How should I calculate 3 axis of "world coordinates" from device motion?

Question

I am having trouble converting the device motion data into world coordinates.

I have been looking into rotation/projection matrixes and quaternion but CMAttitude (roll, pitch, yaw) is where is have had most success using gravity.y & gravity.z to find the device orientation around the same axis as pitch.

The end result i am looking for is a augmented/virtual reality feel as the user looks for 2D game objects around a center point.

Answer 1

I wouldn't use Euler angles (roll, pitch, yaw). It pretty much screws up the stability of your app, see here why: Strange behavior with android orientation sensor.

I would use rotation matrices. These tell you how to go from device coordinates to world coordinates and the other way around. You might find these useful:

• Theoretical intro
• Developer guide, see rotationMatrix

Answer 2

I'm currently working on a tilt-based app and thought I'd share what I ended up finding. This code converts from a quaternion to Euler (Looks like XYX, or ZYZ) and Tait-Bryan angles (looks like XYZ, or ZYX), although I've only used the Tait-Bryan ones myself. After guessing-and-checking through the Tait-Bryan angles, I discovered ZXY worked perfectly for my purposes.

Here's the link: http://bediyap.com/programming/convert-quaternion-to-euler-rotations/

And here's the code:

///////////////////////////////
// Quaternion to Euler
///////////////////////////////
enum RotSeq{zyx, zyz, zxy, zxz, yxz, yxy, yzx, yzy, xyz, xyx, xzy,xzx};

void twoaxisrot(double r11, double r12, double r21, double r31, double r32, double res[]){
  res[0] = atan2( r11, r12 );
  res[1] = acos ( r21 );
  res[2] = atan2( r31, r32 );
}

void threeaxisrot(double r11, double r12, double r21, double r31, double r32, double res[]){
  res[0] = atan2( r31, r32 );
  res[1] = asin ( r21 );
  res[2] = atan2( r11, r12 );
}

void quaternion2Euler(const Quaternion& q, double res[], RotSeq rotSeq)
{
    switch(rotSeq){
    case zyx:
      threeaxisrot( 2*(q.x*q.y + q.w*q.z),
                     q.w*q.w + q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                    -2*(q.x*q.z - q.w*q.y),
                     2*(q.y*q.z + q.w*q.x),
                     q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y + q.z*q.z,
                     res);
      break;

    case zyz:
      twoaxisrot( 2*(q.y*q.z - q.w*q.x),
                   2*(q.x*q.z + q.w*q.y),
                   q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y + q.z*q.z,
                   2*(q.y*q.z + q.w*q.x),
                  -2*(q.x*q.z - q.w*q.y),
                  res);
      break;

    case zxy:
      threeaxisrot( -2*(q.x*q.y - q.w*q.z),
                      q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x + q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                      2*(q.y*q.z + q.w*q.x),
                     -2*(q.x*q.z - q.w*q.y),
                      q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y + q.z*q.z,
                      res);
      break;

    case zxz:
      twoaxisrot( 2*(q.x*q.z + q.w*q.y),
                  -2*(q.y*q.z - q.w*q.x),
                   q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y + q.z*q.z,
                   2*(q.x*q.z - q.w*q.y),
                   2*(q.y*q.z + q.w*q.x),
                   res);
      break;

    case yxz:
      threeaxisrot( 2*(q.x*q.z + q.w*q.y),
                     q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y + q.z*q.z,
                    -2*(q.y*q.z - q.w*q.x),
                     2*(q.x*q.y + q.w*q.z),
                     q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x + q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                     res);
      break;

    case yxy:
      twoaxisrot( 2*(q.x*q.y - q.w*q.z),
                   2*(q.y*q.z + q.w*q.x),
                   q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x + q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                   2*(q.x*q.y + q.w*q.z),
                  -2*(q.y*q.z - q.w*q.x),
                  res);
      break;

    case yzx:
      threeaxisrot( -2*(q.x*q.z - q.w*q.y),
                      q.w*q.w + q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                      2*(q.x*q.y + q.w*q.z),
                     -2*(q.y*q.z - q.w*q.x),
                      q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x + q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                      res);
      break;

    case yzy:
      twoaxisrot( 2*(q.y*q.z + q.w*q.x),
                  -2*(q.x*q.y - q.w*q.z),
                   q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x + q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                   2*(q.y*q.z - q.w*q.x),
                   2*(q.x*q.y + q.w*q.z),
                   res);
      break;

    case xyz:
      threeaxisrot( -2*(q.y*q.z - q.w*q.x),
                    q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y + q.z*q.z,
                    2*(q.x*q.z + q.w*q.y),
                   -2*(q.x*q.y - q.w*q.z),
                    q.w*q.w + q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                    res);
      break;

    case xyx:
      twoaxisrot( 2*(q.x*q.y + q.w*q.z),
                  -2*(q.x*q.z - q.w*q.y),
                   q.w*q.w + q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                   2*(q.x*q.y - q.w*q.z),
                   2*(q.x*q.z + q.w*q.y),
                   res);
      break;

    case xzy:
      threeaxisrot( 2*(q.y*q.z + q.w*q.x),
                     q.w*q.w - q.x*q.x + q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                    -2*(q.x*q.y - q.w*q.z),
                     2*(q.x*q.z + q.w*q.y),
                     q.w*q.w + q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                     res);
      break;

    case xzx:
      twoaxisrot( 2*(q.x*q.z - q.w*q.y),
                   2*(q.x*q.y + q.w*q.z),
                   q.w*q.w + q.x*q.x - q.y*q.y - q.z*q.z,
                   2*(q.x*q.z + q.w*q.y),
                  -2*(q.x*q.y - q.w*q.z),
                  res);
      break;
    default:
      std::cout << "Unknown rotation sequence" << std::endl;
      break;
   }
}