Real Time Sensor and Method for Synchronizing Real Time Sensor Data Streams

摘要

A Holocam Orb system uses multiple Holocam Orbs (Orbs) within a real-life environment to generate an artificial reality representation of the real-life environment in real time. Each Orb is an electronic and software unit that includes a local logic module, a local CPU and multiple synchronous and asynchronous sensors, include stereo cameras, time-of-flight sensors, inertial measurement units and a microphone array. Each Orb synchronizes itself to a common master clock, and packages its asynchrony data into data bundles whose timings are matched to frame timing of synchronous sensors, and all gathered data bundles and data frames are given a time stamp using a reference clock common to all Orbs. The overlapping sensor data from all the Orbs is combined to create the artificial reality representation.

主权项

1. A environment sensing apparatus, comprising:
at least one synchronous sensor characterized by:
(a) having a trigger input that actuates a start of a synchronous-data gathering cycle that captures first sensor data, and synchronously aligns its synchronous-data gathering cycle to the trigger input;(b) organizing the first sensor data captured during each synchronous-data gathering cycle into a corresponding data frame, and(c) issuing a frame-completion signal in response to completion of each data frame; at least one asynchronous sensor characterized by generating a continuous stream of second sensor data and lacking any input for aligning its second sensor data to any external clock source; and a first memory spaced and a second memory space, both first memory space and second memory space being coupled to selectively store second sensor data from the at least one asynchronous sensor; wherein: both the first memory space and second memory spaced are responsive to the frame-completion signal of the at least one synchronous sensor, the first memory space and second memory space are configured to alternate operation in accordance with the frame-completion signal, and only one of the first memory space and second memory space stores second sensor data from the at least one asynchronous sensor at a time to define discrete second sensor data groups each corresponding to a separate data frame in accordance with the frame-completion signal; and each data frame from the least one synchronous sensor is bundled with its corresponding second sensor data group stored in one of the first and second memory spaces to define a data frame bundle, and the defined data frame bundles are output from the environment sensing apparatus.