Patent ID: 8108177

Claim:
A device, comprising: a housing; at least one accelerometer disposed within said housing, said at least one accelerometer being configured to detect a static acceleration of said device, wherein said static acceleration is determined based on a measurement of a force exerted on an object coupled to said device, said force being about 1 g when said object is near or contacting the surface of the earth and about 0 g when said object is off of said surface, said at least one accelerometer being further configured to provide an accelerometer output electrical signal indicative of said static acceleration of said device; a microprocessor electrically coupled to said at least one accelerometer, said microprocessor being configured to calculate a time-of-flight of said device from said accelerometer output electrical signal, said microprocessor being further configured to provide a microprocessor output electrical signal indicative of the calculated time-of-flight of said device; and a memory component configured to store said calculated time-of-flight; wherein said at least one accelerometer comprises a tri-axis accelerometer configured to detect a first, second, and third static acceleration component of said device along three mutually perpendicular axes, and wherein said static acceleration of said device is equal to the vector sum of said first, second and third static acceleration components.