ADAPTIVE RENDERING FOR UNTETHERED MULTI-USER VIRTUAL REALITY

• US 20200133610A1
• Filed: 10/31/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2018
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Vlachou, Christina, Liu, Xing, Kim, Kyu-Han
• Granted Patent: US 10,846,042 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1431 using a single graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/147 using display panels
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/04 Texture mapping
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/00 Image coding bandwidth or redundancy reduction for static pictures H04N1/41; coding or decoding of static colour picture signals H04N1/64; methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2350/00 Solving problems of bandwidth in display systems
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/022 Centralised management of display operation, e.g. in a server instead of locally
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/10 Use of a protocol of communication by packets in interfaces along the display data pipeline
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/16 Use of wireless transmission of display information
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/006 Details of the interface to the display terminal specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/20 Negotiating bandwidth
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/12 WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks]

Abstract

Example method includes: rendering, by a network device, a plurality of frames for a multi-user Virtual Reality (VR) environment at a first quality and a second quality, storing, at the network device, the plurality of frames at the first quality and the second quality, transmitting, from the network device and to an untethered mobile device, a first frame of the plurality of frames at the first quality using Wi-Fi, determining, by the network device, that an available bandwidth to the untethered mobile device does not satisfy a threshold, and transmitting, by the network device and in response to determining, a subsequent frame at the second quality using Wi-Fi.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

pre-rendering, by a network device, a plurality of frames for a multi-user Virtual Reality (VR) environment at a first quality and a second quality, wherein the second quality is a lower quality than the first quality, and wherein the pre-rendered frames consist of static elements that are not changeable by users in the multi-user VR environment;

storing, at the network device, the plurality of frames at the first quality and the second quality;

transmitting, from the network device and to an untethered mobile device, a first frame of the stored plurality of frames at the first quality using Wi-Fi;

determining, by the network device, that an available Wi-Fi bandwidth to the untethered mobile device does not satisfy a threshold; and

in response to determining that the available bandwidth does not satisfy the threshold, transmitting, by the network device a subsequent frame of the stored plurality of frames at the second quality using Wi-Fi.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the network device transmits the first frame and the subsequent frame to the untethered mobile device through a wireless access point.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing the method for each of a plurality of untethered mobile devices participating in the multi-user VR environment, including transmitting frames with different qualities to a first untethered mobile device and a second untethered mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the untethered mobile device, a position in the multi-user VR environment; and

transmitting the first frame based on the position.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, based on the available Wi-Fi bandwidth, that a texture quality of an interactive object should be reduced; and

in response to determining, transmitting a lower texture quality for the interactive object to the untethered mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from a wireless access point associated with the untethered mobile device, the available Wi-Fi bandwidth to the untethered mobile device.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the static elements include background elements.

2. (canceled) 276

8. A network device comprising at least:

a memory;

a central processing unit (CPU) executing instructions from the memory to;

pre-render a plurality of frames for a multi-user Virtual Reality (VR) environment at a first quality and a second quality, wherein the second quality is a lower quality than the first quality, and wherein the pre-rendered frames consist of static elements that are not changeable by users in the multi-user VR environment, the static elements including background;

store the plurality of frames at the first quality and the second quality;

transmit, to an untethered mobile device, a first frame of the stored plurality of frames at the first quality using Wi-Fi;

determine that an available Wi-Fi bandwidth to the untethered mobile device does not satisfy a threshold; and

in response to determining that the available bandwidth does not satisfy the threshold, transmit a subsequent frame of the stored plurality of frames at the second quality using Wi-Fi.

10. The network device of claim 8, wherein the network device transmits the first frame and the subsequent frame to the untethered mobile device through a wireless access point.

11. The network device of claim 8, the instructions further configured to:

perform the method for each of a plurality of untethered mobile devices participating in the multi-user VR environment, including transmitting frames with different qualities to a first untethered mobile device and a second untethered mobile device of the plurality of untethered mobile devices.

12. The network device of claim 8, the instructions further configured to:

receive, from the untethered mobile device, a position in the multi-user VR environment;

and transmit the first frame based on the position.

13. The network device of claim 8, the instructions further configured to:

determine, based on the available Wi-Fi bandwidth, that a texture quality of an interactive object should be reduced; and

in response to determining, transmit a lower texture quality for the interactive object to the untethered mobile device.

14. The network device of claim 8, the instructions further configured to:

receive, from a wireless access point associated with the untethered mobile device, the available Wi-Fi bandwidth to the untethered mobile device.

9. (canceled)

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by a main processor of central processing unit (CPU), the CPU comprising at least the main processor and a plurality of co-processors, the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to:

pre-render a plurality of frames for a multi-user Virtual Reality (VR) environment at a first quality and a second quality, wherein the second quality is a lower quality than the first quality, and wherein the pre-rendered frames consist of static elements that are not changeable by users in the multi-user VR environment, the static elements including background;

store the plurality of frames at the first quality and the second quality;

transmit, to an untethered mobile device, a first frame of the stored plurality of frames at the first quality using Wi-Fi;

determine that an available Wi-Fi bandwidth to the untethered mobile device does not satisfy a threshold; and

in response to determining that the available bandwidth does not satisfy the threshold, transmit a subsequent frame of the stored plurality of frames at the second quality using Wi-Fi.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the first frame and the subsequent frame are transmitted to the untethered mobile device through a wireless access point.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the instructions further configured to:

perform the method for each of a plurality of untethered mobile devices participating in the multi-user VR environment, including transmitting frames with different qualities to a first untethered mobile device and a second untethered mobile device of the plurality of untethered mobile devices.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the instructions further configured to:

receive, from the untethered mobile device, a position in the multi-user VR environment; and

transmit the first frame based on the position.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the instructions further configured to:

determine, based on the available Wi-Fi bandwidth, that a texture quality of an interactive object should be reduced; and

in response to determining, transmit a lower texture quality for the interactive object to the untethered mobile device.

16. (canceled)