JPH0954542A - Action detector, simulator and action detection method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an action detector which is high in response speed, is small in size and is capable of making exact action detection, a simulator and a method for detecting the action. SOLUTION: A first detecting section 10 detects the angular velocity of an object for detection (for example, a player head), determines direction information based thereon and outputs the information as first direction information. A second detecting section 30 determines the direction information of the object for detection by generating a prescribed wave from either of the prescribed position (for example, wall, ceiling) in a three-dimensional space or the position (for example, on an HMD) following up the action of the object for detection and outputs this information as the second direction information. An action information calculating section 60 makes correction arithmetic processing in accordance with the first direction information and the second direction information and determines the direction information of the object for detection. The action detection with high response and high accuracy is made possible by compensating the first direction information and second direction information with each other in such a manner.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a motion detection device for detecting at least direction information of a detection target that operates in a three-dimensional space, a simulator device using the motion detection device, and a motion detection method.

[0002]

BACKGROUND ART In recent years, a player wears a head-mounted body such as a so-called head mounted display (hereinafter referred to as HMD), and a visual field image is displayed on a liquid crystal display or the like incorporated in the HMD to perform games, vehicle simulations, and the like. The simulator device to enjoy is in the spotlight. With this simulator device, a world called so-called virtual reality can be realized.

In this simulator device, motion detection for obtaining motion information (position and direction information) of a player as a detection target in order to change the visual field image seen by the player according to the motion of the player (viewer) or the like. A method is needed. As one of such motion detection methods, a method of detecting motion information using a magnetic field is widely used. In this method, a source coil in which coils are wound in three directions of XYZ and a sensor coil which is within a given distance from the source coil and detects an XYZ direction component of a magnetic field are used. That is, the XYZ direction components of the magnetic field are sequentially generated by passing currents through the three coils included in the source coil, and the currents obtained from the three coils included in the sensor coil when the respective magnetic fields are generated are detected. Then, by measuring the detected current, it is possible to obtain the operation information of the detection target.

The technique using the magnetic field has problems that the simulator device becomes large in size, the cost is increased, and the response speed is deteriorated. Therefore, the inventor of the present invention continues to develop a motion detection device that detects angular velocity by using an angular velocity detection unit such as a piezoelectric vibration gyro and obtains motion information of a detection target.

[0005]

However, although the method utilizing the angular velocity detection described above is excellent in reducing the size of the device and improving the response speed, it has been found that this method has the following problems. .

That is, in the method utilizing the angular velocity detection, it is necessary to obtain the rotation angle around each axis by integrating the detected angular velocity when obtaining the direction information of the detection target. Therefore, when the detected angular velocity has an error such as a noise component or a temperature drift component, this error is accumulated by integration processing or the like, and as a result, a large deviation occurs in the obtained rotation angle. When such a shift occurs, for example, a situation in which the player's visual field image seen by the player moves while the player's head is not moving, and the quality of the obtained image is reduced by half.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a motion detecting device which has a fast response speed, is small in size, and can accurately detect a motion. A simulator device and a motion detection method are provided.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention is a motion detecting device for detecting at least direction information of a detection target operating in a three-dimensional space. Alternatively, a first detecting unit that detects angular velocities around a plurality of axes, obtains direction information of a detection target based on the detected angular velocities, and outputs the directional information as first direction information, and a given unit in the three-dimensional space. Second detection means for obtaining at least directional information of the detection target by generating a given wave from either the position of the position or the position following the movement of the detection target, and outputting this as the second direction information. 1 motion information calculation means for performing correction calculation processing based on the first direction information obtained by the detection means and the second direction information obtained by the second detection means to obtain direction information of the detection target. Characterized by .

According to the present invention, the first direction information is obtained by detecting the angular velocity by the first detection means, and the second direction information is obtained by generating a given wave by the second detection means. The direction information of the detection target is obtained by complementing these first and second direction information. In the method of obtaining direction information by using angular velocity detection, if there is a fluctuation component in the detected angular velocity, this may be amplified and a large error may occur in the direction information. Therefore, by adopting the second direction information in such a case, the direction information finally obtained can be highly accurate. On the other hand, in the method of obtaining direction information using given waves such as ultrasonic waves, infrared rays, and electromagnetic waves, direction information cannot be obtained due to problems with the detection range, the presence of obstacles, etc. It may be late. Therefore, in such a case, by adopting the first direction information, it is possible to improve the accuracy of the direction information finally obtained and to increase the response speed. As described above, according to the present invention, highly accurate and highly responsive motion detection can be performed.

In this case, according to the present invention, the motion information calculating means sets a weighting coefficient for the first and second direction information, and detects based on the first and second direction information and the weighting coefficient. It is desirable to obtain the target direction information. By setting the weighting coefficient in this way, the weighting of either the first direction information or the second direction information is increased in a given area, or the first direction information or the second direction information is weighted. It is possible to adopt only one of them. For example, when the response speed of the first detection unit is higher, the weighting of the first direction information is increased in the region where the operation of the detection target is fast. This makes it possible to detect a highly responsive motion. On the other hand, for example, when the detection accuracy of the first detection means is low in a region where the detection target moves slowly, the weighting of the second direction information is increased in the region where the detection target motion is slow. This enables highly accurate motion detection.

Further, in the present invention, it is preferable that the motion information calculating means sets the weighting coefficient based on the angular velocity detected by the first detecting means. That is, the angular velocity detection by the first detection means can be stably obtained without being affected by the presence of obstacles, for example.
Therefore, by setting the weighting coefficient based on the angular velocity, it is possible to effectively prevent the situation in which the directional information becomes indefinite, and to obtain the stable directional information.

Further, in the present invention, the second detecting means uses a transmitter for transmitting a wave having directivity and a receiver for receiving the transmitted wave, to thereby provide a given position in a three-dimensional space. It is desirable that the distance between the position and the position that follows the motion of the detection target be obtained, and at least the direction information of the detection target be obtained based on the obtained distance. By using a transmitter that generates a directional wave and its receiver in this way, it is possible to obtain stable direction information without being affected by the ambient environment such as noise and temperature. At this time, it is possible to obtain more multidimensional direction information by increasing the number of transmitters and receivers arranged. In addition, the transmitter and receiver are 3
It may be provided either at a given position in the dimensional space or at a position following the detection target, or it may be provided at both.

Further, according to the present invention, the motion information calculating means sets the first direction information as the direction information of the detection target when the receiver is located outside the arrival range of the wave from the transmitter. You may When the wave has a certain directivity, the detection range is limited. Therefore, when the receiver is out of the detection range, stable direction information can be obtained by ignoring the second direction information and adopting the first direction information.

Further, in the present invention, when the wave from the transmitter does not reach the receiver because the wave from the transmitter does not reach the receiver, the motion information calculating means determines the direction information of the detection target. May be set. By adopting the first direction information when the wave is blocked by an obstacle or the like, it is possible to obtain stable direction information.

