprising;

one or more positioning transponders that are coupled to the locatable garment,

a controller that is coupled to the locatable garment, the controller configured to instruct at least one positioning transponder of the one or more positioning transponders to re-radiate a received signal such that the re-radiated signal is unique to the at least one positioning transponder; and

a pose determination device is configured to determine a location of the at least one positioning transponder based in part on the re-radiated signal.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the pose determination device includes one or more antennas each configured to receive signals re-radiated by the one or more positioning transponders.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the locatable garment is a glove.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the pose determination device is further configured to determine, based in part on the determined location of the position of the at least one positioning transponder on the glove, a position of a user'"'"'s hand.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the pose determination device comprises at least one of a head-mounted display (HMD) and a console.

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 signals re-radiated by a corresponding plurality of positioning transponders on a locatable garment; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the plurality of receiving antennas, the processor 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 garment of the positioning transponder; and

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

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

18. The pose determination device of claim 16, wherein the processor 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 pose determination 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 garment associated with the positioning transponder.

20. The pose determination device of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to:

determine a second position of the locatable garment; and

identify, based on the position of the locatable garment and the second position of the locatable garment, a type of motion of a body part of a user wearing the locatable garment.