KR20150129285A - Information determination in a portable electronic device carried by a user - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for determining a position for a user of a device carried by a user includes determining a mathematical representation of a transformation between a global reference frame and a 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 using the mathematical expression to convert information from the sensor device as a global reference frame in the device; 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 particular location of the device. Also provided is a method of determining a user's body orientation with respect to a reference frame in a user-carried device, the method comprising: determining a position for a user of the device; And selecting any of a plurality of methods for determining a user's orientation relative to a reference frame based on the determined position of the device.

Description

INFORMATION DETERMINATION IN A PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE CARRIED BY A USER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention < RTI ID = 0.0 >

The present invention relates to information determination of a portable electronic device. The present invention is not exclusively, but more specifically, relates to positioning a device with respect to a user, and may also relate to a user's orientation determination with respect to a reference frame.

In recent years, applications and services provided by portable electronic devices or by devices that interact with portable electronic devices carried by the user have gained popularity. It is desirable for some applications and services to know the orientation of the user and the location of the portable electronic device for the user.

In general, users of portable electronic devices, such as smart phones, are carrying their devices at different locations relative to their bodies when walking or standing. For example, a mobile phone can be carried in a hand, a pants pocket, or a handbag. In general, users tend to be less interested in the orientation of the portable electronic device that they are carrying, particularly when they do not use the device and do not interact. This is because, for most portable electronic devices, information about the orientation of the device to the user, which may be inconvenient to the user, without adding to the user where to carry the device and how to carry the device, And that the location of the device that the user has is not available on the device itself and, therefore, neither the system capable of communicating with that device nor any application running on that device is available.

It is known to determine the orientation of a portable electronic device to the earth as well as the earth's longitude and latitude. However, it may be desirable to allow the portable electronic device to determine the position of the device in the user's body without having to be in a predetermined orientation for the user, or to orient the device in relation to the user ' It would be useful to create appropriate and feasible means of making decisions, and portable electronic device technology could be developed considerably more, for example, in new applications.

It is known to use a combination of accelerometer and gyroscope in a mobile phone to estimate the position of a mobile phone in a user's body for various different positions on the body when the user is walking. However, in order to provide accurate results, it takes a considerable amount of time to execute these methods and requires a lot of computation processing. The gyroscope is also easy to move, which can lead to errors in reading the gyroscope over time.

It is also known to estimate the direction (bearing) the user's body is facing by analyzing the history of the latitude and longitude positions of the portable electronic device being 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 be used in environments with appropriate reception conditions. 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 of determining a position for a user of a device carried by a user, the method comprising determining a mathematical representation of a transformation between an earth reference frame and a device reference frame in a device ; Receiving information from a sensor device of a device capable of measuring movement of the device while the user is walking and converting the information from the sensor device into a global reference frame at 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 particular location of the device.

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

Performing the statistical analysis on at least one component may comprise performing a Principal Component Analysis. The step of performing a statistical analysis on at least one component further comprises determining at least one statistical value of the information and comparing the statistical value with data stored for different device locations to determine the location of the device relative to the user Based on the result of the determination.

According to the present invention, there is also provided a method of determining an 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 for a user of the device; And selecting an arbitrary method from a plurality of methods for determining a user's orientation with respect to a reference surface, based on the determined position of the device.

The device may comprise a sensor device. The sensor device may include at least one accelerometer device capable of detecting and measuring the lateral effects occurring in the device, which vary cyclically in accordance with the user ' s walking cycle during walking, and which can measure the acceleration in three dimensions . In addition, the reference frame may comprise a first reference frame, and the plurality of methods of the plurality of methods may comprise selecting one or more periods within the user's gait cycle according to the determined location of the apparatus, The period of time being at least one period in which movement of the device in a predetermined direction is dominant with respect to a second reference frame corresponding to a user's reference frame; Measuring an acceleration of the device over one or more periods; And estimating a user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame from the measured acceleration.

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

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

The reference frame may be a global reference frame and the method may further comprise determining a mathematical representation of the transformation between the global reference frame and the device reference frame, And using the measured acceleration information converted into the frame.

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

The method may further comprise determining an orientation of the user's body with respect to the device reference frame by using a mathematical representation and converting the user orientation determined for the global reference frame to a device reference frame.

Further, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform one or more of the methods described above.

According to the present invention there is also provided a device for determining the position of a device with respect to a user when the device is carried by the user, the device comprising: a controller; A memory for storing information corresponding to statistical features on different locations of the device and corresponding mathematical representations of the conversion 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, Transforming the reference frame into a reference frame and performing a 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 the accelerometer device. The at least one component may comprise a horizontal component or a vertical component of the acceleration information. The sensor device may also include a magnetometer device.

The controller may be configured to perform a 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 plane 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 or not the user is standing and, in response to the determination that the user is standing, And to determine the orientation of the reference axis of the earth reference frame relative to the device reference frame from the sensing information obtained while standing. The controller can be configured to determine a mathematical expression 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 a device with respect to a reference surface, the device comprising: means for storing information relating to a plurality of methods for determining a user 'Memory; And a controller configured to receive information regarding the location of the device with respect to the user and to select any of a plurality of methods based on information about the location of the device.

The apparatus may further comprise 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 walking cycle as part of a plurality of methods.

The sensor device may include an accelerometer device for three-dimensionally measuring the acceleration of the device, the reference frame may comprise a first reference frame, and the controller may be configured to determine, based on information about the position of the device, Wherein the at least one period is one or more periods in which the movement of the device is dominant in a predetermined direction of a second reference frame corresponding to a user's reference frame; Selecting acceleration data obtained by the accelerometer device for one or more periods; And estimating a user's orientation with respect to the first reference frame from the acceleration data, as part of a plurality of methods of the plurality of methods.

