Method of obtaining measurement data using a sensor application interface

• US 8,285,504 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2008
• Issued: 10/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Sheynblät, Leonid
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Phuong
• Application Number:
  US12/200,646
• Publication Number:
  US 20090055048A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,503 Days
• Field of Search: 702 81- 84, 702181-190, 22 81- 84, 22181-189
• US Class Current: 702/81
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 9/00 Measuring inclination, e.g. by clinometers, by levels
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 18/00 Testing or calibrating apparatus or arrangements provided for in groups G01D1/00 - G01D15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 1/127 for acceleration values
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/0888 for indicating angular acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/18 in two or more dimensions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A method involves, via a sensor application interface, 1) receiving, from an application, a measurement request associated with a quality-of-service control; 2) in accord with the quality-of-service control, obtaining measurement data from a sensor; and 3) returning to the application i) the measurement data obtained from the sensor, and ii) an indicator of accuracy of the measurement data.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

via a sensor application interface;

receiving, from an application, a measurement request for direction and orientation measurements and at least one input quality-of-service control associated with the direction and orientation measurements;

in accord with the at least one input quality-of-service control, obtaining raw measurement data corresponding to the direction and orientation measurements from a plurality of sensors comprising at least two accelerometers; and

returning to the application, at least a portion of the raw measurement data and an output quality-of-service control indicating an expected accuracy of at least one of the plurality of sensors in generating at least the portion of the raw measurement data, wherein the expected accuracy is based, at least in part, on a measurement period specified in the at least one input quality-of-service control.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the raw measurement data comprises integrating measurements from each of the at least two accelerometers.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein integrating measurements from the at least two accelerometers provides six degrees of information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the six degrees of information includes linear motion measurements associated with an x-axis, a y-axis and a z-axis and orientation information associated with a roll θ

, a pitch φ

, and a yaw ψ

.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the output quality-of-service control comprises at least one of an expected directional information accuracy, an expected tilt accuracy, an expected acceleration accuracy, an expected rate of rotation accuracy, an expected pressure accuracy, or an expected temperature accuracy.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

returning one or more event values to the application.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more event values comprise a shock detected event value.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the linear motion measurements or orientation measurements comprises at least one of:

a direction angle measurement, a magnetic vector magnitude measurement, a magnetic vector x measurement, a magnetic vector y measurement, a magnetic vector z measurement, a pitch measurement, a roll measurement, an acceleration measurement, an acceleration vector x measurement, an acceleration vector y measurement, or an acceleration vector z measurement.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one input quality-of-service control identifies, at least in part, at least one of:

a priority of time measurement, a measurement periodicity, an event triggering a sensor measurement, a threshold level associated with the event triggering the sensor measurement, or a length of measurement filtering.

9. An apparatus having a sensor to sense linear motion and orientation information, the apparatus comprising:

a first accelerometer;

a second accelerometer, wherein the first and second accelerometers are integrated to sense linear motion information by producing similar outputs and orientation measurements by producing opposing outputs; and

processor circuitry to execute operations for a sensor application interface, the operations to;

receive, from an application, a request for the linear motion and orientation measurements and at least one input quality-of-service control associated with at least one of the linear motion measurements or the orientation measurements,

in accord with the at least one input quality-of-service control, obtain raw measurement data from at least the first and second accelerometers, and

return, to the application, at least a portion of the raw measurement data for at least the linear motion and orientation measurements and an output quality-of-service control indicating an expected accuracy of at least the first and second accelerometers in generating at least the portion of the raw measurement data, wherein the expected accuracy is based, at least in part, on a measurement period specified in the at least one input quality-of-service control.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the first accelerometer and the second accelerometer are oriented in a plane.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first and second accelerometers measure six degrees of information.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the six degrees of information include linear motion information associated with an x-axis, a y-axis and a z-axis and orientation information associated with a roll θ

, a pitch φ

, and a yaw ψ

.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, the sensor application interface operations further to return, to the application, an event identifier for at least one of the first accelerometer or the second accelerometer.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein event identifier identifies an abrupt change in at least one of the linear motion or orientation information.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the abrupt change is identified by a shock detected event value.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein at least one of the linear motion measurements or orientation measurements comprise at least one of:

a direction angle measurement, a magnetic vector magnitude measurement, a magnetic vector x measurement, a magnetic vector y measurement, a magnetic vector z measurement, a pitch measurement, a roll measurement, an acceleration measurement, an acceleration vector x measurement, an acceleration vector y measurement, or an acceleration vector z measurement.

18. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the at least one input quality-of-service control identifies, at least in part, at least one of:

a priority of time measurement, a measurement periodicity, an event triggering a sensor measurement, a threshold level associated with the event triggering the sensor measurement, or a length of measurement filtering.

19. A method, comprising:

with a plurality of sensors capable of measuring changes in a direction and an orientation, the plurality of sensors comprising at least two accelerometers;

receiving from a sensor application interface at least one input quality-of-service control associated with measuring the direction and the orientation;

in accord with the at least one input quality-of-service control, measuring raw measurement data corresponding to the direction and the orientation using at least the at least two accelerometers; and

returning to the sensor application interface, at least a portion of the raw measurement data and an output quality-of-service control indicating an expected accuracy of at least one of the plurality of sensors in generating at least the portion of the raw measurement data, wherein the expected accuracy is based, at least in part, on a measurement period specified in the at least one input quality-of-service control.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein measuring the raw measurement data comprises integrating measurements from each of the at least two accelerometers.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein integrating measurements from the at least two accelerometers provide six degrees of information.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the six degrees of information includes linear motion measurements associated with an x-axis, a y-axis and a z-axis and orientation information associated with a roll θ

, a pitch φ

, and a yaw ψ

.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein at least one of the linear motion measurements or orientation measurements comprises at least one of:

a direction angle measurement, a magnetic vector magnitude measurement, a magnetic vector x measurement, a magnetic vector y measurement, a magnetic vector z measurement, a pitch measurement, a roll measurement, an acceleration measurement, an acceleration vector x measurement, an acceleration vector y measurement, or an acceleration vector z measurement.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the output quality-of-service control comprises at least one of an expected directional information accuracy, an expected tilt accuracy, an expected acceleration accuracy, an expected rate of rotation accuracy, an expected pressure accuracy, or an expected temperature accuracy.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein the at least one input quality-of-service control identifies, at least in part, at least one of:

a priority of time measurement, a measurement periodicity, an event triggering a sensor measurement, a threshold level associated with the event triggering the sensor measurement, or a length of measurement filtering.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

returning one or more event values to the sensor application interface.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the one or more event values comprise a shock detected event value.