Virtual Obstacle Enforcement in Location-Based Experiences
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing virtual experiences correlated with real-world locations lack effective enforcement of virtual obstacles, allowing users to bypass or ignore virtual boundaries, disrupting the immersive experience.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system where a user's physical movement in the real world is correlated with their virtual presence, using a 'spirit' and 'agent' representation to enforce virtual obstacles by separating the agent from the spirit when obstacles are violated, or adjusting the virtual space's correlation with the real world to prevent penetration, while ensuring the virtual space remains within the bounds of the real-world space.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the virtual experience is correlated with the real world location, then the user can access virtual content at map coordinates, but the user can physically walk through virtual obstacles to bypass boundaries
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the user's presence into two distinct representations: a 'spirit' that tracks physical location and an 'agent' that enforces virtual boundaries. This segmentation allows the system to separately handle physical movement and virtual constraint enforcement, resolving the contradiction between ease of access and reliability of obstacle enforcement.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism that monitors the relationship between the spirit and agent positions. When the spirit attempts to cross a virtual obstacle, the intermediary detects this violation and prevents the agent from following, thereby maintaining obstacle enforcement while allowing free physical movement.
2Area of stationary object
If the virtual space is made larger to contain more content, then the user can explore more areas, but the virtual space cannot be fully represented in a smaller real world area
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a dynamic correlation system where the virtual space can be translated and rotated relative to the real world space. This dynamic transformation allows the system to adapt the virtual space representation to fit within the available real world area, enabling large virtual spaces to be explored within smaller physical boundaries.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds dimensional flexibility by allowing the virtual space to be transformed in multiple dimensions (translation, rotation, scaling) independent of the real world space. This dimensional independence enables the system to represent large virtual areas within constrained physical spaces by changing the correlation transformation parameters.
3Speed
If the user moves quickly in the real world, then the user can explore faster, but the agent cannot keep up with the spirit's position
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic synchronization where the agent's movement speed and position are continuously adjusted based on the spirit's position and the current correlation transformation. This dynamic adaptation ensures that the agent remains synchronized with the spirit even when the user moves at varying speeds, maintaining reliability of the virtual experience.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for a virtual experience where a user moves physically to move his or her ‘agent’, a position in the virtual space that determines which virtual content the user may interact with. If the virtual space contains obstacles, and the user moves such that the agent would intersect with one, either (a) move the correlation vector between the virtual space and real space to counteract the user's physical movement, preventing the user from penetrating the obstacle, or (b) allow the user to proceed, but become separated from his or her agent. Also described are applying these methods if the real space is too small to fit the virtual space, if the agent has a speed limitation that the user violates, how to direct the agent when it is separated from the user, and how to handle three-dimensional obstacles, real-world obstacles, and multiple users.