Abstract
Determining a device's impact orientation during randomized drop tests can present challenges, as methods relying on internal accelerometers can be less reliable in some scenarios involving rotation and intermediate collisions. A system can utilize an external acoustic trigger to initiate data capture. For example, an optical sensor, such as an infrared gate, may be positioned in a drop apparatus to detect a falling device under test (DUT) and prompt an acoustic emitter to produce a specific audio tone. A software application on the DUT can use the device's microphone to detect this tone, which can serve as a temporal marker to begin recording data from an onboard inertial measurement unit. This approach may decouple the start-of-fall detection from the DUT's state of motion, which can facilitate the determination of the device's three-dimensional impact orientation and velocity for product reliability testing.
Publication Date
2026-01-07
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Liu, Eddy; Chen, Max; Chen, Kigo; and Huang, David, "System for Determining Impact Orientation in a Drop Test Using an Acoustic Trigger", Technical Disclosure Commons, (January 08, 2026)
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/9146