Wireless motion processing sensor systems suitable for mobile and battery operation

• US 8,760,392 B2
• Filed: 08/27/2010
• Issued: 06/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Invensense Incorporated (TDK Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Invensense Incorporated (TDK Corporation)
• Inventors: Lloyd, Stephen, Sachs, David, Devries, David, Vargha, Doug, Shaeffer, Derek, Anderson, Erik, Keal, Kerry, Royer, Nathan
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Kent
• Assistant Examiner(s): BRITTINGHAM, NATHANIEL P
• Application Number:
  US12/869,837
• Publication Number:
  US 20110254760A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,397 Days
• Field of Search: 348/14.05, 348/114, 348/211.99, 3482111-2117, 348/734, 345/156
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/213 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells A63F13/219, A63F13/655 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/235 using a wireless connection, e.g. infrared or piconet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/428 involving motion or position input signals, e.g. signals representing the rotation of an input controller or a player's arm motions sensed by accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/843 involving concurrently two or more players on the same game device, e.g. requiring the use of a plurality of controllers or of a specific view of game data for each player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1006 having additional degrees of freedom
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1031 using a wireless connection, e.g. Bluetooth, infrared connections
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/00 Measuring acceleration; Measuring deceleration; Measuring shock, i.e. sudden change of acceleration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry

Abstract

The present invention relates to a combination of a 6-axis motion sensor having a 3-axis gyroscope and a 3-axis linear accelerometer, a motion processor and a radio integrated circuit chip (IC), wherein the intelligence in the motion processor enables the communication between the motion sensor, the radio IC and the external network. The motion processor also enables power savings by adaptively controlling the data rate of the motion sensor, depending on the amount or speed of the motion activity.

Claims

1. A handheld device, comprising:

a sensor component configured to generate, based on a data sampling rate, data in response to detection of a movement of the handheld device using sensors comprising a 3-axis angular rate sensor and a 3-axis linear acceleration sensor;

a processor component configured to;

adaptively adjust the data sampling rate based on a determination that the movement satisfies a condition with respect to an amount of motion of the handheld device, wherein the data sampling rate adaptively increases as the amount of motion increases, and wherein the data sampling rate adaptively decreases as the amount of motion decreases;

determines, based on the condition, different power states for different portions of the sensors associated with different axes of the handheld device;

adjust the data sampling rate based on an expected movement;

process portions of the data to obtain processed data; and

send the processed data directed to a base station via a wireless network, the processed data being a digital word and time stamp, wherein the digital word identifies a predefined gesture or movement.

2. The handheld device of claim 1, further comprising a remote controller device associated with a video gaming system.

3. The handheld device of claim 1, wherein the processor component and the sensor component are included in a common substrate.

4. The handheld device of claim 1, wherein the processor component is further configured to combine portions of the data to generate at least one of a data matrix or a quaternion.

5. The handheld device of claim 1, further comprising:

a clock component configured to generate a first clock and calibrate the first clock based on a second clock associated with a base station device.

6. The handheld device of claim 1, wherein the data comprises digital word information corresponding to a predefined gesture, and wherein the sensor component is further configured to generate an interrupt signal based on the movement.

7. The handheld device of claim 1, wherein the processor component is further configured to compress the data using a linear or a non-linear digital bandwidth compression algorithm.

8. The handheld device of claim 1, wherein the processor component is further configured to combine outputs of at least six of the sensors to generate a data matrix or a quaternion.

9. The handheld device of claim 2, wherein the processor component is further configured to process motion sensing data associated with another remote controller device associated with the video gaming system to obtain processed data.

18. The handheld device of claim 1, wherein the sensor component and the processor component are included in an integrated circuit of the handheld device.

19. The handheld device of claim 1, further comprising a wireless transmitter-receiver component configured to wirelessly send, based on the data, information directed to a device.

20. The handheld device of claim 9, further comprising a transmitter-receiver component configured to wirelessly receive, based on the processed data, information from a base station device and sends the information directed to the other remote controller device.

22. The handheld device of claim 19, wherein the wireless transmitter-receiver component is configured to switch from a low power state to an active state in response to a detection of the movement.

23. The handheld device of claim 1, further comprising:

a memory that stores at least a portion of the data as stored data; and

a transmitter-receiver component that wirelessly send the stored data directed to a device in response to a determination that the handheld device is within a wireless coverage range of a network device.

24. The handheld device of claim 2, further comprising a transmitter-receiver component configured to wirelessly send, based on the data, information directed to another remote controller device associated with the video gaming system.

25. The handheld device of claim 9, wherein the transmitter-receiver component wirelessly sends the processed data directed to a base station device.

10. A wireless system, comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor, coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the instructions to at least;

detect, based on a data sampling rate associated with an inertial sensor component comprising a multi-axis gyroscope and a multi-axis accelerometer, a hand movement or a gesture;

adaptively modify the data sampling rate based on a determination that the hand movement or the gesture satisfies a condition with respect to an amount of movement of the wireless system, wherein the data sampling adaptively increases in response to detection of an increase in the amount of movement of the wireless system, and wherein the data sampling rate adaptively decreases in response to detection of a decrease in the amount of movement of the wireless system;

determine, based on the condition, different power states for different portions of the inertial sensor component associated with different axes of the inertial sensor component;

change the data sampling rate in response to determining that lack of movement satisfies a third condition with respect to the lack of movement of the system;

process, by the system, portions of the data to obtain processed data; and

send, by the system utilizing a transmitter-receiver integrated circuit component, the processed data directed to a base station via a wireless network, the processed data being a digital word and time stamp, wherein the digital word identifies a predefined gesture or movement.

11. The wireless system of claim 10, wherein the processor further facilitates the execution of the instructions to:

operate in a sleep mode or an active mode in response to detection of the hand movement or the gesture.

12. The wireless system of claim 10, wherein the processor further facilitates the execution of the instructions to:

associate, via a programmable controller component, the hand movement or the gesture with a command or a function.

13. The wireless system of claim 10, further comprising:

at least one of a watch, a remote controller, or a music player.

21. The wireless system of claim 10, further comprising an enclosure that does not include a pushbutton or a switch.

14. A method, comprising:

generating, by a system comprising a processor based on a sampling rate, data related to a movement of the system using a sensor component comprising a 3-axis gyroscope and a 3-axis accelerometer;

adaptively increasing the sampling rate in response to determining that the movement satisfies a first condition with respect to an increase in an amount of the movement of the system;

adaptively decreasing the sampling rate in response to determining that the movement satisfies a second condition with respect to a decrease in the amount of the movement of the system; and

determining, based on the condition, different power states for different portions of the sensor component associated with different axes of the system;

changing the sampling rate in response to determining that lack of movement satisfies a third condition with respect to the lack of movement of the system;

processing, by the system, portions of the data to obtain processed data; and

sending, by the system utilizing a transmitter-receiver integrated circuit component, the processed data directed to a base station via a wireless network, the processed data being a digital word and time stamp, wherein the digital word identifies a predefined gesture or movement.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

transitioning between a sleep mode and an active mode in response to detecting, by the system, the movement.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the sampling rate is directly proportional to a speed of the movement.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

combining, by the system, portions of the data into a 4-dimensional quaternion format to obtain processed data.

26. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

processing, by the system, portions of the data to obtain processed data; and

sending, by the system utilizing a transceiver-receiver integrated circuit component, the processed data directed to a base station device via a wireless network device.