DETERMINING ORIENTATION IN AN EXTERNAL REFERENCE FRAME

• US 20100105479A1
• Filed: 10/23/2008
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wilson, Andrew, Beeman, Steven Michael
• Application Number:
  US12/256,747
• Publication Number:
  US 20100105479A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/37
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/213 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells A63F13/219, A63F13/655 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/428 involving motion or position input signals, e.g. signals representing the rotation of an input controller or a player's arm motions sensed by accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1087 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. a camera
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• 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

Orientation in an external reference is determined. An external-frame acceleration for a device is determined, the external-frame acceleration being in an external reference frame relative to the device. An internal-frame acceleration for the device is determined, the internal-frame acceleration being in an internal reference frame relative to the device. An orientation of the device is determined based on a comparison between a direction of the external-frame acceleration and a direction of the internal-frame acceleration.

Claims

1. A game system, comprising:

a controller;

a controller monitor; and

an orientation inferring subsystem configured to;

determine an external-frame acceleration of the controller from time-elapsed position information received from the controller monitor, the external-frame acceleration being in an external reference frame relative to the controller;

determine an internal-frame acceleration for the device from acceleration information received from the controller, the internal-frame acceleration being in an internal reference frame relative to the controller; and

determine a coarse orientation of the controller based on a comparison between a direction of the external-frame acceleration and a direction of the internal-frame acceleration.

2. The game system of claim 1, where the controller includes an acceleration-measuring subsystem configured to report acceleration information to the orientation inferring subsystem.

3. The game system of claim 1, where the controller includes an angular-motion measuring subsystem configured to report angular motion information to the orientation inferring subsystem.

4. The game system of claim 3, where the angular-motion measuring subsystem includes spaced-apart three-axis accelerometers.

5. The game system of claim 3, where the angular-motion measuring subsystem includes a three-axis gyroscope.

6. The game system of claim 3, where the orientation inferring subsystem is configured to update the coarse orientation based on the angular motion information.

7. The game system of claim 1, where the controller monitor includes stereo cameras.

8. The game system of claim 7, where the controller includes an infrared light and the stereo cameras are configured to view the infrared light.

9. The game system of claim 1, where the orientation inferring subsystem determines the external-frame acceleration as:

10. The game system of claim 1, where the orientation inferring subsystem uses an unscented Kalman filter to determine a unified estimate of position and an absolute orientation of the controller.

11. A method of tracking an orientation of a game controller, the method comprising:

inferring a coarse orientation of the game controller by;

determining an external-frame acceleration for the game controller, the external-frame acceleration being in an external reference frame relative to the game controller;

determining an internal-frame acceleration for the game controller, the internal-frame acceleration being in an internal reference frame relative to the game controller; and

determining an orientation of the game controller based on a comparison between a direction of the external-frame acceleration and a direction of the internal-frame acceleration; and

updating the coarse orientation of the game controller based on angular motion information observed by the game controller.

12. The method of claim 11, where determining an external-frame acceleration for the game controller includes translating motion information for the game controller that is visually observed by a stereo camera.

13. A method of inferring device orientation in an external reference frame, the method comprising:

determining an external-frame acceleration for the device, the external-frame acceleration being in an external reference frame relative to the device;

determining an internal-frame acceleration for the device, the internal-frame acceleration being in an internal reference frame relative to the device;

determining an orientation of the device based on a comparison between a direction of the external-frame acceleration and a direction of the internal-frame acceleration.

14. The method of claim 13, where determining an external-frame acceleration for the device includes translating visually-observed motion of the device.

15. The method of claim 14, where a stereo camera is used to visually-observe motion of the device.

16. The method of claim 13, where determining the internal-frame acceleration for the device includes receiving internal-frame acceleration information observed by the device.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising updating the orientation of the device based on angular motion information observed by the device.

18. The method of claim 13, where determining an external-frame acceleration for the device includes receiving initial position information for the device, the initial position information being in the external reference frame relative to the device;

and receiving subsequent position information for the device, the subsequent position information being in the external reference frame relative to the device.

19. The method of claim 13, where determining the external-frame acceleration for the device includes calculating:

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising using an unscented Kalman filter to determine a unified estimate of position and an absolute orientation of the device.