AR Virtual Participant Placement for Natural Group Communication

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing augmented reality applications fail to intelligently position and size digital representations of remote participants in a way that facilitates natural human-to-human communication among co-located participants, leading to confusion and disruption in group engagements.

Innovation Solution

Augmented reality software applications on user devices determine display properties such as location, size, and orientation of virtual content by analyzing the environment, using techniques like SLAM, to ensure consistent rendering across multiple devices, maintaining proper spacing, line-of-sight, and natural interaction.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If remote participants are rendered as digital representations in augmented reality environments, then remote collaboration and interaction are enabled, but positioning and sizing challenges arise that disrupt natural human-to-human communication

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveremote collaboration capabilityVSAvoidnatural communication flow

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies different display properties (positioning, sizing, orientation) to digital representations based on their specific context within the environment. Each remote participant's digital representation is locally optimized to match the physical layout and communication dynamics of that specific location, enabling natural interaction while maintaining remote collaboration capabilities

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The system pre-determines optimal display properties for digital representations by analyzing the physical environment and participant positions before rendering begins. This preliminary positioning and sizing setup ensures that when remote participants appear in the augmented reality environment, they are immediately placed in natural, communication-friendly positions without disrupting the flow of interaction

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Stability of the object's composition

If multiple devices render virtual content in an environment, then consistent rendering across devices is achieved, but determining appropriate display properties becomes complex

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverendering consistencyVSAvoiddisplay property determination

Core Design Contradiction:

Stability of the object's compositionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements a universal coordinate system and set of display property determination rules that work across all devices in the augmented reality environment. This universal framework allows multiple devices to independently calculate and render consistent digital representations of remote participants without requiring complex inter-device coordination, simplifying the overall system architecture while maintaining rendering consistency

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The system continuously monitors and adjusts display properties of virtual content based on feedback from device positions, orientations, and environmental context. This feedback mechanism ensures that all devices maintain consistent rendering of digital representations while adapting to changes in the physical environment, balancing consistency with operational simplicity

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

3Ease of operation

If digital representations are positioned to facilitate interaction, then communication quality improves, but positioning challenges arise with multiple co-located participants

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveinteraction qualityVSAvoidpositioning accuracy

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSDifficulty of detecting and measuring

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the complex positioning problem into manageable components by analyzing the environment in discrete zones and determining optimal positions for digital representations based on co-located participant distribution. This segmentation approach allows the system to handle multiple participants by dividing the space into interaction zones, making accurate positioning achievable even in crowded environments

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system resolves positioning challenges by utilizing multiple spatial dimensions and depth information rather than relying solely on two-dimensional positioning. By incorporating vertical positioning, depth perception, and three-dimensional spatial relationships, the system can accurately place digital representations in environments with multiple co-located participants, improving interaction quality while managing the complexity of spatial detection

Inventive Principle:

Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Data Source

PatentEP4031957B1Placement of virtual content in environments with a plurality of physical participants

Publication Date: 2025.10.15 QUALCOMM INC

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AI summary

A device may be configured to determining display properties for virtual content in an environment with a plurality of physical participants by capturing an image of the environment, analyzing the captured image to identify at least one object in the environment, determining a parameter for the identified object, and determining a display property of a digital representation of virtual content based on the determined parameter. Embodiments may include negotiating display properties with other devices to generate coordinated display properties, and rendering the digital representation of the virtual content so that the remote participant appears to be in the same fixed position to all co-located participants and sized consistent with the co-located participants.