Magnetic field based tracking methods and systems

A method for tracking a magnetic object comprising:

• obtaining a first magnetic field reading from a first magnetic field sensor and a second magnetic field reading from a second magnetic field sensor;
• searching the first magnetic field reading and the second magnetic field reading in an instantaneous search range of a pre-obtained magnetic field model to obtain a first solution set and a second solution set respectively that are within a search threshold;
• extracting overlapped solution sets comprising a difference of all components of the first solution set and the second solution set, wherein the difference of all components is within an overlap threshold;
• computing a position and an orientation of the magnetic object based on an average of each component of all overlapped solution sets;
• and
• updating the search threshold, the overlap threshold, and the instantaneous search range for subsequent searches based on one or both of a required usage of the method for tracking or an environment through which the magnetic object is tracked.

A non-transitory computer readable media for tracking a magnetic object utilizing magnetic field sensing of one or more magnetic field sensing devices, the computer readable medium storing instructions for a processing means to:

• obtain a first magnetic field reading from a first magnetic field sensing device and a second magnetic field reading from a second magnetic field sensing device;
• search the first magnetic field reading and the second magnetic field reading in an instantaneous search range of a pre-obtained magnetic field model to obtain a first solution set and a second solution set respectively that are within a search threshold;
• extract overlapped solution sets comprising a difference of all components of the first solution set and the second solution set, wherein the difference of all components is within an overlap threshold;
• compute a position and an orientation of the magnetic object based on an average of each component of the overlapped solution sets;
• and
• update the search threshold, the overlap threshold, and the instantaneous search range for subsequent searches based on one or both of a required usage of the method for tracking the magnetic object or an environment through which the magnetic object is tracked.