Virtual Window Projection With User-Tracked Perspective Rendering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing VR technologies often require users to wear cumbersome interactive devices like goggles or headsets, leading to discomfort and VR motion sickness due to conflicting sensory inputs.
Innovation Solution
A View Rendering Device (VRD) that projects 3-D images onto a distant surface, using sensors to track user movement and a CPU for real-time rendering, allowing immersive VR experiences without wearable devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If users wear VR headsets with stereoscopic screens, then immersive VR experience is achieved, but user comfort deteriorates due to motion sickness and disorientation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a camera as an intermediary device to capture the user's field of view, which then feeds into a virtual window system. This intermediary approach allows the VR experience to be projected externally rather than forcing images directly into the user's eyes through a headset, thereby maintaining immersion while reducing the harmful sensory conflicts that cause motion sickness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical VR headset system with an optical projection system using a camera and display screen. Instead of using a complex mechanical headset that covers the user's eyes and requires precise tracking, the system uses a camera to capture images and projects them onto a virtual window, substituting the mechanical wearing device with a more comfortable visual projection approach.
2Adaptability or versatility
If VR headsets are worn for immersive experience, then virtual environment interaction is improved, but device complexity and user burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the core function of VR interaction from the cumbersome headset device and relocates it to a camera-based system. By taking out the image capture function and placing it in a separate camera device, the system eliminates the need for users to wear complex headsets while maintaining the ability to track and render the virtual environment based on the user's field of view.
Solution Approach 2:
The camera device serves multiple functions: it captures the user's field of view, tracks movement, and provides the visual input for the virtual window system. This multi-functional approach replaces the specialized headset device, achieving the same VR interaction goals with a more universal and less complex device that users already possess.
3Productivity
If sensors and processors are integrated in wearable devices, then real-time rendering is achieved, but user comfort and freedom of movement deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of placing sensors and processors in a wearable headset on the user's head, the patent inverts the approach by using a camera (which can be held or mounted) to capture images and using a separate processing system to perform real-time rendering. This inversion moves the computational burden away from the user's body, allowing free movement without the constraint of wearing electronic devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a camera to create a visual copy of the user's field of view, which then serves as the input for virtual window rendering. By copying the visual scene rather than directly processing data from wearable sensors, the system achieves real-time rendering performance while eliminating the need for users to wear complex sensor-laden devices, thus preserving freedom of movement.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods for providing a virtual window may include a projector, which projects an image upon a projection surface. The projection surface can be arranged at a distance of separation from a user. The system can further comprise a plurality of sensors forming a field of detection with respect to an area of space encompassing the distance of separation between the projection surface and the user. The plurality of sensors can capture position data for the user representing a current position of the user within the field of detection. The system can also include at least one processor rendering a computer simulated environment as the projected image, wherein the at least one processor processes the captured position data such for the user such that the computer simulated environment is generated in a perspective relative to the current position of the user within the field of detection.