COLLABORATIVE MULTI-USER VIRTUAL REALITY

• US 20180300098A1
• Filed: 04/17/2017
• Published: 10/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Vembar, Deepak S., Kuwahara, Atsuo, Sakthivel, Chandrasekaran, Venkataraman, Radhakrishnan, Insko, Brent E., Kalra, Anupreet S., Labbe, Hugues, Koker, Altug, Apodaca, Michael, Xiao, Kai, Boles, Jeffery S., Lake, Adam T., Cimini, David M., Vembu, Balaji, Ould-Ahmed-Vall, Elmoustapha, Kwiatkowski, Jacek, Laws, Philip R., Shah, Ankur N., Appu, Abhishek R., Ray, Joydeep, Fu, Wenyin, Kaburlasos, Nikos, Surti, Prasoonkumar, Borole, Bhushan M.
• Granted Patent: US 10,430,147 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1431 using a single graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/147 using display panels
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 1/20 Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/02 Handling of images in compressed format, e.g. JPEG, MPEG
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2350/00 Solving problems of bandwidth in display systems
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2352/00 Parallel handling of streams of display data
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/08 Power processing, i.e. workload management for processors involved in display operations, such as CPUs or GPUs
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/121 using a cache memory
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/125 using unified memory architecture [UMA]
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/02 Networking aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 3/003 to produce spatial visual effects
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4025 where none of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. downloading a file in a parallel FTP session, initiating an email or combinational services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality

Abstract

An embodiment of a graphics apparatus may include a processor, memory communicatively coupled to the processor, and a collaboration engine communicatively coupled to the processor to identify a shared graphics component between two or more users in an environment, and share the shared graphics components with the two or more users in the environment. Embodiments of the collaboration engine may include one or more of a centralized sharer, a depth sharer, a shared preprocessor, a multi-port graphics subsystem, and a decode sharer. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

Claims

1. A graphics apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

memory communicatively coupled to the processor; and

a collaboration engine communicatively coupled to the processor to;

identify a shared graphics component between two or more users in an environment; and

share the shared graphics components with the two or more users in the environment.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the collaboration engine further includes a centralized sharer to:

a broadcaster to broadcast the shared graphics components to all of the two or more users; and

a distributer to distribute a separate graphics component separately to one of the two or more users.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the centralized sharer is further to:

split the workload for the shared graphics components based on a target virtual reality apparatus.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the collaboration engine further includes a depth sharer to:

collect depth information from a source independent of a first user of the two or more users; and

share the depth information with the first user.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the depth sharer is further to:

collect visibility information from the independent source which is outside a field of view of the first user; and

share the visibility information with the first user.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the collaboration engine further includes a shared preprocessor to:

pre-compute information related to the shared graphics component; and

share the pre-computed information with the two or more users.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the pre-computed information includes one or more of geometry information, primitive information, and physics information.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the collaboration engine further includes a multi-port graphics subsystem to:

support a different user on each port of the multi-port graphics subsystem.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the multi-port graphics subsystem is further to:

support a left eye display and a right eye display of a first virtual reality apparatus when only the first virtual reality apparatus is connected to the multi-port graphics sub system;

support the first virtual reality apparatus and a second virtual reality apparatus when both the first virtual reality apparatus and the second virtual reality apparatus are connected to the multi-port graphics subsystem; and

share graphics primitives between the first virtual reality apparatus and the second virtual reality apparatus when both the first virtual reality apparatus and the second virtual reality apparatus are connected to the multi-port graphics subsystem.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the collaboration engine further includes a decode sharer to:

identify an overlapped region of a shared scene between a first view region of a first user and a second view region of a second user;

decode the overlapped region; and

share the decoded overlapped region with both the first user and the second user.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the decode sharer is further to:

prioritize the decode based on the overlapped region.

12. A method of graphics collaborating, comprising:

identifying a shared graphics component between two or more users in an environment; and

sharing the shared graphics components with the two or more users in the environment.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

broadcasting the shared graphics components to all of the two or more users; and

distributing a separate graphics component separately to one of the two or more users.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

splitting the workload for the shared graphics components based on a target virtual reality apparatus.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

collecting depth information from a source independent of a first user of the two or more users; and

sharing the depth information with the first user.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

collecting visibility information from the independent source which is outside a field of view of the first user; and

sharing the visibility information with the first user.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

pre-computing information related to the shared graphics component; and

sharing the pre-computed information with the two or more users.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the pre-computed information includes one or more of geometry information, primitive information, and physics information.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

supporting a different user on each port of a multi-port graphics subsystem.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

supporting a left eye display and a right eye display of a first virtual reality apparatus when only the first virtual reality apparatus is connected to the multi-port graphics subsystem;

supporting the first virtual reality apparatus and a second virtual reality apparatus when both the first virtual reality apparatus and the second virtual reality apparatus are connected to the multi-port graphics subsystem; and

sharing graphics primitives between the first virtual reality apparatus and the second virtual reality apparatus when both the first virtual reality apparatus and the second virtual reality apparatus are connected to the multi-port graphics subsystem.

21. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

identifying an overlapped region of a shared scene between a first view region of a first user and a second view region of a second user;

decoding the overlapped region; and

sharing the decoded overlapped region with both the first user and the second user.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

prioritizing the decode based on the overlapped region.

23. At least one computer readable medium, comprising a set of instructions, which when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to:

identify a shared graphics component between two or more users in an environment; and

share the shared graphics components with the two or more users in the environment.

24. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 23, comprising a further set of instructions, which when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to:

broadcast the shared graphics components to all of the two or more users; and

distribute a separate graphics component separately to one of the two or more users.

25. The at least one computer readable medium of claim 24, comprising a further set of instructions, which when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to:

split the workload for the shared graphics components based on a target virtual reality apparatus.