Gaze-Driven Virtual Drawing Surface for AR Mark-Up
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face difficulties in conveying ideas effectively in 3-dimensional environments due to complex surface geometries, as existing augmented reality technologies struggle to maintain mark-up integrity across various viewing angles, leading to a suboptimal interactive experience.
Innovation Solution
A method and device that determine a user's gaze direction and generate a drawing surface based on the intersection with the environmental surface, ensuring the surface is oriented and geometrically adapted for easy mark-up, maintaining viewing integrity from different angles, using head-mounted and portable computing devices with optical and position sensors to track eye movement and environmental features.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a user draws directly on complex nonplanar surfaces in a 3-dimensional environment, then the drawing can be placed on the target surface, but the drawing quality and viewing integrity deteriorate due to surface perspective variations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary planar drawing surface that mediates between the user and the complex nonplanar target surface. Instead of drawing directly on the distorted nonplanar surface, the system creates a virtual planar surface at the intersection of gaze direction and environmental surface, allowing users to draw with consistent perspective while the system handles the mapping to the target surface
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from 2D drawing on distorted nonplanar surfaces to 3D spatial drawing on a virtual planar surface defined by gaze direction. By using the third dimension (gaze vector) to define the drawing plane, the system maintains drawing integrity while adapting to various target surface geometries in the 3D environment
2Stability of the object's composition
If the drawing surface is fixed to the environmental surface, then the mark-up remains attached to the target, but the viewing consistency deteriorates across different viewing angles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the drawing surface dynamic by defining it through the user's gaze direction rather than fixing it to the environmental surface geometry. The planar drawing plane rotates and repositions with gaze movements, maintaining a consistent viewing angle for the user while still being associated with the target surface through the intersection point
3Manufacturing precision
If the system creates a planar drawing surface at gaze intersection, then the drawing quality improves, but the device complexity increases due to additional sensors and processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes existing sensors multi-functional by using the camera and display system not only for viewing the environment but also for detecting gaze direction and rendering the virtual planar drawing surface. The existing AR infrastructure is leveraged for multiple purposes, avoiding the need for dedicated specialized sensors
Data Source
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AI summary
A method for operating a computing device is described herein. The method includes determining a user's gaze direction based on a gaze input, determining an intersection between the user's gaze direction and an identified environmental surface in a 3-dimensional environment, and generating a drawing surface based on the intersection within a user interface on a display.