Always-on shock and orientation detection
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics International N.V.
InventorsStefano Paolo Rivolta, Piergiorgio Arrigoni
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure is directed to shock and orientation detection for an electronic device. The shock detection detects shock events, such as an accidental drop of the device, and the orientation detection detects the orientation of the device at the time of the detected shock event. The detected shock event and orientations are stored in non-volatile memory. The shock and orientation detection are implemented in low power hardware without any host intervention, and may be implemented as an always-on feature that executes even when the device is in an off or low power state.
Claims20
A device, comprising:
- a first memory;
- a second memory;
- an accelerometer configured to generate acceleration measurements;
- a gyroscope configured to generate angular velocity measurements;
- and
- one or more processors configured to:
- determine the device is in a stationary state or a motion state based on the acceleration measurements;
- perform orientation detection to detect orientations of the device based on the acceleration measurements and the angular velocity measurements in case the device is determined to be in the motion state;
- store the orientations of the device in the first memory;
- perform shock detection to detect a shock event based on the acceleration measurements in case the device is determined to be in the motion state, the shock event indicating the device has experienced an impact;
- and
- move the orientations of the device from the first memory to the second memory in case the shock event is detected.
A method, comprising:
- generating, by an accelerometer, acceleration measurements;
- determining, by a processor, a device is in a stationary state or a motion state based on the acceleration measurements;
- generating, by a gyroscope, angular velocity measurements in case the device is determined to be in the motion state;
- performing, by the processor, orientation detection to detect orientations of the device based on the acceleration measurements and the angular velocity measurements in case the device is determined to be in the motion state;
- storing the orientations of the device in a first memory;
- performing shock detection to detect a shock event based on the acceleration measurements in case the device is determined to be in the motion state, the shock event indicating the device has experienced an impact;
- and
- moving the orientations of the device from the first memory to a second memory in case the shock event is detected.
A device, comprising:
- a multi-sensor device including:
- a first memory;
- an accelerometer configured to generate acceleration measurements;
- a gyroscope configured to generate angular velocity measurements;
- and
- a first processor configured to:
- determine the device is in a motion state based on the acceleration measurements;
- detect orientations of the device based on the acceleration measurements and the angular velocity measurements in response to the device being determined to be in the motion state;
- store the orientations of the device in the first memory;
- and
- detect a shock event based on the acceleration measurements in response to the device being determined to be in the motion state, the shock event indicating the device has experienced an impact;
- a second memory;
- and
- a second processor configured to move the orientations of the device from the first memory to the second memory in response to the shock event being detected.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.