Systems and methods for motion capture of a subject, suitable for use in an underground mining environment.

A candidate region extraction unit (110) extracts candidate regions from an image by using a common characteristic amount. A part region extraction unit (120) separates a part region, which has a high likelihood of being a part, from a second-part candidate region other than the part region. A characteristic amount calculation unit (130) calculates the intrinsic characteristic amount of each of the part region and the second-part candidate region. A characteristic amount correction unit (140) corrects the intrinsic characteristic amount of either one of the candidate regions on the basis of the length, the width, and the angle of the other candidate region. A determination unit (150) determines whether or not the part region and the second-part candidate region are parts that constitute a pair on the basis of the similarity between the corrected intrinsic characteristic amount and the intrinsic characteristic amount of the other candidate region.

An optical detector (110) is disclosed, the optical detector (110) comprising: at least one spatial light modulator (114) being adapted to modify at least one property of a light beam (136) in a spatially resolved fashion, having a matrix (132) of pixels (134), each pixel (134) being controllable to individually modify the at least one optical property of a portion of the light beam (136) passing the pixel (134); at least one optical sensor (116) adapted to detect the light beam (136) after passing the matrix (132) of pixels (134) of the spatial light modulator (114) and to generate at least one sensor signal; at least one modulator device (118) adapted for periodically controlling at least two of the pixels (134) with different modulation frequencies; and at least one evaluation device (120) adapted for performing a frequency analysis in order to determine signal components of the sensor signal for the modulation frequencies.

A method for measuring a distance includes modulating the light beam at a first frequency, receiving a second beam by the optical detector to produce a first electrical signal having the first frequency and a first phase; modulating the light beam at a second frequency different than the first frequency; receiving the second beam by the optical detector to produce a second electrical signal having the second frequency and a second. After these steps, the retroreflector is moved while modulating the light beam continuously at the second frequency; and a first distance to the retroreflector is determined based at least in part on a the first and second frequencies and phases.

A dimensional measuring device sends a beam of light to a remote probe having a retroreflector and a pitch/yaw sensor. The pitch/yaw sensor passes the light through an aperture and a lens to a position sensor that generates an electrical signal indicative of the position of the received light. A processor uses the electrical signal to determine a pitch angle and a yaw angle of the remote probe.

A method and system including a camera adapted to capture frame image data, an orientation detector adapted to sense an orientation of the camera relative to an inertial frame of reference, a GPS receiver adapted to generate location data indicative of a velocity vector of the system relative to the inertial frame of reference, and a processor adapted to: upon receiving a frame image data, identify reference objects in the frame image data, calculate an orientation of the camera relative to the velocity vector based on a displacement of the reference object between at least two frames, predict an orientation of the camera relative to the velocity vector based on the sensed orientation by the detector, calculate a correction for the sensed orientation by comparing the calculated orientation to the predicted orientation, and upon receiving a sensed orientation, use the orientation correction for calculating a corrected orientation.

Systems and methods are disclosed for estimating speed and/or velocity for a portable device using an optical sensor. The optical sensor may capture a plurality of samples to be processed to estimate speed. The speed or velocity may be estimated based on a determined context and/or usage of the portable device. The estimated speed or velocity may be used to supplement other navigational solutions or may be used independently.

Described are targets for use in optical tracking, as well as related methods. A target comprises a plurality of light dispersers, optically coupled to at least one light source. The light dispersers are illuminated for detection and tracking by a tracking system. In some implementations, the at least one light source is optically coupled to the plurality of light dispersers by a plurality of light directors. In other implementations, the at least one light source includes a plurality of light sources positioned within or proximate to the plurality of dispersers. In some implementations, dispersers are lenses; in some implementations, dispersers are light scattering elements. Targets include or are coupled to a power source. In some implementations, targets include additional electrical components which utilize power from the power source.

There is provided with an image capture control device. An estimation unit estimates an orientation of the subject detected in an image captured by the image capture device. A region control unit sets a first region in an image capture range of the image capture device based on whether or not the estimated orientation of the subject is a predetermined orientation. An image capture control unit controls the image capture direction based on whether or not the subject is in the first region.

The disclosed system may include a housing dimensioned to secure various components including at least one physical processor and various sensors. The system may also include a camera mounted to the housing, as well as physical memory with computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the physical processor, cause the physical processor to: acquire images of a surrounding environment using the camera mounted to the housing, identify features of the surrounding environment from the acquired images, generate a map using the features identified from the acquired images, access sensor data generated by the sensors, and determine a current pose of the system in the surrounding environment based on the features in the generated map and the accessed sensor data. Various other methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.