The controller is further configured to estimate, in at least one of the plurality of methods, the orientation of the user relative to the first reference frame by determining that the acceleration direction for one or more of the periods corresponds to a predetermined direction of the second reference frame .

The controller may also be configured to, in at least one of the plurality of methods, perform a principal component analysis on the acceleration data measured during one or more of the periods and to determine a direction of one of the principal components in a predetermined direction By estimating the orientation of the user relative to the first reference frame.

The memory may also be configured to store a mathematical representation of a transformation between a third reference frame and a first reference frame corresponding to a device reference frame and the controller uses the stored mathematical representation to determine the measured acceleration information May be configured to convert to a first reference frame.

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

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

Referring to Fig. 1, there is shown a portable electronic device 1 carried by a user 2 at any location on the earth. The portable electronic device can be used to determine information about the device and the user.

1 includes a geographic 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 anatomical sagittal plane of the user Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 > S < / RTI > 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 the true north from the portable electronic device. The actual north is the direction of the geographic north pole from any point on the surface of the earth and is distinct from the magnetic north pole, which is the direction of the magnetic north pole, from any point on the surface of the earth in general. Also, the Y axis of the earth reference frame corresponds to the approximate horizontal direction of the actual east at the position of the portable electronic device. The Z-axis of the earth reference frame corresponds to a direction approximately opposite to the direction of the gravitational vector in the portable electronic device, i. E., The upward direction in the portable electronic device. As a result, the X-Y plane is substantially horizontal with respect to the user 2. Therefore, the Z-axis is referred to as a vertical axis and the X-Y plane is referred to as a 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 relative to the physical structure of the portable electronic device. The portable electronic device 1 itself may be in any given orientation with respect to the user 2 or the earth reference frame X, Y, Z. [

The device 1 is shown generally positioned on the left shoulder of the user's body. However, the portable device may be in a plurality of possible positions relative to the user ' s body, for example in one of the user ' s hands, in one of the user's trousers, in the user's chest or head, And may be located in equipment carried by a user such as a color.

The horizontal direction F toward which the user's body is directed may be defined as a horizontal vector indicating the direction away from the user's chest on the sagittal plane S. The direction F toward which the user's body is directed lies in the direction about the actual north (X). A user reference frame comprising three orthogonal axes with a first axis in the direction F towards which the user is facing and a second axis with a vertical earth axis Z is used for the device reference frame (x, y, z) Can be used to define the user's orientation to the frame (X, Y, Z).

Although the present invention is described herein with reference to the reference geometry described with reference to FIG. 1, it should be understood that the concepts of the present invention may 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 may be any reference frame that allows the orientation of the device or user to the earth or local environment to be determined. It will also be appreciated that the terms "vertical" or "horizontal" should not be construed to precisely mean "vertical" or "horizontal ", and include both sides and axes in a direction generally considered 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 smart phone. However, the portable electronic device may 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 may be provided by a touch screen.

The mobile communication device 1 may communicate via a network including one or more networks and communication satellites that may include GPRS, GSM, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A, WiFi, Do 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 a processing stage for receiving and processing wireless communication signals. The codec 8 translates the signals received via 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, the audio and data signals originating in the mobile communication device can be processed by the codec 8 in a form that can be transmitted by the wireless communication interface.

The components of the mobile communication device 1 are controlled by a controller 9. The controller 9 may 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, a 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 will be described in more detail below.

In some embodiments, the controller 9 may be running an Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry, or Symbian operating system. It should be appreciated, however, that the operating systems mentioned are merely examples and that any suitable operating system for the mobile communication device 1 may be used.

The mobile communication device 1 may comprise a sensor device. The sensor device may include a magnetometer (11). In addition, the sensor device may include an accelerometer 12. However, as will be described in more detail below, it will be appreciated that the sensor device is not limited to including both a magnetometer and an accelerometer. The mobile communication device may further comprise a positioning function (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 for the device 1. At any point on the earth, the earth's magnetic field can be represented by a three-dimensional vector. Typically, on both sides of the equator, as the person moves north or south, this vector includes both horizontal and vertical components, as the earth's magnetic field goes down toward the center of the earth to enter the stimulus. The vector magnetometer may, for example, comprise 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 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 an appropriate acceleration having a sampling frequency and a measurement range suitable for implementing the present invention. Single at rest on the surface of the earth-axis accelerometer, a standard weight value (g _o

9.807 N / kg). The three-axis accelerometer includes accelerometer components oriented together to measure together the appropriate accelerations in three orthogonal directions. This information can then be used to calculate the vector amount of the appropriate acceleration experienced by the device 1. This calculation can be performed, for example, by the processing capability in the three-axis accelerometer device, or it can be performed by the controller 9. [ The 3-axis accelerometer can be, for example, a micro-electromechanical 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 sensing 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 three-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 13 of the mobile communication device 1 may be, for example, a system for using GPS. Such a GPS system may comprise, for example, a Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) active GPS receiver module having an integrated antenna capable of monitoring a plurality of satellite communication channels simultaneously. This GPS system can also relay location information to the controller 9 using, for example, the NMEA 0183 protocol. In a particular example, the GPS system may be a supplemental GPS (A-GPS) or differential GPS (DGPS). Alternatively, the positioning function may be implemented using other wireless communication technologies, such as, for example, a network of Wi-Fi access points, or a system for estimating the location of a device using a Bluetooth or even an ultra wideband (UWB) transceiver Lt; / RTI > 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 include a set of instructions and algorithms that the controller may store information for performing a plurality of processes and form part of one or more programs. The programs may be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination thereof. One or more of the programs may be application software referred to as an "application" or may form part of the application software. One of the programs stored in the memory may be stored in the memory of the mobile communication device such as sensors of the mobile communication device such as an accelerometer < RTI ID = 0.0 >Lt; / RTI > One such program or other program of the programs may interface with the sensors of the mobile communication device, e.g., accelerometers, to estimate the direction F the user is facing with respect to the earth reference frame (X, Y, Z) . Such one or more programs may include instructions for interfacing with the user interface of the portable device, the codec 8, and the wireless communication interface 7. In addition, the one or more programs may cause information about the location of the device with respect to the user's body, or the direction the user is heading, to be displayed to the user through a graphical user interface. This can be done, for example, by graphically displaying the position of the device with respect to the user's body, or graphically by indicating the direction the user is facing with respect to the user's peripheral map.

