DETERMINING ORIENTATION IN AN EXTERNAL REFERENCE FRAME

• US 20100103269A1
• Filed: 06/24/2009
• Published: 04/29/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Wilson, Andrew, Beeman, Steven Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,282,487 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/169
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• 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 13/428 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 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1087 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. a camera
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• 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

Abstract

Orientation in an external reference is determined. An external-frame acceleration for a device is determined, the external-frame acceleration being in an external reference frame relative to the device. An internal-frame acceleration for the device is determined, the internal-frame acceleration being in an internal reference frame relative to the device. An orientation of the device is determined based on a comparison between a direction of the external-frame acceleration and a direction of the internal-frame acceleration.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an orientation inferring subsystem including a monitor configured to visually observe a motion of an object relative to the monitor;

a position inferring subsystem including a target monitor configured to determine a coarse position of the object relative to the target monitor; and

a gaming subsystem for using the observed motion from the orientation inferring subsystem and the determined coarse position from the position inferring subsystem to control a game function.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the monitor includes at least one camera.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the target monitor includes at least one camera.

4. The system of claim 2 wherein an external frame of acceleration of the object is determined using time-elapsed position information received by the at least one camera.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein the at least one camera is used to visually observe the object using infrared light.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein the orientation inferring subsystem updates an orientation of the object based on angular information.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the orientation inferring subsystem infers an orientation of the object relative to a display or a television.

8. The system of claim 3 wherein the at least one camera in the position inferring subsystem is used to determine a three-dimensional position of the object.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a monitor configured to visually observe a motion of an object relative to the monitor;

a target monitor configured to determine a coarse position of the object relative to the target monitor; and

a gaming device for processing the observed motion from the monitor and the determined coarse position from the target monitor to control a game function.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the monitor includes at least one camera.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the target monitor includes at least one camera.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein an external frame of acceleration of the object is determined using time-elapsed position information received by the at least one camera.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the at least one camera is used to visually observe the object using infrared light.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the monitor updates an orientation of the object based on angular information.

15. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the monitor infers an orientation of the object relative to a display or a television.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the at least one is used to determine a three-dimensional position of the object.

17. A method comprising:

observing a motion of an object relative to a monitor;

determining a coarse position of the object relative to a target monitor; and

processing the observed motion from the monitor and the determined coarse position from the target monitor; and

controlling a game function with the processed observed motion and determined coarse position.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the monitor includes at least one camera.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the target monitor includes at least one camera.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising determining an external frame of acceleration of the object using time-elapsed position information received by the at least one camera.

21. The method of claim 18 wherein the observing further comprises observing the object using infrared light.

22. The method of claim 18 further comprising updating an orientation of the object based on angular information.

23. The method of claim 17 further comprising inferring an orientation of the object relative to a display or a television.

24. The method of claim 19 wherein the determining further comprises determining a three-dimensional position of the object using the at least one camera.