Methods and systems for calibrating sensors of a computing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9631956-B2
Application number	US-201414147278-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 3, 2014
Priority date	Jan 3, 2014
Publication date	Apr 25, 2017
Grant date	Apr 25, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems for calibrating sensors on a computing device are described herein. In an example implementation, a computing device may perform a method to calibrate one or more sensors, which may include receiving an indication that a sensor has been calibrated. The computing device may further receive independent observations of a motion of a device from the calibrated sensor and a potentially non-calibrated sensor. The device may determine as independent estimation of motion based on the movement of the device corresponding to the outputs of the respective sensors. Based on whether or not the estimation of motion as provided by the potentially non-calibrated sensor is within a threshold variance of the estimation of motion as provided by the calibrated sensor, the computing device may provide instructions to adjust parameters of the non-calibrated sensor.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method performed by a device having a plurality of sensors, the method comprising:
receiving information indicating that a first sensor of the plurality of sensors has been calibrated;
receiving from the first sensor and a second sensor of the plurality of sensors outputs indicative of independent observations of a motion of the device;
determining a first estimation of the motion of the device based on the output of the first sensor and a second estimation of the motion of the device based on the output of the second sensor;
determining whether the second estimation of motion of the device is within a threshold variance of the first estimation of motion of the device; and
based on whether the second estimation of motion of the device is within the threshold variance of the first estimation of motion of the device, providing instructions to adjust one or more parameters of the second sensor.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving from a third sensor of the plurality of sensors outputs indicative of independent observations of a motion of the device substantially simultaneous to receiving from the first sensor and the second sensor of the plurality of sensors outputs indicative of independent observations of the motion of the device;
determining a third estimation of motion of the device based on the output of the third sensor;
determining whether the third estimation of motion of the device is within a threshold variance of the first estimation of motion of the device and the second estimation of motion of the device; and
based on whether the third estimation of motion of the device is within the threshold variance of the first estimation of motion of the device and the second estimation of motion of the device, providing instructions to adjust one or more parameters of the second sensor.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the motion of the device is performed by a robotic device, and the method further comprises:
receiving information indicative of the motion of the device from the robotic device; and
determining whether the second estimation of motion of the device is within a threshold variance of the motion of the device as indicated within the information from the robotic device; and
based on whether the second estimation of motion of the device is within a threshold variance of the motion of the device as indicated within the information from the robotic device, providing instructions to adjust one or more parameters of the second sensor.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving information indicative of the motion of the device from the robotic device comprises:
determining the motion of the device from the robotic device based on a near-field communication sensor of the device.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether the device is performing a function; and
wherein providing instructions to adjust one or more parameters of the second sensor is based on whether the device is performing the function.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a trust factor associated with respective sensors of the plurality of sensors, wherein the trust factor is based on one or more parameters of the respective sensors and is indicative of a confidence level that the respective sensors provide accurate outputs; and
providing instructions to adjust one or more parameters of respective sensors relative to the first sensor in an order based on the trust factor associated with respective sensors.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sensors include one or more of a gyroscope, accelerometer, camera, barometer, magnetometer, global positioning system (GPS), Wi-Fi sensor, near-field communication (NFC) sensor, temperature sensor, and Bluetooth sensor.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first sensor is a camera and the second sensor is one or more of a gyroscope, accelerometer, temperature sensor, and magnetometer.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving information indicating that a first sensor of the plurality of sensors has been calibrated comprises:
receiving information indicating that the first sensor has been calibrated via a pattern-process, wherein the pattern-process includes calibrating the first sensor using multiple observations by the first sensor of a static pattern and calibrating the first sensor based on the multiple observations.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second sensor is a camera with a moveable lens; and
wherein providing instructions to adjust one or more parameters of the second sensor comprises:
providing instructions to adjust one or more of a position, a depth, and an orientation of the moveable lens.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the second estimation of motion of the device is within a threshold variance of the first estimation of motion of the device comprises:
determining one or more of a bias, a scale, and a noise associated with an output of the second sensor; and
wherein providing instructions to adjust one or more parameters of the second sensor comprises:
providing instructions to adjust the one or more parameters of the second sensor based on the one or more of the bias, the scale, and the noise associated with the output of the second sensor.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
based on one or more parameters associated with the first sensor, providing instructions to adjust one or more parameters of a plurality of sensors simultaneously.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, upon execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform functions comprising:
receiving information indicating that a first sensor of a plurality of sensors has been calibrated;
receiving from the first sensor and a second sensor of the plurality of sensors outputs indicative of independent observations of a motion of the computing device;
determining a first estimation of the motion of the computing device based on the output of the first sensor and a second estimation of the motion of the computing device based on the output of the second sensor;
determining whether the second estimation of motion of the computing device is within a threshold variance of the first estimation of motion of the computing device; and
based on whether the second estimation of motion of the computing device is within the threshold variance of the first estimation of motion of the computing device, providing instructions to adjust one or more parameters of the second sensor.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the motion of the computing device is performed by a robotic device, and the functions further comprise:
receiving information indicative of the motion of the computing device from the robotic device; and
determining whether the second estimation of motion of the computing device is within a threshold variance of the motion of the computing device as indicated within the information from the robotic device; and
based on whether the second estimation of motion of the computing device is within a threshold variance of the motion of the computing device as indicated within the information from the robotic device, providing instructions to adjust one or more parameters of the second sensor.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 , wherein receiving information indicative of the motion of the computing device from the robotic device comprises:
determining the motion of the computing device from the robotic dev

Assignees

• Google Technology Holdings LLC

Inventors

• Mihelich Patrick
• De Nardi Renzo
• Dryanovski Ivan

Classifications

• G01C25/00

  Manufacturing, calibrating, cleaning, or repairing instruments or devices referred to in the other groups of this subclass (testing, calibrating or compensating compasses G01C17/38) · CPC title

• H04N17/002

  for television cameras · CPC title

• G01P21/00

  Testing or calibrating of apparatus or devices covered by the preceding groups · CPC title

• G01D18/00 Primary

  Testing or calibrating apparatus or arrangements provided for in groups G01D1/00 - G01D15/00 · CPC title