Safety for wearable virtual reality devices via object detection and tracking
First Claim
1. A method of detecting a physical object during a virtual reality experience, the method including:
- using at least one camera in connection with a wearable virtual reality device to capture a sequence of images of a real world environment near a user wearing the device;
using features in some images of the sequence of images to track proximity of at least one physical object near the user, including;
at a first time t0, using a sensor, sensing a first position for at least one physical object in a first reference frame of the real world environment;
causing display of a first virtual representation of the physical object at the first position, wherein the first virtual representation is rendered in a virtual environment of the device; and
at a second time t1, responsive to repositioning of the real world environment and the sensor due to body movement of the user, sensing, in the real world environment, a second position of the physical object and at least some portions of the physical object that appear different from the first position; and
causing display of a second virtual representation of the physical object at an actual second position, including;
sensing motion of the wearable virtual reality device and calculating a second reference frame that accounts for repositioning of the device;
calculating a transformation that renders the first position in the first reference frame and the second position in the second reference frame into a common reference frame; and
transforming the first position and the second position of the physical object into the common reference frame, wherein the common reference frame has a fixed point of reference and an initial orientation of axes, whereby a sensed second position is transformed to the actual second position; and
responsive to detecting that either one of the wearable virtual reality device and the physical object is approaching the other, automatically generating an alert to be injected into a virtual reality experience of the user.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The technology disclosed can provide improved safety by detecting potential unsafe conditions (e.g., collisions, loss of situational awareness, etc.) confronting the user of a wearable (or portable) sensor configured to capture motion and/or determining the path of an object based on imaging, acoustic or vibrational waves. Implementations can enable improved safety to users of virtual reality for machine control and/or machine communications applications using wearable (or portable) devices, e.g., head mounted displays (HMDs), wearable goggles, watch computers, smartphones, and so forth, or mobile devices, e.g., autonomous and semi-autonomous robots, factory floor material handling systems, autonomous mass-transit vehicles, automobiles (human or machine driven), and so forth, equipped with suitable sensors and processors employing optical, audio or vibrational detection.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of detecting a physical object during a virtual reality experience, the method including:
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using at least one camera in connection with a wearable virtual reality device to capture a sequence of images of a real world environment near a user wearing the device; using features in some images of the sequence of images to track proximity of at least one physical object near the user, including; at a first time t0, using a sensor, sensing a first position for at least one physical object in a first reference frame of the real world environment; causing display of a first virtual representation of the physical object at the first position, wherein the first virtual representation is rendered in a virtual environment of the device; and at a second time t1, responsive to repositioning of the real world environment and the sensor due to body movement of the user, sensing, in the real world environment, a second position of the physical object and at least some portions of the physical object that appear different from the first position; and causing display of a second virtual representation of the physical object at an actual second position, including; sensing motion of the wearable virtual reality device and calculating a second reference frame that accounts for repositioning of the device; calculating a transformation that renders the first position in the first reference frame and the second position in the second reference frame into a common reference frame; and transforming the first position and the second position of the physical object into the common reference frame, wherein the common reference frame has a fixed point of reference and an initial orientation of axes, whereby a sensed second position is transformed to the actual second position; and responsive to detecting that either one of the wearable virtual reality device and the physical object is approaching the other, automatically generating an alert to be injected into a virtual reality experience of the user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A non-transitory computer readable medium impressed with instructions for detecting a physical object during a virtual reality experience, which instructions when executed by one or more processors cause the processors to perform the following:
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using at least one camera in connection with a wearable virtual reality device to capture a sequence of images of a real world environment near a user wearing the device; using features in some images of the sequence of images to track proximity of at least one physical object near the user, including; at a first time t0, using a sensor, sensing a first position for at least one physical object in a first reference frame of the real world environment; causing display of a first virtual representation of the physical object at the first position, wherein the first virtual representation is rendered in a virtual environment of the device; and at a second time t1, responsive to repositioning of the real world environment and the sensor due to body movement of the user, sensing, in the real world environment, a second position of the physical object and at least some portions of the physical object that appear different from the first position; and causing display of a second virtual representation of the physical object at an actual second position, including; sensing motion of the wearable virtual reality device and calculating a second reference frame that accounts for repositioning of the device; calculating a transformation that renders the first position in the first reference frame and the second position in the second reference frame into a common reference frame; and transforming the first position and the second position of the physical object into the common reference frame, wherein the common reference frame has a fixed point of reference and an initial orientation of axes, whereby a sensed second position is transformed to the actual second position; and responsive to detecting that either one of the wearable virtual reality device and the physical object is approaching the other, automatically generating an alert to be injected into a virtual reality experience of the user.
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20. A system, including:
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a wearable virtual reality device; at least one camera mounted to the wearable virtual reality device that captures a sequence of images of a real world environment ahead of a user wearing the device; and a computer readable medium including instructions for detecting at least one physical object during a virtual reality experience, which instructions when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform the following; using the at least one camera in connection with the wearable virtual reality device to capture the sequence of images of the real world environment ahead of the user wearing the device; using features in some images of the sequence of images to track proximity of the at least one physical object ahead of the user, including; at a first time t0, using a sensor, sensing a first position for the at least one physical object in a first reference frame of the real world environment; causing display of a first virtual representation of the physical object at the first position, wherein the first virtual representation is rendered in a virtual environment of the wearable virtual reality device; and at a second time t1, responsive to repositioning of the real world environment and the sensor due to body movement of the user, sensing, in the real world environment, a second position of the physical object and at least some portions of the physical object that appear different from the first position; and causing display of a second virtual representation of the physical object at an actual second position, including; sensing motion of the wearable virtual reality device and calculating a second reference frame that accounts for repositioning of the device; calculating a transformation that renders the first position in the first reference frame and the second position in the second reference frame into a common reference frame; and transforming the first position and the second position of the physical object into the common reference frame, wherein the common reference frame has a fixed point of reference and an initial orientation of axes, whereby a sensed second position is transformed to the actual second position; and responsive to detecting that either one of the wearable virtual reality device and the physical object is approaching the other, automatically generating an alert to be injected into a virtual reality experience of the user.
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Specification