In the present invention, the detection target is the viewer's head, and the second detecting means sets the first, first and second positions near the front, left and right of the viewer's head. In the case of the second and third positions, the distance between a given position in the three-dimensional space and the first, second, and third positions is calculated, and the first detecting means determines the second and the third positions. First axis connecting three positions, the second and third axes
It is desirable to obtain an angular velocity around a second axis connecting the midpoint of the position and the first position and a third axis orthogonal to the first and second axes. The viewer's head will normally rotate around the first, second, and third axes. Therefore,
Since the first and second detecting means perform the arithmetic processing so as to obtain the direction information about these first to third axes, the arithmetic processing can be simplified and the processing speed can be increased.

In the present invention, the detection target is the head of the viewer, and the second detection means sets the first and second positions near the front and rear of the head of the viewer. To three
The distance between a given position in the dimensional space and the first and second positions is determined, and the first detection means are in a plane orthogonal to the axis connecting the first and second positions and It is desirable to obtain the angular velocities around the orthogonal first and second axes. In many cases, it is not necessary to consider the rotation of the head about the axis connecting the first and second positions. Therefore, in such a case, by obtaining only the direction information about the first and second axes, the arithmetic processing can be further simplified and the processing speed can be further increased.

Further, in the present invention, the second detecting means generates a magnetic field by a given source coil, and detects the magnetic field by a given sensor coil to obtain at least directional information of a detection target. Good. As described above, in the present invention, the second direction information can be obtained by using the electromagnetic wave which is one of the waves.

Further, in the present invention, it is preferable that the second detecting means further obtains the position information of the detection object, and the motion information calculating means makes the obtained position information the position information of the detection object. . The first detection means for detecting the angular velocity can obtain the direction information with high response, but cannot generally obtain the position information. On the other hand, according to the detection method by the second detection means, it is possible to obtain not only the direction information but also the position information. Therefore, also in this case, by compensating the result from the first detecting means and the result from the second detecting means with each other, it is possible to obtain operation information with higher utility value.

Further, in the present invention, it is preferable that the first detecting means obtains the angular velocity by using a piezoelectric vibration gyro. The piezoelectric vibrating gyro is small and has high response. Therefore, for example, when the detection target is the player's head, the player's wearing feeling can be improved. When changing the view image based on the obtained direction information, etc.,
It is possible to form a smooth and high-speed view image.

Further, according to the present invention, a visual field image is synthesized based on at least the above-mentioned motion detecting device, display means provided so as to cover the visual field of a viewer, and direction information of a detection target obtained from the motion detecting device. An image synthesizing unit for outputting to the display unit is included. By using the motion detection device having various advantages as described above, it is possible to realize a simulator device having a better virtual reality.

[0021]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

(Example 1) 1. Overall Configuration FIG. 1 is an example of a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the first embodiment. The motion detection device according to the first embodiment includes a first detection unit 10,
The second detection unit 30 and the motion information calculation unit 60 are included. The first detection unit 10 detects an angular velocity of a detection target (a player's head, a weapon possessed by the player, etc.) around, for example, the X-axis, the Y-axis, and the Z-axis, and the direction of the detection target based on the detected angular velocity. The information is obtained and output as the first direction information to the motion information calculation unit 60. The second detection unit 30 is 3
The detection target is generated by generating waves such as ultrasonic waves, infrared rays, electromagnetic waves, etc. from either a given position in the dimensional space (eg ceiling, wall, etc.) or a position following the movement of the detection target (eg HMD, etc.) Is obtained as at least the direction information and is output to the motion information calculation unit 60 as the second direction information. In the second detection unit 30 of the present embodiment, the distance between a given position in the three-dimensional space and a position that follows the motion of the detection target is determined using ultrasonic waves that are one of the waves having directivity. Seeking,
Thereby, the direction information and the position information of the detection target are obtained. The motion information calculation unit 60 performs correction calculation processing based on the first direction information obtained by the first detection unit 10 and the second direction information obtained by the second detection unit 30, and the motion information of the detection target ( Direction information and position information). The motion information from the motion information calculation unit 60 is output to, for example, an image synthesizing unit (not shown) or the like, which makes it possible to obtain a visual field image in which the motion information is reflected.

The first detection unit 10 in this embodiment is a piezoelectric vibration gyro 12-16, a filter unit 18, an amplifier unit 2.
0, an A / D converter 22, and a first direction information calculator 24. Piezoelectric vibration gyro 12 to 16 serving as an angular velocity detector
Is to obtain the angular velocity of the detection target by utilizing the Coriolis force. An analog voltage proportional to the angular velocity is output from the piezoelectric vibration gyros 12 to 16. Filter section 18
Is for removing output fluctuations (temperature drift) at rest due to changes in ambient temperature, and for cutting DC components and the like of the outputs of the piezoelectric vibration gyros 12 to 16. The signal from which the DC component and the like have been cut is amplified by the amplifier section 20, converted into a digital signal by the A / D conversion section 22, and output to the first direction information calculation section 24.
The first direction information calculation unit 24 integrates the detected angular velocities and the like to obtain rotation angle information about a given axis (for example, X, Y, Z axes), that is, direction information of the detection target.

Further, the second detector 30 in this embodiment is
The ultrasonic transmitters 32 to 36, the transmission controller 38, the ultrasonic receivers 42 to 46, the reception controller 48, and the second direction / positional information calculator 50 are included. When the start signal or the like is output from the second direction / position information calculation unit 50, the ultrasonic transmitters 32 to 36 output ultrasonic waves under the control of the transmission control unit 38.
The output ultrasonic waves are received by the ultrasonic wave receivers 42 to 46. The reception control unit 48 counts the time required for the ultrasonic wave to be received by the ultrasonic wave receivers 42 to 46 after the start signal is output, by the built-in counter 49, and counts the count value in the second direction / position. It is output to the information calculation unit 50. The second direction / position information calculation unit 50 calculates the distance between the transmitter and the receiver based on the input count value, and thereby calculates the position and direction information of the detection target.

FIG. 2A shows an arrangement example of the piezoelectric vibration gyro and the ultrasonic transmitter / receiver. Ultrasonic transmitter 32 ~
The transmitting unit 70 including 36 is attached to, for example, a ceiling, a wall, a simulator device, etc., and its position is specified (may be movable). On the other hand, the piezoelectric vibration gyro 12-1
6. The receiver 72 including the ultrasonic receivers 42 to 46 is attached to, for example, an HMD (head mount display) mounted on the head of the player, and moves following the movement of the head of the player. The ultrasonic waves from the ultrasonic transmitters 32 to 36 are first received by the ultrasonic receiver 42. Thereby, the distance between the ultrasonic transmitters 32 to 36 and the ultrasonic receiver 42 located at a given position is specified, and the position of the ultrasonic receiver 42 is specified. Similarly, the positions of the ultrasonic receivers 44 and 46 are also specified, and the positional information and the directional information (second directional information) of the head of the player wearing the receiving section 72 are obtained.

On the other hand, in the piezoelectric vibrating gyros 12 to 16,
The angular velocity when the player's head moves is detected. A rotation angle about a given axis of the player is obtained from this angular velocity, and direction information (first direction information) of the player's head is obtained.

