Search

EP-4309243-B1 - DEVICES AND TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING RECEPTION OR COMPENSATING FOR ATTENUATION OF GNSS SIGNALS DURING WATER IMMERSION ACTIVITIES

EP4309243B1EP 4309243 B1EP4309243 B1EP 4309243B1EP-4309243-B1

Inventors

  • GUM, ARNOLD JASON
  • BIACS, ZOLTAN
  • PON, RAYMAN WAI
  • TUCK, DAVID
  • ZHENG, BO
  • WONG, JEFFREY

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20220121

Claims (15)

  1. A method for calculating positioning information during water immersion activities, the method comprising: receiving (810) a plurality of first wireless signals using an antenna of a wearable device (204), wherein the antenna is located in an exterior portion of the wearable device such that the antenna faces away from a body of a user that wears the wearable device to receive the first wireless signals, wherein the first wireless signals comprise first Global Navigation Satellite System, GNSS, signals and/or Wide Area Network, WAN, signals and/or Wireless Local Area Network, WLAN, signals; obtaining, by the wearable device, second GNSS signals received using an antenna of a second wearable device (208) that is at least periodically out of water and/or has a better reception of GNSS signals than the wearable device; selecting wireless signals from the received first wireless signals based on an orientation of the wearable device and/or a pressure detected by the first wearable device; and determining (820) a geographic location of the wearable device based at least in part on the selected wireless signals and the second GNSS signals.
  2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the wearable device (204) is out of water based on a pressure detected by the wearable device and selecting one or more first GNSS signals from the received one or more first wireless signals responsive to determining that the wearable device is out of water.
  3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining that the wearable device (204) is in water based on a pressure detected by the wearable device and selecting one or more WAN or WLAN signals from the received one or more first wireless signals responsive to determining that the wearable device is in water.
  4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the orientation of the wearable device (204) based on one or more measurements made by an inertial measurement unit of the wearable device.
  5. The method of claim 1, wherein the exterior portion of the wearable device (204) comprises: a crown (406) of the wearable device; a face (408) of the wearable device; a portion of a band (410) of the wearable device adjacent the face of the wearable device; or a combination thereof.
  6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: accessing information of a plurality of geographic points, the plurality of geographic points defining a swim lane; determining whether the geographic location of the wearable device is outside the defined swim lane; and providing feedback to the user indicating that the geographic location of the wearable device is outside the swim lane, wherein the feedback comprises haptic feedback or audio feedback.
  7. The method of claim 1, wherein the antenna is configured to receive the first GNSS signals without the first GNSS signals first passing through an air gap within a housing of the wearable device (204).
  8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing, to the user via an augmented reality device, lane information, location information, or both of other objects in water.
  9. A wearable device (204) comprising: a body including an exterior portion; a processing circuit housed in the body; and an antenna electrically coupled to the processing circuit, the antenna located at the exterior portion of the body such that, during operations of the wearable device, the antenna faces outwardly to receive (810) a plurality of first wireless signals at the exterior portion of the body and feeds the received first wireless signals to the processing circuit, wherein the received first wireless signals comprise first Global Navigation Satellite System, GNSS, signals and/or Wide Area Network, WAN, signals and/or Wireless Local Area Network, WLAN, signals; and one or both of an inertial measurement unit or a pressure sensor, wherein the processing circuit is configured to: obtain second GNSS signals received using an antenna of a second wearable device (208) that is at least periodically out of water and/or has a better reception of GNSS signals than the first wearable device; selecting wireless signals from received first wireless signals based on an orientation of the wearable device determined based on measurements from an inertial measurement unit of the wireless device and/or a pressure determined based on measurements from a pressure sensor of the wireless device; and determining (820) a geographic location of the wearable device based at least in part on the selected wireless signals and the second GNSS signals.
  10. The wearable device of claim 9, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to determine that the wearable device is out of water based on a pressure detected by the wearable device and select first GNSS signals from the received first wireless signals responsive to determining that the wearable device is out of water.
  11. The wearable device of claim 9, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to determine that the first wearable device is in water based on a pressure detected by the pressure sensor and select WAN or WLAN signals from the received first wireless signals responsive to determining that the wearable device is in water.
  12. The wearable device of claim 9, wherein the exterior portion of the body comprises: a crown of the wearable device; a circumferential portion of the hermetically sealed case; a portion of a band of the wearable device; or a combination thereof.
  13. The wearable device of claim 9, wherein: the exterior portion of the body comprises a cover that is at least partially transparent to visible light; the antenna comprises an antenna attached to a surface of the cover or embedded in the cover the antenna attached to the surface of the cover or embedded in the cover comprises a mesh, a loop, an inverted F antenna, a directional antenna, an omnidirectional antenna, or a combination thereof; and the surface includes an interior surface or an exterior surface.
  14. The wearable device of claim 9, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to: access information regarding a plurality of geographic points that define a geographic zone; determine, based on the plurality of geographic points, that the geographic location is outside the geographic zone; and provide, in response to determining that the wearable device is outside the geographic zone, feedback to a user of the wearable device.
  15. The wearable device of claim 9, wherein the body of the wearable device is configured to be removably attached to swim goggles, a wetsuit, a head band, or a neck of a user.

