Virtual Content Docking and Switching With Gaze-Based Feedback
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for interacting with virtual and augmented reality environments are cumbersome, inefficient, and place a significant cognitive burden on users, often requiring multiple inputs and providing insufficient feedback, leading to errors and energy wastage, particularly in battery-operated devices.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of computer systems with improved user interfaces that reduce the number and nature of user inputs by enhancing feedback mechanisms, allowing for more intuitive interactions through touch-sensitive displays, eye and hand tracking, and gaze detection, enabling efficient switching between content items and environments, and facilitating docking based on input angles and elevations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If conventional input methods are used in virtual reality environments, then users can interact with virtual objects, but the interaction becomes cumbersome and requires multiple inputs
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by automatically detecting user intent through gaze tracking and hand positioning, then pre-positioning UI elements or preparing actions before explicit user confirmation is needed. This reduces the number of discrete input steps required for common operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system serves itself by using sensor data from the environment (cameras, depth sensors) to automatically understand user intent and execute appropriate responses without requiring traditional multi-step input sequences. The system interprets natural behaviors as commands.
2Loss of information
If detailed feedback mechanisms are implemented, then user understanding of device responses improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements continuous feedback loops where sensor data (gaze, hand position, environmental context) is constantly monitored and used to adjust UI behavior in real-time. This provides users with natural, intuitive feedback about system state without complex interface elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses multi-functional sensor data that serves multiple purposes: gaze tracking for selection, hand positioning for manipulation, environmental sensing for context-aware adjustments. This single data stream provides comprehensive feedback without requiring separate complex mechanisms.
3Reliability
If multiple input sequences are required for actions, then precise control is achieved, but cognitive burden on users increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary recognition of user intent through gaze and hand tracking, then pre-prepares possible actions or confirms intent before execution. This maintains control precision by requiring user confirmation while reducing the cognitive steps needed to initiate and complete actions.
4Adaptability or versatility
If traditional interaction methods are used, then compatibility with existing systems is maintained, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses periodic sensing at optimized intervals rather than continuous processing, activating high-power components only when user presence or intent is detected. This maintains full functionality when needed while conserving energy during idle periods.
Data Source
AI summary
One or more computer systems switch a representation of a first content item at a docked position in an environment with a representation of a second content item in the environment in response to input, switch from displaying a first environment to displaying a second environment in response to input while displaying a representation of a first content item at a docked position, detect and respond to events corresponding to requests to move virtual content in an environment, detect and respond to events corresponding to requests to transition a mode of display of virtual content in the environment, display a first framing element concurrently with a representation of a content item having different degrees of transparency in response to detecting an input, and/or facilitate docking of a content item in an environment based on an input, and/or determine clusters of virtual objects and restore virtual objects after a reboot event.