The weighting process for the first and second direction information, the final determination process of the direction information of the head, and the like are performed by the motion information calculation unit 60.

By using the receiving unit 72 having the structure shown in FIG. 2A, information with 6 degrees of freedom (three-dimensional position information and three-axis direction information) can be obtained. On the other hand, if the receiving unit 74 having the configuration of FIG. 2B, which includes only two ultrasonic receivers and two piezoelectric vibrating gyros, only information with five degrees of freedom is obtained. That is, in the configuration of FIG. 2B, the ultrasonic receiver 42,
Direction information (rotation angle information about this axis) about the axis connecting 44 cannot be obtained. In the case of synthesizing a visual field image using an HMD or the like, it is usually sufficient to know the horizontal and vertical movements of the player's head. Therefore, in this case, the ultrasonic receivers 42 and 44 are respectively positioned near the front part and the rear part of the player so that the tilt of the player's head is not detected. By doing so, the receiver 74 can be made smaller and lighter,
It is possible to increase the player's wearing feeling.

In both FIGS. 2A and 2B, the receiver is provided on the player's head side (detection target side).
On the contrary, the transmitter may be provided on the head side. However, providing the transmitter on the head side has the following problems. That is, when the player's head moves in a direction different from the direction in which the receiver is located, ultrasonic waves output from the transmitter attached to the head may be reflected by other ceilings, walls, etc. This causes a false detection. Therefore, when such a situation may occur, it is desirable to provide the receiver on the player's head or the like.

Next, detailed configurations and operations of the motion information calculation unit 60 and the first and second detection units 10 and 30 will be described. Note that the arithmetic processing performed by the first direction information calculation unit 24, the second direction / position information calculation unit 50, the motion information calculation unit 60, etc. shown in FIG. 1 is controlled by the CPU and this CPU in the present embodiment. It is realized by a memory etc.

2. Motion Information Calculation Unit FIGS. 3A, 3B and 4 are flowcharts showing an example of the operation of the motion information calculation unit 60. As shown in steps S1 to S4 of FIG. 3A, the rotation angles around the Y-axis, the X-axis, and the Z-axis are calculated, and the direction information of the detection target to be output to the image synthesis unit or the like is specified thereby. When only the rotation angle around the two axes is obtained as shown in FIG.
The flow shown in (B) is adopted.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for obtaining a rotation angle around each axis. First, from the first detection unit 10 to the first
Direction (angle) information θ1 and second direction (angle) information θ2 are input from the second detection unit 30 (steps G1 and G).
2).

Next, it is judged whether or not the ultrasonic wave is outside the detection range of the receiving section and whether or not the ultrasonic wave is blocked by an obstacle, and thereafter, the angular velocity detected by the first detecting section 10 is detected. Based on this, the weighting coefficient h is determined (steps G3 to G).
5).

Next, θ is calculated by the following equation, θ = h × θ2 + (1-h) × θ1 (1) (where 0 ≦ h ≦ 1), and the direction information of the detection target is determined (step G7). , G8).

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an example of a method of setting the weighting coefficient h. In FIG. 5, the weighting factor h approaches 1 in the region where the angular velocity is small. On the other hand, in a region where the angular velocity is large, the weighting coefficient h approaches 0, and (1
-H) approaches 1. Therefore, as is clear from the above equation (1), a large weight is given to the second direction information θ2 input from the second detection unit 30 in a region where the angular velocity is small,
In a region where the angular velocity is large, the first direction information θ1 input from the first detector 10 is heavily weighted.

Simulator device (three-dimensional game device, etc.)
Requires real-time processing. Therefore, for example, when the player moves his / her head during the game, it is necessary to immediately change the view image displayed on the HMD in response to this movement. Therefore, it is necessary to make the response as high as possible in the detection of the direction information and the like.
However, the method of obtaining direction information using ultrasonic waves, infrared rays, and electromagnetic waves is slightly inferior in terms of this responsiveness. On the other hand, the method of using the angular velocity detection unit such as the piezoelectric vibration gyro is excellent in this responsiveness. Therefore, in this embodiment, the first direction information θ1 from the first detector 10 is weighted in a region where the angular velocity is large, that is, in a region where the player's head changes greatly. This makes it possible to detect a highly responsive motion that quickly follows the movement of the player's head.

On the other hand, the method using the piezoelectric vibrating gyro has a problem that it is easily affected by noise, temperature and the like. That is, in this method, when an error such as a noise component or a temperature drift component is added to the detected angular velocity, this error is accumulated by integration processing or the like. Therefore, a large deviation occurs in the obtained direction information. As a result, for example, the visual field image moves even when the player does not move his / her head, and the quality of the obtained image is reduced by half. On the other hand, methods that use waves such as ultrasonic waves, infrared rays, and electromagnetic waves are
It is excellent in that it is less susceptible to changes such as temperature. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the second direction information θ2 from the second detector 30 is weighted in the region where the angular velocity is small, that is, in the region where the player's head does not change much. This prevents a situation in which the visual field image moves even when the player's head is stopped, and it is possible to detect the motion with higher accuracy.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the first and second
By complementing the direction information obtained by the detection units 10 and 30 with each other, it is possible to perform a highly responsive and highly accurate motion detection that cannot be obtained only by each detection unit.

In this embodiment, the weighting coefficient is determined based on the angular velocity obtained by the first detector 10 as shown in step G5 of FIG. The first reason for this is that the angular velocity is almost equivalent to the operation velocity of the detection target, and in the present embodiment, this angular velocity can be directly obtained by the piezoelectric vibration gyro. That is, by using this angular velocity, it is not necessary to obtain information for obtaining the weighting coefficient by calculation processing or the like. Secondly, this angular velocity can be stably obtained even when an obstacle is present. That is, for example, if the weighting coefficient is determined based on the information from the second detection unit 30, it becomes impossible to determine the weighting coefficient when there is an obstacle. Therefore, a situation may occur in which the direction information is indefinite.

However, in the present invention, it is not always necessary to determine the weighting coefficient based on this angular velocity, and the second
It is also possible to determine the weighting coefficient based on the information from the detection unit 30.

Various weighting coefficient setting methods can be adopted. For example, the relationship of the weighting coefficient is not limited to that shown in FIG. Further, unlike the linear equation of the above equation (1), the direction information θ may be obtained by a high-order equation.
It is also possible to provide a look-up table composed of a ROM or the like and obtain the direction information θ from the look-up using the angular velocity or the like as reference information.

In the present embodiment, step G3 in FIG.
As shown in G4 and G6, weighting is performed when the receiving unit is located outside the reach of the ultrasonic wave from the transmitting unit or when the ultrasonic wave from the transmitting unit is blocked by an obstacle and does not reach the receiving unit. The coefficient h is set to h = 0. That is, the second direction information θ2
Is ignored and the first direction information θ1 is used as the direction information of the detection target. Ultrasonic waves, infrared rays, etc. have directivity, and the detection range is limited. Therefore, for example, when the player moves out of the detection range, the second detection unit 30 cannot detect the second direction information θ2. In addition, even when the player faces down, the second detection unit 30 cannot detect it. Further, even when the player himself or his friend's hand covers the receiver or the like, ultrasonic waves cannot be received. On the other hand, the first direction information θ1 from the first detection unit 10 is obtained without using such a directional wave. Therefore, in the present embodiment, when the above situation occurs, the first direction information θ
1 is used as the direction information of the detection target, which enables stable acquisition of direction information.

