North-centred orientation tracking on mobile phones

Abstract

Magnetic compasses and accelerometers provide absolute orientation measurements within the earth's reference frame. However, sensor output typically suffers from jitter and external disturbances. Conversely, visual tracking provides more stable orientation estimation relative to an unknown initial orientation rather than to true north. We propose a 3-degree-of-freedom orientation tracking approach combining the accuracy and stability of vision tracking with the absolute orientation from inertial and magnetic sensors by estimating the offset between the initial orientation of the vision tracker and true north. We demonstrate that the approach improves absolute orientation estimation on a mobile phone device.