Augmented reality and filtering

• US 8,264,505 B2
• Filed: 12/28/2007
• Issued: 09/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bathiche, Steven N., Whitten, Jon Marcus Randall, Miller, John Mark, MacLaurin, Matthew B., Multerer, Boyd Cannon, Alkove, James M., Wilfrid, Eric Peter, O'Rourke, Bret P., Roup, Oliver R., Russell, Zachary Lewis
• Primary Examiner(s): Johnson, M Good
• Application Number:
  US11/966,926
• Publication Number:
  US 20090167787A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,719 Days
• Field of Search: 345/633, 345/629
• US Class Current: 345/633
• 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 2300/6009 for importing or creating game content, e.g. authoring tools during game development, adapting content to different platforms, use of a scripting language to create content
• 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: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00

Abstract

A system (and corresponding method) that can enhance a user experience by augmenting real-world experiences with virtual world data to is provided. The augmented reality system discloses various techniques to personalize real-world experiences by overlaying or interspersing virtual capabilities (and data) with real world situations. The innovation can also filter, rank, modify or ignore virtual-world information based upon a particular real-world class, user identity or context.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates augmenting reality, comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

an information gathering component stored in the memory and executed by the processor having a reality monitor component that gathers real-world data for at least one real-world object and a query component stored in the memory and executed by the processor that establishes a query based at least in part on context-related information for the real-world data, the query providing access to virtual-world data supplied by one or more remote sources; and

an interface component stored in the memory and executed by the processor and configured to receive at least a portion of the real-world data and the virtual-world data from the information gathering component, the interface component having a consolidation component that aggregates the received real-world and virtual-world data, the interface component establishes, in real-time, an augmented-reality experience in which at least a portion of the received real-world data is overlaid with at least a portion of the received virtual-world data.

2. The system of claim 1, the aggregated data includes virtual data related to a plurality of objects viewed by a user.

3. The system of claim 2, the aggregated data includes contextual data related to a subset of the plurality of objects.

4. The system of claim 3, the contextual data includes one of activity context data, user context data or environment context data.

5. The system of claim 1, the reality monitor component employs a sensor component to gather the context-related information.

6. The system of claim 5, the sensor component is at least one of an environmental or physiological sensor.

7. The system of claim 1, the consolidation component further comprising:

an analysis component that analyzes the real-world data and the virtual-world data; and

an aggregation component that combines the real-world data with a subset of the virtual-world data based upon contextual data.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a rendering component that personalizes the augmented-reality experience based upon one of user preference, user policy, or context.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a configuration component that organizes the augmented-reality experience based upon at least one of user preference, user policy, or user context.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising a filter component that filters virtual data for inclusion within the augmented-reality experience based upon at least one of user preference, user policy, or user context.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a machine learning and reasoning component that employs at least one of a probabilistic and a statistical-based analysis that infers an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

12. A computer-implemented method of augmenting reality, comprising:

monitoring a plurality of real-world objects;

gathering virtual information related to at least one of the plurality of real-world objects, the virtual information supplied by one or more remote sources in response to at least one query and separate from the real-world objects;

implementing a machine learning and reasoning component that employs at least one of a probabilistic and a statistical-based analysis that infers an action that a user desires to be automatically performed; and

augmenting reality via aggregating the virtual information with the at least one of the plurality of real-world objects in accordance with the inferred action.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising rendering the augmented reality to a user based upon one of a context, policy or preference.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the context is at least one of activity context, user context or environment context.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

filtering the augmented reality based upon a context; and

rendering the filtered augmented reality.

16. A computer-executable system comprising:

means for machine learning and reasoning to infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed;

means for monitoring contextual objects related to a user;

means for gathering virtual objects, the virtual objects provided from one or more remote sources in response to at least one query and obtained separately from the contextual objects;

means for aggregating the virtual objects with a subset of the contextual objects; and

means for rendering the aggregation to a user in accordance with the inferred action.

17. The computer-executable system of claim 16, further comprising means for gathering the virtual objects.