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Inertial orientation tracker having automatic drift compensation for tracking human head and other similarly sized body

  • US 6,162,191 A
  • Filed: 09/14/1998
  • Issued: 12/19/2000
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/16/1994
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. An apparatus to be attached to a body having a size between the sizes of a human finger and a human torso, said body having an orientation relative to an external reference frame, said apparatus generating an orientation signal that corresponds to at least two degrees of freedom of said orientation of said body said apparatus comprising:

  • a. three self contained angular rate sensors arranged to span three space that generate first sensor signals that correspond to rotational rates of said body with respect to at least two degrees of freedom of said body, said first sensor signals being impervious to any interference from electromagnetic, acoustic, optical and mechanical sources;

    b. a mechanism for mounting said sensor to said body; and

    c. coupled to said sensor, a signal processor that comprises an integrator that integrates said rotational rate signals with respect to time and generates an orientation signal that corresponds to said at least two degrees of freedom and;

    d. a drift compensator, coupled to said angular rate sensor and said integrator, that compensates for any drift with respect to time in said rotational orientation signal, said drift compensator comprising at least one sensor being selected from the group consisting of;

    an optical sensor, a radio frequency (RF) sensor and an acoustic sensor.

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