When the ultrasonic waves or infrared rays are blocked by an obstacle, the second detection unit 30 cannot count and the output of the second detection unit 30 indicates an abnormal state (for example, the second state). No output comes from the detection unit 30). Therefore, by detecting this abnormal state, the determinations in steps G3 and G4 in FIG. 4 can be easily made.

3. The first detection unit The method using an angular velocity detection unit such as a piezoelectric vibration gyro is
Compared to the method using a magnetic field, the device can be downsized and the response speed is faster. Therefore, it is most suitable for a simulator device that requires real-time processing. Ultrasonic waves,
The method using infrared rays cannot detect an obstacle or the like, but the method using angular velocity detection does not cause such a problem.

Next, the principle of the piezoelectric vibration gyro will be described with reference to FIG. In the piezoelectric vibrating gyro, the metal column 80 is first vibrated in the V direction by the piezoelectric element (piezo element) 82. In this state, for example, when the metal column 80 rotates about the R axis at an angular velocity ω, Fc is caused by Coriolis force.
Since vibration is generated in the direction, this vibration is detected by the piezoelectric element 84 for detection. At this time, the output voltage of the piezoelectric element 84 is proportional to the angular velocity ω. Therefore, the angular velocity ω can be obtained by detecting this output voltage.

Various structures and types of the piezoelectric vibration gyro adopted in the present invention can be considered. For example, as shown in FIG. 6B, if the metal column 80 is a regular triangular column, problems such as mismatch of resonance characteristics and deviation can be solved. Further, as shown in FIG. 6C, it is also possible to use a columnar metal column 80. It is also possible to employ a piezoelectric vibration gyro of a so-called tuning fork type.

FIG. 7A is a diagram showing the relationship between the output voltage of the piezoelectric vibrating gyro and the angular velocity. However, the output voltage in FIG. 7A represents the change with the output at rest as a reference. As shown in FIG. 7A, the output voltage of the piezoelectric vibrating gyro is proportional to the angular velocity. Therefore, digital information of the angular velocity can be obtained by A / D converting this output voltage.

On the other hand, FIG. 7B is a diagram showing the temperature drift of the output at rest. As shown in FIG. 7B, the output of the piezoelectric vibrating gyro changes with the change of the ambient temperature. The influence of this temperature drift can be removed to some extent by performing DC cut by the filter unit 18, but the influence remains to a considerable extent. There is also a problem that the sensitivity of the piezoelectric vibration gyro is affected by the ambient temperature.

The influence of the characteristic change due to the ambient temperature or noise is further increased when the angular velocity is integrated. For example, although the player does not move his / her head, a problem such as a change in the line-of-sight direction of the visual field image due to a change in ambient temperature or the like occurs, which gives the player an unpleasant feeling. In view of this, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, in the range in which the angular velocity is small and the player's head is almost stationary, h = 1 ((h
-1) = 0). Therefore, in this range, the second
Since the second direction information from the detection unit 30 is adopted, the deterioration of the image quality when stationary is prevented. On the other hand, in the range where the angular velocity is large, the movement of the player's head is originally fast, so even if the ambient temperature changes and the angular velocity fluctuates, the player rarely notices the fluctuation. Therefore, FIG.
Even if the first direction information is adopted in a range where the angular velocity is large as shown in, the above problem does not occur.

4. Second Detection Unit First, the principle of a method of obtaining motion information (position and direction information) of a detection target using ultrasonic waves or the like will be described. FIG.
As shown in (A), when the delay time until the ultrasonic pulse transmitted from the transmitter 90 is received by the receiver 92 is t and the speed of sound is v, the distance from the transmitter 90 to the receiver 92. l can be expressed as l = vt (2). Therefore, the distance 1 can be obtained by measuring the time t. In this embodiment, this t is measured by the counter 49 shown in FIG.

If three receivers whose positions are specified in the three-dimensional space (receivers whose absolute positions are known in advance) are prepared for one transmitter, the number of transmitters will be three.
The position information in the dimensional space can be obtained. For example, in FIG. 8B, assuming that the delay time until the ultrasonic pulse is received is t ₁ , t ₂ , t ₃ and the position vectors of the receivers 94 to 98 are P ₁ , P ₂ , P ₃ , the transmission is performed. The position vector P of the container 100 can be obtained by solving three simultaneous equations | P ₁ -P | = vt ₁ | P ₂ -P | = vt ₂ | P ₃ -P | = vt ₃ (3) it can. On the contrary, if three transmitters whose positions are specified are prepared for one receiver, the position information of the receiver can be obtained this time.

By preparing a plurality of transmitters for the three receivers whose positions are specified, not only the position information of the detection target but also the direction information can be obtained. For example, in FIG. 9A, position information of the two transmitters 102 and 104 and two axes perpendicular to the z-axis which is an axis connecting the transmitters,
That is, the direction information (rotation angle) about the x-axis and the y-axis can be obtained. For example, a point E (x, y, z) is rotationally moved around the x axis by θ _x , then is rotationally moved around the y axis by θ _{y, and is} moved to a point E ′ (x ′, y ′, z ′). In the case, the following equation (4) is established. (X ′, y ′, z ′) = (x, y, z) × R _x (θ _x ) × R _y (θ _y ) (4)

[0053]

[Equation 1]

[0054]

[Equation 2]

Therefore, by substituting the value obtained by subtracting the parallel movement amount from the position information of the two transmitters 102 and 104 into the equation (4), θ _x and θ _y can be obtained.

If the number of transmitters is increased by one and three transmitters and three receivers are prepared, position information and all direction information (rotation angles of three axes) can be obtained. For example, in FIG. 9B, the point F (x, y, z) is the y-axis, the x-axis,
If it rotates in the z-axis order and moves to the point F '(x', y ', z'), the following equation (7) holds. (X ′, y ′, z ′) = (x, y, z) × R _x (θ _x ) × R _y (θ _y ) × R _z (θ _z ) (7)

[0057]

(Equation 3)

Therefore, by substituting the value obtained by subtracting the parallel movement amount from the positional information of the three transmitters 106 to 110 into the equation (7), θ _x , θ _y and θ _z can be obtained.

On the contrary, even if a plurality of receivers are prepared for the three transmitters whose positions are specified, the position information and the direction information of the receivers can be obtained in the same manner as described above. .

Next, referring to FIGS. 10 (A), 10 (B) and 11, there are three transmitters whose positions are specified, and three receivers whose positions are not specified follow the detection target. The operation of the present embodiment when there are two will be described. FIG. 10 (A),
(B) and FIG. 11 are a block diagram, a timing chart, and a flow chart for explaining the operation in this case. T1 to T10 shown in FIG. 10B correspond to T1 to T10 shown in FIG. 11, respectively.

