HMD Boundary Warnings for Nearby Person Collision Avoidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing head-mounted displays (HMDs) pose a risk of collision with obstacles due to users being unable to see their surroundings, and adjacent persons are unaware of the user's perception of their surroundings, leading to potential collisions.
Innovation Solution
A wearable apparatus with a processor and memory that detects adjacent persons and provides warnings based on the distance between a user and these persons, using light emission and sound to alert both the user and the adjacent person of potential collision risks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a head-mounted display is worn to cover the user's view, then the user can be provided with immersive display experience, but the user becomes unable to view surroundings and is at risk of colliding with obstacles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary warning system that includes both user-facing warnings (through the HMD display) and adjacent-person warnings (through external display devices). This intermediary system bridges the information gap created by the HMD covering the user's view, allowing safety information to be transmitted to both the user and nearby persons without compromising the immersive display experience.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extends the warning information from a single dimension (user-only through HMD) to multiple dimensions by incorporating external display devices that can be perceived by adjacent persons. This dimensional expansion ensures that safety warnings are communicated through multiple channels and to multiple audiences, addressing the information loss caused by the HMD blocking the user's view of surroundings.
2Reliability
If warning is provided only to the user through the head-mounted display, then the user is alerted to potential hazards, but adjacent persons remain unaware of the user's perception and cannot determine how much to move away
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the warning system universal by enabling it to serve multiple functions: warning the user of hazards, warning adjacent persons of potential collision risks, and providing information about the user's perception of surroundings. The external display devices perform multiple functions including hazard detection, distance measurement, and dual-audience warning, thereby eliminating the information loss for adjacent persons.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback mechanisms where the system continuously monitors the distance between the user and adjacent persons, and dynamically adjusts warning signals based on this feedback. The external display devices receive feedback about the user's position and orientation, and provide corresponding warnings to adjacent persons, creating a closed-loop information system that ensures both users and adjacent persons are adequately informed.
3Reliability
If the system detects and warns adjacent persons, then collision risks are reduced, but the device complexity increases due to additional sensors and warning mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent reduces the net complexity by making existing HMD components serve multiple functions. The HMD's processing unit handles both user warning generation and adjacent person detection, while the external display devices serve dual purposes of providing hazard information to adjacent persons and potentially serving as user interface elements. This multi-functionality approach achieves enhanced safety without proportionally increasing system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A wearable apparatus covers a user's view includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to function as an acquisition unit configured to acquire a result obtained by detecting a person adjacent to the user, and a warning unit configured to provide a warning to at least the adjacent person based on a distance between a virtual boundary line representing a moving range of the user wearing the apparatus and the adjacent person.