KR102081245B1 - Determining information on portable electronic devices that users carry - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of determining a location of a user's portable device with respect to a user may include determining a mathematical representation of the transformation between the earth reference frame and the device reference frame in the device; Receiving information from a sensor device of a device capable of measuring device movement while the user is walking, and converting the information from the sensor device as an earth reference frame in the device using the above mathematical expression; And performing statistical analysis on at least one component of information from the sensor device obtained in the converting step to identify one or more features corresponding to a specific location of the device. In addition, a method is provided for determining the orientation of a user's body with respect to a reference frame in a device carried by a user, the method comprising: determining a position of a user with respect to the device; And selecting any of a plurality of methods for determining a user's orientation with respect to the reference frame based on the determined location of the device.

Description

Determining information on portable electronic devices that users carry

The present invention relates to information determination of a portable electronic device. The present invention, more specifically, not exclusively, relates to the determination of the position of the device relative to the user, and also to the determination of the user's orientation relative to the reference frame.

Recently, applications and services provided by portable electronic wireless devices or by devices that interact with portable electronic devices carried by users are gaining popularity. It is desirable for some applications and services to know the user's orientation and the location of the portable electronic device relative to the user.

In general, users of portable electronic devices, such as smart phones, carry the devices in various different positions with respect to their body when walking or standing. For example, the mobile phone can be carried in a hand, a trouser pocket, or a handbag. In general, users tend to pay little attention to the orientation of the portable electronic device they are carrying, especially if they are not using and interacting with the device. This is for most portable electronic devices, information about the orientation of the device relative to the user without adding requirements on where the user should carry the device and how the user should carry the device, which may be inconvenient for the user. And means that the location of the device the user has is not available on the device itself, and therefore any system running on the device or any application running on the device cannot be used.

It is known to determine the orientation and orientation of portable electronic devices relative to the Earth, as well as the longitude and latitude of the Earth. However, a portable electronic device can determine the position of the device on the user's body without having to be in a predetermined orientation with respect to the user or the orientation of the device with respect to the user's body without having to be in the user's predetermined location. It would be useful to create a suitable and feasible means of making decisions, and could significantly improve portable electronic device technology, for example in new applications.

It is known to use a combination of an accelerometer and a gyroscope within a mobile phone to estimate the location of the mobile phone in the user's body for different locations on the body when the user is walking. However, in order to provide accurate results, implementing these methods takes a considerable amount of time and requires a lot of computational processing. The gyroscope is also easy to move, and the error may increase when reading the gyroscope over time.

It is also known to estimate the direction (orientation) the user's body is facing by analyzing the history of the longitude and latitude positions of the portable electronic device recorded as the user moves. However, these techniques rely on the presence of an infrastructure external to the device, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), which is limited to use in an environment with proper reception. In addition, frequent positioning using a system such as GPS requires a significant amount of battery power.

The present invention has been completed in this context.

According to the present invention, there is provided a method for determining a position of a device carried by a user with respect to the user, the method determining a mathematical representation of the transformation between the earth reference frame and the device reference frame in the device To do; Receiving information from a sensor device of the device capable of measuring the movement of the device while the user is walking, and converting the information from the sensor device to a frame of earth reference in the device using a mathematical expression; And performing statistical analysis on at least one component of information from the sensor device obtained in the converting step to identify one or more features corresponding to a specific location of the device.

The sensor device may include an accelerometer device, and information from the sensor device may include acceleration information of the device, in which case at least one component may include a horizontal component or a vertical component of the acceleration information. Further, the sensor device may include a magnetometer device, in which case the at least one component may, alternatively or also, comprise a component of magnetic information. In other words, the mathematical representation allows the device to determine at least a vertical component or horizontal component of information of the sensor device.

The step of performing statistical analysis on at least one component may include performing a principal component analysis. In addition, the step of performing statistical analysis on at least one component may determine at least one statistical value of information and compare the statistical value with data stored for different device locations to locate the device for the user. It may include the step of determining.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a method for determining the orientation of a user's body with respect to a reference frame in a device carried by the user, the method comprising: determining a position of the device with respect to the user; And selecting any method from a plurality of methods for determining the user's orientation with respect to the reference plane based on the determined location of the device.

The device may include a sensor device. The sensor device may include at least one accelerometer device capable of detecting and measuring lateral results occurring in the device, which change cyclically according to a user's walking cycle while walking, and measure acceleration in three dimensions. . Further, the reference frame may include a first reference frame, and among the plurality of methods, a method of selecting one or more periods in the user's walking cycle according to the determined location of the device, one in the user's walking cycle The step of selecting the period is one or more periods in which movement of the device is dominant in a predetermined direction with respect to the second reference frame corresponding to the user's reference frame; Measuring the acceleration of the device for one or more periods; And estimating the user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame from the measured acceleration.

In one or more of the plurality of methods, estimating a user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame may include determining that the acceleration direction for the one or more periods is a predetermined direction with respect to the second reference frame. .

In one or more alternative methods of the plurality of methods, estimating a user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame may include performing statistical analysis on acceleration data measured during one or more periods. In this case, the step of performing the statistical analysis performs the principal component analysis on the acceleration data measured for one or more periods, and the direction of one of the main components corresponds to a predetermined direction with respect to the second reference frame And determining.

The reference frame may be an earth reference frame, and the method may further include determining a mathematical representation of the transformation between the earth reference frame and the device reference frame, and the plurality of methods include: And using the measured acceleration information converted into a frame.

The sensor device may include a magnetometer device, and prior to determining the mathematical representation, the method may include receiving information from the accelerometer device and the magnetometer device; Analyze the information received from the accelerometer device to determine that the user is standing, and in response to the determination that the user is standing, determine the first axis of the earth reference frame for the device reference frame, corresponding to the vertical direction, from the received information step; Determining a second axis of the earth reference frame for the device reference frame, corresponding to the north direction, based on the vertical direction determined for the device and information received from the magnetometer device; And determining a third axis of the earth reference frame for the device as orthogonal to the first axis and the second axis, and determining the mathematical representation comprises: a set of three orthogonal axes of the device reference frame and the earth And determining a mathematical representation of the transform between the determined first axis, second axis, and third axis of the reference frame.

In addition, the method may further include determining the orientation of the user's body relative to the device reference frame by using a mathematical representation and converting the determined user's orientation relative to the earth reference frame to the device reference frame.

In addition, according to the present invention, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute one or more of the methods described above.

According to the invention, there is also provided a device for determining the position of the device relative to the user when the user carries the device, the device comprising: a controller; A memory for storing information corresponding to mathematical features of the statistical characteristics relating to different locations of the device and a transformation between the device reference frame and the earth reference frame in the device; And a sensor device capable of measuring the movement of the device, wherein the controller receives information from the sensor device obtained while the user carrying the device is walking, and uses this information to mathematically represent the Earth in the device. Converting to a reference frame, and performing statistical analysis on at least one component of the information of the earth reference frame to identify at least one feature corresponding to at least one of the stored statistical features to identify the location of the device do.

The sensor device may include an accelerometer device, and the sensor information may include acceleration information from an accelerometer device. The at least one component may include a horizontal component or a vertical component of acceleration information. Also, the sensor device may include a magnetometer device.

The controller can be configured to perform principal component analysis on at least one component to identify the at least one feature.