One or more of the programs may be used to store information about both the location of the device 1 relative to the user's body or the direction F the user 2 is heading to from the memory 10, For example, it can be additionally shared with other programs running on the embedded device in the vicinity of the user. For example, if the program for estimating the direction F toward which the user is directed is different from the program for determining the position of the apparatus, information on the position of the apparatus may be obtained from a program for determining the position of the apparatus . Alternatively, if the portable electronic device does not include a program for determining the location of the device from the sensor data, the user may enter the location of the device, and the portable electronic device may receive the location of the device from the user via the graphical user interface And a function unit for receiving the information indicating the operation mode. One or more of the foregoing programs may form part of one or more "apps ".

The memory 10 may also store algorithms 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 the digital filtering function 14. It will be appreciated that the components of FIG. 2 are merely exemplary 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. As will be described in more detail below, the memory 10 may also include information stored about magnetic declination values at different locations on the surface of the earth. The magnetic deviation is the angle between the north pole and the actual north pole. Additionally or alternatively, the memory 10 may include data indicating the different device locations and associated instructions for determining the direction that the user is facing, as will be described in more detail below.

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

Subsequently, in step 3.2, the portable electronic device 1 initiates the fine tuning phase by averaging the measured acceleration stored in the memory 10 from the sampled period of step 3.1. In step 3.3, the average of the three-axis accelerometer 12 measurements is used to determine the local gravity vector for the device when the portable electronic device 1 is at rest. 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. The three-dimensional orientation of the vertical axis relative to the device reference frame may then be stored in the memory 10 of the device. For example, this direction may 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 that the horizontal plane of the earth reference frame is perpendicular to the Z-axis. If 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 such that in step 3.4 the handheld electronic device 1 is known to yield 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 may be, for example, a transformation matrix determined by computing the Euler angles.

It can now be said that the fine tuning provided by steps 3.2 to 3.4 is complete. It is to be understood that, using methods other than those described with respect to FIG. 3, it is possible to determine the orientation of the portable electronic device 1 relative to the earth reference frame so that a mathematical representation of the transformation between the two reference frames described above can be calculated I hope. For example, data from other types of sensors may be used in addition to, or instead of, those described above, sensor data may be analyzed in other ways, or user 2 may The parameters describing the orientation of the device may be entered manually. For example, the fine tuning process described with respect to steps 3.2 to 3.4 of FIG. 3 may be performed using information from a sensor device that includes any type of sensor capable of providing a sensed measurement value from which the vertical direction in the device can be determined . ≪ / RTI > The aforementioned fine adjustment is an example of fine adjustment for determining the position of the device with respect to the user's body. However, if the device 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 position of the portable electronic device 1, the portable electronic device uses the sensor data obtained while the user 2 is walking. In some implementations, the portable electronic device considers that the fine adjustment is complete and can display a message to the user informing the user that 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 that the user has started walking in step 3.5.

In order to determine that the user is walking forward, the controller may use a more complex activity recognition system capable of detecting walking in everyday activities, or using recorded data from the GPS system, to limit activities only to walking or standing A number of different approaches may be used, including using simple threshold-based schemes. Alternatively, the controller 9 may begin to use a mathematical transformation representation to extract a vertical acceleration reading parallel to the Z-axis of the earth reference frame from the 3-axis accelerometer 12 samples measured in the device reference frame . The controller can then 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 will be described in more detail below. The controller 9 initiates the digital filtering measurement from the accelerometer 12 in step 3.6. The controller also initiates a digital filtering measurement from the magnetometer 11. The controller 9 filters the measured values to remove high frequency noise. For example, a 5 Hz averaging filter may be employed for acceleration and magnetic field vector data, or a simple averaging filter may be used to mitigate the effects of nondeterministic magnetic interference. The filter may be implemented in the controller 9 as shown in Fig. Alternatively, the filtering may be performed by dedicated digital or Apalog filter hardware within the device 1.

In step 3.7, the controller uses the mathematical transform stored in the memory 10 to convert the accelerometer measurements into earth reference frames. The controller also converts the magnetometer readings to earth reference frames. The device 1 can then separate the vertical and horizontal components of the accelerometer data. The apparatus can likewise extract the vertical component and / or the horizontal component of the magnetometer data. Additional 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.

The controller 9 may then perform Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on the horizontal accelerometer data in step 3.8. The PCA identifies the axes (main components) in the multidimensional data where the data is maximally variable, where the maximum deviation of the data occurs in the first main component, and the second maximum deviation in the data is in the second main component And so on. The principal component analysis is known in the art and is not described here in detail. The controller 9 may also perform a PCA on the magnetometer data in step 3.8 or on the determined horizontal component of the magnetometer data.

Subsequently, at step 3.9, the portable electronic device 1 performs a statistical analysis on the data sets relating to the measurements of the accelerometer 12, thereby obtaining the data sets for the three-axis accelerometer 12 At least one of which includes data that has been converted to earth reference frame components and may have been further resolved into a plurality of principal components through a principal component analysis. This statistical analysis is intended to determine the characteristics or predetermined statistical characteristics of each set of data described above, such as, for example, deviation, quadrant, average, mean frequency, intensity, or spectral variance, The features can be compared to statistical features stored in the memory 10 to identify the likely location of the device 1 relative to the user's body 2.

