Head Tracking Sleep Detection for HMDs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing techniques for determining a user's sleeping state while wearing a body-mounted display device, such as HMDs, are prone to inaccuracies due to temporary eye closure from tiredness, leading to potential game disruptions and data loss.
Innovation Solution
A method utilizing virtual reality technology to track the user's head, face, or neck position and direction, determining a sleeping state when significant shifts occur for a predetermined period, and performing countermeasures accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If sleeping state is determined based on eye closure detection, then the system can detect sleeping state, but false detection occurs when user closes eyes due to tiredness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple detection methods (eye closure detection, head position detection, and body motion detection) into a unified sleeping state determination system. By merging these different sensing approaches, the system achieves more reliable and accurate sleeping state detection while reducing false positives from temporary eye closure due to tiredness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces head position and body motion as intermediary indicators to verify the sleeping state. Instead of relying solely on eye closure, the system uses head position changes and body motion patterns as additional verification layers, serving as mediators to confirm whether eye closure represents actual sleeping or temporary fatigue.
2Productivity
If HMD is used to immerse user in game, then user immersion improves, but user cannot see outside objects and may fall asleep without noticing
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the HMD's own sensors (eye tracking, head position sensors, motion detectors) to monitor the user's sleeping state. The HMD essentially monitors itself and the user wearing it, enabling autonomous detection of sleeping conditions without requiring external monitoring equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously provides feedback about the user's state to the game system. When sleeping state is detected through multiple indicators (eye closure duration, head position changes, body motion patterns), the system feeds this information back to trigger appropriate responses such as pausing the game or saving data, creating a closed-loop monitoring system.
3Device complexity
If eye tracking is used to determine sleeping state, then detection is simple, but accuracy decreases due to temporary eye closure from tiredness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the sleeping state detection into multiple independent measurement components: eye closure detection, head position detection, and body motion detection. Each component operates independently and contributes to the overall determination, allowing the system to maintain simplicity while improving accuracy through multi-factor analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program that causes a computer to execute a method to display an image of a predetermined process on a body-mounted display device worn by a user, the method includes tracking a head or the like of the user, and calculating the position and the direction of the head or the like; displaying the image of the predetermined process in a virtual space of the display device; determining that the user is in the sleeping state when a candidate state, in which at least either of the calculated position and direction of the head or the like of the user is shifted by greater than or equal to a predetermined set amount, continues for greater than or equal to a predetermined set period; and performing a predetermined sleeping countermeasure process when the user is determined to be in the sleeping state.