The earth reference frame may include a reference axis corresponding to the vertical direction, and a surface corresponding to the horizontal plane. The controller receives the sensing information from the sensor device obtained while the user carrying the device is standing, analyzes the received sensing information to determine whether the user is standing, and in response to the determination that the user is standing, the user It can be configured to determine the direction of the reference axis of the earth reference frame with respect to the device reference frame from the sensing information obtained while standing. The controller can be configured to determine a mathematical representation by determining a set of three orthogonal axes of the device reference frame and a mathematical representation of the transformation between the reference axis and the reference plane.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a device for determining the orientation of a user carrying the device with respect to a reference plane, the device storing information regarding a plurality of methods for determining the orientation of the user with respect to a specific frame For memory; And a controller configured to receive information regarding the location of the device relative to the user and select any one of a plurality of methods based on the information regarding the location of the device.

The device may further include a sensor device, and the controller may be configured to use the information from the sensor device to determine the timing of the user's gait cycle as part of a number of the plurality of methods.

The sensor device may include an accelerometer device for measuring the acceleration of the device in three dimensions, the reference frame may include a first reference frame, and the controller may walk the user's gait cycle based on information regarding the position of the device. Selecting one or more periods within, wherein the one or more periods are one or more periods in which the movement of the device is one or more periods dominant in a predetermined direction of the second reference frame corresponding to the user's reference frame; Selecting acceleration data obtained by the accelerometer device for one or more periods; And estimating the user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame from the acceleration data, as part of a number of methods of the plurality of methods.

Further, the controller is configured to estimate the user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame, by determining, in at least one of the plurality of methods, that the direction of acceleration for one or more periods corresponds to a predetermined direction of the second reference frame. Can be.

In addition, the controller, in at least one of the plurality of methods, performs principal component analysis on acceleration data measured for one or more periods, and the direction of one of the main components is a predetermined direction with respect to the second reference frame By determining that it corresponds to, it can be configured to estimate the user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame.

The memory may also be configured to store a mathematical representation of the conversion between the third reference frame and the first reference frame corresponding to the device reference frame, and the controller may use the stored mathematical representation to store the measured acceleration information. It may be configured to convert to a first reference frame.

Alternatively, the controller can also be configured to determine the orientation of the user's body relative to the device reference frame by using a mathematical representation to convert the user's determined orientation relative to the first reference frame to the device reference frame.

Now, embodiments of the present invention will be described by way of example with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7 of the accompanying drawings.
1 is an exemplary perspective view of a user having a portable electronic device.
2 is a schematic diagram showing components of a portable electronic device in the form of a mobile communication device.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the process by which a portable electronic device determines the position of the device relative to the user's body.
4 is a diagram illustrating a process in which a portable electronic device selects a method for determining the orientation of a user's body based on the device's position relative to the user's body.
5 is a diagram illustrating a first method of determining the orientation of a user's body of a portable electronic device.
6 is a diagram illustrating a second method of determining the orientation of the user's body of the portable electronic device.

Referring to FIG. 1, a portable electronic device 1 carried by a user 2 located anywhere on the earth is illustrated. Portable electronic devices can be used to determine information about the device and the user.

FIG. 1 includes an earth reference frame comprising three orthogonal axes X, Y, Z, a device reference frame comprising three orthogonal axes x, y, z, and a vertical plane corresponding to the user's anatomical sagittal plane. The user reference plane S is also shown. This reference geometry can be used to determine information about the user 2 and the device 1.

The origin of the earth reference frame axes X, Y, Z is in the portable electronic device 1. The X axis of the Earth reference frame corresponds to the approximate horizontal direction of True North from the portable electronic device. The actual north is the direction of the geographic North Pole from any point on the Earth's surface, and is generally distinct from the North Pole, which is the direction of the Magnetic North Pole from any point on the Earth's surface. In addition, the Y axis of the earth reference frame corresponds to the approximate horizontal direction of the actual east from the position of the portable electronic device. The Z axis of the earth reference frame corresponds to approximately the opposite direction of the direction of the gravity vector in the portable electronic device, that is, the upward direction in the portable electronic device. As a result, the X-Y plane is approximately horizontal to the user 2. Therefore, the Z axis is referred to as the vertical axis and the X-Y plane is referred to as the horizontal plane.

The origin of the device reference frame axes (x, y, z) is also in the portable electronic device 1, and the device reference frame is positioned in a predetermined orientation with respect to the physical structure of the portable electronic device. The portable electronic device 1 itself can be in any given orientation with respect to the user 2 or the earth reference frames X, Y, Z.

The device 1 is shown positioned approximately on the left shoulder of the user's body. However, the portable device may be in as many locations as possible relative to the user's body, for example in one of the user's hands, in one of the user's trouser pockets, on the user's chest or head, or in a handbag or It may be located on equipment carried by a user such as a look color.

The horizontal direction F facing the user's body may be defined as a horizontal vector indicating a direction away from the user's chest in the sagittal plane S. The direction F in which the user's body is facing is actually in the direction to the north (X). A user reference frame comprising three orthogonal axes, where the first axis is the direction (F) the user is facing and the second axis is the vertical earth axis (Z), is relative to the device reference frame (x, y, z) or to the earth reference It can be used to define the user's orientation with respect to the frames (X, Y, Z).

Here, the present invention is described with reference to the reference geometry described with reference to FIG. 1, but it is understood that the concept of the present invention can be implemented with different reference geometries. For example, the earth reference frame may not be aligned with the actual north and east. The earth reference frame can be any reference frame that allows the orientation of the device or user relative to the earth or local environment to be determined. Also, it will be appreciated that the terms “vertical” or “horizontal” should not be construed to mean “vertical” or “horizontal”, respectively, and include faces and axes in a direction that is considered approximately vertical or horizontal. .

Referring to FIG. 2, a schematic diagram of a portable electronic device 1 in the form of a mobile communication device is shown. The mobile communication device may be, for example, in the form of a smartphone. However, the portable electronic device can be any type of portable electronic device suitable for implementing the present invention. The mobile communication device 1 includes a user interface provided by a speaker 3, a microphone 4, a display 5, and a keypad 6. Both the display 5 and the keypad 6 can be provided by a touch screen.

The mobile communication device 1 can communicate through one or more networks, which may include GPRS, GSM, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, WiFi, and networks including communication satellites, but is not limited to these examples. Does not. To this end, the mobile communication device also includes a wireless communication interface 7 and a codec 8. The wireless communication interface may be, for example, an RF interface, but may alternatively be any other suitable type of wireless interface.

The wireless communication interface 7 may include one or more antennas and processing stages for receiving and processing wireless communication signals. The codec 8 translates signals received through the wireless communication interface into a format that can be communicated to the user 2 of the mobile communication device 1 via the speaker 3 and the display 5. Likewise, audio and data signals generated in the mobile communication device can be processed in a form that can be transmitted by the wireless communication interface by the codec 8.

The parts of the mobile communication device 1 are controlled by the controller 9. The controller 9 can be a central processing unit (CPU) or a microcontroller (MCU). The mobile communication device also includes a memory 10 for storing data and instructions. The memory may include a subscriber identity module (SIM) card, and, for example, flash memory. The memory may include stored data and instructions so that the location of the device and / or the direction the user is facing can be determined, as described in more detail below.

In some embodiments, the controller 9 can run an Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry, or Symbian operating system. However, it should be appreciated that the operating systems mentioned are only examples and can use any suitable operating system for the mobile communication device 1.

The mobile communication device 1 may include a sensor device. The sensor device may include a magnetometer 11. In addition, the sensor device may include an accelerometer 12. However, it will be appreciated that the sensor device is not limited to including both a magnetometer and an accelerometer, as described in more detail below. The mobile communication device may further include a positioning function unit 13 for estimating the longitude and latitude of the position of the mobile communication device on the surface of the earth.

