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:
Aug. 26, 2003
Filed:
Sep. 17, 2001
Waldean A. Schulz, Boulder, CO (US);
Ivan Faul, Boulder, CO (US);
Howmedica Leibinger Inc, Kalamazoo, MI (US);
Abstract
This invention is a system that tracks the 3-dimensional position and orientation of one or more bodies ( ) in a volume by a light based as well as at least one non-light based mensuration sub-system. This overcomes the limitation of light based mensuration systems to the necessity of the bodies ( ) to be in constant line-of-sight of its light based position sensors ( ). The invention possesses most of the accuracy and stability of its light based position measurement sub-system ( ), but can also work without direct line of sight either for short periods of time or within certain parts of the volume. It does so by incorporating other sensors ( ), such as inertial or magnetic, which are frequently recalibrated against the light based sub-system ( ) while the bodies ( ) are visible by the light based sub-system ( ).