Sensor-derived object flight performance tracking

• US 10,420,999 B2
• Filed: 03/27/2017
• Issued: 09/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Sundararajan, Narayan, Yang, Xue, Golwalkar, Suresh V., Gowda, Mahanth, Roy Choudhury, Romit
• Primary Examiner(s): Lau, Tung S
• Application Number:
  US15/470,530
• Publication Number:
  US 20180272221A1
• Time in Patent Office: 911 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0028 Tracking the path of an object, e.g. a ball inside a soccer pitch
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2209/08 magnetic
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0021 Tracking a path or terminating locations
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 43/004 electrically conductive, e.g. for automatic arbitration
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 69/0002 for baseball
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 69/3658 Means associated with the ball for indicating or measuring, e.g. speed, direction
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/0885 by magnetostrictive pick-up
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 9/00 Simulators for teaching or training purposes for the use of weapons F41; computing aspects G06; protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality H04L67/131

Abstract

Systems and techniques for sensor-derived object flight performance tracking are described herein. A set of magnetometer readings may be obtained from a magnetometer included with an object. A local rotation axis of the object may be determined at a time using the set of magnetometer readings. The local rotation axis may describe rotation of the object around a local magnetic target. A global rotation axis may be calculated based on an initial orientation of the object. The global rotation axis may describe a fixed rotation axis of the object during flight in a global coordinate frame, wherein an angle between the global rotation axis and magnetic north remains constant during the flight. An orientation of the object may be determined for the time using the global rotation axis and the local rotation axis of the object at the time.

Claims

1. A system for determining spin of a thrown object for a time along a flight path of the thrown object, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory including instructions that, when executed by the at s one processor, configure the at least one processor to perform operations to;

obtain a set of magnetometer readings from a magnetometer included with the thrown object;

determine a local rotation axis of the thrown object at the time using the set of magnetometer readings, the local rotation axis describing rotation of the thrown object around a local magnetic target included with the thrown object;

calculate a global rotation axis by translating the local rotation axis to a global coordinate frame based on an initial orientation of the thrown object, gravity, and magnetic north in the global coordinate frame, the global rotation axis describing a fixed rotation axis during flight in the global coordinate frame, wherein an angle between the global rotation axis and magnetic north remains constant during the flight; and

determine an orientation of the thrown object for the time using the global rotation axis and the local rotation axis of the thrown object at the time.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions to determine the local rotation axis further include instructions to generate a cone from a set of magnetic vectors for the set of magnetometer readings, wherein the local rotation axis is identified as a centerline of the cone.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising instructions to:

fit the cone through minimization a variance of angle of the cone by modeling azimuth and elevation changes in a rotation axis over the set of magnetometer readings as a quadratic function of time; and

adjust the local rotation axis to a centerline of the fitted cone.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising instructions to:

identify the initial orientation of the thrown object using gyroscope data collected during launch of the thrown object from a gyroscope included with the thrown object.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the instructions to identify the initial orientation of the thrown object at the release time further comprises instructions to:

identify a free fall start time of the thrown object using a set of accelerometer readings from an accelerometer included with the thrown object;

collect the gyroscope data from a time period immediately prior to the free fall start time; and

identify the initial orientation of the thrown object based on angular velocity of the gyroscope data.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of magnetometer readings comprises a first reading, a second reading, and a third reading from the magnetometer, the first reading captured at the time, the second reading captured immediately prior to the time, and the third reading captured immediately following the time.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the set of magnetometer measurements are obtained via wireless radio link.

8. At least one non-transitory machine readable medium including instructions for determining spin of a thrown object for a time along a flight path of the thrown object that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations to:

obtain a set of magnetometer readings from a magnetometer included with the thrown object;

determine a local rotation axis of the thrown object at the time using the set of magnetometer readings, the local rotation axis describing rotation of the thrown object around a local magnetic target included with the thrown object;

calculate a global rotation axis by translating the local rotation axis to a global coordinate frame based on an initial orientation of the thrown object, gravity, and magnetic north in the global coordinate frame, the global rotation axis describing a fixed rotation axis during flight in the global coordinate frame, wherein an angle between the global rotation axis and magnetic north remains constant during the flight; and

determine an orientation of the thrown object for the time using the global rotation axis and the local rotation axis of the thrown object at the time.

9. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions to determine the local rotation axis further include instructions to generate a cone from a set of magnetic vectors for the set of magnetometer readings, wherein the local rotation axis is identified as a centerline of the cone.

10. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 9, further comprising instructions to:

fit the cone through minimization a variance of angle of the cone by modeling azimuth and elevation changes in a rotation axis over the set of magnetometer readings as a quadratic function of time; and

adjust the local rotation axis to a centerline of the fitted cone.

11. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions to:

identify the initial orientation of the thrown object using gyroscope data collected during launch of the thrown object from a gyroscope included with the thrown object.

12. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions to identify the initial orientation of the thrown object further comprises instructions to:

identify a free fall start time of the thrown object using a set of accelerometer readings from an accelerometer included with the thrown object;

collect the gyroscope data from a time period immediately prior to the free time; and

identify the initial orientation of the thrown object based on angular velocity of the gyroscope data.

13. The at least one machine readable medium of claim 8, wherein the set of magnetometer readings comprises a first reading, a second reading, and a third reading from the magnetometer, the first reading captured at the time, the second reading captured immediately prior to the time, and the third reading captured immediately following the time.

14. An apparatus for spin determination of a thrown object for a time along a flight path of the thrown object, the apparatus comprising:

a sensor array;

a transceiver;

at least one processor; and

a memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to;

obtain a set of magnetometer readings from a magnetometer included with the sensor array;

determine a local rotation axis at the time using the set of magnetometer readings, the local rotation axis describing rotation around a local magnetic target included with the thrown object;

calculate a global rotation axis by translating the local rotation axis to a global coordinate frame based on an initial orientation of the thrown object, gravity, and magnetic north in the global coordinate frame, the global rotation axis describing a fixed rotation axis during flight in the global coordinate frame, wherein an angle between the global rotation axis and magnetic north remains constant during the flight; and

determine an orientation for the time using the global rotation axis and the local rotation axis of the thrown object at the time.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the instructions to determine the local rotation axis further include instructions to generate a cone from a set of magnetic vectors for the s of magnetometer readings, wherein the local rotation axis is identified as a centerline of the cone.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising instructions to:

fit the cone through minimization a variance of angle of the cone by modeling azimuth and elevation changes in a rotation axis over the set of magnetometer readings as a quadratic function of time; and

adjust the local rotation axis to a centerline of the fitted cone.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising instructions to:

identify the initial orientation using gyroscope data collected during launch of the thrown object from a gyroscope included with the sensor array.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the instructions to identify the initial orientation further comprises instructions to:

identify a free fall start time using a set of accelerometer readings from an accelerometer included with the sensor array;

collect the gyroscope data from a time period immediately prior to the free start e; and

identify the initial orientation based on angular velocity of the gyroscope data.

19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the set of magnetometer readings comprises a first reading, a second reading, and a third reading from the magnetometer, the first reading captured at the time, the second reading captured immediately prior to the time, and the third reading captured immediately following the time.