The magnetometer 11 may be a vector magnetometer that measures the local magnetic field vector with respect to the device 1. At any point on Earth, the Earth's magnetic field can be represented by a three-dimensional vector. Typically, on either side of the equator, as a person moves north or south, the earth's magnetic field descends toward the center of the earth to enter the stimulus, so this vector contains both horizontal and vertical components. The vector magnetometer can include, for example, a three-axis fluxgate magnetometer that operates at a particular minimum sampling frequency and can calculate the magnitude and direction of the total magnetic field from the magnetic field strength readings of the three orthogonal sensors. As a specific example, the vector magnetometer may be a Hall effect magnetometer, such as a 3-axis Electronic Compass AK8973 magnetometer manufactured by Asahi Kasei Microsystems. However, any suitable magnetometer can be used.

9.807N/kg)과 대략 같은 단위 질량당 중량을 측정한다. 3-축 가속도계는, 3개의 직교 방향으로 적절한 가속도를 함께 측정하도록 서로 배향된 가속도계 부품들을 포함한다. 이어서, 이 정보를 이용하여 장치(1)가 겪는 적절한 가속의 벡터량을 산출할 수 있다. 이 산출은, 예를 들어, 3-축 가속도계 장치 내의 처리 능력에 의해 수행될 수 있고, 또는 제어기(9)에 의해 수행될 수 있다. 3-축 가속도계는, 예를 들어, 미소-전자-기계 시스템(MEMS) 칩일 수 있고, 예를 들어, 많은 스마트폰에서 사용되고 있는, Asahi Kasei Microsystems이 제조한 AK8976A일 수 있다. 그러나, 임의의 적절한 가속도계를 사용할 수 있다.The accelerometer 12 may be a three-axis accelerometer device that measures suitable acceleration with a sampling frequency and measurement range suitable for implementing the present invention. A single-axis accelerometer stationary at the Earth's surface has a standard gravity value (g _o

9.807 N / kg), and measure the weight per unit mass. The three-axis accelerometer includes accelerometer parts oriented to each other to measure appropriate acceleration together in three orthogonal directions. Subsequently, this information can be used to calculate the vector amount of proper acceleration experienced by the device 1. This calculation can be performed, for example, by processing power in a three-axis accelerometer device, or by controller 9. The 3-axis accelerometer can be, for example, a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) chip, for example, AK8976A manufactured by Asahi Kasei Microsystems, which is used in many smartphones. However, any suitable accelerometer can be used.

The orientation of the sense axes of the vector magnetometer 11 and the three-axis accelerometer 12 is fixed relative to the device reference frame, and information about this relative orientation is stored in the device memory 10. Using this information, the controller 9 of the portable electronic device 1 is typically measured by the vector magnetometer 11 and the 3-axis accelerometer 12 before further use of the translated measurement data. The obtained directional information is translated into a device reference frame (x, y, z).

The positioning function unit 13 of the mobile communication device 1 may be, for example, a system for using GPS. Such a GPS system may include, for example, a wide area enhancement system (WAAS) active GPS receiver module having an integrated antenna capable of simultaneously monitoring a plurality of satellite communication channels. In addition, such a GPS system may relay location information to the controller 9 using, for example, the NMEA 0183 protocol. In a particular example, the GPS system may be assisted GPS (A-GPS) or differential GPS (DGPS). Alternatively, the positioning function is a system for estimating the location of the device using, for example, other wireless communication technologies, such as a network of Wi-Fi access points, or using a Bluetooth or even ultra wideband (UWB) transceiver. Can be For simplicity, the positioning function unit 13 is hereinafter referred to as a GPS system. However, it will be appreciated that any suitable positioning function may be used.

The memory 10 may store information for a controller to perform a plurality of processes, and may include a set of instructions and algorithms that form part of one or more programs. Programs can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. One or more of the programs may be application software called "apps" or may form part of the application software. One of the programs stored in the memory, when executed by the controller 9, sensors of the mobile communication device to determine the position of the device 1 relative to the body of the user 1, for example, an accelerometer You can interface with them. One of the programs described above, or another program, will interface with sensors of the mobile communication device, eg, accelerometers, to estimate the direction F the user is facing relative to the earth reference frame (X, Y, Z). You can. These one or more programs may include instructions for interfacing with the user interface, codec 8, and wireless communication interface 7 of the portable device. In addition, one or more programs may cause information about the location of the device relative to the user's body or the direction the user is facing to be displayed to the user through a graphical user interface. This can be done, for example, by graphically displaying the location of the device relative to the user's body, or graphically indicating the direction the user is facing relative to the user's surrounding map.

One or more of the programs are being executed from memory 10 or external to the device, such as the location of device 1 relative to the user's body or information about both direction F in which user 2 is facing, For example, it may further share with other programs running on the embedding device in the vicinity of the user. For example, if the program for estimating the direction F that the user is facing is separate from the program for determining the location of the device, information about the location of the device is obtained from the program for determining the location of the device. I can receive it. Alternatively, if the portable electronic device does not include a program for determining the device's location from sensor data, the user can enter the device's location, and the portable electronic device can locate the device from the user through a graphical user interface. It may include a function for receiving information indicating the. One or more of the aforementioned programs may form part of one or more "apps".

The memory 10 can also store an algorithm for use by the controller 9 in performing digital filtering of measurements sampled from a 3-axis accelerometer and a vector magnetometer, as described with reference to FIG. 3. have. Thus, the controller can be considered to have a digital filtering function 14. It will be appreciated that the components of FIG. 2 are merely examples and that the filtering function 14 may alternatively be provided as a dedicated filter separate from the controller 9.

The memory 10 may also store an algorithm for use by the controller 9 in performing statistical classification of accelerometer and magnetometer data, as described with reference to FIG. 3. As will be described in more detail below, the memory 10 may also include stored information about magnetic declination values at different locations on the Earth's surface. The magnetic deviation is the angle between the magnetic north pole and the actual north pole. Additionally or alternatively, the memory 10 may include data indicating different device locations and associated instructions for determining the direction the user is heading, as described in more detail below.

Referring to Figure 3, a process is illustrated that illustrates the method of the present invention for determining the location of a portable electronic device 1 relative to a user's body 2. In order to determine the position of the portable electronic device 1, the device needs to first calibrate itself by determining a mathematical representation of the transformation between the device reference frame and the horizontal plane of the vertical axis and the earth reference frame. have. Fine adjustment is performed when the user 2 is standing. In step 3.1, the portable electronic device 1 can detect that the user is stationary by monitoring the accelerometer readings from the 3-axis accelerometer 12 over a predetermined period of time. The portable electronic device can determine, for example, that the user is stationary when the variation in accelerometer readings over a period of time is approximately zero.

Subsequently, in step 3.2, the portable electronic device 1 initiates a fine adjustment phase by averaging the measured acceleration stored in the memory 10 from the sampled period of step 3.1. In step 3.3, when the portable electronic device 1 is stationary, the local gravity vector is determined for the device using the average of the three-axis accelerometer measurements. The orientation of the vertical axis Z of the earth reference frame relative to the device reference frame is then determined by the device as the inverse of the gravity vector. Subsequently, the three-dimensional direction of the vertical axis with respect to the device reference frame may be stored in the memory 10 of the device. For example, this direction can be stored in memory in the form of three strings corresponding to the directional cosine of the unit vector representation Z of the vertical axis relative to the device axes. From this, the controller 9 can now determine the horizontal plane of the earth reference frame as being perpendicular to the Z axis. Where appropriate, the orientation of the horizontal earth reference plane relative to the device reference plane can also be stored in the memory 10.

The orientation of the earth reference frame Z axis is known in step 3.4 as it is known that the portable electronic device 1 produces a mathematical representation of the transformation between the earth reference frame Z axis and the horizontal plane and the device reference frame (x, y, z). Pay attention. This mathematical expression can be, for example, a transformation matrix determined by calculating Euler angles.