First, the second direction / position information calculation unit 50 (CP
(A part of U) outputs a start signal to the transmission control unit 38 and the reception control unit 48 (step H1). Transmission control unit 38
When the start signal is input, transmits an ultrasonic pulse from transmission ch1 (steps H4 and H5). On the other hand, the reception control unit 48 resets the counter 49 and starts counting when the start signal is input (steps H10 and H1).
1). When the ultrasonic wave from the transmission ch1 is received, the count value at that time is recorded in the memory such as the RAM (step H12). In this case, reception and recording are performed on reception ch1.
~ Ch3 is done separately.

The second direction / position information calculator 50 outputs a request for transmission of ch2 after a predetermined time has passed (step H2). When the transmission request is input, the transmission control unit 38 transmits an ultrasonic pulse from the transmission ch2 (step H
6, H7). On the other hand, when the reception controller 48 receives the ultrasonic wave from the transmission channel 2, it records the count value (step H13). In this case, reception and recording are performed on reception ch1.
~ Is performed separately for all of ch3.

The transmission / reception of ch3 is performed in the same manner as above (steps H3, H8, H9, H14).

When the reception of all the channels is completed, the second direction / positional information calculation section 50 determines the reception channels 1 to 3 based on the position information of the transmission channels 1 to 3 and the count values of the reception channels 1 to 3. The position information for each is calculated (steps H15 to H18). The calculation in this case is performed based on the above equation (3). Further, the second direction / positional information calculation unit 50 calculates the directional information of the detection target from the positional information of the reception channels 1 to 3 based on the above equation (7) (step H19), and ends the process.

When there are three transmitters that follow the detection target and there are three receivers whose positions are specified (when the transmitter and the receiver are the reverse of the above), the operation is the same as above. The block diagram, the timing chart, and the flowchart are almost the same as those in FIGS. 10A, 10B, and 11.

FIGS. 12A, 12B and 13 are block diagrams, timing charts in the case where there are three transmitters whose positions are specified and two receivers follow the detection target. A flow chart is shown. FIG. 10 (A),
The difference between (B) and FIGS. 12A and 12B is that FIG.
In (A) and (B), the number of reception control units 48 is 2 instead of 3.
The point is that it controls two receiving channels. Also in FIG.
The difference between FIG. 13 and FIG. 13 is that in FIG.
Instead, only the positions of the receiving channels 1 and 2 are calculated (steps I16 and I17), and the direction information is calculated based on the above equation (4) instead of the above equation (7) (step I19). ).

14 (A), (B) and FIG. 15, there are two transmitters that follow the detection target and three receivers whose positions are specified. A flow chart is shown. FIG. 10 (A),
The difference between FIG. 14B and FIGS. 14A and 14B is that FIG.
In (A) and (B), there are two transmission control units 38 instead of three.
That is, it controls two transmission channels. Also in FIG.
The difference between FIG. 15 and FIG.
Instead, the positions of the transmission channels 1 and 2 are calculated (steps J16 and J17), and the direction information is calculated based on the above equation (4) instead of the above equation (7) (step J19). .

5. Optimal Arrangement of Transmitter and Receiver Next, the optimum arrangement of the transmitter and receiver will be described.

In this embodiment, in FIG. 2A, receivers (or transmitters) 42, 44, and 46 are arranged near the front, left, and right of the player's head, respectively. .
The axis connecting the receivers 44 and 46, the receivers 44 and 46
The piezoelectric vibrating gyros 12, 14, 16 are arranged so that the angular velocity about the axis connecting the midpoint and the receiver 42 and the axis orthogonal to these two axes can be directly measured. By arranging in this way, as described below, the amount of calculation processing required for motion detection can be reduced and the calculation speed can be increased.

For example, as shown in FIG. 16, the position information (position coordinates) of the transmitter (or receiver) whose position is specified is set to P.
1 (X1, Y1, Z1), P2 (X2, Y2, Z2),
P3 (X3, Y3, Z3) and position information of the receiver (or transmitter) that follows the detection target is Q1 (x1, y1, z).
1), Q2 (x2, y2, z2), Q3 (x3, y3,
z3) and the measured distances are l1, l2, l3, m
1, m2, m3, n1, n2, n3. Then, the following expressions (9), (10), and (11) are established. (X1-X1) ² + (y1-Y1) ² + (z1-Z1) ² = l1 ² (x1-X2) ² + (y1-Y2) ² + (z1-Z2) ² = l2 ² (x1-X3 ) ² + (y1-Y3) ² + (z1-Z3) ² = l3 ² (9) (x2-X1) ² + (y2-Y1) ² + (z2-Z1) ² = m1 ² (x2-X2) ² + (y2-Y2) ² + (z2-Z2) ² = m2 ² (x2-X3) ² + (y2-Y3) ² + (z2-Z3) ² = m3 ² (10) (x3-X1) ² + (Y3-Y1) ² + (z3-Z1) ² = n1 ² (x3-X2) ² + (y3-Y2) ² + (z3-Z2) ² = n2 ² (x3-X3) ² + (y3- Y3) ² + (z3-Z3) ² = n3 ² (11) From these equations, Q1 (x1, y1, z1), Q2 (x
2, y2, z2) and Q3 (x3, y3, z3) position information can be obtained. The position information of Q4 (x4, y4, z4), which is the midpoint between Q1 and Q2, can be obtained from the following equation. x4 = (x1 + x2) / 2 y4 = (y1 + y2) / 2 z4 = (z1 + z2) / 2 (12) On the other hand, the direction information is obtained as follows. That is, the reference position information before rotation is 01 (Ox1, Oy1, Oz1), O2.
(Ox2, Oy2, Oz2), O3 (Ox3, Oy3,
Oz3) and O4 (Ox4, Oy4, Oz4), and the position information after rotation is Q1 (x1, y1, z1), Q2 (x
2, y2, z2), Q3 (x3, y3, z3), Q4
(X4, y4, z4). Then, (x3, y3, z3) = (Ox3, Oy3, Oz3) × R x (θ x) × R y (θ y) (13) (x4, y4, z4) = (Ox4, Oy4, Oz4) × R _x (θ _x ) × R _y (θ _y ) (14) holds, and θ _x and θ _y can be obtained from these equations. Further, (x1, y1, z1) = (Ox1, Oy1, Oz1) × R y (θ y) × R z (θ z) (15) (x2, y2, z2) = (Ox2, Oy2, Oz2) × R _y (θ _y ) × R _z (θ _z ) (16) holds, and θ _z can be obtained from these equations. R _x (θ _x ), R _y (θ _y ), and R _z (θ _z ) are the rotation matrices shown in the above equations (5), (6), and (8).

In the above equation, Q3 and Q4 (O3 and O
The axis connecting 4) is the Z axis, the axis connecting Q1 and Q2 (O1 and O2) is the X axis, and the axes orthogonal to these Z and X axes are the Y axes. As a result, the arithmetic processing can be simplified as shown in the above equations (13) to (16), and the arithmetic processing can be speeded up. By arranging the piezoelectric vibrating gyro so that the angles around these axes can be directly measured, the calculation processing can be further speeded up.

