Control device having multiple degrees of freedom
First Claim
1. A control device responsive to linear movement along three mutually perpendicular axes and to rotation about said three axes, comprising:
- a hand-held enclosure;
wherein said enclosure is manually movable with respect to a movable vehicle;
at least two spaced-apart sets of multiple, mutually-perpendicular accelerometers mounted in said enclosure, each one of said accelerometers generating an electrical signal representative of acceleration of the device along one of said axes;
in combination with a second control device containing at least two sets of multiple accelerometers fixedly mounted in said movable vehicle, said accelerometers of said second control device in each set being mutually perpendicular and producing electrical signals responsive to acceleration of said vehicle,and means for combining the electrical signals from said control device and said second control device to produce an indication of acceleration of said hand-held housing with respect to said movable vehicle.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A hand-held joystick has spaced-apart groups of accelerometers and is free to move or rotate on multiple axes. Each group has, for example, three mutually perpendicular accelerometers, with each one producing an electrical signal responsive to linear acceleration along one axis. The signals are combined to derive a definition of acceleration of the joystick along the three mutually perpendicular linear axes and/or rotation about these axes. The combined signal is used by an electrical control system which provides input to a device being controlled. The signal to the device under control is responsive to the motion of the joystick.
619 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A control device responsive to linear movement along three mutually perpendicular axes and to rotation about said three axes, comprising:
-
a hand-held enclosure;
wherein said enclosure is manually movable with respect to a movable vehicle;at least two spaced-apart sets of multiple, mutually-perpendicular accelerometers mounted in said enclosure, each one of said accelerometers generating an electrical signal representative of acceleration of the device along one of said axes; in combination with a second control device containing at least two sets of multiple accelerometers fixedly mounted in said movable vehicle, said accelerometers of said second control device in each set being mutually perpendicular and producing electrical signals responsive to acceleration of said vehicle, and means for combining the electrical signals from said control device and said second control device to produce an indication of acceleration of said hand-held housing with respect to said movable vehicle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. A method of generating control signals responsive to mechanical motion of a non-mechanically-supported, hand-held control element with respect to a movable reference, comprising the steps of:
-
detecting linear acceleration and rotation of said control element with respect to three mutually perpendicular axes by two spaced-apart sets of three separate linear accelerometers to produce six electrical signals responsive to acceleration; detecting linear acceleration and rotation of said reference with respect to three mutually perpendicular axes by another pair of spaced-apart sets of three separate linear accelerometers to produce six reference signals responsive to acceleration; and combining said six electrical signals and six reference signals to produce said control signals. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. A method of generating control signals responsive to mechanical motion of a non-mechanically-supported, hand-held control element within a movable vehicle, comprising the steps of:
-
detecting acceleration of said control element along three mutually perpendicular axes by a first pair of spaced-apart sets of three separate linear accelerometers to produce six electrical signals responsive to acceleration; detecting acceleration of a reference element along three mutually perpendicular axes by a second pair of spaced-apart sets of three separate accelerometers to produce six reference signals responsive to acceleration, said reference element being fixedly mounted in said movable vehicle; and combining said six electrical signals and said six reference signals to produce said control signals. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A control device responsive to linear movement along a plurality of mutually perpendicular axes with respect to a movable reference position, comprising:
-
a hand-held enclosure movable with respect to said reference position; at least two spaced-apart mutually-perpendicular first accelerometers mounted in said enclosure, each one of said first accelerometers generating an electrical signal representative of the acceleration of the device along one of said axes; at least two spaced-apart mutually-perpendicular second accelerometers mounted at said reference position, each one of said second accelerometers generating an electrical signal representative of the acceleration of the reference position along one of said axes; and means responsive to said electrical signals from said first and second accelerometers to generate an indication of movement of said enclosure relative to said reference position. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
-
Specification