US Patent 11019246 Estimating and using relative head pose and camera field-of-view

A video or still hand-held digital camera is activated or controlled based on estimation of a user head pose or gaze direction. The system comprises uses two wearable devices associated with right and left sides of the user body, each comprises an RF beacon. The head pose or gaze detection is estimated by comparing the signal strength (such as RSSI) or the phase of the RF signals from the wearable devices at the digital camera device. An angular deviation between the head pose (or gaze detection) and the digital camera (such as the line of sight) is estimated, and the digital camera is activated or controlled based on comparing the angular deviation to a set threshold. The RF signals may be Personal Area Network (PAN) signals, such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals. The wearable devices may be head mounted, structured as glasses, earpieces, headphones, or hat mounted.