Method and apparatus for using magnetic field

• US 7,155,836 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2004
• Issued: 01/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Inventors: Kwon, Woong, Roh, Kyung-shik, Han, Woo-sup, Shim, Young-bo
• Primary Examiner(s): Smith; R. Alexander
• Application Number:
  US10/951,913
• Publication Number:
  US 20050126023A1
• Time in Patent Office: 825 Days
• Field of Search: 333/56, 333/61, 333/62, 333/55.R, 324/202, 324/244, 324/249, 324/251, 324/258, 324/260, 73/17.6, 702/92, 702/93, 701/224
• US Class Current: 33/356
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 17/38 Testing, calibrating, or compensating of compasses

Abstract

Provided a method and apparatus for using a magnetic field. The method includes: measuring and storing magnetic field data indicating magnitudes of a magnetic field in different directions at each time by rotating sensors over a space; and checking whether a disturbance of the magnetic field exists, using curve fitting parameters such as amplitude and offset of at least one of magnetic field trajectories formed by the stored magnetic field data.

Claims

1. A method of using a magnetic field, comprising:

measuring and storing magnetic field data indicating magnitudes of a magnetic field in different directions at each time by rotating sensors in different directions over a space, said magnetic field data forming one or more magnetic field trajectories;

checking whether a disturbance of the magnetic field exists, using an amplitude and an offset of at least one of the magnetic field trajectories;

determining a candidate location of a compass, moving the compass to the candidate location, measuring and storing the magnetic field data indicating the magnitudes of the magnetic field and checking whether the disturbance of the magnetic field exists, until it is determined that the disturbance of the magnetic field does not exist; and

when it is determined that the disturbance of the magnetic field does not exist, calculating the compass by using the stored magnetic field data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the checking as to whether the disturbance of the magnetic field exists comprises:

obtaining a trajectory error between at least one of the magnetic field trajectories and at least one sinusoidal reference curve;

obtaining at least one of mean and variance values of the trajectory error;

determining whether the mean or variance value exceeds a threshold mean or variance value; and

when it is determined that the mean or variance value has exceeded the threshold mean or variance value, determining that the disturbance of the magnetic field exists.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein before measuring and storing the magnetic field data indicating the magnitudes of the magnetic field in the different directions at each time, the at least one sinusoidal reference curve is obtained by measuring the magnitudes of the magnetic field in the different directions at each time by rotating the sensors in an environment in which the disturbance of the magnetic field does not exist.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the checking as to whether the disturbance of the magnetic field exists further comprises:

calculating the at least one sinusoidal reference curve using amplitude and offset of the stored magnetic field data and returning to the step of obtaining the trajectory error between the at least one of the magnetic field trajectories and the at least one sinusoidal reference curve.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the checking as to whether the disturbance of the magnetic field exists further comprises:

calculating at least one of a difference between amplitude of the stored magnetic field data and a reference amplitude and a difference between offset of the stored magnetic field data and a reference offset;

determining whether the difference between the amplitude and the reference amplitude or the difference between the offset and the reference offset exceeds a threshold amplitude value or a threshold offset value; and

when it is determined that the difference between the amplitude and the reference amplitude or the difference between the offset and the reference offset has exceeded the threshold amplitude value or the threshold offset value, determining that the disturbance of the magnetic field exists.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein before measuring and storing the magnetic field data indicating the magnitudes of the magnetic field in the different directions at each time, the reference amplitude and the reference offset correspond to amplitude and offset over a reference curve that is obtained by measuring the magnitudes of the magnetic field at each time in different directions by rotating the sensors in an environment in which the disturbance of the magnetic field does not exist.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

measuring and storing a predetermined number of test magnetic field data over a space;

selecting test magnetic field data having similar amplitudes and offsets from the stored test magnetic field data;

calculating as error mean and error variance values, respectively, mean and variance values of trajectory errors between each of the selected test magnetic field data and the reference curve; and

determining amplitude and offset of test magnetic field data having relatively small error mean and error variance values as the reference amplitude and the reference offset.

