The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 11, 2001
Filed:
Oct. 28, 1999
Donald Dieter Frantz, Kitchener, CA;
Stephen Eldon Leis, Waterloo, CA;
Stefan Kirsch, Wuerenlingen, CH;
Christian Schilling, Wuerenlingen, CH;
Northern Digital, Inc., Waterloo, CA;
Abstract
A system for determining spatial position and/or orientation of one or more objects. The system includes an optical subsystem and a non-optical subsystem. The optical subsystem includes optical subsystem light sources mounted to one or more of the objects and an optical subsystem sensor adapted to detect energy from the optical subsystem light sources. The optical subsystem has an optical subsystem coordinate system in a fixed relationship with the optical subsystem sensor. The optical subsystem sensor produces position and/or orientation signals relative to the optical subsystem coordinate system in response to optical subsystem light source detected energy. The non-optical subsystem has a non-optical coordinate system and is adapted to produce position and/or orientation signals of one or more of the objects relative to the non-optical subsystem coordinate system. A coupling arrangement is provided for producing position and/or orientation signals indicative of the position and/or orientation of the selected one of the optical or non-optical subsystems relative to the coordinate system of the other one of the optical or non-optical subsystems. A processor is responsive to signals produced by the coupling arrangement and the individual subsystem sensors for determining the position and/or orientation of one or more of the objects relative to some conveniently defined coordinate system.