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

The device 1 can determine a location indicator indicating the location of the device and store the location indicator in the memory 10. It may be considered that the location indicator may be a unique set of data, e.g., a unique byte array, and that each location has a different location indicator.

As discussed above, magnetometer data may also be used in the process of determining the position. In addition to or in addition to the accelerometer data, measurements from the magnetometer during the movement of the portable electronic device 1 when the user is walking can be used for statistical classification of the position of the portable electronic device. As described with respect to the accelerometer data, additional useful information can be obtained by converting the magnetometer data into a global reference frame prior to performing the statistical analysis. The statistical analysis may then be performed on at least one of the vertical component or the horizontal component of the magnetometer data. Alternatively or additionally, the magnetometer data may provide valuable pseudo-rotational information that further contributes to increasing the accuracy of the classification process. This rotation data can be provided by including a three-axis gyroscope in the portable electronic device. However, processing of magnetometer data is more computationally efficient than processing of gyroscope data required to achieve a corresponding result. Then, the controller 9 can perform the main component analysis (PCA) on this rotation data and use the main component information determined in the statistical classification of the device position.

Thus, the advantages of the process described with reference to FIG. 3 are that the data sets for the measurements of those other types of sensors of the device described in the case where other types of sensors can measure the movement of the device It should be understood that this can be achieved by performing statistical analysis. In addition to the statistical analysis of the components of the sensor data, the process of determining the position may also include statistical analysis of acceleration, magnetometers, and / or other sensor data that has not yet been converted into a global reference frame.

The use of motion data that may have been measured in three dimensions in the statistical classification of device locations and converted to earth standard frame components provides valuable information that increases the accuracy of the classification process described above that is obtained using raw data. This applies equally to the use of the PCA data on the horizontal component of the moving data in the statistical classification of the position of the portable electronic device 1. [ Thus, 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 location of the portable electronic device for the user over a shorter sampling period than previous methods. Also, the method of FIG. 3 does not necessarily require interaction with a system or infrastructure external to the device, nor does it rely on such a system or infrastructure.

Having a reliable and fast method of determining the position of the device relative to the user's body, as provided by the process described with reference to Figure 3, will provide immediate benefits to many existing portable electronic device applications, For example, the device may be configured to execute certain software procedures if it determines that it is being carried at a user's predetermined location. For example, if the device determines that it is carried in the user's uppper arm, it can initiate the music playing software function.

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

Referring to Fig. 4, there is shown a process for selecting a method for determining the orientation of the portable electronic device 1, for example, the user 2 of the portable electronic device shown in Fig. For example, how to determine the direction the user is facing will be described with reference to FIG. However, the process of FIG. 4 may be used to determine other aspects of user orientation. To determine the direction the user is facing, the device first needs to fine-tune the device itself by first determining the mathematical representation of the transformation between the device reference frame and the earth reference frame (X, Y, Z). The fine tuning process for determining the conversion between the device reference frame and the horizontal plane of the vertical axis and the earth reference frame has been described with reference to FIG. However, in order to determine the direction F 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 scheme for obtaining such a transformation, including the steps of the fine tuning process described with reference to FIG. 3 and some additional steps, is described with reference to FIG.

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 stationary in step 4.1 by monitoring the accelerometer readings from the accelerometer 12 over a predetermined period of time. The portable electronic device may determine that the user is stationary, for example, if the deviation between accelerometer readings over a predetermined period of time is approximately zero. In step 4.2, the portable electronic device 1 then initiates a fine tuning phase by averaging the measured acceleration and the samples of the magnetic field vector M stored in the memory 10 from the sampled period of step 4.1. In step 4.3, the gravity vector is determined from the accelerometer data, as previously described with reference to step 3.3 of FIG. Then, as described above, the three-dimensional orientation 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 can be stored in memory 10 in the form of three strings.

Then, to obtain a full conversion, the controller 9 obtains a local magnetic field vector for the portable electronic device 1 from the vector magnetometer 11 measurements averaged in step 4.4. This information can then be stored in the memory 10 of the device. In this procedure, the total field strength is not critical, and thus 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. The controller then takes an external product of the vector along the vertical axis and the flux vector and then takes the external product of the vector along this axis and the vertical axis as shown in the following equation to obtain the averaged field vector And the horizontal direction of the magnetic poles Nm is approximated in step 4.5.

(One)

Subsequently, at step 4.6, the portable electronic device 1 determines the global position of the device, along with the direction of N _M for the device and the stored information about the magnetic deviation values at different locations on the surface of the earth, , To estimate the actual north directional orientation for the device and thereby establish 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 corresponding to the latitude and longitude of the apparatus and uses this data to compensate for the difference between the magnetic north pole and the actual north pole at that position, This is accomplished by determining the North Pole. The three-dimensional direction of the X-axis relative to the device reference frame may then be stored in the memory 10 of the device and stored, for example, as a 3-string X corresponding to the unit vector components of the device reference frame.

The orientation of the Y-axis of the earth reference frame relative to the device reference frame, which corresponds to the horizontal direction of the earth relative to the device 1, is then calculated by the portable electronic device from the external of the X vector and the Z vector,

(2)

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

The orientation of the earth reference frame (X, Y, Z) relative to the device reference frame (x, y, z) is known and the portable electronic device 1 calculates the complete mathematical representation of the transformation between the two reference frames in step 4.7 . This mathematical expression may be, for example, a transformation matrix determined by computing the Euler angles. Alternatively, this mathematical expression may take the form of employee number representation. Representation of employee numbers is known and is not described here in detail. Briefly, the number of employees is part of the general class of hyper-complex numbers and belongs to a non-renewal multicomponent. As with complex numbers, the number of employees (H) can also be written as a linear combination of real and imaginary parts, as follows:

(3)

By using this 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 shown below.