Next, in order to explain the superiority of the calculation method of this embodiment, a method of calculating the inclination on the surface will be described.
According to this method, θ _x , θ _y , θ _z can be set without arranging the receiver (or transmitter) at the front, left, right, etc. of the head.
Etc. can be obtained, but the arithmetic processing becomes complicated as compared with the present embodiment.

The calculation of the position information by this method is performed by the above equation (9).
(1) to (11). However, the calculation processing of the above equation (12) is not necessary.

On the other hand, the direction information is obtained as follows. That is, the reference position information before rotation is 01 (Ox1, Oy1, Oz
1), O2 (Ox2, Oy2, Oz2), O3 (Ox
3, Oy3, Oz3), and the position information after rotation is Q1.
(X1, y1, z1), Q2 (x2, y2, z2), Q
3 (x3, y3, z3). Then, (x1, y1, z1) = (Ox1, Oy1, Oz1) × R _x (θ _x ) × R _y (θ _y ) × R _z (θ _z ) (17) (x2, y2, z2) = ( Ox2, Oy2, Oz2) × R _x (θ _x ) × R _y (θ _y ) × R _z (θ _z ) (18) (x3, y3, z3) = (Ox3, Oy3, Oz3) × R _x (θ _x ) × R _y (θ _y ) × R _z (θ _z ) (19), and θ _x , θ _y , and θ _z may be obtained from these expressions. Expressions (13) to (16) and Expressions (17) to (1)
As is clear by comparing 9), the above equations (17) to (1)
In 9), since the terms of the third power of cos θ and sin θ appear, the arithmetic processing becomes very complicated and time-consuming.

According to the method of obtaining the inclination on the surface, an arbitrary 3
The rotation angle about the axis can be obtained. However,
In many games, the player's head, the axis of rotation of the weapon, etc. are predetermined. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the receiver (or transmitter) is arranged so that Q1, Q2, and Q3 in FIG. 16 are located near the left side, the right side, and the front side of the head. In advance (determined as an axis connecting Q3 and Q4, an axis connecting Q1 and Q2, and an axis orthogonal to these axes). By doing so, the arithmetic processing can be simplified as shown in the above equations (17) to (19), and the processing speed can be increased.

Next, the case of FIG. 2B will be described.
In this embodiment, in FIG. 2B, receivers (or transmitters) 42 and 44 are arranged near the front and rear of the player's head, respectively. The piezoelectric vibrating gyro 1 is provided so that the angular velocities around two axes that are in the plane orthogonal to the axis connecting the receivers 42 and 44 and are orthogonal to each other can be directly measured.
2 and 14 are arranged. At this time, as is clear from FIG. 17, the following equation holds. (X1-X1) ² + (y1-Y1) ² + (z1-Z1) ² = l1 ² (x1-X2) ² + (y1-Y2) ² + (z1-Z2) ² = l2 ² (x1-X3 ) ² + (y1-Y3) ² + (z1-Z3) ² = l3 ² (20) (x2-X1) ² + (y2-Y1) ² + (z2-Z1) ² = m1 ² (x2-X2) ² + (y2-Y2) ² + (z2-Z2) ² = m2 ² (x2-X3) ² + (y2-Y3) ² + (z2-Z3) ² = m3 ² (21) From these equations, Q1 ( x1, y1, z1), Q2 (x
The position information of (2, y2, z2) can be obtained.

On the other hand, regarding the direction information, (x1, y1, z1) = (Ox1, Oy1, Oz1) × R _x (θ _x ) × R _y (θ _y ) (22) (x2, y2, z2) = (Ox2, Oy2, Oz2) × R _x (θ _x ) × R _y (θ _y ) (23) holds, and θ _x and θ _y can be obtained from these equations.

Expressions (9) to (16) and Expressions (20) to (2)
As is clear from comparison of 3), the arithmetic processing can be further simplified by arranging as shown in FIG. In games and the like, it is often necessary to detect only the vertical and horizontal rotations of the player's head or the like. Therefore, in this case, the method of FIG. 2B, which can further simplify the arithmetic processing, is optimal.

6. The number of transmitters and receivers In the above embodiments, the case where there are three transmitters and three or two receivers has been described, but the number of transmitters and receivers may be two or less, or It is also possible to use at least one of the transmitter and the receiver. By reducing the number of transmitters and receivers, the device can be downsized and the player can feel more comfortable to wear.

For example, if there are two transmitters whose position is specified,
Consider a case where there is one receiver that follows the detection target. In this case, in FIG. 18, the position (vector) of the transmitter is P1, P2, the position (vector) of the receiver is P,
If the distances between the transmitter and the receiver are l1 and l2, | P1-P | = l1 | P2-P | = 12 (24) holds, and the position of the receiver can be obtained by solving this. As is clear from the above equation (24), the position P of the receiver is on the trajectory 130 shown in FIG. 18 (on the trajectory of distances l1 and l2 from P1 and P2), but at any position on the trajectory It is not possible to determine if there is. Therefore, some binding condition is required to specify this.

For example, when detecting the motion of the player's head, the player's body may be fixed and only the head may move. The head moves around the base of the player's neck. Therefore, for example, if the receiver is attached to the player's forehead, the receiver is attached to the base of the neck 132 as shown in FIG.
Will be located somewhere on the sphere 134 centered at. By imposing such a constraint condition, the position of the receiver can be specified. That is, in this case, the position of the receiver is the orbit 1
It is specified at the position of the intersection of 30 and the sphere 134. There are a maximum of two points of intersection, but since the neck does not normally rotate 90 degrees or more vertically and horizontally, no problem occurs.

By thus specifying the position on the ball 134, it is possible to obtain the direction information (rotation angle) of the player's head on the two axes. In this case, since there is only one receiver and there are two receivers, the directional information is measured only on two axes.

On the other hand, if the constraint condition that the receiver moves only on the plane 136 is imposed as shown in FIG. 20, the position information on the plane 136 can be specified as shown at 137 in FIG. 20, for example. In this case, the position of the receiver is the trajectory 130
And the plane 136. Such a method of using a plane as a constraint condition can be used for detecting the position of a detection target that moves on a plane with a constant height, such as the head of a player walking on the plane.

The above-described operation detection is the same when the number of receivers whose positions are specified is two and the number of transmitters following the detection target is one.

Next, the number of transmitters whose positions are specified is 2
Consider a case where there are two receivers that follow the detection target. In this case, as shown in FIG. 21, if the distance between the receivers is constant, if the position of one receiver is specified, the position of the other receiver can also be specified. As mentioned above, 2 transmitters
The position of the receiver is the sphere 1
Considering the case constrained on 34, the position of the receiver is
The position of the intersection of the trajectories 130, 138 and the sphere 134 is specified.

By specifying the position of one receiver, 2
Direction information on the axis can be obtained. In this case, the positions of not only one of the receivers but also the other receiver are specified, so that the direction information on the three axes can be finally obtained.

