System and method for measuring movement of objects
First Claim
1. A system for measuring a speed and distance of a moving object over a plurality of measurement cycles, said system comprising:
- a plurality of accelerometers and rotational sensors disposed in said object, said accelerometers configured so as to provide acceleration signals corresponding to accelerations associated with a movement of said object during said plurality of measurement cycles, said rotational sensors configured so as to provide substantially small angular signals corresponding to substantially small incremental angles, designated as angle dθ
, of said object about an axis of a three dimensional coordinate system wherein the cosine value of said angle dθ
is substantially equal to unity and the sine value of said angle dθ
is substantially equal to said angle dθ
; and
a processing system coupled to said accelerometers and said rotational sensors configured so as to receive said acceleration signals and said angular signals corresponding to said substantially small incremental angles dθ
, said processing system adapted to measure a distance traversed and the speed of said object during each of said measurement cycles, wherein each measurement cycle begins when said object has a constant velocity.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A device that measures the distance traveled, speed, and height jumped of a person while running or walking. Accelerometers and rotational sensors are placed in the sole of one shoe along with an electronic circuit that performs mathematical calculations to determine the distance and height of each step. A radio frequency transmitter sends the distance and height information to a wristwatch or other central receiving unit. A radio frequency receiver in the wristwatch or other unit is coupled to a microprocessor that calculates an output speed based upon step-distance and elapsed time, and the distance traveled of the runner from the sum of all previous step distances. The output of the microprocessor is coupled to a display that shows the distance traveled, speed, or height jumped of the runner or walker.
368 Citations
22 Claims
-
1. A system for measuring a speed and distance of a moving object over a plurality of measurement cycles, said system comprising:
-
a plurality of accelerometers and rotational sensors disposed in said object, said accelerometers configured so as to provide acceleration signals corresponding to accelerations associated with a movement of said object during said plurality of measurement cycles, said rotational sensors configured so as to provide substantially small angular signals corresponding to substantially small incremental angles, designated as angle dθ
, of said object about an axis of a three dimensional coordinate system wherein the cosine value of said angle dθ
is substantially equal to unity and the sine value of said angle dθ
is substantially equal to said angle dθ
; anda processing system coupled to said accelerometers and said rotational sensors configured so as to receive said acceleration signals and said angular signals corresponding to said substantially small incremental angles dθ
, said processing system adapted to measure a distance traversed and the speed of said object during each of said measurement cycles, wherein each measurement cycle begins when said object has a constant velocity. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A method for measuring motion characteristics of a moving object over a plurality of measurement cycles comprising the steps of:
-
measuring acceleration signals associated with movement of said object along a translational coordinate system defined by the movement of said object; measuring incremental angles of rotation, designated as angle dθ
, of said object about each axis of said translational coordinate system, such that the cosine value of said angle dθ
is substantially equal to unity and the sine value of said angle dθ
is substantially equal to said angle dθ
; andcalculating instantaneous accelerations of said moving object with respect to a reference coordinate that is defined by said moving object at the beginning of each one of said cycles, wherein each one of said measurement cycles begin when velocity of said moving object is a constant. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A navigation method for tracking motion characteristics of a moving object over a plurality of measurement cycles comprising the steps of:
-
measuring, over a plurality of time increments, acceleration signals associated with movement of said object along a translational coordinate system defined by the movement of said object; measuring for each of said time increments, incremental angles of rotation, designated as angle dθ
, of said object about each axis of said translational coordinate system, such that the cosine value of said angle dθ
is substantially equal to unity and the sine value of said angle dθ
is substantially equal to said angle dθ
; andtransforming by an incremental transformation matrix instantaneous accelerations of said moving object from said translational coordinate system to a reference coordinate that is defined by said moving object at the beginning of each one of said cycles, wherein each one of said measurement cycles begin when velocity of said moving object is a constant; transforming by a gravity aligned transformation matrix instantaneous accelerations of said moving object from a reference frame coordinate system to a gravity aligned coordinate system; and transforming by a global transformation matrix instantaneous acceleration of said moving object from said gravity aligned coordinate system to a global coordinate system. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
-
Specification