It can now be said that the fine adjustment provided by steps 3.2 to 3.4 is complete. It is understood that the orientation of the portable electronic device 1 with respect to the earth reference frame can be determined using methods different from those described with respect to FIG. 3 to calculate a mathematical representation of the transformation between the two reference frames described above. Hope. For example, data from other types of sensors may be used in addition to or instead of those described above, and the sensor data may be analyzed in different ways, or the user 2 may use the Earth Reference Frame. Parameters describing the orientation of the device relative to can be manually entered. For example, the fine-tuning process described with respect to steps 3.2 to 3.4 of FIG. 3 includes information from a sensor device that includes any type of sensors that can provide a sensory measurement whose vertical direction in the device can be determined. It can be performed using. The above-described fine adjustment is an example of fine adjustment for determining the position of the device relative to the user's body. However, if the user's location is used to determine the direction the user is facing, an extended fine-tuning process using additional sensor data may be used instead as described in more detail below.

To determine the location of the portable electronic device 1, the portable electronic device uses sensor data obtained while the user 2 is walking. It is contemplated that in some implementations, the portable electronic device can display a message to the user notifying the user that the fine adjustment has been completed and the user can start walking. However, in other implementations, the portable electronic device does not display such a message. The portable electronic device automatically detects in step 3.5 that the user has started walking.

To determine that the user is walking forward, the controller only limits activities to walking or standing, using a more complex activity recognition system capable of detecting walking in daily activities or using recorded data from the GPS system. If possible, a number of different schemes can be used, including using simple threshold-based schemes. Alternatively, the controller 9 may disclose using a mathematical transformation expression to extract vertical acceleration readings parallel to the Earth reference frame Z axis from samples of the 3-axis accelerometer 12 measured in the device reference frame. . Subsequently, the controller can detect that the user is walking by recognizing the vertical acceleration behavior corresponding to the information about the human walking locomotion stored in the device memory 10.

Positioning is described as using both accelerometer and magnetometer data obtained while the user is walking. However, it will be appreciated that only one of the accelerometer and magnetometer data, or other suitable sensor data, may be used, as described below in more detail. The controller 9 starts the digital filtering measurement from the accelerometer 12 in step 3.6. In addition, the controller initiates digital filtering measurements from the magnetometer 11. The controller 9 filters the measurements to remove high frequency noise. For example, a 5 Hz average filter can be employed for acceleration and magnetic field vector data, or a simple averaging filter can be used to mitigate the effects of non-deterministic magnetic interference. The filter can be implemented in the controller 9 as shown in FIG. 2. Alternatively, filtering may be performed by dedicated digital or analog filter hardware in device 1.

In step 3.7, the controller converts the accelerometer measurements into earth reference frames using mathematical transformations stored in memory 10. The controller also converts the magnetometer measurements to earth reference frames. Subsequently, the device 1 can separate the vertical and horizontal components of the accelerometer data. The device can likewise extract the vertical and / or horizontal components of the magnetometer data. Further filtering of the sensed and transformed data may be done at this point, and may include filtering techniques similar to those described above with respect to step 3.6.

Subsequently, the controller 9 may perform principal component analysis (PCA) on the horizontal accelerometer data in step 3.8. The PCA identifies axes (main components) in the multidimensional data whose data is maximally variable, wherein the maximum deviation of the data occurs in the first principal component, and the second maximum deviation that follows is in the second principal component Occurs and leads to this way. Principal component analysis is known in the art and is not described in detail herein. The controller 9 can also perform PCA on the magnetometer data in step 3.8 or on the determined horizontal component of the magnetometer data.

Subsequently, in step 3.9, the portable electronic device 1 performs statistical analysis on the data sets relating to the measured values of the accelerometer 12, whereby the data sets relating to the 3-axis accelerometer 12 are performed. At least one of them includes data that has been converted to the earth reference frame components and may have been further resolved into a number of major components through principal component analysis. This statistical analysis is intended to determine certain statistical characteristics or characteristics of each set of data described above, such as, for example, deviation, quadrant range, average, average frequency, intensity, or spectral variance. Features may be compared to statistical features stored in the memory 10 to identify possible locations of the device 1 relative to the user's body 2.

Subsequently, in step 3.10, the controller 9 of the portable electronic device 1 can identify a possible location of the device relative to the user's body 2 based on the determined statistical characteristics of the movement of the device. The controller can identify possible locations using, for example, a statistical classifier algorithm stored in the memory 10 of the device. Statistical classifiers are algorithms developed through machine learning to identify sub-populations to which new data observations belong, where sub-population identification is the transfer of data containing observations for which the sub-population is known. It is not known based on the rules learned through analysis. For example, Bayesian classification procedures can be used. Statistical classification is known in the art and is not described in detail here.

The device 1 can determine a position indicator indicating the position of the device, and store the position indicator in the memory 10. It is contemplated that the location indicator can be a unique set of data, for example a unique array of bytes, and each location has a different location indicator.

As mentioned above, magnetometer data can also be used in the process of determining location. In addition to or instead of the accelerometer data, measurements from the magnetometer during movement of the portable electronic device 1 when the user is walking can be used for statistical classification of the location of the portable electronic device. As explained with respect to the accelerometer data, additional advantageous information can be obtained by converting the magnetometer data to a global reference frame before performing statistical analysis. Subsequently, statistical analysis may be performed on at least one of the vertical component and the horizontal component of the magnetometer data. Alternatively or in addition, magnetometer data can provide valuable pseudo-rotational information that further aids in increasing the accuracy of the classification process. Such rotation data can be provided by including a 3-axis gyroscope in a portable electronic device. However, the processing of magnetometer data is more computationally efficient than the processing of gyroscope data required to achieve a corresponding result. Subsequently, the controller 9 can perform principal component analysis (PCA) on this rotation data and use the determined principal component information in statistical classification of the device position.

Thus, the advantages of the process described with reference to FIG. 3 are the steps of step 3.9 for data sets relating to measurements of such other types of sensors of the device described when other types of sensors can measure the movement of the device. Please understand that it can be obtained by performing statistical analysis. In addition, the process of determining the location may include statistical analysis of acceleration, magnetometer, and / or other sensor data that has not yet been converted to an earth reference frame, in addition to statistical analysis of the components of the sensor data.

The use of movement data, which may have been measured in three dimensions in the statistical classification of device locations and transformed into earth reference frame components, provides valuable information that increases the accuracy of the above-described classification process obtained using raw data. This applies equally to the use of PCA data for horizontal components of mobile data in the statistical classification of the position of the portable electronic device 1. Accordingly, the processes described herein provide a more accurate method of determining the position of the portable electronic device 1 relative to the user's body 2 than known methods. With this increased accuracy, the methods described above also determine the position of the portable electronic device relative to the user over a shorter sampling period than previous methods. In addition, the method of FIG. 3 does not necessarily require interaction with a system or infrastructure external to the device and does not rely on such a system or infrastructure.

By providing a reliable and fast way to determine the position of the device relative to the user's body as provided by the process described with reference to FIG. 3, it provides immediate benefits to many existing portable electronic device applications, for example For example, the device may be configured to execute certain software procedures upon determining that the user is being carried at a certain location. For example, if it is determined that the device is being carried in the user's upper arm, the music performance software function may be initiated.

