ELECTRONIC DEVICE FOR USE IN MOTION DETECTION AND METHOD FOR OBTAINING RESULTANT DEVIATION THEREOF

• US 20110175806A1
• Filed: 03/28/2011
• Published: 07/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: China Mobile Hong Kong Company Limited (Central People's Government of The People's Republic of China)
• Original Assignee: CyWee Group Ltd.
• Inventors: Liou, Shun-Nan, Ye, Zhou, Li, Chin-Lung
• Granted Patent: US 9,760,186 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/1654 with electromagnetic compass
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0383 Signal control means within the pointing device

Abstract

An electronic device utilizing a nine-axis motion sensor module, capable of accurately outputting a resultant deviation including deviation angles in a 3D reference frame is provided. The present invention provides a novel comparison and compensation to accurately obtain a resultant deviation including deviation angles of the electronic device under the presence of external and/or internal interferences including the ones caused by undesirable electromagnetic fields and the ones associated with undesirable external forces and axial accelerations. The output of the nine-axis motion sensor module of the present invention including a rotation sensor, an accelerometer and a magnetometer can be advantageously obtained and compensated with a comparison comparing different states of the motion sensor module such that an updated state associated with the output and the resultant deviation angles of the nine-axis motion sensor module are preferably obtained in an absolute manner with the undesirable external interferences being effectively excluded.

Claims

1. An electronic device for use in computers, motion detection or navigation and subject to movements and rotations in dynamic environments including undesirable external interferences, comprising:

a housing associated with said movements and rotations of the electronic device in a spatial reference frame;

a printed circuit board (PCB) enclosed by the housing;

a nine-axis motion sensor module attached to the PCB, comprising a rotation sensor for detecting and generating a first signal set comprising angular velocities ω

_x, ω

_y, ω

_z associated with said movements and rotations of the electronic device in the spatial reference frame, an accelerometer for detecting and generating a second signal set comprising axial accelerations Ax, Ay, Az associated with said movements and rotations of the electronic device in the spatial reference frame and a magnetometer for detecting and generating a third signal set comprising magnetism Mx, My, Mz; and

a processing and transmitting module, comprising a data transmitting unit electrically connected to the nine-axis motion sensor module for transmitting said first, second and third signal sets and a computing processor for receiving and calculating said first, second and third signal sets from the data transmitting unit, communicating with the nine-axis motion sensor module to calculate a resultant deviation comprising deviation angles in said spatial reference frame by utilizing a comparison utility to compare said first, second and third signal sets whereby said deviation angles of the resultant deviation of the nine-axis motion sensor module of the electronic device are obtained excluding said undesirable external interferences in the dynamic environments.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said deviation angles of the resultant deviation includes yaw, pitch and roll angles about each of three orthogonal coordinate axes of the spatial reference frame;

and wherein the dynamic environments include a condition in which said movements and rotations of the electronic device in the spatial reference frame are continuously nonlinear with respect to time.

3. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the data transmitting unit of the processing and transmitting module is attached to the PCB enclosed by the housing and is provided to transmit said first, second and third signal sets of the nine-axis motion sensor module to the computing processor via electronic connections on the PCB.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the comparison utility utilized by the processing and transmitting module further comprises an update program to obtain an updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module based on a current state and a measured state of the nine-axis motion sensor module;

and wherein said current state is associated with at least the first signal set; and

wherein said measured state includes a measurement of at least said second signal set.

5. The electronic device of claim 4, wherein the updated state further comprises a data association model to compare the measured state associated with at least said second signal set with a predicted measurement calculated and obtained from said current state and associated with at least said second signal set.

6. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the measured state is further associated with said third signal set;

and wherein the predicted measurement calculated and obtained from said current state is further associated with said third signal set.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the comparison utility utilized by the processing and transmitting module further comprises an update program to obtain a first updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module based on a current state associated with at least said first signal set of the nine-axis motion sensor module and a first measured state associated with said second signal set, and to further obtain a second updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module based on said first updated state and a second measured state associated with said third signal set;

and wherein said first and second measured states include measurements of said second signal set and said third signal set respectively.

8. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein the first and second updated states further comprise a first data association model and a second data association model respectively;

and wherein the first data association model is provided for comparing the first measured state associated with said second signal set with a first predicted measurement obtained from said current state; and

wherein the second data association model is provided for comparing the second measured state associated with said third signal set with a second predicted measurement obtained from said first updated state.

9. The electronic device of claim 7, wherein the first and second updated states further comprise a first data association model and a second data association model respectively;

and wherein the first data association model is provided for comparing the first measured state associated with said second signal set with a first predicted measurement obtained from said current state; and

wherein the second data association model is provided for comparing the second measured state associated with said third signal set with a second predicted measurement obtained from said current state.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the comparison utility utilized by the processing and transmitting module further comprises a data converter for converting quaternion values associated with said first, second and third signal sets of the nine-axis motion module to the deviation angles of the resultant deviation of the nine-axis motion sensor module of the electronic device in the spatial reference frame and vice versa.

11. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the computing processor of the processing and transmitting module further comprises a mapping utility for translating said deviation angles of the resultant deviation of the nine-axis motion sensor module of the electronic device in the spatial reference frame to a movement pattern in a display reference frame of a display.

12. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the rotation sensor of the nine-axis motion sensor module further comprises at least one resonating mass such that a movement of said at least one resonating mass along an axis of said spatial reference frame is detected and measured by said rotation sensor using Coriolis acceleration effect to generate said first signal set comprising angular velocities ω

x, ω

y, ω

z in said spatial reference frame.

13. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said undesirable external interferences further comprise undesirable axial accelerations caused by undesirable external forces other than a force of gravity.

14. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein said undesirable external interferences further comprise undesirable magnetism caused by undesirable electromagnetic fields.

15. A method for obtaining a resultant deviation comprising deviation angles in a spatial preference frame of an electronic device utilizing a nine-axis motion sensor module therein and subject to movements and rotations in dynamic environments including undesirable external interferences in said spatial reference frame, comprising the steps of:

obtaining a previous state of the nine-axis motion sensor module at a previous time T−

1;

obtaining a current state of the nine-axis motion sensor module at a current time T;

obtaining a measured state of the nine-axis motion sensor module at the current time T;

calculating and obtaining a predicted measurement of the nine-axis motion sensor module based on said current state; and

obtaining an updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module based on a comparison between said measured state and the predicted measurement calculated and obtained from said current state of the nine-axis motion sensor module and whereby the resultant deviation comprising deviation angles associated with the updated state of the nine-axis motion module is obtained excluding said undesirable external interferences in the dynamic environments.

16. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 15, wherein the previous state includes an initial-value set predetermined to initialize said previous state of the nine-axis motion sensor module at a beginning of said method.

17. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 15, wherein the step of obtaining the current state of the nine-axis motion sensor module further comprises obtaining measured angular velocities ω

_x, ω

_y, ω

_z gained from the motion sensor signals of the nine-axis motion sensor module at a current time T.

18. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 15, wherein the step of obtaining the measured state of the nine-axis motion sensor module further comprises obtaining measured axial accelerations A_x, A_y, A_z and measured magnetism M_x, M_y, M_z gained from the motion sensor signals of the nine-axis motion sensor module at the current time T.

19. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 15, wherein obtaining the updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module further comprises performing a data association to determine whether said comparison between said predicted measurement and said measured state falls within a predetermined value of the nine-axis motion sensor module.

20. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 15, further comprising calculating and converting the updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module to said resultant deviation comprising said deviation angles in said spatial reference frame.

21. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 15, further comprising outputting the updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module to the previous state of the nine-axis motion sensor module such that said method is performed in a looped manner for a next time frame;

and wherein said deviation angles of the resultant deviation includes yaw, pitch and roll angles about each of three orthogonal coordinate axes of the spatial reference frame.

22. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 15, wherein said previous state of the nine-axis motion sensor module is a first quaternion with respect to said previous time T−

1;

wherein said current state of the nine-axis motion sensor module is a second quaternion with respect to said current time T; and

wherein said updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module is a third quaternion with respect to said current time T.

23. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 15, wherein said undesirable external interferences further comprise undesirable axial accelerations caused by undesirable external forces other than a force of gravity.

24. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 15, wherein said undesirable external interferences further comprise undesirable magnetism caused by undesirable electromagnetic fields.

25. A method for obtaining a resultant deviation including deviation angles in a spatial reference frame of an electronic device utilizing a nine-axis motion sensor module therein and subject to movements and rotations in dynamic environments including undesirable external interferences in said spatial reference frame, comprising the steps of:

obtaining a previous state of the nine-axis motion sensor module;

wherein said previous state is associated with at least previous angular velocities gained from the motion sensor signals of the nine-axis motion sensor module at a previous time T−

1;

obtaining a current state of the nine-axis motion sensor module by obtaining measured angular velocities ω

_x, ω

_y, ω

_z gained from the motion sensor signals of the nine-axis motion sensor module at a current time T;

obtaining a first measured state of the nine-axis motion sensor module by obtaining measured axial accelerations A_x, A_y, A_z gained from the motion sensor signals of the nine-axis motion sensor module at the current time T;

calculating and obtaining a first predicted measurement of the nine-axis motion sensor module based on said current state;

obtaining a first updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module based on a first comparison between said first predicted measurement and said first measured state of the nine-axis motion sensor module and whereby undesirable axial accelerations associated with said undesirable external interferences in the dynamic environments are excluded;

obtaining a second measured state of the nine-axis motion sensor module by obtaining a measured yaw angle based on measured magnetism Mx, My, Mz gained from the motion sensor signals of the nine-axis motion sensor module at the current time T;

calculating a second predicted measurement of the nine-axis motion sensor module and obtaining a predicted yaw angle; and

obtaining a second updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module by updating said first updated state based on a second comparison between said second predicted measurement and said second measured state of the nine-axis motion sensor module and whereby undesirable magnetism associated with said undesirable external interferences in the dynamic environments are excluded.

26. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 25, wherein the step of obtaining the first updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module further comprises performing a first data association to determine whether said first comparison between said first predicted measurement and said first measured state falls within a first predetermined value of the nine-axis motion sensor module;

and wherein the step of obtaining the second updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module further comprises performing a second data association to determine whether said second comparison between said second predicted measurement and said second measured state falls within a second predetermined value of the nine-axis motion sensor module.

27. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 25, further comprising outputting said second updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module to said previous state;

and wherein said previous state of the nine-axis motion sensor module is a first quaternion with respect to said previous time T−

1; and

wherein said current state of the nine-axis motion sensor module is a second quaternion with respect to said current time T; and

wherein said first and second updated states of the nine-axis motion sensor module are a third and a fourth quaternion with respect to said current time T respectively.

28. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 25, wherein said previous state is further associated with previous axial accelerations and previous magnetism gained from the motion sensor signals of the nine-axis motion sensor module at a previous time T−

1.

29. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 25, wherein said predicted yaw angle is obtained based on said first updated state of the nine-axis motion sensor module.

30. The method for obtaining a resultant deviation of an electronic device of claim 25, wherein said predicted yaw angle is obtained based on said current state of the nine-axis motion sensor module.