VR Proxy Surface Navigation for Stationary Users
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current virtual reality systems lack the ability to allow users to move virtual features in a natural and immersive manner within a virtual environment while remaining stationary in the physical environment, leading to potential motion sickness and disorientation.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that uses a head-mounted display (HMD) and a handheld electronic device to detect user inputs, define a three-dimensional virtual proxy surface, and move virtual features along this surface in response to user commands, allowing users to perceive movement within the virtual environment without physical movement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users move through the virtual environment by physically moving their bodies, then the virtual environment can be explored, but motion sickness and disorientation occur
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of moving the user's viewpoint through the virtual environment by physically moving the user's body, the patent inverts the approach by moving the virtual environment itself relative to a stationary user. The handheld device moves the virtual world in the opposite direction of where the user would naturally move, creating the illusion of movement without requiring physical displacement, thereby preventing motion sickness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a handheld electronic device as an intermediary between the user and the virtual environment. This device serves as a mediator that translates the user's physical movements into virtual environment movements, allowing the user to explore the virtual world through the device's motion sensors while remaining physically stationary, thus avoiding the harmful effects of direct physical movement in VR.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If users remain stationary in the physical environment, then motion sickness is reduced, but the ability to move through the virtual environment is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The handheld electronic device acts as an intermediary that enables virtual environment navigation while the user remains physically stationary. The device's motion sensors detect movements and translate them into corresponding movements of the virtual environment, providing full navigational capability without requiring the user to physically move their body.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent inverts the traditional VR control model by keeping the user's viewpoint fixed and moving the virtual environment instead. The handheld device moves the virtual world in response to user inputs, allowing comprehensive virtual exploration while maintaining physical stationarity and reducing motion sickness.
3Speed
If virtual features are moved directly without a proxy surface, then movement responsiveness is high, but movement smoothness and naturalness are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-defining a proxy surface (such as a ground plane or object surface) before virtual features are moved. When the user interacts with virtual features, they are constrained to move along this pre-established surface, which smooths out movements and creates more natural interactions while maintaining responsiveness through real-time updates along the predefined path.
Data Source
AI summary
In a system for moving, or dragging, a virtual reality environment, a user wearing a head mounted display (HMD) device may be at a first physical position in a physical space, corresponding to a first virtual position in the virtual environment. The user may select a second virtual position in the virtual environment by, for example, manipulation of a handheld electronic device operably coupled to the HMD. The system may construct a three dimensional complex proxy surface based on the first and second virtual positions, and may move the virtual elements of the virtual environment along the proxy surface. This movement of the virtual environment may be perceived by the user as a move from the first virtual position to the second virtual position, although the user may remain at the first physical position within the physical space.