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EP-4209806-B1 - METHOD FOR OBTAINING A POSITION OF A PERIPHERAL DEVICE

EP4209806B1EP 4209806 B1EP4209806 B1EP 4209806B1EP-4209806-B1

Inventors

  • Armstrong, Calum
  • WELTON, Paul

Dates

Publication Date
20260513
Application Date
20230106

Claims (11)

  1. A method for obtaining a position of a person (40) who is using an audiovisual entertainment system by obtaining the position of a peripheral device (10) for an audiovisual entertainment system, wherein the peripheral device comprises a first audio source (11) and a first audio detector (21), the method comprising: controlling a second audio source (11) to output an audio signal at a first time: determining a second time at which the audio signal arrives at a second audio detector (21); and estimating a position of the peripheral device based on an acoustic time-of-flight between the first time and the second time, wherein the second audio source is the first audio source, and/or the second audio detector is the first audio detector; characterized in that the method further comprises: obtaining the orientation of the peripheral device; estimating an offset between the position of the peripheral device and the position of the person, based on the orientation of the peripheral device and estimating the position of the person based on the position and orientation and estimated offset of the peripheral device.
  2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the audio signal is an ultrasonic audio signal.
  3. A method according to claim 1 or claim 2, one of the second audio source and the second audio detector is located at a fixed hub device or at a second peripheral device.
  4. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein: the second audio source comprises a plurality of audio source elements at different positions, and the position of the peripheral device is estimated based on a plurality of acoustic times-of-flight for respective audio signals transmitted between the audio source elements and the second acoustic detector, or the second audio detector comprises a plurality of audio detector elements at different positions, and the position of the peripheral device is estimated based on a plurality of acoustic times-of-flight for respective audio signals transmitted between the second audio source and the audio detector elements.
  5. A method according to any of claims 1 to 4, further comprising obtaining a temperature measurement for the audiovisual entertainment system and estimating the position of the peripheral device based on the acoustic time-of-flight between the first time and the second time and the temperature measurement.
  6. A method according to any of claims 1 to 5, further comprising: controlling a starting amplitude of the audio signal when output from the second audio source; and measuring a final amplitude of the audio signal when received at the second audio detector, wherein the position of the peripheral device is estimated based on an acoustic time-of-flight between the first time and the second time and based on a comparison between the final amplitude and the starting amplitude.
  7. A method according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the position of the person is a position of the person's head.
  8. A method according to claim 7, further comprising estimating an orientation of the person's head.
  9. A computer program comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer of an audiovisual entertainment system, cause the computer to control the audiovisual entertainment system to perform a method according to any of claims 1 to 8.
  10. A non-transitory storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer of an audiovisual entertainment system, cause the computer to control the audiovisual entertainment system to perform a method according to any of claims 1 to 8.
  11. An audiovisual entertainment system configured to perform a method according to any of claims 1 to 8.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The following disclosure relates to methods for obtaining a position of a peripheral device in an audiovisual entertainment system, such as a gaming system. The following disclosure also relates to methods for obtaining a position of a person who is using an audiovisual entertainment system. Computer programs, systems and devices implementing the methods are also described. BACKGROUND In an audiovisual entertainment system, various peripheral devices such as handheld controllers, companion touchscreen interfaces, audio headsets and audiovisual headsets (e.g. VR or AR headsets) may be used by a user of the system, such as one or more people watching a movie or playing a game on the audiovisual entertainment system. There are various scenarios where it is useful to be able to locate a peripheral device and/or track movement of a peripheral device. For example, in a sports game, a handheld controller may be tracked to define a sporting move such as a golf swing. As another example, a location of a companion touchscreen may be obtained in order to extend a display from a main screen to the companion touchscreen. One known way of locating a peripheral device is to use a camera. For example, a PlayStation® Move controller can be located using a PlayStation® Camera. There are also various scenarios where it is useful to be able to locate the user and/or track movement of the user. For example, in a dance game, a user's limbs may be individually tracked. The user can also be located with a camera, for example by using feature detection in images to detect facial features or limbs. However, camera-based methods for locating a peripheral device or a user are not suitable for all situations. For example, in a case where a number of users or a number of peripheral devices concurrently interacting with an audiovisual entertainment system exceeds a threshold, a camera-based method may become less effective. Similarly, if lighting conditions in a room containing the audiovisual entertainment system differ from an expected lighting condition (e.g. low light conditions), a camera-based method may be less effective. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an alternative way of obtaining a position of a peripheral device in an audiovisual entertainment system, or an alternative way of obtaining a position of a person who is using an audiovisual entertainment system. Such an alternative way can then be used independently from a camera-based method, or together with a camera-based method. For example, such an alternative way may be used: as an alternative to a camera-based method as described above; as a fallback option in situations where a camera-based method is not sufficiently effective; or as a confirmatory method to be used together with a camera-based method. US2006/210101, US2019/113966, US 20310116 and US2020/366994 all disclose methods for locating a peripheral device in an audiovisual system. SUMMARY The present invention is defined in the appended claims. By using an audio signal that is transmitted or received by the peripheral device, the position of the peripheral device can be determined without requiring a camera. Additionally, the time-of-flight for an audio signal in a typical room is long enough to be measurable (around 3ms per meter along the path from the source to the detector at room temperature). By using a reflection, the audio source and audio detector can be contained within the peripheral device, without requiring modification of another component of the audiovisual entertainment system. Preferably, the audio signal is an ultrasonic audio signal. Ultrasonic signals can be used as audio signals without affecting a user's experience of the audiovisual entertainment system Preferably, the peripheral device comprises one of the audio source and the audio detector, and the other of the audio source and the audio detector is located at a fixed hub device or at a second peripheral device. By using a fixed hub device or a second peripheral device, a relative position of the peripheral device can be determined. Preferably, in the method: the audio source comprises a plurality of audio source elements at different positions, and the position of the peripheral device is estimated based on a plurality of acoustic times-of-flight for respective audio signals transmitted between the audio source elements and the acoustic detector, or the audio detector comprises a plurality of audio detector elements at different positions, and the position of the peripheral device is estimated based on a plurality of acoustic times-of-flight for respective audio signals transmitted between the audio source and the audio detector elements. By using multiple sources or multiple detectors, the position of the peripheral device can be triangulated in multiple dimensions. More preferably, the audio source comprises at least three audio source elements, or the audio detector comprises at least three audio detector elem