Although FIG. 3 has been described with reference to the components of FIG. 2, it is understood that any type of suitable portable electronic device may be used to implement the process described in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 4, a process of selecting a method of determining the orientation of the portable electronic device 1, for example, the user 2 of the portable electronic device shown in FIG. 2 is illustrated. As an example, how to determine the direction the user is facing will be described with reference to FIG. 4. However, the process of FIG. 4 may be used to determine other aspects of the user's orientation. To determine the direction the user is facing, the device first needs to fine-tune the device itself by determining the mathematical representation of the transformation between the device reference frame and the earth reference frame (X, Y, Z). The fine adjustment process for determining the conversion between the device reference frame and the horizontal plane of the vertical axis and the earth reference frame was described with reference to FIG. 3. However, in order to determine the direction F in which the user 2 is facing, a complete conversion between the device reference frame and the earth reference frame (X, Y, Z) is required. An example of a possible way to achieve this transformation, including the steps of the fine-tuning process described with reference to FIG. 3 and some additional steps, will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

As described with reference to Fig. 3, fine adjustment is performed when the user 2 is standing. The portable electronic device 1 detects that the user is stopped in step 4.1 by monitoring the accelerometer readings from the accelerometer 12 over a predetermined period. The portable electronic device may determine that the user is stationary, for example, if the deviation between accelerometer readings over a period of time is approximately zero. In step 4.2, the portable electronic device 1 then initiates a fine adjustment phase by averaging samples of the measured acceleration and magnetic field vector M stored in the memory 10 from the sampled period of step 4.1. In step 4.3, a gravity vector is determined from the accelerometer data, as already described with reference to step 3.3 in FIG. 3. Subsequently, as described above, the three-dimensional direction of the vertical axis relative to the device reference frame is determined and stored in the memory 10 of the device. For example, the direction of the vertical axis may be stored in the memory 10 in the form of three strings.

Then, to obtain a complete transformation, the controller 9 obtains a local earth magnetic field vector for the portable electronic device 1 from the vector magnetometer 11 measurements averaged in step 4.4. Subsequently, this information can be stored in the memory 10 of the device. In this procedure, the total magnetic field strength is not critical, so the controller can, for example, store the magnetic field vector M as a 3-string unit vector corresponding to the directional cosine for the device axes. Subsequently, the controller takes the cross product of the vector and the magnetic flux vector along the vertical axis, and then further takes the result and the cross product of the vector along the vertical axis, thereby averaging the magnetic field vector in the device perpendicular to the vertical axis Z. The component (Mav) of is decomposed to approximate the horizontal direction of the magnetic north pole (Nm) in step 4.5.

(One)

Subsequently, in step 4.6, the portable electronic device 1 determines the global location of the device with latitude and longitude along with stored information regarding the direction of N _M for the device and the magnetic deviation values at different locations on the Earth's surface. Using the information from the GPS system 13, denoted by, the actual north horizontal direction for the device is estimated, thereby establishing the orientation of the X axis relative to the device reference frame. The controller 9 accesses the magnetic deviation data stored in the memory 10, which corresponds to the latitude and longitude of the device, and uses this data to compensate for the difference between the magnetic north pole and the actual north pole at that location. It is achieved by determining the North Pole. Subsequently, the three-dimensional direction of the X axis relative to the device reference frame may be stored in the memory 10 of the device, and may be stored as, for example, three strings X corresponding to unit vector components of the device reference frame.

Subsequently, the orientation of the Y axis of the earth reference frame with respect to the device reference frame, which corresponds to the horizontal direction of the earth with respect to the device 1, is calculated by the portable electronic device from the cross product of the X vector and Z vector as follows.

(2)

Subsequently, the three-dimensional direction of the Y-axis with respect to the device reference frame may be stored by the controller 9 in the memory 10 of the device. For example, this direction can be stored as a 3-unit vector string Y in the same way that the Z-axis direction and the X-axis direction are recorded.

The orientation of the earth reference frames (X, Y, Z) relative to the device reference frames (x, y, z) is known, and the portable electronic device 1 yields a complete mathematical representation of the conversion between the two reference frames in step 4.7 Note that it does. This mathematical expression can be, for example, a transformation matrix determined by calculating Euler angles. Alternatively, this mathematical expression may take the form of an employee number expression. Since the number of employees is known, it is not explained in detail here. Briefly, quaternions are part of the general class of hyper-complex numbers and belong to non-reciprocal polymorphisms. Like the complex number, the quaternary number H can be written as a linear combination of the real part and the imaginary part as in the following equation.

(3)

By using such a structure, three rotations existing between the earth reference frame and the device reference frame can be written as a simple rotation around one axis as in the following equation.

(4)

주위로의

의 각도만큼의 3차원 벡터

의 회전을 나타내는 사원수이며, 아래와 같이 산출될 수 있다.Where R is a rotation function and Q is a vector

Around

3D vector by the angle of

This is the number of employees representing the rotation, and can be calculated as follows.

(5)

Since the quaternion expression requires only four operations, for example, in contrast to the nine operations required in the Euler equation, it can provide advantages in terms of operations compared to a single expression.

Now, it can be considered that the fine adjustment provided by steps 4.2 to 4.7 is complete. The orientation of the portable electronic device 1 with respect to the earth reference frame (X, Y, Z) can be determined using methods different from those described with reference to FIG. 4 to calculate a mathematical representation of the transformation between the two reference frames. Please understand that there is. For example, data from different types of sensors may be used, sensor data may be analyzed in different ways, or parameters manually describing the orientation of the device relative to the Earth reference frame by user 2 You can enter As a result, if the mathematical transformation representation is determined using a method other than the fine-tuning process of steps 4.2 to 4.7, the device 1, for example, a GPS system, magnetic deviation at various locations on the Earth's surface It will be appreciated that there is no need to include the stored information about the value of and the magnetometer. Also, as described above, the earth reference frame need not be defined in terms of the direction of the vertical axis, and the actual north and east can be any reference frame that allows the user or device to determine the orientation of the earth or the local environment. Will recognize

Subsequently, the portable electronic device 1 determines in step 4.8 its location relative to the body of the user 2. This location can be determined according to steps 3.5 to 3.10 of FIG. 3, but can be determined using a complete mathematical transformation between the device reference frame (x, y, z) and the earth reference frame (X, Y, Z). Alternatively, the location of the portable electronic device relative to the user's body may be determined by other methods, for example, location information may be manually entered by the user.

Subsequently, in step 4.9, the portable electronic device 1 determines a method to use to determine the user's orientation when the user 2 walks forward, according to the device's known position relative to the user's body. The portable electronic device 1 is pre-programmed to be configured to use one of a number of different ways to determine the direction the user 2 is heading based on the device's position relative to the user's body. . According to embodiments of the present invention, it is recognized that different methods are suitable for different device locations. The memory 10 may store a data structure with location indicators pointing to multiple locations of the portable electronic device and associated algorithm identification data representing an algorithm to be used for a particular location of the device to determine the user's orientation at each location. have. Once the location of the portable electronic device 1 is obtained using the method of steps 3.5 to 3.10, the device may query the memory 10 using the location indicator obtained in the method to determine the associated algorithm. When the location of the device is obtained by the user 2 entering the information, the portable electronic device instead includes a function for converting the received data into a location indicator that can be used to query the memory to determine the appropriate algorithm. .

Assume that the user 2 is walking in the forward direction and the methods determine the forward direction using the accelerometer 12 data and then take that forward direction as the direction the user is facing. For some device positions, it is possible to identify a specific time zone of the user's gait when the acceleration measured by the device is directed primarily or almost entirely in the forward direction, and for this purpose, the acceleration data may be analyzed during this time zone to determine the forward direction. Accordingly, it is recognized that the direction F facing the user can be determined. For some of these positions, one can determine the forward direction directly using one or more specific moments of the gait cycle or acceleration data for a short period of time, and these types of methods form the first category of methods. For other locations of the device, the acceleration data during one or more periods of the gait cycle requires further analysis, and the methods used for these other locations form a second category of methods. Methods of the first category and the second category will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively. It should be noted that within these categories, different methods are selected for different locations. Certain moments or periods of the gait cycle have been previously determined empirically for different device locations and the portable electronic device will be pre-programmed to select different moments or periods for different device locations.