(4)

주위로의

의 각도만큼의 3차원 벡터

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

Around

Of the three-dimensional vector

And can be calculated as follows.

(5)

The employee number representation can provide advantages in terms of operation compared to a single representation, for example, because it requires only four operations in contrast to the nine operations required in the Euler equations.

Now, it can be considered that the fine tuning provided by steps 4.2 through 4.7 is complete. 4 can be used to determine the orientation of the portable electronic device 1 relative to the earth reference frame (X, Y, Z) so as to yield a mathematical representation of the transformation between the two reference frames. Please understand. For example, data from different types of sensors may be used, the sensor data may be analyzed in other ways, or the user 2 may manually set the parameters describing the orientation of the device relative to the earth reference frame As shown in FIG. As a result, when determining mathematical transformation expressions using a method other than the fine tuning process of steps 4.2 to 4.7, it is possible for the device 1 to determine the magnitude of the magnetic variation Stored information relating to the value of the magnetic field, and a magnetometer. Also, as noted above, it is not necessary for the earth reference frame to be defined in the direction plane of the vertical axis, and the actual north and east may be any reference frame that allows the user or device orientation to be determined for the earth or local environment .

Subsequently, the portable electronic device 1 determines its position with respect to the body of the user 2 in step 4.8. This position may be determined according to steps 3.5 to 3.10 of FIG. 3, but may 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, the location information may be entered manually by the user.

Then, at step 4.9, the portable electronic device 1 determines the method to use to determine the user's orientation when the user 2 is walking forward, depending on the known position of the device with respect to the user's body. The portable electronic device 1 is preprogrammed to be configured to use one of a number of different methods of determining the direction the user 2 is heading based on the position of the device relative to the user's body . According to embodiments of the present invention, different methods recognize that they are suitable for different device locations. The memory 10 may store a data structure having location indicators indicating a plurality of locations of the portable electronic device and associated algorithm identification data indicating an algorithm to be used for a particular location of the device to determine the user's orientation for each location have. When the position of the portable electronic device 1 is obtained using the method of steps 3.5 to 3.10, the device can inquire the memory 10 using the position indicator obtained in the method to determine the associated algorithm. If the location of the device is obtained by the user 2 entering the information, the portable electronic device instead includes a function that converts the received data into a location indicator, which can be used to query the memory and determine an appropriate algorithm .

It is assumed that the user 2 is walking in the forward direction and the methods use the accelerometer 12 data to determine the forward direction and then take the forward direction as the direction the user is heading. For some device locations, it is possible to identify a particular time zone of the user's gait when the acceleration measured by the device is primarily or almost entirely in the anterior direction, and for this purpose, the acceleration data can be analyzed during this time period to determine the anterior direction Thereby recognizing that the direction F towards which the user is facing can be determined. For some of these locations, acceleration data for one or more specific moments or short periods of the walking cycle may be used directly to determine the forward direction, and these types of methods form methods of the first category. For other positions of the device, the acceleration data during one or more intercepts of the walking cycle requires further analysis, and the methods used for these other positions form methods of the second category. 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. The specific moments or periods of the gait cycle have been previously empirically determined for the different device locations and the portable electronic device may be pre-programmed to select different moments or periods for different device locations.

For some positions, methods of the first and second categories are not appropriate and instead use an alternative method based on statistical analysis of the sensor data obtained over a number of walking cycles. This alternative method of determining the direction that the user is facing will also be described later.

The portable electronic device 1 then implements the selected method of determining the direction F the user is facing when the user is walking forward in step 4.10.

This process of selecting the manner in which the portable electronic device determines the orientation of the user with respect to the global reference frame based on the position of the device for the user is advantageous in terms of operation as well, So that the orientation of the user can be accurately determined.

In addition to the process of FIG. 4, if the portable electronic device includes a vector magnetometer 11, it is possible to use this vector magnetometer during steps 4.8 to 4.11 of FIG. 4, in which the user changes the orientation, ) Of the device reference frame. For example, you can monitor changes in north orientation relative to the device reference frame. If a user's orientation change is detected, it can be used to update the mathematical transformation representation. Alternatively, any other means of notifying the device of a change in the direction that the user is facing may be used, for example, to update a mathematical representation in which the readings from the gyroscope may be used.

5, in the acceleration measured by the portable electronic device 1 during the gait cycle of the user 2 using the short duration, the first category < RTI ID = 0.0 >Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 > of < / RTI > A short period can correspond to a moment in time. The method of FIG. 5 may be used, for example, if it is known that the portable electronic device 1 is located at a position relative to the body of the user 2 to which the portable electronic device will undergo a determinative movement during the user's walking cycle, Can be selected in step 4.9 of FIG. This deterministic movement can occur, for example, when the portable electronic device is carried in a user's upper body pocket, a trouser pocket, or a user's belt.

The portable electronic device 1 samples the measurements of its 3-axis accelerometer 12, and thus the sampled information is available to the device. To determine the direction F the user is facing, the portable electronic device 1 requests 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, the 5 Hz average filter described above can be used to filter the accelerometer measurements.

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

The portable electronic device can examine the vertical acceleration data converted from the acceleration data measured in the device reference frame by implementing a mathematical transformation representation. In this case, the portable electronic device can detect that the user is walking by recognizing the vertical acceleration corresponding to the person's walking motion. For example, if it is determined that the portable electronic device is being carried in the user's trouser pocket, the portable electronic device may be configured to move the user's heels (the heel, (Toe-off) of the user falling from the ground and / or from one of the vertical acceleration data corresponding to one of the user's feet (toe-off). 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- can do. In addition, the process of identifying gait-dependent vertical acceleration behavior in a handheld device may include, for example, a layer of peak detection algorithms that inspect vertical acceleration data to find each user's heel and corresponding toe peel. The average filtering of the data prior to the peak detection process can be performed to avoid confusion between the peaks successfully detected by this algorithm and random noises of the accelerometer samples.

