HMD Safety Boundary via Depth Sensing and Grid Mapping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users of artificial reality systems, such as VR and AR, may collide with real-world obstacles due to their limited awareness of the physical environment, as their view is obstructed by head-mounted displays, leading to potential accidents.
Innovation Solution
A method to determine a safety boundary by sensing physical surfaces in the real-world environment using a depth-sensing subsystem, defining a three-dimensional grid aligned with dominant planes, and identifying grid coordinates to notify users of their proximity to these surfaces through a head-mounted display system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a head-mounted display system is used to provide immersive artificial reality experiences, then user immersion and engagement in virtual environments is improved, but user awareness of the real-world environment deteriorates leading to collision risks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary system consisting of external cameras and depth sensors that capture real-world environment data, and a processing system that generates safety boundary indicators. This intermediary bridges the gap between the immersive HMD experience and real-world awareness by providing visual feedback about physical boundaries and obstacles within the virtual display, allowing users to maintain immersion while staying aware of safety constraints.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs visual indicators that change appearance (such as colored boundaries or highlighted regions) to communicate safety information to the user. These visual changes provide intuitive feedback about safe vs. unsafe zones in the real-world environment, mapped within the virtual reality display, enabling users to understand spatial constraints without breaking immersion.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the HMD completely obstructs the user's view of the real-world environment to enhance immersion, then virtual experience quality is improved, but the ability to detect physical obstacles deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary mapping of the real-world environment using external sensors and cameras before the user engages in immersive activities. Safety boundaries and obstacle locations are pre-identified and stored, then overlaid or referenced during virtual experiences. This preliminary action enables the system to provide accurate safety feedback without requiring continuous real-world visual input during immersion.
3Reliability
If depth-sensing and environmental mapping systems are implemented to provide safety boundaries, then user safety is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the safety system into separate functional modules: external depth-sensing subsystems for environmental mapping, processing subsystems for boundary calculation, and display integration components for presenting safety information. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and simplifies the overall system architecture, making the complex safety features more manageable and integrable with existing HMD platforms.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed method may include (1) sensing, via a depth-sensing subsystem, a plurality of locations in three-dimensional space corresponding to physical surfaces in a real-world environment, (2) determining a dominant plane within the real-world environment, (3) defining a three-dimensional grid that is aligned with the dominant plane, (4) identifying, based on the plurality of locations relative to the dominant plane, a set of grid coordinates within the three-dimensional grid that are indicative of the physical surfaces, and (5) determining, based on the set of grid coordinates, a safety boundary to be employed by a head-mounted display system to notify a user of the head-mounted display system of the user's proximity to the physical surfaces. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.