METHOD OF OBTAINING MEASUREMENT DATA USING A SENSOR APPLICATION INTERFACE

• US 20090055048A1
• Filed: 08/28/2008
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Sheynblat, Leonid
• Granted Patent: US 8,285,504 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/38
• 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. (canceled)

2. A method, comprising:

via a sensor application interface,

receiving, from an application, a measurement request for direction and orientation associated with a quality-of-service control;

in accord with the quality-of-service control, obtaining measurement data from a plurality of similar sensors corresponding to the direction and orientation; and

returning to the application i) the measurement data obtained from the plurality of sensors, and ii) an indicator of accuracy of the measurement data.

3. The:

method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of sensors comprise at least two accelerometers and wherein the step of obtaining measurement data includes integrating measurements from each of the at least two accelerometers.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein integrating measurements, from each of the at least two accelerometers provides 6 degrees of information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the 6 degrees of information include linear information (x, y, z) and orientation information (θ

, φ

, ψ

.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the indicator of accuracy of measurement data is selected from a group of indicators consisting of:

directional information accuracy, tilt accuracy, acceleration accuracy, rate of rotation accuracy, pressure accuracy, or temperature accuracy.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of returning to the application includes returning events.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein returning events includes returning a shock event.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the linear information and orientation information is selected from the group of linear information consisting of:

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

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

a first accelerometer; and

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

the linear and orientation information is being provided to an application along with a quality-of-service control.

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

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

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the 6 degrees of information include linear information (x, y, z) and orientation information (θ

, φ

, ψ

.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first accelerometer and the second accelerometer register event information.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein event information comprises an abrupt change in at least one of linear or orientation information.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the abrupt change is designated as a shock.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein at least one of the linear information and orientation information is selected from the group of linear information consisting of:

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

18. An apparatus comprising:

first means for measuring linear direction information;

second means for measuring linear direction information, wherein the first means and the second means are integrated to sense linear information by producing similar output and orientation information by producing opposing outputs, and wherein

the linear and orientation information is being provided to an application along with a quality-of-service control.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the first means is a first accelerometer.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the second means is a second accelerometer oriented in a plane with the first accelerometer.