In step 5.2, based on the information determined in the previous analysis of the movement of the device being carried at a plurality of positions relative to the body of the walking user 2 and stored in the device 1, Selecting at least one moment or short duration during the user walk identified on the data stream, based on a known location of the device relative to the user's body, wherein the device is accelerated in a direction F toward which the user is facing, The acceleration in the direction the user is facing in the sagittal plane S of the user 2 is larger than the acceleration in the normal direction. The controller then extracts a horizontal acceleration measured during one or more short periods of user gait during each walk identified on the data stream. Then, in step 5.3, the direction F to which the user 2 is directed is determined as corresponding to the acceleration direction of the extracted acceleration information of the earth reference frame.

5 shows that the portable electronic device 1 positioned relative to the user 2 so that the portable electronic device undergoes a dominant deterministic movement while the user is walking can efficiently and quickly determine the direction F the user is facing in terms of operation It provides a way to do that. In addition, this method does not necessarily require interaction with a system or infrastructure external to the device, nor does it depend on the infrastructure because of such a system.

6, there is shown a method of determining the direction F toward which the user is traveling while the user is walking, by comparing the length of the acceleration measured by the portable electronic device 1 during the walking cycle of the user 2 with respect to the methods of the first category The process of illustrating one of the methods of the second category, utilizing the term, is illustrated.

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

The portable electronic device 1 samples the measurements of the accelerometers 12 and thus the information thus sampled is available to the device. To determine the direction F 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 the inspection of the acceleration readings and recognizing the predetermined acceleration behavior corresponding to the human walking movement. 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 the vertical acceleration data decomposed from the acceleration data measured in the device reference frame by implementing a mathematical transformation representation.

In step 6.2, on the basis of the information determined in the previous analysis of the movement of the device being carried at a plurality of positions relative to the body of the walking user 2 and stored in the device, Wherein the acceleration of the device, which is normal to the sagittal plane S of the user, is selected in such a way that the acceleration of the device in the direction towards which the user is facing It is smaller than acceleration. On the other hand, the method described with reference to FIG. 5 includes an acceleration analysis for a short period or moment during which the acceleration of the device, which is normal to the sagittal plane, is close to zero, It may not exist. However, acceleration to the normal with respect to the sagittal plane can still find a smaller period of time relative to the acceleration of the device in the direction the user is heading. However, the one or more periods selected in 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. The controller selects the horizontal acceleration measured during one or more periods of the user's walk during each walk identified on the data stream.

Since the selected data still contains a significant amount of acceleration, which is normal to the sagittal plane S, it can not immediately determine the direction F from the data to which the user 2 is directed. In step 6.3, therefore, the portable electronic device 1 performs a principal component analysis on the selected data and determines that the direction F towards which the user 2 is directed is parallel to the axis of the first main component. The main component analysis has been briefly described above with reference to FIG. 3 and is also known in the art, and will not be described in detail here. The portable electronic device then determines the absolute direction to which the user is directed by further analyzing the sensed data and, for example, the direction the user is aiming to double integrate the acceleration data for both axes directions and provide a positive result By taking something to do.

Figure 6 shows a portable electronic device 1 that is positioned relative to a user 2 so that a semi-deterministic movement predominantly takes place while the user is walking allows the user to quickly, accurately, and efficiently determine the direction F the user is heading ≪ / RTI > Also, the method of FIG. 6 does not necessarily require interaction with a system or infrastructure external to the device, nor does it rely on such a system or infrastructure.

For some locations, the methods of the first and second categories described with reference to Figures 5 and 6 are not appropriate and instead use the alternative method described above. This alternate method of determining the direction F that the user is facing includes converting the accelerometer 12 readings of the device reference frame to earth reference frames, performing a principal component analysis on the horizontal acceleration readings, To determine the direction F the user 2 is heading. More specifically, the statistical analysis is not performed only during a specific period of the user's walking cycle, but is performed over a period corresponding to one or more entire walking cycles. These alternative ways of determining the direction that the user is facing are known in the art and are not described here in detail. This method can be selected, for example, if it is known that the portable electronic device 1 is at a position relative to the body of the user to which the device will undergo non-deterministic movement during the user's walking cycle. This non-deterministic movement may occur, for example, when a portable electronic device is being carried in a user's hand or a handbag.

The timing determination of the user's gait cycle, performed in steps 5.1 and 6.1, respectively, of the methods of FIGS. 6 and 6, detects and detects the gait effect experienced by the device, which periodically varies with the user's gait cycle while the user is walking And may be performed using information from any sensors that can be measured. If the timing of the user's gait is determined using sensors other than the device's accelerometer, the timing of the user's gait, determined from other sensors, may be used to identify the relevant portions of the accelerometer data to determine the direction the user is heading have. Also, unless accelerometer readings are used to determine the user ' s gait timing, it may be necessary to convert the raw acceleration data into a global reference frame to determine the direction F the user is facing.

The method of Figure 4 determines the direction F the user is facing in an efficient and reliable manner in terms of operation with respect to the position of the plurality of devices 1 relative to the body of the user 2, It is possible to determine the orientation of the user 2 with respect to the reference frame. As such, the method of FIG. 4 can provide a great opportunity to significantly develop portable electronic device technologies. By grasping the orientation of the user 2 with respect to the earth reference frame, it provides immediate advantages to many existing portable electronic device applications, for example, by orienting the direction F the user is facing towards the peripheral map of applications to the user 2, or informs the two users when two users, each having its own device 1, are facing each other. The method of Figure 4 also requires that the electrical infrastructure of any area be aware of the direction F that the users 2 in that area are heading for and may use this information, Can be used to create a new smart environment that enhances the user experience.

