Aerial Sensor Array for Occlusion-Free VR Body Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing virtual, augmented, and mixed reality systems face challenges in accurately tracking the user's body position, leading to discrepancies between actual and perceived physical stimuli, which affects the immersive experience.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a sensor array on aerial vehicles that monitor the user's body position, a physical feedback mechanism, and a controller to provide synchronized physical feedback, allowing for accurate determination and rendering of the user's position, including occluded surfaces, and adaptive reconfiguration of sensors for optimal imaging.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cameras are used to determine user body position, then the system can provide physical feedback to the user, but the measurement precision of body position deteriorates when body parts are occluded or in difficult-to-reach areas
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the sensing function across multiple aerial vehicles, each equipped with sensors to monitor specific body parts. This segmentation allows simultaneous tracking of multiple body regions from different perspectives, improving overall measurement precision while maintaining reliable physical feedback.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from ground-based camera systems to three-dimensional aerial vehicles that can position sensors in spatial dimensions above and around the user. This dimensional change enables line-of-sight to previously occluded body parts, significantly improving body position tracking accuracy without compromising feedback reliability.
2Measurement precision
If multiple aerial vehicles with sensors are deployed to improve body position tracking, then measurement precision improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple aerial vehicles into a coordinated sensor array system managed by a central controller. This merging approach allows the system to achieve high measurement precision through multiple sensors while reducing operational complexity by centralizing control, thus balancing improved tracking accuracy with manageable system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The aerial vehicles are designed with multi-functionality, serving both as platforms for sensor deployment and as controllable units that can be repositioned as needed. This universal design reduces overall device complexity by using a single versatile platform type rather than requiring specialized equipment for different sensing functions.
3Measurement precision
If the sensor array is reconfigured to maintain line of sight with all body parts, then measurement precision improves, but the speed of system response deteriorates due to continuous repositioning
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary positioning of aerial vehicles to anticipate and maintain optimal viewing angles before body parts become occluded. This proactive repositioning ensures continuous line-of-sight tracking without requiring reactive adjustments, thereby maintaining measurement precision while minimizing response time penalties.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor array is designed as a dynamic system where aerial vehicles can autonomously adjust their positions in real-time. This dynamic capability allows the system to maintain optimal measurement conditions while adapting quickly to user movements, balancing tracking precision with responsive system performance.
Data Source
AI summary
A system is disclosed, comprising an array of sensors disposed on a plurality of aerial vehicles, a sensor array controller for controlling the plurality of aerial vehicles, a physical feedback mechanism for providing physical feedback to a user, the physical feedback mechanism being configured to be worn on the user's body, and a feedback controller. The sensor array controller is configured to reposition the plurality of aerial vehicles so as to provide a line of sight between each one of the plurality of sensors and a respective part of the user's body monitored by said one of the plurality of sensors. The feedback controller is configured to determine a current position of the user's body based on information obtained using the plurality of sensors, and to control the physical feedback mechanism to provide physical feedback to the user in dependence on the determined position of the user's body.