For some locations, the first and second categories of methods are not appropriate, and instead use an alternative method based on statistical analysis of sensor data obtained over multiple walking cycles. This alternative method of determining the direction the user is facing is also described below.

Subsequently, the portable electronic device 1 implements the selected method of determining the direction F the user is facing when the user walks forward in step 4.10.

This process of selecting a method that allows the portable electronic device to determine the user's orientation with respect to the earth reference frame based on the device's location relative to the user is computationally efficient, but with respect to multiple device locations regardless of device orientation. Allows the user's orientation to be determined accurately.

In addition to the process of Fig. 4, if the portable electronic device includes a vector magnetometer 11, the user can change the orientation using the vector magnetometer during steps 4.8-4.11 of the Earth reference frame (X, Y, Z) ) Can be monitored for changes in the orientation of the device reference frame. For example, a change in north orientation relative to the device reference frame can be monitored. When a user's orientation change is detected, it can be used to update the mathematical transformation expression. Alternatively, any other means of notifying the device of the change in direction the user is facing may be used to update the mathematical expression, for example, a reading from a gyroscope can be used.

Referring to FIG. 5, the first category in acceleration measured by the portable electronic device 1 during the walking cycle of the user 2 using a short period of time, so as to determine the direction F the user is facing while the user is walking A process illustrating one of the methods of is shown. A short period can correspond to a moment in time. The method of FIG. 5 is, for example, in the case where it is known that the portable electronic device 1 is in a position relative to the body of the user 2 that the portable electronic device will undergo decisive movement during the user's gait cycle. Can be selected in step 4.9. Such deterministic movement may occur, for example, when the portable electronic device is carried in the user's upper body pocket, trouser pocket, or user's belt.

The portable electronic device 1 samples the measured values of its 3-axis accelerometer 12, and thus the device can use the sampled information. To determine the direction F the user is facing, the portable electronic device 1 requires acceleration data obtained while the user is walking forward. The controller 9 of the portable electronic device then digitally filters the accelerometer measurements to remove high frequency noise. For example, accelerometer measurements can be filtered using the 5 Hz average filter described above.

In step 5.1, the device 1 detects that the user 2 is walking by initiating a check of the acceleration readings and recognizing some acceleration behavior corresponding to a human walking motion. The acceleration behavior that occurs in the device and is located in the user, which corresponds to the walking motion, depends on the device's position. Thus, the device can select a gait identification algorithm according to the determined location of the device and then initiate identification of each individual gait on the data stream.

The portable electronic device may examine the vertical acceleration data converted from the acceleration data measured in the device reference frame by implementing a mathematical transformation expression. In this case, the portable electronic device may detect that the user is walking by recognizing the vertical acceleration corresponding to the human walking motion. For example, if it is determined that the portable electronic device is being carried in the user's pants pocket, the portable electronic device may hit the ground of the user's heels (heel before moving forward toward the next heel strike) It is possible to find and recognize the acceleration behavior in the vertical acceleration data corresponding to one of the user's feet (toe-off) and / or toe-off from the ground. As a further example, if it is determined that the portable electronic device is located in the user's chest pocket or in the user's belt, the portable electronic device finds and recognizes the acceleration behavior in the vertical acceleration data corresponding to the toe release and heel strikes of the both feet of the user. can do. In addition, the process of identifying gait dependent vertical acceleration behavior in a portable device may include, for example, a layer of peak detection algorithms that examine the vertical acceleration data to find each user's heel stroke and corresponding toe release. To avoid confusion between peaks that are successfully detected by this algorithm and random noise in accelerometer samples, average filtering of the data can be performed before the peak detection process.

In step 5.2, based on the information stored in the device 1 determined by previous analysis of the movement of the device being carried at a plurality of locations relative to the body of the walking user 2, the controller 9, Based on the device's known position relative to the user's body, it selects at least one moment or short duration during the identified user walk on the data stream, where the device is accelerated in the direction F facing the user, and this position The acceleration in the direction the user is facing in is greater than the acceleration normal to the sagittal plane S of the user 2. The controller then extracts the horizontal acceleration measured in that one or more short periods of user gait during each gait identified on the data stream. Subsequently, in step 5.3, the direction F directed by the user 2 is determined as corresponding to the acceleration direction of the extracted acceleration information of the earth reference frame.

5 is a portable electronic device 1 positioned relative to the user 2 so that the portable electronic device experiences a dominant deterministic movement while the user walks, it is also efficient in terms of computation and can quickly and accurately determine the direction F the user is facing. How to do it. In addition, this method does not necessarily require interaction with a system or infrastructure that is external to the device, or because it is such a system and does not depend on the infrastructure.

Referring to FIG. 6, the acceleration of the acceleration measured by the portable electronic device 1 during the walking cycle of the user 2 compared to the methods of the first category, so as to determine the direction F facing the user while the user is walking A process is illustrated illustrating one of the methods of the second category, using a period.

The method of FIG. 6, for example, is that the portable electronic device 1 is positioned at a position relative to the body of the user 2 during which the portable electronic device will undergo semi-deterministic motion during the user's gait cycle. If known, it may be selected in step 4.9 of FIG. 4. Such semi-deterministic movement may occur, for example, when the portable electronic device is carried within the user's backpack or shoulder bag.

The portable electronic device 1 samples the measured values of the accelerometers 12, and thus the sampled information can be used by the device. To determine the direction F that the user is facing, the portable electronic device 1 requests acceleration data obtained while the user is walking. The controller 9 of the portable electronic device can then digitally filter the accelerometer measurements using, for example, a 5 Hz filter 14 to remove high frequency noise.

In step 6.1, the portable electronic device 1 detects that the user 2 is walking by initiating a check of the acceleration readings and recognizing a certain acceleration behavior corresponding to a human walking motion. The portable electronic device then initiates the identification of each individual walk on the data stream. As in the method described with respect to FIG. 5, the portable electronic device 1 can examine vertical acceleration data decomposed from acceleration data measured in a device reference frame by implementing a mathematical transformation expression.

In step 6.2, based on information stored in the device determined by previous analysis of the movement of the device being carried at a plurality of locations relative to the body of the walking user 2, the controller 9 is connected to the user's body. Select one or more periods during the user's walk identified on the data stream based on the device's known location, and at this location, the acceleration of the device normal to the user's sagittal plane S is determined by the device's orientation in the direction the user is facing. Small compared to acceleration. On the other hand, the method described with reference to FIG. 5 includes an acceleration analysis for a short period or a moment in which the acceleration of the device normal to the sagittal plane is near zero, and such a short period includes device positions in which methods of the second category are used. Esau may not exist. However, it is still possible to find a period in which acceleration to the normal with respect to the sagittal plane is smaller than acceleration of the device in the direction the user is facing. However, one or more periods selected in the methods of the second category may be longer than one or more periods selected according to the methods of the first category described with reference to FIG. 5. The controller selects the horizontal acceleration measured during one or more periods of the user's gait during each gait identified on the data stream.