Referring to Fig. 4, first of all, after the device 1 has determined the position of the device using the sensor data in the first process, the position of the device with respect to the user 2 in the second process can be used to determine the orientation of the user It will be appreciated that these two processes need not be executed together and that the present invention is not limited to a combination of these two processes. Information that indicates the location may be used for purposes other than determining the orientation of the user with respect to the global reference frame. Accordingly, the positional information used to determine the orientation of the user may be obtained in any suitable manner and need not be obtained from the accelerometer data as described with reference to Fig.

The methods of FIGS. 4-6 can determine the orientation of the user's body with respect to the earth reference frame (X, Y, Z) by determining the direction F towards which the user is facing. However, as described above, using methods based on the methods of Figs. 4-6, the mathematical representation can be used to transform the determined user ' s body orientation for the global reference frame to a device reference frame, The orientation of the user's body may be determined. By also estimating the relative orientation of the user to the device in this way and analyzing this information over time, the device can detect changes in the orientation of the device relative to the user, for example, By performing the predetermined process again, it is possible to respond to the detected change in this way, and thus to recalibrate the device to a new orientation.

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

While 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. Accordingly, the invention may be embodied in other ways, as would be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art.

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, a 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. In addition, the portable electronic device may not include a magnetometer. In addition, the portable electronic device does not require the positioning function described with reference to Fig. It will also be appreciated that the portable communication device may function in conjunction 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 the portable communication device may be provided without any form of user interface and may have any physical form and size suitable for a person to carry.

Claims (40)