On the other hand, if the constraint condition that one receiver moves only on the plane 136 is imposed as shown in FIG. 22, for example, as shown at 139 in FIG. 22, the position information on the plane 136 and Direction information about two axes can be obtained. Thus, for example, when measuring the head or the like of a player walking on a plane, one receiver located on the plane is attached to the base of the player's neck, and the other receiver is attached to the player's forehead. It is possible to obtain position and head direction information in two axes.

The above-described operation detection is the same when the number of receivers whose positions are specified is two and the number of transmitters following the detection target is two.

(Embodiment 2) Embodiment 2 is an embodiment relating to a simulator device including the motion detecting device described in Embodiment 1, and FIG. 23A shows an example of its block diagram.

In FIG. 23A, the operation unit 300 is
It includes, for example, an operation lever, a handle, an operation button, a weapon, a game controller, etc. operated by a player (viewer), and operation information input from the operation unit 300 is input to the processing unit 200. The storage unit 302 includes the processing unit 200.
Stores a given operation program (game program or the like) for operating the display model, image information of a display model, model information including shape information, etc., and serves as a work area of the processing unit 200, such as ROM, RAM, Storage medium (CD
ROM, floppy disk, etc.

The processing unit 200 controls the entire apparatus, and also performs various simulation processes based on the operation information from the operation unit 300 and the operation program stored in the storage unit 302. Taking a competitive game of running objects as an example, a simulation process such as running a running object (airplane, racing car, etc.) in a given virtual three-dimensional space in accordance with an operation of a player's operation lever, steering wheel, or the like. I do. Also, taking an RPG game as an example, a simulation process such as causing a player to walk in a given virtual three-dimensional space in response to a player's operation of a walking button or the like and changing the scene by an attack with a weapon or the like is performed. To do.
The processing unit 200 includes an image synthesizing unit 202. The image synthesizing unit 202 synthesizes a visual field image based on the position and direction information of the detection target, such as the player's head, and outputs it to the display unit 304. To do. The position and direction information at this time is input from the motion detector 310 (corresponding to the motion detector of the first embodiment). For example, in a competition game with running bodies, only the motion of the player's head is detected by the motion detection unit 310, and the position and direction information of the running body is obtained by simulation processing based on the operation information of the player and the like. On the other hand, in the RPG game, the motion detection unit 310 may detect not only the motion of the player's head but also the position and direction information of the walking player.

Note that the object to be detected by the motion detecting section 310 can be various things other than the player's head, for example, the player's weapon, the player's limbs, and the like.

Further, the first direction information calculation unit 24 and the second direction information calculation unit 24 in FIG.
The calculation processing performed by the direction / position information calculation unit 50, the motion information calculation unit 60, and the like can be performed by the processing unit 200 and the storage unit 302 in FIG. 23. That is, in this case, a part of the motion detection unit 310 is included in the processing unit 200 and the like.

FIG. 23B shows a head mounted HMD.
An example of (head mounted display) is shown. This H
The MD is worn by the player so as to cover the player's visual field. The display 320 is a display unit 304
It is composed of a liquid crystal display and a small cathode ray tube. The display 320 allows the player to see the visual field image. Player side sensor 322
Is a part of the motion detection unit 310, and for example, the reception units 72 and 74 configured as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B.
Is built in. Of course, it is possible to incorporate the transmitting unit instead of the receiving unit, or to incorporate both the receiving unit and the transmitting unit. The speaker 324 conveys game sounds and the like to the player. The code 326 transmits the visual field image information from the processing unit 200 to the display 320, or the detection information from the player side sensor 322 to the processing unit 2.
It is used to tell 00 etc.

The present invention is not limited to the first and second embodiments described above, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

For example, the configuration of the first detection section is not limited to the above embodiment. Instead of the piezoelectric vibration gyro, another method, for example, an optical fiber gyro, a gyro using a small coma, or an element other than the gyro may be used to detect the angular velocity. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which some or all of the filter section, the amplifier section, and the A / D conversion section are not provided. Further, various methods can be adopted as the method for obtaining the direction information from the detected angular velocity.

Further, the configuration of the second detector is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, instead of ultrasonic waves, other waves such as infrared rays may be used to measure the distance and obtain the motion information (direction and position information). In this case, infrared rays have directivity like ultrasonic waves and have a property that distance measurement cannot be performed if they are blocked by an obstacle. Therefore, the processing shown in steps G3, G4, and G6 in FIG. 4 is effective as in the case of ultrasonic waves.

Further, the detection of the motion information by the second detector is
You may make it utilize a magnetic field. In this case, as shown in FIG. 24, a source coil 120 having coils wound in three XYZ directions and a sensor coil 122 capable of detecting the XYZ components of the magnetic field are prepared. Then, for example, the source coil 120 is provided at a given position in the three-dimensional space, and currents are passed through the three coils of the source coil 120 to sequentially generate the XYZ direction components of the magnetic field. Further, for example, the sensor coil 122 is provided at a position that follows the operation of the detection target,
The current flowing through the three coils of the sensor coil 122 when the magnetic field is generated is detected. The operation information of the detection target can be obtained from this detection current. In this way, the second detection unit of the present invention generates at least a given wave from either a given position in the three-dimensional space or a position following the movement of the detection target, so that at least the directional information of the detection target is obtained. It is sufficient if the configuration is such that

However, when considering the combination with the first detection unit, it is preferable to use a directional wave such as an ultrasonic wave rather than using a magnetic field. The first reason is that the magnetic field generated by the source coil may cause an erroneous detection of the first detection unit. For example, when a piezoelectric vibrating gyro is used for the first detection unit, if the output voltage of the piezoelectric vibrating gyro contains noise due to the magnetic field, it may cause erroneous detection. Since the first detection unit obtains the directional information by integrating the angular velocity or the like, its influence is great. Secondly, for example, when the detection target is out of the detection range or there is an obstacle such as a metal, the method using ultrasonic waves or the like can easily switch to the first detection unit. That is, in the case of the method using the magnetic field, in the above case, the output of the second detection unit does not largely change, so that it is difficult to detect the abnormality. On the other hand, when a directional wave such as an ultrasonic wave is used, the output of the second detector changes greatly, and the processing shown in steps G3, G4, and G6 in FIG. 4 can be easily performed. Thirdly, the method using a magnetic field is inferior in responsiveness and downsizing of the device, and is not suitable for a simulation device such as a game device. Fourthly, the method using a magnetic field has a problem that the detection range is narrow, an attempt to increase the detection range is expensive, and the magnetic field is disturbed by a cathode ray tube or the like included in the display unit, so that erroneous detection is likely to occur. .

Further, in the above embodiment, the direction information and the position information are obtained by the second detector, but only the direction information may be obtained. For example, when the position of the player's head is fixed to a certain extent in a racing car game or the like, or when a weapon attached to the turret is a detection target, it is sufficient to detect only the direction information in the motion information. .

On the other hand, if the second detector is constructed so as to detect position information, the following effects will be produced. That is, the method of obtaining the direction information using the angular velocity is superior in various aspects to the method of using the ultrasonic wave, the magnetic field, etc., as described above, and is particularly suitable for the simulation device that performs the real-time processing. However, in general, only the direction information can be obtained by the method using the angular velocity. Therefore, when the position of the detection target also changes in real time and the position information is required as the motion information, by combining the first detection unit and the second detection unit capable of detecting the position information, Can meet various demands.