Since the selected data still contains a considerable amount of acceleration normal to the sagittal plane S, it is not possible to immediately determine the direction F in which the user 2 is directed from the data. In step 6.3, accordingly, the portable electronic device 1 performs principal component analysis on the selected data and determines that the direction F facing the user 2 is parallel to the axis of the first principal component. Principal component analysis has been briefly described above with reference to FIG. 3 and is also known in the art, and is not described in detail herein. Subsequently, the portable electronic device further analyzes the sensed data to determine the absolute direction the user is facing, for example, the direction the user is pointing to doubles the acceleration data for both axial directions and provides a positive result. It can be decided by taking what you do.

FIG. 6 allows the portable electronic device 1 positioned relative to the user 2 to quickly, accurately and efficiently determine the direction F the user is facing in such a way that the user predominates a semi-deterministic movement while walking. Provides a method. In addition, the method of FIG. 6 does not necessarily require interaction with a system or infrastructure external to the device or rely on such a system or infrastructure.

For some locations, the methods of the first and second categories described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 are not suitable and use the alternative method described above instead. This alternative method of determining the direction F the user is facing comprises: converting the accelerometer 12 reading of the device reference frame into an earth reference frame, performing principal component analysis on the horizontal acceleration reading, and the main component And determining the direction F in which the user 2 is headed. More specifically, statistical analysis is not performed only for a specific period of the user's gait cycle, but over a period corresponding to one or more entire gait cycles. This alternative method of determining the direction the user is facing is known in the art and is not described in detail herein. This method can be selected, for example, when it is known that the portable electronic device 1 is in a position relative to the user's body, where the device will undergo non-deterministic movement during the user's gait cycle. Such non-deterministic movement may occur, for example, when the portable electronic device is being carried in the user's hand or handbag.

Determining the timing of the user's gait cycle performed in steps 5.1 and 6.1 of the methods of FIGS. 6 and 6, respectively, detects the lateral results experienced by the device, which periodically changes according to the user's gait cycle while the user is walking, and It is understood that this can be done using information from any measurable sensors. If the timing of the user's gait is determined using sensors other than the accelerometer of the device, the relevant portions of the accelerometer data can be identified to determine the direction the user is heading, using the timing of the user's gait determined from other sensors. have. Also, if the accelerometer readings are not used to determine the user's gait timing, it may be necessary to convert the raw acceleration data into an earth reference frame to determine the direction F the user is facing.

The method of FIG. 4 determines the direction F that the user is facing in a computationally efficient and reliable manner with respect to the position of the plurality of devices 1 relative to the body of the user 2, regardless of the orientation of the devices, The orientation of the user 2 relative to the reference frame can be determined. As such, the method of FIG. 4 can provide a great opportunity to significantly advance portable electronic device technologies. By knowing the orientation of the user 2 relative to the earth reference frame, it provides immediate benefits to many existing portable electronic device applications, for example, the user F in the direction F facing the user's surrounding map of the applications ( 2) or two users each having their own device 1 are notified when the two users are facing each other. The method of FIG. 4 also requires, for example, that the electrical infrastructure of any area requires recognizing the direction F facing users 2 within that area and uses this information to access that area of the user. It can be used to create a new smart environment to enhance the experience.

Referring to FIG. 4, first, the device 1 may determine the location of the device using sensor data in the first process, and then determine the user's orientation using the position of the device relative to the user 2 in the second process. It has been described, but it will be appreciated that it is not necessary to run these two processes together and the invention is not limited to a combination of these two processes. Information indicating the location may be used for purposes other than determining the user's orientation to the earth reference frame. Accordingly, the position information used to determine the user's orientation can be obtained in any suitable way, and need not be obtained from the accelerometer data as described with reference to FIG. 3.

The methods of FIGS. 4 to 6 can determine the orientation of the user's body with respect to the earth reference frames (X, Y, Z) by determining the direction F the user is facing. However, as described above, by using methods based on the methods of FIGS. 4 to 6, the mathematical reference is used to convert the determined orientation of the user's body relative to the earth reference frame into the device reference frame to the device reference frame. It can also determine the orientation of the user's body relative to. In addition, by estimating the user's relative orientation with respect to the device in this way and analyzing this information over time, the device can detect, for example, a change in the orientation of the device with respect to the user, and the required fine By performing a given process again, it is possible to further respond to these detected changes, thereby recalibrating the device to a new orientation.

The processes described with reference to FIGS. 3-6 can be stored as a set of instructions in one or more computer programs, which can be executed when the computer programs are executed by one or more processors.

Although specific examples of the invention have been described, the scope of the invention is not limited to these examples and is defined by the claims. Thus, the present invention can be implemented in other ways, as those skilled in the art will recognize.

For example, as described above, the portable electronic device for implementing the present invention need not be a mobile communication device, but may be any suitable device for implementing the present invention. For example, the portable electronic device for implementing the present invention may not include the wireless communication interface 7 or the codec 8 described with respect to FIG. 2. Also, the portable electronic device may not include a magnetometer. In addition, the portable electronic device does not require the positioning function unit described with respect to FIG. 2. It will also be appreciated that the portable communication device can function with a different type of user interface than the display 5, keypad 6, speaker 3, and microphone 4 shown in FIG. It will also be appreciated that a portable communication device can be provided without any form of user interface, and can have any physical shape and size suitable for human carrying.

Claims (40)

