Method and apparatus for monitoring motion of a substatially rigid
First Claim
1. An apparatus for monitoring motion of a substantially rigid body, comprising:
- a mounting structure shaped for consistent orientation with respect to a characteristic feature of the substantially rigid body;
a motion sensor operable to produce linear and rotational motion signals; and
an output operable to transmit the linear and rotational motion signals.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for monitoring motion of a substantially rigid body relative to at a first location, in which linear and rotational motions are sensed by one or more motion sensors attached to the substantially rigid body at other locations. The sensed rotation is used to compensate for the angular and centripetal acceleration components in the sensed linear motion. In one embodiment, the components are estimated explicitly from the sensed rotation. In a further embodiment, the sensed rotations are used to estimate the relative orientations of two or more sensors, enabling the linear motions to be combined so as to cancel the angular and centripetal accelerations. A reference sensor may be used for in-situ calibration. When the substantially rigid body is a human head, the reference sensor may be coupled to a helmet or mouthguard.
29 Citations
26 Claims
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1. An apparatus for monitoring motion of a substantially rigid body, comprising:
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a mounting structure shaped for consistent orientation with respect to a characteristic feature of the substantially rigid body; a motion sensor operable to produce linear and rotational motion signals; and an output operable to transmit the linear and rotational motion signals. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A system for monitoring motion of a substantially rigid body relative to a first location comprising:
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a processing module responsive to sensed rotational motion of substantially rigid body, the processing module operable to produce a plurality of rotational components; a memory for storing parameters dependent upon the first location and the second location; a combiner operable to combine the plurality of rotational components with a linear motion sensed at a second location, displaced from the first location, dependent upon the parameters stored in the memory, to provide an estimate of the motion of the substantially rigid body relative to the first location; and an output operable to output a signal representative of the motion relative to the first location. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system for monitoring motion of a substantially rigid body relative to a first location comprising:
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a plurality of motion sensors locatable on the substantially rigid body at a plurality of second locations, displaced from the first location, each motion sensor of the plurality of motion sensors operable to measure a motion vector at a second location of the plurality of second locations; and a processing module comprising; an alignment estimator operable to produce an alignment matrix between each motion sensor of the plurality of motion sensors and a reference frame, dependent upon the motion vectors at the plurality of second locations; an alignment module operable to align the motion vectors with the frame of reference using the alignment matrix to produce a plurality of aligned motion vectors; and a combiner operable to combine the plurality of aligned motion vectors to provide an estimate of the motion of the substantially rigid body relative to the first location; and an output operable to output a signal representative of the motion of the substantially rigid body relative to the first location. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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18. A method for monitoring motion of a substantially rigid body relative to a first location comprising:
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sensing a linear acceleration vector of the substantially rigid body at a second location, displaced from the first location; sensing a first rotation of the substantially rigid body; determining an angular acceleration component of the sensed linear acceleration vector from the sensed first rotation; determining a centripetal acceleration component of the sensed linear acceleration vector from the sensed first rotation; estimating the linear motion at the first location by combining the angular acceleration component, the centripetal acceleration component and the linear acceleration vector, the combination being dependent upon the relative positions of the first and second locations; and outputting a signal representative of the motion of the substantially rigid body relative to the first location. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method for monitoring motion of a substantially rigid body relative to a first location comprising:
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coupling a first six degree-of-freedom sensor to the substantially rigid body to sense a motion vector at a second location; coupling a second six degree-of-freedom sensor to the substantially rigid body to sense motion vector at a third location; aligning the motion vector at the second location and motion vector at the third location to a common frame of reference to produce first and second aligned motion vectors; and combining the first and second aligned motion vectors to produce a motion vector at the first location. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
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Specification