CONTROLLER VISUALIZATION IN VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20170249019A1
• Filed: 02/27/2016
• Published: 08/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valve Corporation
• Original Assignee: Valve Corporation
• Inventors: SAWYER, DAVID, Reidford, Tristan, Malaika, Yasser, Yates, Alan, Selan, Jeremy
• Granted Patent: US 10,286,308 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/26 having at least one additional display device, e.g. on the game controller or outside a game booth
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/537 using indicators, e.g. showing the condition of a game character on screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8082 Virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/014 comprising information/image processing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 2027/0187 slaved to motion of at least a part of the body of the user, e.g. head, eye
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/017 Head mounted
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 27/0179 Display position adjusting means not related to the information to be displayed
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0304 Detection arrangements using opto-electronic means constructional details of pointing devices not related to the detection arrangement using opto-electronic means G06F3/033; optical digitisers G06F3/042
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors

Abstract

Controller visualization systems and methods for use in virtual/augmented reality environments such as walk-around virtual reality environments are described. The virtual representation of a physical control device may be altered based on the context of the virtual environment. Certain embodiments combine the virtual rendering of the tracked control device with a real-time video representation of part of the operating space. In certain embodiments, the display of additional information relating to the function of interactive elements may be displayed based on context, such as when a specific action is required from a user in the virtual space.

Claims

1. An optical tracking system, comprising;

a movable tracked object within an operating space, comprising one or more rigidly attached optical sensors; and

one or more optical transmitters within said operating space, wherein each transmitter comprises two rotors that sweep two optical beams across a tracking volume on orthogonal axes during repeating sweep cycles, wherein each transmitter emits an omni-directional synchronization optical pulse detectable by said optical sensors at the beginning of each said sweep cycle, wherein each of said optical sensors computes an angular location within said tracking volume by calculating the elapsed time between detecting said synchronization pulse and detecting said optical beams, and wherein a virtual representation of said movable tracked object is displayed in a virtual reality environment with a location and orientation within the virtual reality environment that corresponds to the location and orientation of said movable tracked object in said operating space.