Virtual Notification Overlay in Head-Mounted Displays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users of head-mounted displays may miss important notifications while immersed in virtual environments, as existing solutions like Bluetooth in-car connections offer limited functionality and require users to exit the immersive experience to check notifications, leading to inconvenience and potential wasted time.
Innovation Solution
An entertainment device system that integrates with a head-mounted display, mobile phone, and wearable devices, allowing for the reception and parsing of notifications, and their incorporation into the virtual environment, enabling users to receive and manage notifications without leaving the immersive experience.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a Bluetooth in-car connection is used to enable calls while wearing the head-mounted display, then call functionality is improved, but the solution offers limited functionality and does not resolve the issue of receiving other types of notifications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal notification system that handles multiple types of notifications (calls, messages, alerts) through a single integrated framework. The entertainment device receives and processes various notification types from different sources, presenting them uniformly within the virtual environment, thereby eliminating the need for separate Bluetooth in-car connection setups for different notification types.
2Loss of information
If the user extracts themselves from the head-mounted display to check notifications, then important information is not missed, but user immersion is broken and convenience is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary virtual notification interface that acts as a mediator between the external notification sources and the user's immersive experience. Notifications are delivered through virtual elements within the head-mounted display's field of view, allowing users to access information without physically removing or adjusting the device, thus maintaining both information access and user convenience.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions notifications from a traditional external display dimension to an integrated virtual dimension within the head-mounted display environment. By presenting notifications as virtual objects or overlays in the user's field of view, the system allows information access within the immersive space itself, eliminating the need to exit the virtual environment.
3Loss of information
If notifications are delivered through traditional external means, then important information is conveyed, but user immersion in the virtual environment is disrupted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the notification delivery system with the virtual environment by integrating notification presentation directly into the head-mounted display's visual field. Notifications are combined with the immersive content as virtual elements rather than separate external alerts, ensuring both reliable information delivery and continuous immersion without disruption.
Data Source
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AI summary
An entertainment device comprises virtual environment generation means, operable to generate a virtual environment for display; reception means, adapted to receive in operation content from a mobile communication device on a local network; content parsing means, adapted to parse the content for information of one or more predetermined information types; and transmission means adapted to signal to a mobile communication device that the entertainment device is a wearable device, despite the entertainment device not being a wearable device; wherein the reception means is adapted to receive content from the mobile communication device that has been formatted for use by such a wearable device, and information of one or more predetermined information types is incorporated into the virtual environment for display.