The present invention relates to an object position determining system and a chair position determining system, and particularly relates to an object position determining system and a chair position determining system which can determine a position of an object.
A conventional object detection system may detect existence of an object. However, scopes of applications thereof are always limited. For example, a proximity sensor can only determine whether the object is in a far state or a close state but not calculate real distances. Also, an FIR (Far Infrared) device can only detect human bodies, even only moving human bodies. Additionally, an object detection system which applies an AI (artificial intelligence) algorithm may need to train the AI algorithm for a long time.
Therefore, a new object detection method is needed.
One objective of the present invention is to provide an object detection mechanism which has a wide range application.
One embodiment of the present invention provides an object position determining system, applied to a vehicle, comprising: at least one light source, configured to emit light; at least one optical sensor, configured to sense optical data generated based on reflected light of the light; and a processing circuit, configured to compute distance information between the optical sensor and at least one object which generates the reflected light, and real time vehicle orientation data; wherein the processing circuit determines at least one position of the object according to the distance information and the real time vehicle orientation data.
Another embodiment of the present invention provides a chair position determining system, applied to a vehicle, comprising: at least one light source, configured to emit light; at least one optical sensor, configured to sense optical data generated based on reflected light of the light; and a processing circuit, configured to compute distance information between the optical sensor and at least one chair which generates the reflected light, and real time vehicle orientation data; wherein the processing circuit determines at least one position of the chair according to the distance information and the real time vehicle orientation data.
In view of above-mentioned embodiments, the position of the chair can be calibrated corresponding to the movement of the airplane, thus the interference caused by the movement of the airplane can be reduced.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Several embodiments are provided in following descriptions to explain the concept of the present invention. Each component in following descriptions can be implemented by hardware (e.g. a device or a circuit) or hardware with software (e.g. a program installed to a processor). Besides, the method in following descriptions can be executed by programs stored in a non-transitory computer readable recording medium such as a hard disk, an optical disc or a memory. Additionally, the term “first” “second”, “third” in following descriptions are only for the purpose of distinguishing different one elements, and do not mean the sequence of the elements. For example, a first device and a second device only mean these devices can have the same structure but are different devices. Further, in following descriptions, the term “position” means a particular way in which someone or something is arranged.
In one embodiment, the distance information comprises at least one distance value. In other words, the processing circuit 103 determines the position of the object according to the real distance (the distance value) between the optical sensor 101 and the object. In one embodiment, the processing circuit 103 computes a plurality distance values in multi axes between the optical sensor 101 and the object (i.e., multi axes distances between the optical sensor 101 and the object) to determine the object position. Details of “ multi axes” will be described later. Various methods can be applied to compute distance values. For example, the processing circuit 103 can compute the distance value according to a time of emitting the light, a time of receiving the reflected light, and the light speed. However, the distance value computations can be implemented by other methods, for example, based on light phase difference.
Furthermore, the light source LS1...LS1n can be any type of light source. For example, the light source LS1...LS1n can be line light source(s), plane light source(s), or point light source(s).
In one embodiment, the “multi axes” means at least two different kinds of light sources are used, for example, a vertical line light source and a horizontal line light source. In such case, the above-mentioned distance information comprises “relative distance variation” between the object and the object position determining device. In one embodiment, such “relative distance variation” can be caused by the displacement of the object Ob, or whether the object Ob exists or not. The displacement of the object Ob, and the existence of the object Ob can be detected when the variation of at least one of a centroid of optical data generated according to light from the vertical line light source and a centroid of optical data generated according to light from the horizontal line light source is detected. Please note, in such example, the displacement or the existence of the object Ob can be detected but the distance values are not acquired. In one embodiment, the distance values can be acquired if other reference values can be acquired when at least two different kinds of light sources are used. For example, if a predetermined distance value between the object and the center of the vertical line light source, the horizontal line light source is set, the real distance values can be anticipated based on the above-mentioned centroid variation.
In one embodiment, the above-mentioned position is an inclining state of the object. In such case, the object can be a human body, a chair or a tray table.
As illustrated in
As above-mentioned, the distance information can comprise at least one distance value, thus the processing circuit 103 can determine the position of the tray table TT according to the distance value(s). For example, if at least partial of the distance value(s) is larger than a threshold, the processing circuit 103 determines the tray table TT is in an up position. On the contrary, if at least partial of the distance value(s) is smaller than the threshold, the processing circuit 103 determines the tray table TT is in a down position.
Besides the tray table TT, the processing circuit 103 can further compute distance information between a human body H and the optical sensor 101 in the object position determining device 100. In the embodiments of
As above-mentioned, the distance information can comprise at least one distance value, thus the processing circuit 103 can determine the position of the human body H according to the distance value (s) . For example, if at least partial of the distance value (s) is smaller than a threshold, the processing circuit 103 determines the human body H is in the upright position. On the contrary, if at least partial of the distance value (s) is larger than the threshold, the processing circuit 103 determines the human body H is in a reclining position. In another example, if at least one variation of the distance value is smaller than a difference threshold, the processing circuit 103 determines the human body H is in the upright position, since the human body H causes less distance difference while in the upright position. Oppositely, if at least one variation of the distance value is larger than a difference threshold, the processing circuit 103 determines the human body H is in the reclining position, since the human body H causes more distance difference while in the reclining position.