A method for determining a location of a device carried by a user with respect to the user,
Determining a mathematical representation of the transformation between the earth reference frame and the device reference frame in the device;
Receiving movement data from a sensor device of the device capable of measuring movement of the device while the user is walking;
Converting the movement data into a global reference frame component using the mathematical expression;
Identifying a substantial principal component of the variation of at least one component of the transformed data;
Dissolving the converted data into the substantial main component;
Determining one or more statistical characteristics of the decomposed data by performing statistical analysis on the decomposed data; And
And identifying the location of the device relative to the user by comparing the determined one or more statistical characteristics to a predetermined one or more statistical characteristics. According to claim 1,
The sensor device includes an accelerometer device, and the movement data includes acceleration information for the device. According to claim 2,
The at least one component of the transformed data includes a horizontal component or a vertical component. According to claim 1,
The sensor device comprises a magnetometer (magnetometer) device, the positioning method. According to claim 1,
The earth reference frame includes a reference axis corresponding to a vertical direction and a surface corresponding to a horizontal plane, wherein the method comprises:
Prior to the step of determining the mathematical expression, receiving sensing information from the sensor device while the user is standing, analyzing the sensing information to determine that the user is standing, and in response to determining that the user is standing, receiving And determining a direction of a reference axis of the earth reference frame with respect to the device reference frame from the detected and analyzed analysis information.
Determining the mathematical representation comprises determining a mathematical representation of a set of three orthogonal axes of the device reference frame and a transformation between the reference axis and the reference plane. According to claim 1,
The step of identifying the location of the device relative to the user by comparing the determined one or more statistical characteristics with a predetermined one or more statistical characteristics includes using a statistical classifier algorithm. As a method for determining the orientation of the user's body relative to the reference frame on the device that the user carries,
Determining the location of the user of the device using the location determination method according to any one of claims 1 to 6; And
And selecting any of a plurality of methods for determining a user's orientation with respect to the reference frame based on the determined location of the device. The method of claim 7,
The device includes a sensor device, and the sensor device can detect and measure lateral results occurring in the device, which change cyclically according to the walking cycle of the user while walking, and the sensor device measures acceleration. A method of determining orientation, comprising at least one accelerometer device capable of dimensional measurement. The method of claim 8,
The reference frame includes a first reference frame, and a plurality of methods among the plurality of methods include:
Selecting one or more periods in the user's gait cycle according to the determined position of the device, wherein the one or more periods in the user's gait cycle are in a predetermined direction with respect to a second reference frame corresponding to the user's reference frame Selecting, wherein the movement of the device is one or more dominant periods;
Measuring the acceleration of the device during the one or more periods; And
And estimating the user's orientation to the first reference frame from the measured acceleration. The method of claim 9,
The predetermined direction for the second reference frame is a direction in which the user's body is facing. The method of claim 9,
In at least one of the plurality of methods, estimating the orientation of the user with respect to the first reference frame determines that the acceleration direction during the one or more periods is a predetermined direction with respect to the second reference frame A method of determining orientation, comprising the step of. The method of claim 9,
In at least one of the plurality of methods, estimating the user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame includes performing statistical analysis on acceleration data measured during the one or more periods, Method of determining orientation. The method of claim 12,
In the step of performing the statistical analysis, principal component analysis is performed on acceleration data measured during the one or more periods, and a direction of one of the main components is determined with respect to the second reference frame. And determining that it corresponds to the direction of. The method of claim 8,
The method of one of the plurality of methods comprises measuring acceleration of the device and performing principal component analysis on the measured acceleration. The method of claim 8,
The reference frame is an earth reference frame, and the method further comprises determining a mathematical representation of the transformation between the earth reference frame and the device reference frame, wherein the plurality of methods include the earth reference using the mathematical representation. And using the measured acceleration information converted to a frame. The method of claim 15,
The sensor device includes a magnetometer device, and prior to determining the mathematical expression, the method comprises:
Receiving information from the accelerometer device and the magnetometer device;
Analyze the information received from the accelerometer device to determine that the user is standing, and in response to the determination that the user is standing, from the received information, corresponding to the vertical direction of the earth reference frame for the device reference frame Determining a first axis;
Determining a second axis of the earth reference frame for the device reference frame, corresponding to the north direction, based on the vertical direction determined for the device and information received from the magnetometer device; And
Determining a third axis of the earth reference frame for the device as orthogonal to the first axis and the second axis,
Determining the mathematical representation comprises determining a mathematical representation of the transformation between the set of three orthogonal axes of the device reference frame and the determined first, second, and third axes of the earth reference frame, Method of determining orientation. The method of claim 16,
While receiving information from the sensor device while the user is walking, using the information to detect a change in the orientation of the device relative to the earth reference frame, taking into account the new orientation of the device relative to the earth reference frame And recalculating the mathematical expression. The method of claim 15,
And determining the orientation of the user's body relative to the device reference frame by using the mathematical expression and converting the determined user's orientation relative to the earth reference frame into the device reference frame. delete A device for determining the position of the device relative to the user when the user carries the device,
Controller;
A memory for storing information corresponding to one or more statistical characteristics relating to different locations of the device and a mathematical representation of the transformation between the earth reference frame and the device reference frame in the device; And
It includes a sensor device that can measure the movement of the device,
The controller receives movement data from the sensor device obtained while a user carrying the device is walking, converts the movement data into earth reference frame components using the mathematical expression, and converts the converted data into Determining one or more statistical characteristics of the decomposed data by identifying a substantial principal component of the variation of at least one component, decomposing the transformed data into the substantial principal component, and performing statistical analysis on the decomposed data, A location determining device configured to identify the location of the device relative to the user by comparing the determined one or more statistical characteristics to the stored one or more statistical characteristics. The method of claim 20,
The sensor device includes an accelerometer device, and the movement data includes acceleration information from the accelerometer device. The method of claim 21,
The at least one component of the transform data includes at least one of a horizontal component and a vertical component. The method of claim 20,
The sensor device comprises a magnetometer device, a positioning device. The method of claim 20,
The earth reference frame includes a reference axis corresponding to the vertical direction, and a surface corresponding to the horizontal plane,
The controller receives detection information from the sensor device obtained while the user carrying the device is standing, analyzes the received detection information to determine whether the user is standing, and determines that the user is standing. In response, it is also configured to determine the direction of the reference axis of the earth reference frame with respect to the device reference frame from the detection information obtained while the user is standing,
And the controller is further configured to determine the mathematical representation by determining a mathematical representation of the set of three orthogonal axes of the device reference frame and the reference plane of the reference axis and the earth reference frame. The method of claim 20,
Identifying the location of the device relative to the user by comparing the determined one or more statistical features with the stored one or more statistical features, includes using a statistical classifier algorithm. A device according to any one of claims 20 to 25,
A memory for storing information regarding a plurality of methods for determining the orientation of the user with respect to a specific frame; And
And a controller configured to receive information regarding the location of the device with respect to the user and to select any of the plurality of methods based on the information regarding the location of the device. The method of claim 26,
And further comprising a sensor device, wherein the controller is configured to determine the timing of the user's gait cycle as part of a number of methods of the plurality of methods using information from the sensor device. The method of claim 27,
The sensor device includes an accelerometer device for measuring the acceleration of the device in three dimensions, and the reference frame includes a first reference frame,
The controller,
Selecting one or more periods within the user's gait cycle based on information about the location of the device, wherein the one or more periods are predetermined directions of a second reference frame in which movement of the device corresponds to the user's reference frame By selecting one or more of the periods, which are one or more periods dominant,
Selecting acceleration data obtained by the accelerometer device during the one or more periods, and
And positioning the user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame from the acceleration data, as part of a number of methods of the plurality of methods. The method of claim 28,
The predetermined direction with respect to the second reference frame is a direction in which the user's body is facing. The method of claim 28,
The controller determines a user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame by determining that, in at least one of the plurality of methods, an acceleration direction during the one or more periods corresponds to a predetermined direction of the second reference frame. A positioning device configured to estimate. The method of claim 26,
The controller, in at least one of a number of methods, performs principal component analysis on acceleration data measured during the one or more periods, and the direction of one of the main components is a predetermined direction with respect to the second reference frame And determining the user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame by determining that it corresponds to. The method of claim 26,
The memory is further configured to store a mathematical expression of a conversion between a third reference frame corresponding to a device reference frame and a first reference frame included in the reference frame, and the controller uses the stored mathematical expression The apparatus for positioning is configured to convert the measured acceleration information into the first reference frame. The method of claim 32,
Further comprising a sensor device,
The first reference frame is an earth reference frame, and the sensor device further includes a magnetometer device and an accelerometer device,
The controller, also,
Determine a first axis of the earth reference frame with respect to the device reference frame from information received from the accelerometer device while the user is standing, wherein the first axis corresponds to a vertical direction, ,
Determine a second axis of the earth reference frame for the device reference frame, corresponding to the north direction, based on the vertical direction determined for the device and information received from the magnetometer device,
Determine a third axis of the earth reference frame relative to the device reference frame as orthogonal to the first and second axes,
A positioning device configured to determine the mathematical representation as a mathematical representation of a transformation between a set of three orthogonal axes of the device reference frame and the determined first axis, second axis, third axis of the earth reference frame. The method of claim 33,
The controller also detects a change in the orientation of the device with respect to the earth reference frame using information received from the sensor device while the user is walking and takes into account the new orientation of the device with respect to the earth reference frame. A positioning device configured to recalculate a mathematical expression. The method of claim 32,
The controller is further configured to determine the orientation of the user's body relative to the device reference frame by using the mathematical expression to convert the user's determined orientation relative to the first reference frame to the device reference frame. . delete delete delete delete A method for determining a location of a device carried by a user with respect to the user,
Determining a mathematical representation of the transformation between the earth reference frame and the device reference frame in the device;
Receiving movement information of the device measured by a magnetometer of the device while the user is walking, and converting the movement information into a global reference frame in the device using the mathematical expression;
Determining one or more statistical characteristics of the converted information by performing statistical analysis on at least one component of the converted information; And
And comparing the determined one or more statistical characteristics with one or more predetermined statistical characteristics to identify the location of the device relative to the user.

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