Rest detection using accelerometer

• US 9,436,231 B2
• Filed: 04/07/2011
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Bevilacqua, Mathew W., Sridharan, Kaushik, Kochinski, Yehonatan
• Primary Examiner(s): Kundu, Sujoy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ngon, Ricky
• Application Number:
  US13/082,294
• Publication Number:
  US 20120259578A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,979 Days
• Field of Search: 702/141
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2200/1637 Sensing arrangement for detection of housing movement or orientation, e.g. for controlling scrolling or cursor movement on the display of an handheld computer
• 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 3/0346 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

Example methods, apparatuses, or articles of manufacture are disclosed herein that may be utilized, in whole or in part, to facilitate or support one or more operations or techniques for detecting a state of rest of a mobile communication device using, at least in part, output signals from an accelerometer.

Claims

1. A method comprising, at a mobile device:

measuring a level of acceleration vibration of said mobile device during a time period based on at least one acceleration vibration signal received from an accelerometer;

detecting a change in an angle of a measured gravity vector applied to said mobile device during the time period based on at least one pitch or roll signal received from the accelerometer;

varying an acceleration vibration threshold based, at least in part, on said detected change in said angle of said measured gravity vector;

determining that said measured level of acceleration vibration does not exceed said acceleration vibration threshold;

determining that said mobile device is at rest based, at least in part, on determining that said measured level of acceleration vibration does not exceed said acceleration vibration threshold;

interpreting, by said mobile device and based on the determining that said mobile device is at rest, a measured acceleration motion as a user gesture input; and

controlling, by said mobile device, an application of said mobile device based on said user gesture input.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said detecting said change in said angle of said measured gravity vector further comprises:

obtaining measurements of said angle at multiple instances; and

comparing said measurements to determine said change.

3. The method of claim 2, and further comprising:

correlating in time said measurements of said angle with said acceleration vibration.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein said measurements of said angle are obtained based, at least in part, on an application of a low-pass filtering model.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said detecting said change in said angle of said measured gravity vector further comprises:

processing signals representing two sequential measurements of said measured gravity vector; and

computing said angle based, at least in part, on said two processed sequential measurements.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said varying said acceleration vibration threshold further comprises increasing said acceleration vibration threshold to detect motion of said mobile device using, at least in part, said detected change in said angle of said measured gravity vector.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said detecting said motion of said mobile device using said detected change in said angle further comprises comparing said detected change in said angle to a rotation threshold.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said rotation threshold is user-configurable.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said acceleration vibration threshold is user-configurable.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the level of acceleration vibration comprises a sum of variances of acceleration vibration signals received from the accelerometer.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

detecting an environment of the mobile device based, at least in part, upon the detecting a change in an angle of a measured gravity vector applied to said mobile device; and

wherein the varying of an acceleration vibration threshold is based, at least in part, on said environment of the mobile device.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a single three-dimensional accelerometer coupled to at least one processor having instructions to;

measure a level of acceleration vibration of a mobile device during a time period based on at least one acceleration vibration signal received from said accelerometer;

detect a change in an angle of a measured gravity vector applied to said mobile device during the time period based on at least one of a pitch and roll signal received from the accelerometer;

vary an acceleration vibration threshold based, at least in part, on said detected change in said angle of said measured gravity vector;

determine that said measured level of acceleration vibration does not exceed said acceleration vibration threshold;

determine that said mobile device is at rest based, at least in part, on whether said measured level of acceleration vibration does not exceed said acceleration vibration threshold;

interpret a measured acceleration motion as a user gesture input; and

control an application of said mobile device based on said user gesture input.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said instructions to detect said change in said angle of said measured gravity vector further comprise instructions to:

obtain measurements of said angle at multiple instances; and

compare said measurements to determine said change.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said instructions to detect said change in said angle of said measured gravity vector further comprise instructions to:

correlate in time said measurements of said angle with said acceleration vibration.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein said measurements of said angle are obtained based, at least in part, on an application of a low-pass filtering model.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said instructions to detect said change in said angle of said measured gravity vector further comprise instructions to:

process signals representing two sequential measurements of said measured gravity vector; and

compute said angle based, at least in part, on said two processed sequential measurements.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein said instructions to vary said acceleration vibration threshold further comprise instructions to:

increase said acceleration vibration threshold to detect motion of said mobile device using, at least in part, said detected change in said angle of said measured gravity vector.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein said to detect said motion of said mobile device using said detected change in said angle further comprises instructions to compare said detected change in said angle to a rotation threshold.

19. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the level of acceleration vibration comprises a sum of variances of acceleration vibration signals received from the accelerometer.

20. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the instruction further detect an environment of the mobile device based, at least in part, upon the detecting a change in an angle of a measured gravity vector applied to said mobile device;

and

wherein the varying of an acceleration vibration threshold is based, at least in part, on said environment of the mobile device.

21. An apparatus comprising:

means for measuring a level of acceleration vibration of a mobile device during a time period based on at least one acceleration vibration signal received from an accelerometer of said mobile device;

means for detecting a change in an angle of a measured gravity vector applied to said mobile device during the time period based on a pitch signal or roll signal received from the accelerometer of said mobile device;

means for varying an acceleration vibration threshold based, at least in part, on said detected change in said angle of said measured gravity vector;

means for determining whether said measured level of acceleration vibration does not exceed said acceleration vibration threshold;

means for determining whether said mobile device is at rest based, at least in part, on determining whether said measured level of acceleration vibration does not exceed said acceleration vibration threshold;

means for interpreting, based on the determining whether said mobile device is at rest, a measured acceleration motion as a user gesture input; and

means for controlling an application of said mobile device based on said user gesture input.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein said means for detecting said change in said angle of said measured gravity vector further comprises:

means for obtaining measurements of said angle at multiple instances; and

means for comparing said measurements to determine said change.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, and further comprising:

means for correlating in time said measurements of said angle with said acceleration vibration.

24. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein said measurements of said angle are obtained based, at least in part, on an application of a low-pass filtering model.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein said means for detecting said change in said angle of said measured gravity vector further comprises:

means for processing signals representing two sequential measurements of said measured gravity vector; and

means for computing said angle based, at least in part, on said two processed sequential measurements.

26. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein said means for varying said acceleration vibration threshold further comprises means for increasing said acceleration vibration threshold to detect motion of said mobile device using, at least in part, said detected change in said angle of said measured gravity vector.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein said means for increasing said acceleration vibration threshold to detect said motion further comprises means for comparing said detected change in said angle to a rotation threshold.

28. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the level of acceleration vibration comprises a sum of variances of acceleration vibration signals received from the accelerometer.

29. The apparatus of claim 21, further comprising a means for detecting an environment of the mobile device based, at least in part, upon the means for detecting a change in an angle of a measured gravity vector applied to said mobile device;

and

wherein the means for varying of an acceleration vibration threshold is based, at least in part, on said environment of the mobile device.

30. An article comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon executable by a special purpose computing platform to execute a method, comprising;

instructions for measuring a level of acceleration vibration of a mobile device during a time period based on multiple acceleration vibration signals received from a particular accelerometer;

instructions for detecting a change in an angle of a measured gravity vector applied to said mobile device during the time period based on a pitch signal and a roll signal received from the accelerometer;

instructions for varying an acceleration vibration threshold based, at least in part, on said detected change in said angle of said measured gravity vector;

instructions for determining whether said measured level of acceleration vibration does not exceed said acceleration vibration threshold;

instructions for determining whether said mobile device is at rest based, at least in part, on whether said measured level of acceleration vibration does not exceed said acceleration vibration threshold;

instructions for interpreting, based on determining that said mobile device is at rest, a measured acceleration motion as a user gesture input; and

instructions for controlling an application of said mobile device based on said user gesture input.

31. The article of claim 30, wherein said instructions to detect said change in said angle of said measured gravity vector further comprise:

instructions for obtaining measurements of said angle at multiple instances; and

instructions for comparing said measurements to determine said change.

32. The article of claim 31, wherein said non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises instructions to:

instructions for correlating in time said measurements of said angle with said acceleration vibration.

33. The article of claim 31, wherein said measurements of said angle are obtained based, at least in part, on an application of a low-pass filtering model.

34. The article of claim 30, wherein said instructions to detect said change in said angle of said measured gravity vector further comprise instructions to:

instructions for processing signals representing two sequential measurements of said measured gravity vector; and

instructions for computing said angle based, at least in part, on said two processed sequential measurements.

35. The article of claim 30, wherein said instructions to vary said acceleration vibration threshold further comprise instructions to:

instructions for increasing said acceleration vibration threshold to detect motion of said mobile device using, at least in part, said detected change in said angle of said measured gravity vector.

36. The article of claim 30, wherein the level of acceleration vibration comprises a sum of variances of acceleration vibration signals received from the accelerometer.

37. The article of claim 30, wherein the instructions stored thereon executable by a special purpose computing platform to execute a method, further comprise instructions for detecting an environment of the mobile device based, at least in part, upon said detecting a change in an angle of a measured gravity vector applied to said mobile device;

and

wherein the instructions for varying of an acceleration vibration threshold is based, at least in part, on said environment of the mobile device.