The rules illustrated in
In the embodiment of
Besides the applications illustrated in
As above-mentioned, the distance information can comprise a plurality of distance values, thus the processing circuit 103 can determine whether the chair CH2 is occupied or not according to the distance values. For example, if variations of the distance values are smooth, it means the chair CH2 is not occupied since the chair back of the chair CH2 has a flat surface which causes less distance difference. On the contrary, if variations of the distance values are strong, it means the chair CH2 is occupied by a user since a human body always has an irregular surface thus causes more distance difference. The method illustrated in
In the above-mentioned embodiments in
The object position determining system illustrated in
An object position determining system comprises a first object position determining device (e.g., 100) and a second object position determining device (e.g., 100). The first object position determining device comprises at least one first light source, a first optical sensor, and a first processing circuit. The first light source is configured to emit the first light. The first optical sensor is configured to sense the first optical data generated based on the reflected light of the first light. The first processing circuit is configured to compute a set of the first distance information between the first optical sensor and a human body H or a chair CH2 which generates the first reflected light. The first processing circuit determines an inclining state of the human body H or the chair CH2, according to the first distance information.
The second light source is configured to emit second light. The second optical sensor is configured to sense the second optical data generated based on the reflected light of the second light. The second processing circuit computes a set of the second distance information between the second optical sensor and the tray table TT, which generates the second reflected light. The second processing circuit further determines the inclining state of the tray table according to the second distance information.
In one embodiment, the first object position determining device is located above the tray table TT. The second object position determining device is located below the tray table TT and on the chair CH2.
In one embodiment, the object position determining system further comprises a prompt message generation device, which is configured to generate a prompt message according to the inclining state. For example, if the embodiments illustrated in
The concepts disclosed in the embodiments of
Also, in another embodiment, the steps of determining the inclining state of the human body can be applied for determining a posture of a human body. Such application can be used for sport training such as dancing training or gymnastics training. Besides, such application can be used for deportment training.
Additionally, the method of determining whether the chair is occupied can be used for determining whether a container is occupied. Such application can be used for a packaging factory, for example, determining if the goods is put inside the box. Please note, the container can be replaced by any other target space. The target space can be, for example, a compartment, an elevator or a parking space. In one embodiment, the target space is under the brake pedal, thus the method provided by the present invention can be applied to determine if the space below the brake pedal is occupied, which means the method provided by the present invention can be applied to determine whether the brake pedal is blocked. Following the same way, the method provided by the present invention can be applied to determine if any operation is blocked by an object.
Furthermore, the processing circuit 103 can determine a location of the object exists according to the distance information. For example, in one embodiment, the processing circuit 103 can determine a “real distance” between the object and the object position determining device according to the acquired distance values. After that, the processing circuit 103 can determine a location of the object according to the real distance.
Please note, an electronic device having structures the same as which of the object position determining device 100 can only be used for determining whether a container is occupied or a chair is occupied but not for determining the object position. In such case, the electronic device can be regarded as an object detection device. The object detection device can further be applied to determine a location of the object according to the distance information.
Scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments. Other applications based on the concept disclosed above, should also fall in the scope of the present invention.
In view of above-mentioned descriptions, an object detection mechanism which can be applied for object position detection, object existence detection and object location detection can be acquired.
In above-mentioned embodiments, the inclining state (i.e., the position) of the chair can be detected. For example, in the embodiments of
In some cases, the movements of the vehicle may interfere the position determination of the chair. For example, if the object position determining system is applied to an airplane, the flight orientation of the airplane may interfere the position determination.
Therefore, the present invention provides a mechanism to compensate the above-mentioned interference.
In one embodiment, the distance information comprises at least one distance value. In other words, the processing circuit 103 determines the position of the object according to the real distance (the distance value) between the optical sensor 101 and the object. In one embodiment, the processing circuit 103 computes a plurality distance values in multi axes between the optical sensor 101 and the object (i.e., multi axes distances between the optical sensor 101 and the object) to determine the object position. Details of “ multi axes” will be described later. Various methods can be applied to compute distance values. For example, the processing circuit 103 can compute the distance value according to a time of emitting the light, a time of receiving the reflected light, and the light speed. However, the distance value computations can be implemented by other methods, for example, based on light phase difference.
Furthermore, the light source LS1...LS1n can be any type of light source. For example, the light source LS1...LS1n can be line light source(s), plane light source(s), or point light source(s). Other details of the object position determining device 1200 can be found in above-mentioned embodiments, thus are omitted for brevity here.
Besides the distance information, the processing circuit 103 further receives real time vehicle orientation data VD. The processing circuit 103 further determines the chair position according to the real time vehicle orientation data VD. The real time vehicle orientation data VD comprises the tilt angles of the airplane in different dimensions. In one embodiment, the real time vehicle orientation data VD comprises roll, pitch and yaw. The real time vehicle orientation data VD can be provided by various devices. In one embodiment, the real time vehicle orientation data VD comes from a main computer which is used for controlling the airplane. In another embodiment, a specific device is provided to calculate the real time vehicle orientation data VD.
After receiving the real time vehicle orientation data VD, the processing circuit 103 can compensate the tilt angle of the chair according to the real time vehicle orientation data VD. For example, if the real time vehicle orientation data VD represents that the airplane is climbing upwards such that the airplanes tilt up for a specific angle, such as the example illustrated in
Please note, in the embodiments of
Besides the real time vehicle orientation data VD, the processing circuit 103 can further compensate the tilt angle of the chair according to other information. As shown in the embodiment of
Further, in the embodiment of
In view of above-mentioned embodiments, the position of the chair can be calibrated corresponding to the movement of the airplane, thus the interference caused by the movement of the airplane can be reduced.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Application No. 17/579, 529, filed on January 19th, 2022, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/230,068, filed on August 6th, 2021. The contents of these applications are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63230068 | Aug 2021 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 17579529 | Jan 2022 | US |
Child | 17960159 | US |