The present disclosure provides a marker with a pattern formed thereon, which includes an optical system. At least a part of the pattern that uniquely appears depending on a direction in which the pattern is viewed from an outside of the marker through the optical system, is visually identified from the outside of the marker. The pattern includes a plurality of rows of binary-coded sequences. The binary-coded sequence of each of the plurality of rows includes aperiodic sequences that are repeatedly arranged. The aperiodic sequences included in the binary-coded sequence of one row of the plurality of rows are different from the aperiodic sequences included in the binary-coded sequence of another row of the plurality of rows, and each of the aperiodic sequences includes a plurality of sub-sequences that are arranged in a predetermined order.

The present invention relates to a system for collecting, lifting, and recovering seabed mineral resources, specifically, a device wherein hydrogen gas is evolved on the seabed, resources are lifted by the buoyancy of the gas to the sea surface, and the hydrogen gas which has become an excess buoyancy source during the lifting and recovering is absorbed into an organic substance including toluene, thereby yielding hydrogenated compounds including cyclomethylhexane to recover the energy required for hydrogen gas production.

A positioning system, in particular, six-dimensions positioning system of a shadow sensor with respect to a constellation of light sources is provided. The sensor can be a shadow sensor and has a mask and a 2D imager. By recording the shadow of the mask cast by each light source on the imager, and by properly multiplexing the light sources, the system can compute the 6D position of the shadow sensor with respect to the constellation of light sources. This computation is based, in part, on treating the shadow of the mask cast on the imager as the equivalent of the projection of light in a pinhole or projective camera. In one embodiment, the system is applied in a surgical domain. In another embodiment, the system is rapidly deployed.

Systems and methods for determining orientation and three-dimensional position of construction equipment are presented. An orientation device is mounted to a machine. The orientation device has an image sensor. The orientation device measures an offset between a direction of the orientation device and a reference at a known location. The heading of the machine is calculated based on the offset and the known location of the reference.

Techniques described herein, which may provide for a location determination of a mobile device, can also provide for the determination of a viewing direction of a user of the mobile device. In particular, a user can wear a head-mountable apparatus with one or more light sensors configured to detect light from one or more modulated light sources. Using this information, not only may a location of the head-mountable apparatus be determined, but also an orientation, which can enable a determination of an approximate direction the user is looking.

Systems and methods for determining orientation and three-dimensional position of construction equipment are presented. An orientation device is mounted to a machine. The orientation device has an image sensor. The orientation device measures an offset between a direction of the orientation device and a reference at a known location. The heading of the machine is calculated based on the offset and the known location of the reference.

Disclosed is an interactive spatial orientation method and system. The method includes: sequentially scanning, by a scanning apparatus, a receiving apparatus in a first direction and a second direction perpendicular to each other; converting, by the receiving apparatus, received optical signals generated from the first scanning and the second scanning into radio waves carrying results of the first scanning and the second scanning, and transferring the radio waves to a processing apparatus; synthesizing, by the processing apparatus, the results of the first scanning and the second scanning to obtain six degrees of freedom information of the receiving apparatus. The system includes a scanning apparatus; a receiving apparatus; and a processing apparatus.

A system that measures six degrees-of-freedom of a remote target, the system including a dimensional measuring device having a camera, the remote target including a retroreflector, at least three light markers, and a pitch-yaw sensor, the six degrees-of-freedom determined based at least in part on measured 3D coordinates of the retroreflector by the dimensional measuring device, on a captured image of the at least three light markers by the camera, and on readings of the pitch-yaw sensor.

A laser communication system its integrated microradian-accuracy Acquisition and Tracking Sensor (ATS) to perform a celestial navigation fix to determine the attitude of the laser communications payload, including the integrated ATS and the co-boresighted laser beam, prior to establishing a laser communication link with a second vehicle such as a high-altitude aircraft or satellite. The laser communication system may use a legacy platform INS to initially point its narrow FOV ATS at one or more stars to obtain the vehicle's attitude therefrom. Then the precision payload attitude determined with the ATS star tracker fix is used to point the co-boresighted laser beam to establish a laser communications link with the second vehicle.

In a method for determining orientation of an object, raw image data of the sky is recorded using a sky polarimeter. One or more of Stokes parameters (S0, S1, S2), degree of linear polarization (DoLP), and angle of polarization (AoP) are calculated from the image data to produce a set of processed images. Last known position and time data of the object are obtained, and a known Sun azimuth and elevation are calculated using the last known position and time data. Roll and pitch of the object are found, and the roll and pitch data are used to find a zenith in the processed images. The yaw/heading of the object is determined using the difference between a polarization angle at the zenith and a calculated Sun azimuth.