Body volume/shape determination using handheld devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11796312-B2
Application number	US-202117482319-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 22, 2021
Priority date	Sep 22, 2021
Publication date	Oct 24, 2023
Grant date	Oct 24, 2023

Abstract

Aspects of the subject technology relate to a system including a reference device, a measurement device and a processor. The measurement device provides a three-dimensional (3-D) point map corresponding to first positions of a plurality of selected points on a torso of a user. The processor determines a shape of the torso based on the 3-D point map. The measurement device is sequentially placed on the plurality of selected points, and the 3-D point map represents the first positions of the plurality of selected points relative to a second position associated with a location in 3-D space of the reference device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a reference device;
a measurement device configured to provide a three-dimensional (3-D) point map comprising a plurality of measured 3-D points that respectively correspond to first positions of a plurality of selected points at different locations on a torso of a user; and
a processor configured to determine a shape of the torso corresponding to the plurality of measured 3-D points of the 3-D point map,
wherein the measurement device is moved between the different locations on the torso of the user and placed on respective ones of the plurality of selected points to obtain the 3-D point map.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reference device comprises a portable communication device including one of a smartphone, a smartwatch, azo earbud, an earbud case and an airtag.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reference device is worn on or held by the user.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the reference device is located at a fixed location that is proximate to the user.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reference device is configured to communicate a second position associated with a location in 3-D space of the reference device to the measurement device.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the measurement device comprises a portable communication device including one of a smartphone, a smartwatch, an earbud, an earbud case and an airtag.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine a volume of the torso based on the determined shape of the torso.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an acoustic device configured to measure a length of a limb of the user by determining an acoustic time-of-flight (TOF) of an acoustic signal.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the measurement device includes a radiofrequency (RF) transceiver configured to measure a length of a limb of the user by determining an RF time-of-flight (TOF) of an RF signal.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the 3-D point map represents the first positions of the plurality of selected points relative to a second position associated with a location in 3-D space of the reference device.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the 3-D point map comprises a set of data points indicating a direction of movement of the measurement device relative to the reference device, wherein the set of data points correspond to the plurality of selected points.

12. A method comprising:
receiving, by a measurement device, a first position of a reference device;
providing, by the measurement device, a 3-D point map comprising a plurality of measured 3-D points that respectively correspond to second positions of a plurality of selected points at different locations on a torso of a user; and
determining, by a processor, a shape of the torso corresponding to the plurality of measured 3-D points of the 3-D point map,
wherein:
the measurement device is moved between the different locations on the torso of the user and placed on respective ones of the plurality of selected points to obtain the 3-D point map, and
the 3-D point map represents the second positions of the plurality of selected points relative to the first position associated with a location in 3-D space of the reference device.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein either of the reference device or the measurement device comprises a portable communication device including one of a smartphone, a smartwatch, an earbud, an earbud case and an airtag.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising using an acoustic device to measure a length of a limb of the user by determining an acoustic time-of-flight (TOF) of an acoustic signal.

15. The method of claim 12 , further comprising using an RF transceiver of the measurement device to measure a length of a limb of the user by determining an RE time-of-flight (TOF) of an RF signal.

16. The method of claim 12 , further comprising storing 3-D point-map data and filtering the 3-D point-map data to remove outlier signals due to measurement noise and/or measurement imperfection.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising preparing, by the processor, a boundary mesh consisting of a set of triangles based on the filtered 3-D point map data, the set of triangles representing a surface enclosed by the plurality of measured 3-D points, the boundary mesh indicating one or more mesh segments within the filtered 3-D point map data.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising performing, by the processor, a convex hulls decomposition by forming a set of convex hulls based on the boundary mesh.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising performing, by the processor, a convex hulls volume estimation by summing up volume estimates of each convex hull.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising determining, by the processor, the shape and a volume of the torso based on the convex hulls volume estimation.

21. A system comprising:
a first portable communication device placed in a first position;
a second portable communication device moved between different locations on a torso of a user and placed on a plurality of positions at respective ones of the different locations on the torso of the user to obtain a three-dimensional (3-D) point map comprising a plurality of measured 3-D points and configured to receive the first position from the first portable communication device and provide the 3-D point map representing second positions of the plurality of positions on the torso relative to the first position; and
a processor configured to determine a shape and a volume of the torso corresponding to the plurality of measured 3-D points of the 3-D point map.

22. The system of claim 21 , wherein:
the first portable communication device is worn or held by the user or is placed at a fixed location that is proximate to the user,
the second portable communication device includes an acoustic device configured to measure a length of a limb of the user by determining an acoustic time-of-flight (aw) of an acoustic signal, and
the second portable communication device includes an RF transceiver configured to measure the length of the limb of the user by determining an RF TOF of an RF signal.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Tadele Wegene H
• Wang Albert
• Hatanaka Motohide
• Trincia Nicholas R
• Smith William K

Classifications

• G01B17/06 Primary

  for measuring contours or curvatures · CPC title

• G01S5/30

  Determining absolute distances from a plurality of spaced points of known location · CPC title

• G01B7/28 Primary

  for measuring contours or curvatures · CPC title

• G01B7/02

  for measuring length, width or thickness (G01B7/004, G01B7/12 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01S5/0284

  Relative positioning · CPC title