A method for determining a location for a user of a device carried by a user,
Determining a mathematical representation of a transformation between an earth reference frame and a device reference frame in the apparatus;
Receiving movement data from a sensor device of the device capable of measuring movement of the device while the user is walking;
Transforming the moving data into a global reference frame component using the mathematical expression;
Identifying a substantial principal component of a variation of at least one component of the transformed data;
Resolving the transformed data into the substantial principal component;
Determining one or more statistical characteristics of the decomposed data by performing a statistical analysis on the decomposed data; And
And identifying the location of the device for the user by comparing the determined one or more statistical features with a predetermined one or more statistical features. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the sensor device comprises an accelerometer device, and wherein the movement data comprises acceleration information for the device. 3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein at least one component of the transformed data comprises a horizontal component or a vertical component. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Wherein the sensor device comprises a magnetometer device. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
Wherein the earth reference frame includes a reference axis corresponding to a vertical direction and a plane corresponding to a horizontal plane,
The method comprising: receiving sensed information from the sensor device while the user is standing, analyzing the sensed information to determine that the user is standing before determining the mathematical expression, and in response to determining that the user is standing, Further comprising determining a direction of a reference axis of the earth reference frame for the device reference frame from the sensed information analyzed,
Wherein determining the mathematical expression comprises 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. 6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
Wherein identifying the location of the device for the user by comparing the determined one or more statistical features to a predetermined one or more statistical features comprises using a statistical classifier algorithm. A method of determining a user's body orientation with respect to a reference frame in a device carried by a user,
Determining a location for the user of the device; And
Selecting any of a plurality of methods for determining a user's orientation with respect to the reference frame based on a determined position of the device. 8. The method of claim 7,
Wherein the device comprises a sensor device and wherein the sensor device is capable of detecting and measuring a side effect occurring in the device that cyclically changes in accordance with the user's walking cycle during walking, And at least one accelerometer device that is capable of measuring at least one dimension. 9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the reference frame comprises a first reference frame, and the plurality of methods of the plurality of methods comprise:
Selecting one or more periods within a user's gait cycle according to a determined position of the apparatus, wherein one or more periods in the user's gait cycle are selected in a predetermined direction with respect to a second reference frame corresponding to the user's reference frame Wherein the movement of the device is one or more periods dominant;
Measuring an acceleration of the device during the at least one period; And
And estimating the orientation of the user relative to the first reference frame from the measured acceleration. 10. The method of claim 9,
Wherein a predetermined direction with respect to the second reference frame is a direction in which the body of the user is facing. 11. The method according to claim 9 or 10,
In at least one of the plurality of methods, estimating the orientation of the user with respect to the first reference frame may include determining that the acceleration direction for the at least one period is a predetermined direction relative to the second reference frame ≪ / RTI > 11. The method according to claim 9 or 10,
In at least one of the multiple methods, estimating the orientation of the user with respect to the first reference frame comprises performing a statistical analysis on the acceleration data measured during the one or more periods. Orientation determination method. 13. The method of claim 12,
The step of performing the statistical analysis may include performing prinicipal component analysis on the acceleration data measured during the one or more periods of time, and determining a direction of one component of the main components, The direction of the orientation of the substrate. 14. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 13,
Wherein one of the plurality of methods comprises measuring the acceleration of the device and performing a principal component analysis on the measured acceleration. 15. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 14,
Wherein the reference frame is a geographic reference frame and the method further comprises determining a mathematical representation of the transformation between the geographic reference frame and the device reference frame, And using the measured acceleration information converted into the frame. 16. The method of claim 15,
Wherein the sensor device comprises a magnetometer device, prior to determining the mathematical expression,
Receiving information from the accelerometer device and the magnetometer device;
Determining from the received information that the user is standing, analyzing information received from the accelerometer device to determine that the user is standing and, in response to determining that the user is standing, 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 the information received from the magnetometer device; And
Determining a third axis of a global reference frame for the device as being orthogonal to the first axis and the second axis,
Wherein determining the mathematical expression comprises: determining a mathematical representation of a transformation between a set of three orthogonal axes of the device reference frame and a determined first axis, a second axis, and a third axis of the global reference frame. Orientation determination method. 17. The method of claim 16,
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 global reference frame, and taking into account the new orientation of the device with respect to the global reference frame Further comprising shipping the mathematical expression property. 18. The method according to any one of claims 15 to 17,
Determining an orientation of the user's body with respect to the device reference frame by using the mathematical expression and converting the user orientation determined for the global reference frame to the device reference frame. 18. A computer program comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 18. The apparatus for determining a position of the apparatus with respect to the user when the user is carrying the apparatus,
A controller;
A memory for storing information corresponding to one or more statistical features relating to different locations of the device and a mathematical representation of a transformation between a global reference frame and a device reference frame in the device; And
And a sensor device capable of measuring the movement of the device,
The controller receives movement data from the sensor device obtained while the user carrying the device is walking, converts the movement data to earth standard frame components using the mathematical expression, Determining one or more statistical characteristics of the decomposed data by identifying a substantial principal component of a variation of at least one component, decomposing the transformed data into the substantial principal component, and performing a statistical analysis on the decomposed data, And to identify the location of the device for the user by comparing the determined one or more statistical features to the stored one or more statistical features. 21. The method of claim 20,
Wherein the sensor device comprises an accelerometer device and the movement data comprises acceleration information from the accelerometer device. 22. The method of claim 21,
Wherein at least one component of the transformed data comprises at least one of a horizontal component or a vertical component. 23. The method according to any one of claims 20 to 22,
Wherein the sensor device comprises a magnetometer device. 24. The method according to any one of claims 20 to 23,
Wherein the earth reference frame includes a reference axis corresponding to a vertical direction and a plane corresponding to a horizontal plane,
The controller receives sensing information from the sensor device obtained while the user carrying the apparatus is standing, analyzes the received sensing information to determine whether the user is standing, and determines whether the user is standing In response to the detection of the reference frame, the direction of the reference axis of the earth reference frame relative to the device reference frame from the sensing information obtained while the user is standing,
Wherein the controller is further configured to determine the mathematical expression by determining a mathematical representation of the transformation between a set of three orthogonal axes of the device reference frame and a reference plane of the reference axis and the reference frame of the global reference frame. 25. The method according to any one of claims 20 to 24,
Wherein identifying the location of the device for the user by comparing the determined one or more statistical features with the stored one or more statistical features comprises using a statistical classifier algorithm. An apparatus for determining the orientation of a user carrying a device with respect to a reference plane,
A memory for storing information regarding a plurality of methods for determining the orientation of the user for a particular frame; And
And a controller configured to receive information about the location of the device for the user and to select any of the plurality of methods based on information about the location of the device. 27. The method of claim 26,
Wherein the controller is configured to use the information from the sensor device to determine the timing of the user's gait cycle as part of a plurality of methods of the plurality of methods. 28. The method of claim 27,
Wherein the sensor device comprises an accelerometer device for three-dimensionally measuring acceleration of the device, the reference frame comprising a first reference frame,
The controller comprising:
Selecting one or more periods in the user's gait cycle based on information about the position of the apparatus, wherein the one or more periods are selected such that movement of the apparatus is in a predetermined direction of a second reference frame corresponding to the user ' The one or more periods being one or more periods predominant to the period,
Selecting acceleration data obtained by the accelerometer device during the one or more periods; and
And to estimate the user's orientation for the first reference frame from the acceleration data as part of a plurality of methods of the plurality of methods. 29. The method of claim 28,
Wherein the predetermined direction with respect to the second reference frame is a direction in which the body of the user is facing. 30. The method of claim 28 or 29,
The controller is configured to determine, in at least one of the plurality of methods, that the acceleration direction for the at least one period corresponds to a predetermined direction of the second reference frame, And estimating the orientation of the object. 30. The method of claim 28 or 29,
Wherein the controller performs a principal component analysis on the acceleration data measured during the one or more periods and the direction of one of the principal components is determined for the predetermined To determine the orientation of the user with respect to the first reference frame. 32. The method according to claim 26 or 31,
Wherein the memory is further configured to store a mathematical representation of a transformation between a third reference frame and a first reference frame corresponding to a device reference frame and wherein the controller uses the stored mathematical expression to calculate a measured acceleration And to convert the information into the first reference frame. 33. The method of claim 32,
Wherein the first reference frame is a geomagnetic reference frame and the sensor device further comprises a magnetometer device,
The controller may further comprise:
Determining a first axis of the earth reference frame relative to a device frame reference from information received from the acceleration device while the user is standing, the first axis corresponding 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 the information received from the magnetometer device,
Determine a third axis of the earth reference frame for the device reference frame as being orthogonal to the first and second axes,
And to determine the mathematical expression as a mathematical expression of a transformation between a set of three orthogonal axes of the device reference frame and a determined first axis, a second axis, and a third axis of the earth reference frame. 34. The method of claim 33,
Wherein the controller is further configured to detect a change in the orientation of the device relative to the global reference frame using information received from the sensor device while the user is walking and to determine a new orientation of the device relative to the global reference frame And to re-calculate the mathematical expression. 35. The method according to any one of claims 32 to 34,
Wherein the controller is further configured to determine an orientation of the user's body with respect to the device reference frame by using the mathematical expression to convert the determined orientation of the user for the first reference frame to the device reference frame, . A method for determining a location for a user of a device carried by a user substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. A method for determining an orientation of a body of a user relative to a global reference frame in a user-carried device substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings. The apparatus for determining the position of the device with respect to the user when the user is carrying the device substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings. Apparatus for determining an orientation of a user's body with respect to a global reference frame substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. A method for determining a location for a user of a device carried by a user,
Determining a mathematical representation of a transformation between a global reference frame and a device reference frame in the apparatus;
Receiving movement information of the device measured by a magnetometer of the device while the user is walking, and converting the movement information to a geodetic frame in the device using the mathematical expression;
Determining one or more statistical characteristics of the transformed information by performing a statistical analysis on at least one component of the transformed information; And
And comparing the determined one or more statistical features to one or more predetermined statistical features to identify the location of the device for the user.

Images