OBJECT MAPPING TECHNIQUES FOR MOBILE AUGMENTED REALITY APPLICATIONS

• US 20120162254A1
• Filed: 12/22/2010
• Published: 06/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Anderson, Glen J., Ganapathy, Subhashini
• Granted Patent: US 8,913,085 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/633
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/34 using peer-to-peer connections
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/52 involving aspects of the displayed game scene
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/204 the platform being a handheld device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/406 Transmission via wireless network, e.g. pager or GSM
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5573 player location
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6018 where the game content is authored by the player, e.g. level editor or by game device at runtime, e.g. level is created from music data on CD
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6676 by dedicated player input
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/69 Involving elements of the real world in the game world, e.g. measurement in live races, real video
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8082 Virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/16 Use of wireless transmission of display information
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/003 Details of a display terminal, the details relating to the control arrangement of the display terminal and to the interfaces thereto specific for a CRT G09G1/165; for a flat panel G09G3/2092
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42202 environmental sensors, e.g. for detecting temperature, luminosity, pressure, earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/431 Generation of visual interfaces for content selection or interaction; Content or additional data rendering
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4332 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. local EPG data repository interfaces, Database management systems or updating for information retrieval G06F16/23; details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video database G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 : involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 : for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 : Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 : communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 : Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2621 : Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects during image pickup, e.g. digital cameras, camcorders, video cameras having integrated special effects capability
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44 : Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed that involve mobile augmented reality (MAR) applications in which users (e.g., players) may experience augmented reality (e.g., altered video or audio based on a real environment). Such augmented reality may include various alterations. For example, particular objects may be altered to appear differently. Such alterations may be based on stored profiles and/or user selections. Further features may also be employed. For example, in embodiments, characters and/or other objects may be sent (or caused to appear) to other users in other locations. Also, a user may leave a character at another location and receive an alert when another user/player encounters this character. Also, characteristics of output audio may be affected based on events of the MAR application.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying an object in one or more images;

based on a profile corresponding to the identified object, generating an alteration of the identified object; and

displaying the alteration of the identified object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said altering comprises:

receiving an incoming video stream, the incoming video stream including the one or more images; and

generating an output video stream, the output video stream including the alteration of the identified object.

3. The method of claim 1:

wherein the alteration of the identified object appears as virtual object associated with a mobile augmented reality (MAR) application; and

wherein the profile includes an association between an object type of the identified object and the virtual object.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving the association from a user of the MAR application.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising changing the association based on a user selection.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

providing a communications band between two or more users of the MAR application, and

interrupting the communications band based on an event of the MAR application.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the communications band provides for audio communications among the two or more users.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified object is a character of a mobile augmented reality (MAR) application, and wherein the alteration changes an appearance of the character.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the alteration comprises a removal of the identified object.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the identified object is an object being handled by a user of a mobile augmented reality (MAR) application.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing one or more activation parameters for a virtual object; and

when a circumstance of a mobile augmented reality (MAR) application user matches the one or more activation parameters, rendering the virtual object in the output video stream.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the one or more activation parameters includes a location and/or a time.

13. An apparatus, comprising:

a storage medium to store an association between a real object type and a virtual object; and

a video processing module to identify an object of the real object type within an incoming video stream, and to, based on the association, generate an alteration to the object.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising an output device to display the alteration.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the object is a character of a mobile augmented reality (MAR) application.

16. The apparatus of claim 13:

wherein the storage medium is to store one or more activation parameters for a virtual object; and

wherein the video processing module is to render the virtual object when a circumstance of a mobile augmented reality (MAR) application user matches the one or more activation parameters.

17. A system, comprising:

a plurality of user platforms to provide a mobile augmented reality (MAR) application for a corresponding plurality of users, wherein each of the user platforms includes;

a storage medium to store an association between a real object type and a virtual object; and

a video processing module to identify an object of the real object type within an incoming video stream, and to generate an alteration to the object.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein a first of the plurality of user platforms receives an alert when a user of a second of the plurality of user platforms encounters a character placed by a user of the first user platform at a remote location.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein a first of the user platforms and a second of the user platforms is each to display an object having results, the results from users of the first and second user platforms.

20. An article comprising a machine-accessible medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

identify an object in one or more images;

based on a profile corresponding to the identified object, generate an alteration of the identified object; and

display the alteration of the identified object.