Abstract: Systems and methods are presented that enable robot commands to be determined based on the pose of an object. A method is described for determining the orientation and pose of an object using indistinguishable points. The resolution of the pose detection is based on the robot'command vocabulary. A system is described for controlling a robot by pose detection using unlabelled points.

Abstract: A system that has a remote control, e.g., a wand, equipped with a relative motion sensor that outputs data indicative of a change in position of the wand. The system also has one or more light sources and a photodetector that detects their light and outputs data indicative of the detected light. The system uses one or more controllers to determine the absolute position of the wand based on the data output by the relative motion sensor and by the photodetector. The data enables determination of the absolute pose of the wand, which includes the absolute position of a reference point chosen on the wand and the absolute orientation of the wand. To properly express the absolute parameters of position and/or orientation of the wand a reference location is chosen with respect to which the calculations are performed. The system is coupled to a display that shows an image defined by a first and second orthogonal axes such as two axes belonging to world coordinates (Xo,Yo,Zo).

Abstract: An apparatus and method for optically inferring an absolute pose of a manipulated object in a real three-dimensional environment from on-board the object with the aid of an on-board optical measuring arrangement. At least one invariant feature located in the environment is used by the arrangement for inferring the absolute pose. The inferred absolute pose is expressed with absolute pose data (?,?,?,x,y,z) that represents Euler rotated object coordinates expressed in world coordinates (Xo,Yo,Zo) with respect to a reference location, such as, for example, the world origin. Other conventions for expressing absolute pose data in three-dimensional space and representing all six degrees of freedom (three translational degrees of freedom and three rotational degrees of freedom) are also supported. Irrespective of format, a processor prepares the absolute pose data and identifies a subset that may contain all or fewer than all absolute pose parameters.

Abstract: A system is presented that enables applications in a distributed system to communicate through a channel-based communication system. The applications use adaptors which communicate through a communication mechanism, resulting in application independence from the communication mechanism. In one embodiment, the communication mechanism consists of transmission media, logical channels, and brokers. The adaptors communicate with each other over the transmission media. Groups of adaptors involved in a particular type of communication from a communication channel. Channel profiles, which include channel properties and a list of adaptor members, are stored in brokers which can be queried by adaptors. Adaptors can support channel-specific data processing operations specified in the channel profile. Adaptors can join a channel, leave a channel, and communicate with other adaptors over the channel.

Abstract: Systems and methods are presented that cancel the dynamics of a motor and a joint controller in the presence of communication time delays, measurement noise, and controller parameter uncertainties inherent in a robot system. A cancellation system includes feedback of the measured output Ê of a controller block C. A first summing node (?1) subtracts Ê from the desired voltage Ed to determine a voltage error, which is fed into a G(s) block. A second summing node (?2) adds the output of the G(s) block to the desired voltage Ed to generate the signal ?, which is fed into a non-robust controller inversion block C?1. The block C?1 outputs a value ?, which is fed into the block C. The block C outputs the actual voltage E, which is input into a motor block M. Under perfect conditions, the voltage error is zero, in which case the input to block G(s) is zero.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an optical navigation system for determining at least one parameter of a pose, which includes the position and orientation of an object in an environment. The optical navigation system uses a number of beacons affixed at known locations in the environment to provide electromagnetic radiation in a sequenced pattern. An on-board optic images the radiation from the beacons onto an on-board centroid sensing device to obtain an imaged distribution of the radiation on the on-board centroid sensing device. The centroid sensing device determines the centroid of the imaged distribution and provides centroid information to a navigation unit for determining at least one parameter of the pose of the object from the centroid. The navigation system is particularly well-suited for navigating hand-held objects.

Abstract: Apparatuses and methods are presented that use a direct synthesis approach using layers in order to directly generate a virtual view from a pair of images. In one embodiment, a range space is discretized into a plurality of layers. For each layer, the first input image and the second input image are warped to the layer. A matching score is then determined for each pixel in the new view based on the warped input images. For each pixel in the virtual view, a best layer is determined. After the best layer has been determined, the color of the pixel in that layer is used for that pixel in the generated view.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for determining an inclination angle ? between an axis of an elongate object such as a cane, a pointer or a jotting implement such as a pen, pencil, stylus or the like and a normal to a plane surface at times when a tip of the elongate object is contacting that plane surface. The apparatus has an emitter mounted on the object for illuminating the plane surface with a probe radiation at an angle ? with respect to the axis of the object. The apparatus also has a detector mounted on the elongate object for detecting a radiation characteristic of a scattered portion of the probe radiation returning from the plane surface and a computing unit for deriving the inclination angle ? from the radiation characteristic. A scanning arrangement, such as a uniaxial or biaxial scanner, or a light guiding optic can be used for varying angle ?, and the probe radiation can be emitted in the form of a scan beam.

Abstract: Systems and methods are presented that use light sensors and computing devices to compute the depth of an object using shuttered light pulses. In one embodiment, depth is determined as follows: A light emitter emits a pulse of light that is directed toward an object. The pulse is reflected off the object and travels toward a beam splitter. The beam splitter splits the reflected pulse into multiple pulses, with each pulse directed to a shuttered sensor with a different shutter location. The shuttered sensors measure the integrated intensity of the light, and these values are used to determine the depth of the object. A method is presented which calibrates a system that has an arbitrary number of shutters and enables the system to determine the depth of an object, even in the presence of ambient illumination and scattered light.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining a pose of an elongate object and an absolute position of its tip while the tip is in contact with a plane surface having invariant features. The surface and features are illuminated with a probe radiation and a scattered portion, e.g., the back-scattered portion, of the probe radiation returning from the plane surface and the feature to the elongate object at an angle ? with respect to an axis of the object is detected. The pose is derived from a response of the scattered portion to the surface and the features and the absolute position of the tip on the surface is obtained from the pose and knowledge about the feature. The probe radiation can be directed from the object to the surface at an angle ? to the axis of the object in the form of a scan beam. The scan beam can be made to follow a scan pattern with the aid of a scanning arrangement with one or more arms and one or more uniaxial or biaxial scanners. Angle ? can also be varied, e.g.

Abstract: An apparatus and method employing principles of stereo vision for determining one or more orientation parameters and especially the second and third Euler angles ?, ? of an elongate object whose tip is contacting a surface at a contact point. The apparatus has a projector mounted on the elongate object for illuminating the surface with a probe radiation in a known pattern from a first point of view and a detector mounted on the elongate object for detecting a scattered portion of the probe radiation returning from the surface to the elongate object from a second point of view. The orientation parameters are determined from a difference between the projected and detected probe radiation such as the difference between the shape of the feature produced by the projected probe radiation and the shape of the feature detected by the detector.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are presented that determine the number of people in a crowd using visual hull information. In one embodiment, an image sensor generates a conventional image of a crowd. A silhouette image is then determined based on the conventional image. The intersection of the silhouette image cone and a working volume is determined. The projection of the intersection onto a plane is determined. Planar projections from several image sensors are aggregated by intersecting them, forming a subdivision pattern. Polygons that are actually empty are identified and removed. Upper and lower bounds of the number of people in each polygon are determined and stored in a tree data structure. This tree is updated as time passes and new information is received from image sensors. The number of people in the crowd is equal to the lower bound of the root node of the tree.