The arrangement of the transmitter, receiver, piezoelectric vibrating gyro, etc. is not limited to that shown in FIGS. 2 (A) and 2 (B). For example, both the transmitter and the receiver may be provided on the detection target side or at a given position in the three-dimensional space.

The present invention also provides an arcade game machine, a home-use game machine, a large attraction type game machine in which a plurality of players participate, a multimedia terminal device having a function of playing a game with another player using a communication line, a flight. It can be applied to various simulation devices such as simulators and drive simulators. Further, the present invention can be applied to a simulation device in which a weapon, a limb or the like is detected and a HMD is not used. Further, the present invention can be applied to a simulation device, a three-dimensional mouse, which is a three-dimensional pointing device in a three-dimensional CAD, and the like.

[0104]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams showing an arrangement example of a piezoelectric vibrating gyro and an ultrasonic transmitter / receiver.

FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B are flowcharts for explaining the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a weighting coefficient.

6A to 6C are diagrams for explaining the principle of the piezoelectric vibration gyro.

7A and 7B are diagrams showing characteristics of a piezoelectric vibrating gyro.

8A and 8B are diagrams for explaining the principle of a method of obtaining motion information using ultrasonic waves or the like.

9A and 9B are diagrams for explaining the principle of a method for obtaining motion information using ultrasonic waves or the like.

10A and 10B are a block diagram and a timing chart for explaining the operation of the second detection unit.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the second detection unit.

12A and 12B are a block diagram and a timing chart for explaining the operation of the second detection unit.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the second detection unit.

14A and 14B are a block diagram and a timing chart for explaining the operation of the second detection unit.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the second detection unit.

FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining optimal arrangement of transmitters and receivers.

FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining an optimal arrangement of transmitters and receivers.

FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining a trajectory where a receiver is located when there are two transmitters and one receiver.

FIG. 19 is a diagram for describing specification of direction information when there are two transmitters and one receiver.

FIG. 20 is a diagram for describing specification of position information when there are two transmitters and one receiver.

FIG. 21 is a diagram for explaining specification of direction information when there are two transmitters and two receivers.

[Fig. 22] Fig. 22 is a diagram for describing specification of position information when there are two transmitters and two receivers.

23A is a block diagram illustrating an example of a second embodiment, and FIG. 23B is a diagram illustrating an example of an HMD.

FIG. 24 is a diagram for explaining a method of obtaining motion information using a magnetic field.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 1st detection part 12-16 Piezoelectric vibration gyro 18 Filter part 20 Amplifier part 22 A / D conversion part 24 1st direction information calculation part 30 2nd detection part 32-36 Ultrasonic wave transmission part 38 Transmission control part 42-46 super Sound wave oscillator 48 Reception controller 49 Counter 50 Second direction / positional information calculator 60 Motion information calculator 70 Transmitter 72, 74 Receiver 200 Processor 202 Image synthesizer 300 Operation 302 Storage 304 Display 310 310 Motion detection Department

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display location // G01C 19/00 9365-5H G06F 15/72 455

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A motion detection device for detecting at least directional information of a detection target operating in a three-dimensional space, the angular velocity of one or more axes of the detection target being detected, and the detected angular velocity. Based on the first direction information of the detection target, and outputs the first direction information as the first direction information; Second detection means for obtaining at least direction information of a detection target by generating a given wave and outputting this as second direction information, first direction information obtained by the first detection means, and the second
A motion detecting device comprising: motion information calculating means for performing correction calculation processing based on the second direction information obtained by the detecting means to obtain direction information of a detection target. 2. The motion information calculation means according to claim 1, wherein a weighting coefficient for the first and second direction information is set, and detection is performed based on the first and second direction information and the weighting coefficient. A motion detecting apparatus characterized by obtaining direction information of an object. 3. The motion detecting device according to claim 2, wherein the motion information calculating unit sets the weighting coefficient based on the angular velocity detected by the first detecting unit. 4. The three-dimensional structure according to claim 1, wherein the second detecting means uses a transmitter that transmits a wave having directivity and a receiver that receives the transmitted wave. Find the distance between a given position in space and the position that follows the motion of the object to be detected,
A motion detecting apparatus, wherein at least direction information of a detection target is obtained based on the obtained distance. 5. The operation information calculation means according to claim 4, wherein when the receiver is located outside the reach of the wave from the transmitter, the first direction information is set as the detection target direction information. A motion detection device characterized by: 6. The first direction according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the motion information calculation means is configured to, when the wave from the transmitter is blocked by an obstacle and does not reach the receiver. A motion detection device, wherein information is used as direction information of a detection target. 7. The viewer according to claim 4, wherein the detection target is a viewer's head, and the second detection means is near the front, near the left, and near the right of the viewer's head. The first, second and third positions, the distance between a given position in the three-dimensional space and the first, second and third positions is calculated, Of the first axis connecting the second and third positions, the second axis connecting the midpoint of the second and third positions and the first position, and the third axis orthogonal to the first and second axes. A motion detection device characterized by obtaining an angular velocity about an axis. 8. The viewer according to claim 4, wherein the detection target is a viewer's head, and the second detection means sets a position near the front or rear of the viewer's head to a first position. , The second position and the given position in the three-dimensional space and the first,
An angular velocity around an axis of first and second axes that are in a plane orthogonal to the axis connecting the first and second positions and are orthogonal to each other is obtained by obtaining a distance from the second position. A motion detection device characterized by: 9. The at least one detection target according to claim 1, wherein the second detection unit generates a magnetic field with a given source coil and detects the magnetic field with a given sensor coil. A motion detection device characterized by obtaining direction information. 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second detecting unit further obtains position information of the detection target, and the motion information calculating unit sets the obtained position information as position information of the detection target. A motion detection device characterized by: 11. The motion detecting device according to claim 1, wherein the first detecting unit obtains the angular velocity by using a piezoelectric vibration gyro. 12. The motion detection device according to claim 1, a display unit provided so as to cover a visual field of a viewer, and a visual field based on at least direction information of a detection target obtained from the motion detection device. An image synthesizing unit that synthesizes images and outputs the images to the display unit. 13. A motion detection method for detecting at least directional information of a detection target operating in a three-dimensional space, the angular velocity of one or more axes of the detection target being detected, and the detected angular velocity. The first detection step of obtaining direction information of the detection target based on the above, and outputting this as the first direction information; A second detection step of obtaining at least direction information of the detection target by generating a given wave, and outputting this as second direction information; the first direction information obtained in the first detection step and the second detection A motion information calculation step of performing a correction calculation process based on the second direction information obtained in the step to obtain direction information of a detection target. 14. The operation information calculation step according to claim 13, wherein a weighting coefficient is set for the first and second direction information, and detection is performed based on the first and second direction information and the weighting coefficient. A motion detection method characterized by obtaining direction information of a target.