Use of GPS to detect repetitive motion

1. A system mounted to an object for detecting repetitive motion of the object, comprising:

a GPS receiver configured to receive GPS signals while being maneuvered in a repetitive motion by the object between two relative positions;

a correlator configured to produce correlation values based on the received GPS signals;

a processor coupled to the correlator, the processor configured to detect phase shifts in the correlation values of the received GPS signals, determine that the phase shifts in the correlation values are repetitive phase shifts representing movement of the GPS receiver between the two relative positions, and compute the repetitive motion of the GPS receiver based on the repetitive phase shifts; and

a GPS tracking filter coupled to the processor and the correlator, the GPS tracking filter, during tracking, configured to remove the repetitive phase shifts received from the processor from the correlation values, and track the GPS signals using the correlation values with the repetitive phase shifts removed.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein

the correlator correlates the received GPS signals with known reference signals to produce correlation values; and the system further includes

a buffer for buffering a predetermined number of correlation values,

wherein the predetermined number of correlation values are used by the processor to detect the repetitive phase shifts in the received GPS signals.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein

the GPS tracking filter tracks the received GPS signals based on the correlation values, and

the repetitive phase shifts are used by the GPS tracking filter to predict phase jitter in the GPS signals.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein

the correlator correlates GPS signals received by a plurality of GPS satellites, and

the processor detects the repetitive phase shifts by combining respective repetitive phase shifts for the plurality of satellites.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein

the processor computes a location of the system based on the repetitive motion; and the system further includes

a memory for storing the computed location and repetitive motion over a period of time; and

a display for displaying the location and repetitive motion information to a user.

6. The system of claim 2 , wherein

the processor detects the repetitive phase shifts by monitoring successive correlation values stored in the buffer and detecting a repeating pattern.

7. A cellular phone configured to be attached to a user, comprising:

a GPS receiver configured to receive GPS signals while being maneuvered in a repetitive motion by the user between two relative positions;

a correlator configured to produce correlation values based on the received GPS signals;

a processor coupled to the correlator, the processor configured to detect phase shifts in the correlation values of the received GPS signals, determine that the phase shifts in the correlation values are repetitive phase shifts representing movement of the GPS receiver between the two relative positions, compute repetitive motion of the cellular phone and location of the cellular phone based on the repetitive phase shifts, and pass the detected repetitive phase shifts to an application running on the cellular phone; and

a GPS tracking filter coupled to the processor and the correlator, the GPS tracking filter, during tracking, configured to remove the repetitive phase shifts received from the processor from the correlation values and track the GPS signals using the correlation values with the repetitive phase shifts removed.

8. A system mounted to an object for computing a location of the object, comprising:

a GPS receiver configured to receive GPS signals while being maneuvered in a repetitive motion by the object between two relative positions;

a correlator configured to produce correlation values based on the received GPS signals;

a processor coupled to the correlator, the processor configured to detect phase shifts in the correlation values of the received GPS signals, determine that the phase shifts in the correlation values are repetitive phase shifts representing movement of the GPS receiver between the two relative positions, and compute a location of the GPS receiver,

a GPS tracking filter coupled to the processor and the correlator, the GPS tracking filter, during tracking, configured to remove the repetitive phase shifts received from the processor from the correlation values and to track the GPS signals using the correlation values with the repetitive chase shifts removed.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein

the correlator correlates the received GPS signals with known reference signals to produce correlation values.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein

the GPS tracking filter includes an adaptive Kalman filter which predicts the repetitive phase shifts that are removed from the correlation values.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein

the GPS tracking filter tracks GPS signals for a plurality of satellites, and

the processor computes repetitive phase shifts for each of the plurality of satellites.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein

the repetitive phase shifts for each satellite are weighted and averaged based on the carrier to noise power ratio for each respective satellite, and the weighted average is utilized by the GPS tracking filter to predict phase changes in the correlation values, and

a clock of the system is adjusted based on the predicted phase changes.

13. The system of claim 8 , including

a memory for storing the location and repetitive motion information computed based on the phase shifts, and

a port for connecting the system to a personal computer,

wherein the system uploads the stored information to the personal computer through the port.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein

the processor compares the repetitive phase shifts to a satellite reference phase computed by the GPS tracking filter.

15. A method of detecting repetitive motion of an object, where a GPS receiver is mounted to the object being maneuvered in a repetitive motion between the two relative positions, the method comprising:

receiving, by the GPS receiver, GPS signals;

producing, by a correlator, correlation values based on the received GPS signals;

detecting, by a processor coupled to the correlator, phase shifts in the correlation values of the received GPS signals, and determining that the phase shifts in the correlation values are repetitive phase shifts representing movement of the GPS receiver between the two relative positions, and computing the repetitive motion of the GPS receiver based on the repetitive phase shifts,

removing, by a GPS tracking filter, the repetitive phase shifts from the correlation values; and

tracking, by the GPS tracking filter coupled to the processor and the correlator, the received GPS signals using the correlation values with the repetitive phase shifts removed.

16. The method of claim 15 , including

correlating, by the correlator, the received GPS signals with known reference signals to produce correlation values, and

buffering, by a buffer, a predetermined number of correlation values over a period of time.

17. The method of claim 16 , including

detecting, by the processor, a repeating pattern for successively buffered correlation values to detect the repetitive phase shifts, or

computing by the processor, a spectrogram of the buffered correlation values to detect repetitive phase shifts.

18. The method of claim 16 , including

predicting, by the GPS tracking filter, a phase error between a clock of the system and a clock of a satellite based on the repetitive phase shifts, and

adjusting the clock of the system to match the clock of the satellite.

19. The method of claim 15 , including

computing, by the processor, a stride rate and location of the object over a period of time responsive to the determined repetitive phase shifts,

wherein the object is a user in motion and the stride rate is the number of steps per second taken by the user.

20. The method of claim 19 , including

displaying the stride rate and location to the user when the system is included in a watch or cellular phone worn by the user, and

displaying the stride rate and location to the user when the system is connected to a personal computer.