Magnetic Position and Orientation Tracking System

Three-axis generation and sensing of quasi-static magneticdipole fields provide information sufficient to determine both the position and orientation of the sensor relative to the source. Linear rotation transformations based upon the previous measurements are applied to both the source excitation and sensor output vectors, yielding quantities that are linearly propotional to small changes in the position and orientation. Changes are separated using linear combinations of sensor output vectors, transformed to the desired coordinate frame, and used to update the previous measurements. Practical considerations for a head-tracking application are discussed.     

The Counting Phase Detector with VLF Atmospheric Noise

The counting detector offers a simple means of making and averaging digital measurements of signal phase. However, use of the averages can lead to erroneous estimates if the signal has a low carrier-to-noise ratio. How to overcome this problem by using multiple counters is shown here. Characteristics for both Gaussian and impulsive noise are derived, and algorithms for estimating both phase and carrier-to-noise ratio are presented.     

Square-Wave Correlation Phase Detector with VLF Atmospheric Noise

Correlation phase detectors often include hard limiting of both received and reference signals. The characteristics of such " square-wave" correlation detectors for both Gaussian and impluse noise are derived as functions of both phase and carrier-to-noise ratio. Decoding algorithms and accuracy are discussed.