Description

BACKGROUND Use of electronic devices for tracking open water swim path and measure total distances is gaining in popularity. However, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals do not penetrate water well. Therefore, electronic devices (e.g., wearable devices) generally have difficulty in receiving navigation signals during in-water activities, especially those activities in which the electronic device is underwater for at least some periods of time (e.g., during a swimming stroke). For example, current open water features on commercially available devices do not work well for swim strokes such as the breaststroke where the user's hand with a wearable device does not break the surface of the water for much of the stroke. The water attenuation issue results in a trace of GNSS fixes jumping around for some commercially available wearable devices during periods of time when the device is in water. In US 2011/0128824 A1 there is described a watch device for use by a swimmer while swimming in a body of water. The watch device may generally comprise a housing, a location determining component disposed within the housing and operable to receive one or more satellite signals to determine a current geographic location of the housing, and a processing system. The processing system may synchronize the location determining component with the swimmer's arm movement so that the location determining component can determine the current geographic location of the housing. In WO 2015/164944 A1 there is described a wearable computing device that is secured or attached to a resilient strap, the resilient strap sized to fit around at least a part of a circumference of a human head. The device has a waterproof storage volume housing a plurality of sensors. The wearable computing device may calculate a plurality of swimming metrics based at least partly on data received from the at least one sensor. The wearable computing device may include a wireless communication subsystem secured to the resilient strap within the waterproof storage volume and may transmit at least one of the calculated plurality of swimming metrics to at least one computing device via the wireless communication subsystem. The wearable computing device may include at least one user output component and may present an indication of at least one of the calculated plurality of swimming metrics at the at least one user output component for communication to the user. The indication may be audio played in an ear piece connected to the strap, or may be visually displayed on a display in an eye goggle portion of the strap. In EP 3,009,169 A1 there is described an orientation apparatus for swimming, comprising: an attachment unit for attaching the apparatus to a swimmer; a user interface element; at least one processor and at least one memory including a computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising: obtaining heading information indicating a target heading to a target; detecting, during swimming, that the swimmer deviates from the target heading; and informing the swimmer, via the user interface element, that the swimmer has deviated from the target heading. In EP 3,609,020 A1 there is described an electronic device that includes a sensor, an antenna, a positioning circuit configured to receive satellite signals through the antenna using a specified frequency band, a resonant frequency adjustment circuit configured to adjust a resonant frequency of the antenna, and a processor, wherein the processor is configured to, identify whether the electronic device is in water using the sensor, when the electronic device is not in water, adjust the resonant frequency to a first frequency band specified according to a first permittivity of air in relation to the specified frequency band using the resonant frequency adjustment circuit, when the electronic device is in water, adjust the resonant frequency of the antenna to a second frequency band specified according to a second permittivity of water in relation to the specified frequency band using the resonant frequency adjustment circuit, receive the satellite signals through the antenna of which the resonant frequency has been adjusted to a frequency band corresponding to one of the first frequency band and the second frequency band using the positioning circuit; and determine a position of the electronic device primarily on the basis of the received satellite signals using the positioning circuit. In US 2020/0365974 A1 there are described various antenna designs that can be used to provide for wireless communication in electronic devices, such as wearable electronic devices. Various embodiments provide antenna structures and designs that can support multiple frequency bands in a relatively compact space. Various embodiments utilize a ring antenna forming a portion of an outer per