Method for occlusion of movable objects and people in augmented reality scenes

• US 20020149581A1
• Filed: 04/16/2002
• Published: 10/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Information Decision Technologies LLC
• Original Assignee: Information Decision Technologies LLC
• Inventors: Ebersole, John Franklin, Ebersole, John Franklin Jr., Furlong, Todd Joseph, Walker, John Franklin
• Granted Patent: US 6,822,648 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/419
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/40 Hidden part removal

Abstract

The purpose of the invention is to create a method to allow a real person or movable physical object to occlude virtual objects in a augmented reality application using a single tracking data sensor for objects or only head tracking data for a real person. The method involves occluding virtual objects with a real world human in augmented reality. The method comprises creating an orthogonal plane billboard with soft texture edges representing a user'"'"'s head; creating an orthogonal plane billboard with soft texture edges representing a user'"'"'s torso; positioning and orienting the head billboard using motion tracker data; positioning and orienting the torso billboard relative to the head billboard; displaying the head and torso billboards in real-time 3-D to correspond to the location of a real person; and mixing the resulting image with a live image of a real person.

Claims

1. A method of occluding virtual objects with a real world human in augmented reality comprising:

a. Creating an orthogonal plane billboard with soft texture edges representing a user'"'"'s head;

b. Creating an orthogonal plane billboard with soft texture edges representing a user'"'"'s torso;

c. Positioning and orienting the head billboard using motion tracker data;

d. Positioning and orienting the torso billboard relative to the head billboard;

e. Displaying the head and torso billboards in real-time 3-D to correspond to the location of a real person; and

f. Mixing the resulting image with a live image of a real person.

2. A method of occluding virtual objects with a movable real-world physical object in augmented reality comprising:

a. Creating an orthogonal plane billboard with soft texture edges representing the object;

b. Positioning and orienting the object billboard using motion tracker data;

c. Displaying the object billboard in real-time 3-D to correspond to the location of the object; and

d. Mixing the resulting image with a live image of the real object.

3. The method of claim 2 in which the movable real world physical object has a joint connecting two parts, one part of which is tracked and the other part of which is connected to the first part by a joint but which is not separately tracked.