Patent ID: 7346995

Claim:
A vehicle compass system for compensating for magnetic disturbances caused by a moveable vehicle accessory, the vehicle compass system comprising: a magnetic field sensor configured to determine an orientation of the magnetic field sensor with respect to the Earth's magnetic field and to generate magnetic field data, the magnetic field sensor positioned at a distance from the moveable vehicle accessory; and a control circuit coupled to the moveable vehicle accessory and the magnetic field sensor, the control circuit configured to receive a position signal from the moveable vehicle accessory indicating whether the moveable vehicle accessory is changing position, to receive magnetic field data from the magnetic field sensor, to compare first magnetic field data generated prior to the change in position of the moveable vehicle accessory to second magnetic field data generated after the change in position of the moveable vehicle accessory and to generate a correction value based on the comparison of the first magnetic field data and the second magnetic field data; wherein the correction value is used to correct for the magnetic disturbance caused by the moveable vehicle accessory.