8. The method of claim 5,

wherein the candidate location of the compass is determined by using amplitude and offset of the magnetic field data, the mean value, the reference amplitude, and the reference offset.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising:

initializing a number of loops and returning to the step of measuring and storing the magnetic field data indicating the magnitudes of the magnetic field in the different directions at each time interval;

when it is determined that the disturbance of the magnetic field exists, adjusting the number of loops;

determining whether the number of loops reaches a predetermined value, and when it is determined that the number of loops has not reached the predetermined value, returning to the step of determining the candidate location of the central axis around which the compass rotates using the amplitude and offset of the magnetic field data, the mean value, the reference amplitude, and the reference offset; and

when it is determined that the number of loops has reached the predetermined value, calibrating the compass using at least one of magnetic field data that is selected from the stored magnetic field data using at least one of the reference amplitude, the reference offset, the mean value, and the variance value.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein during the measurement of the magnetic field data, a direction along which the compass is to move to the candidate location from the central axis is determined to the right of a magnetic north indicated by the compass when the mean value is negative and to the left of the magnetic north when the mean value is positive, wherein the mean value corresponds to a mean of the trajectory errors that are results of subtraction of the reference curve from the at least one of the magnetic field trajectories.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the difference between the amplitude and the reference amplitude and the difference between the offset and the reference offset are multiplied by predetermined weights, the multiplication result is determined as a distance by which the compass is to move, and the distance is comprised in candidate location information.

12. An apparatus for using a magnetic field, comprising:

a magnetic field measurer which measures magnetic field data indicating magnitudes of a magnetic field at each time while rotating sensors in different directions over a space, said magnetic field data forming one or more magnetic field trajectories;

a storage which stores the measured magnetic field data;

a magnetic field disturbance checker which checks whether a disturbance of the magnetic field exists using an amplitude and an offset of at least one of magnetic field trajectories;

a movement controller which determines a candidate location of a compass, moves the compass to the candidate location, measures and stores the magnetic field data indicating the magnitudes of the magnetic field and checks whether the disturbance of the magnetic field exists, until it is determined that the disturbance of the magnetic field does not exist; and

a compass calibrator which calculates the compass by using the stored magnetic field data, when it is determined that the disturbance of the magnetic field does not exist.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the magnetic field disturbance checker comprises:

an error calculator which calculates a trajectory error between the at least one magnetic field trajectory and at least one sinusoidal reference curve;

a mean and variance value calculator which calculates at least one of mean and variance values of the trajectory error;

a first comparator which compares the at least one of the mean and dispersion values with a threshold mean or variance value; and

a first magnetic field disturbance determiner which determines whether the disturbance of the magnetic field exists in response to the comparison result of the first comparator.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one sinusoidal reference curve is pre-calculated by measuring the magnitudes of the magnetic field at each time in the different locations in an environment in which the disturbance of the magnetic field does not exist.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the magnetic field disturbance checker further comprises:

a reference curve calculator which calculates the at least one sinusoidal reference curve from the amplitude and offset of the magnetic field data stored in the storage.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the magnetic field disturbance checker further comprises:

a data subtracter which generates at least one of an amplitude difference and an offset difference that are obtained by subtracting a reference amplitude and a reference offset from the amplitude and offset of the magnetic field data stored in the storage, respectively;

a second comparator which compares the at least one of the amplitude difference and the offset difference with a threshold amplitude or offset value; and

a second magnetic field disturbance determiner which determines whether the disturbance of the magnetic field exists in response to the comparison result of the second comparator.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the apparatus calibrates a compass on which sensors sensing the magnitude of magnetic field in the different directions are mounted and which can rotate over the space, the apparatus further comprises:

a first compass calibrator which, when the magnetic field disturbance checker determines that the disturbance of the magnetic field does not exist, calibrates the compass using at least one of the magnetic field data stored in the storage.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the movement controller comprises:

a candidate location determiner which, when the magnetic field disturbance checker determines that the disturbance of the magnetic field exists, determines a candidate location of a central axis around which the compass rotates using the magnetic field data input from the storage, the mean value, the reference amplitude, and the reference offset; and

a signal generator which generates a control signal for moving the compass so as to correspond to the candidate location.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising:

a loop number adjuster which, when the magnetic field disturbance checker determines that the disturbance of the magnetic field exists, a number of loops;

a third comparator which compares the number of loops with a predetermined value; and

a second compass calibrator which selects magnetic field data of the magnetic field data stored in the storage using at least one of the reference amplitude, the reference offset, the mean value, and the variance value in response to the comparison result of the third comparator and calibrates the compass using the selected magnetic field data,

wherein the candidate location determiner exists in response to the comparison result of the third comparator.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the candidate location determiner comprises:

a sign checker which checks a sign of the mean value; and

a direction information determiner which during the measurement of the magnetic field data, determines direction information concerning a direction along which the compass is to move to the candidate location from central axis in response to the check result of the sign checker and outputs the candidate location information comprising the direction information,

wherein the mean value corresponds to a mean of the trajectory errors that are obtained by subtracting the reference curve from the magnetic field trajectory.

21. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the candidate location determiner further comprises:

a multiplier which multiplies the amplitude difference and the offset difference by predetermined weights and outputs the candidate location information comprising the multiplication result as a distance by which the compass moves.