Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Tom G Salter

Ben J Sugden

Laura K Massey

Alex Aben-Athar Kipman

Robert L Crocco, Jr

Brian E Keane

Nicholas Ferianc Kamuda

Peter Tobias Kinnebrew

Aaron Burns

Daniel Deptford

Alexandre Da Veiga

Greg Alt

Jeff Sutherland

Kathryn Stone Perez

Mathew Julian Lamb

Christopher E Miles

Robert L Crocco

A see through head mounted display apparatus includes code performing a method of choosing and optimal viewing location and perspective for shared-view virtual objects rendered for multiple users in a common environment. Multiple objects and multiple users are taken into account in determining the optimal, common viewing location. The technology allows each user to have a common view if the relative position of the object in the environment.

Concurrent optimal viewing of virtual objects

A head mounted display (HMD) device operating in a real world physical environment is configured with a sensor package that enables determination of an intersection of a device user's projected gaze with a location in a virtual reality environment so that virtual objects can be placed into the environment with high precision. Surface reconstruction of the physical environment can be applied using data from the sensor package to determine the user's view position in the virtual world. A gaze ray originating from the view position is projected outward and a cursor or similar indicator is rendered on the HMD display at the ray's closest intersection with the virtual world such as a virtual object, floor/ground, etc. In response to user input, such as a gesture, voice interaction, or control manipulation, a virtual object is placed at the point of intersection between the projected gaze ray and the virtual reality environment.

Gaze-based object placement within a virtual reality environment

An HMD device is configured to vertically adjust the ground plane of a rendered virtual reality environment that has varying elevations to match the flat real world floor so that the device user can move around to navigate and explore the environment and always be properly located on the virtual ground and not be above it or underneath it. Rather than continuously adjust the virtual reality ground plane, which can introduce cognitive dissonance discomfort to the user, when the user is not engaged in some form of locomotion (e.g., walking), the HMD device establishes a threshold radius around the user within which virtual ground plane adjustment is not performed. The user can make movements within the threshold radius without the HMD device shifting the virtual terrain. When the user moves past the threshold radius, the device will perform an adjustment as needed to match the ground plane of the virtual reality environment to the real world floor.

Ground plane adjustment in a virtual reality environment

A head mounted display (HMD) device is configured with a sensor package that enables head tracking to determine the device user's proximity to virtual objects in a mixed reality or virtual reality environment. A fade volume including concentrically-arranged volumetric shells is placed around the user including a near shell that is closest to the user, and a far shell that is farthest from the user. When a virtual object is beyond the far shell, the HMD device renders the object with full opacity (i.e., with no transparency). As the user moves towards a virtual object and it intersects the far shell, its opacity begins to fade out with increasing transparency to reveal the background behind it. The transparency of the virtual object increases as the object gets closer to the near shell and the object becomes fully transparent when the near shell reaches it so that the background becomes fully visible.

Smart transparency for virtual objects

A system and method are disclosed for displaying virtual objects in a mixed reality environment in a way that is optimal and most comfortable for a user to interact with the virtual objects. When a user is not focused on the virtual object, which may be a heads-up display, or HUD, the HUD may remain body locked to the user. As such, the user may explore and interact with a mixed reality environment presented by the head mounted display device without interference from the HUD. When a user wishes to view and/or interact with the HUD, the user may look at the HUD. At this point, the HUD may change from a body locked virtual object to a world locked virtual object. The user is then able to view and interact with the HUD from different positions and perspectives of the HUD.

Hybrid world/body locked HUD on an HMD

A method and apparatus for the creation of a perspective-locked virtual object having in world space. The virtual object may be consumed) by another user with a consumption device at a location, position, and orientation which is the same as, or proximate to, the location, position, and orientation where the virtual object is created. Objects may have one, few or many allowable consumption locations, positions, and orientations defined by its creator.

Virtual object orientation and visualization

An HMD device is configured to check the placement of newly introduced objects in a virtual reality environment such as interactive elements like menus, widgets, and notifications to confirm that the objects are significantly present within the user's field of view. If the intended original placement would locate the object outside the field of view, the HMD device relocates the object so that a portion of the object is viewable at the edge of the HMD display closest to its original placement. Such smart placement of virtual objects enables the user to readily discover new objects when they are introduced into the virtual reality environment, and then interact with the objects within a range of motions and/or head positions that is comfortable to support a more optimal interaction and user experience.

Smart placement of virtual objects to stay in the field of view of a head mounted display

An HMD device renders a virtual reality environment in which areas of the real world are masked out so that real world objects such as computer monitors, doors, people, faces, and the like appear visible to the device user and no holographic or virtual reality content is rendered over the visible objects. The HMD device includes a sensor package to support application of surface reconstruction techniques to dynamically detect edges and surfaces of the real world objects and keep objects visible on the display as the user changes position or head pose or when the real world objects move or their positions are changed. The HMD device can expose controls to enable the user to select which real world objects are visible in the virtual reality environment.

Virtual reality environment with real world objects

In a virtual reality or mixed reality environment, an HMD device is configured to use surface reconstruction data points obtained with a sensor package to identify a location of a floor of a real world environment in which the device operates by sorting the data points by height into respective buckets where each bucket holds a different range of heights. A bucket having the greatest number of data points that are below the height of a user of the HMD device is used to identify the height of the real world floor, for example, by calculating an average of height values of data points in that bucket. A floor for the virtual reality environment may then be aligned to the identified height of the real world floor.

Use of surface reconstruction data to identify real world floor

A head mounted display allows user selection of a virtual object through multi-step focusing by the user. Focus on the selectable object is determined and then a validation object is displayed. When user focus moves to the validation object, a timeout determines that a selection of the validation object, and thus the selectable object has occurred. The technology can be used in see through head mounted displays to allow a user to effectively navigate an environment with a multitude of virtual objects without unintended selections.

Multi-step virtual object selection

A see-through head mounted display apparatus includes a display and a processor. The processor determines geo-located positions of points of interest within a field of view and generates markers indicating information regarding an associated real world object is available to the user. Markers are rendered in the display relative to the geo-located position and the field of view of the user. When a user selects a marker though a user gesture, the device displays a near-field virtual object having a visual tether to the marker simultaneously with the marker. The user may interact with the marker to view, add or delete information associated with the point of interest.

Multi-space connected virtual data objects

A system and method are disclosed for displaying virtual objects in a mixed reality environment in a way that is optimal and most comfortable for a user to interact with the virtual objects. When a user is moving through the mixed reality environment, the virtual objects may remain world-locked, so that the user can move around and explore the virtual objects from different perspectives. When the user is motionless in the mixed reality environment, the virtual objects may rotate to face the user so that the user can easily view and interact with the virtual objects.

Hologram anchoring and dynamic positioning

Techniques are provided for allowing a user to select a region within virtual imagery, such as a hologram, being presented in an HMD. The user could select the region by using their hands to form a closed loop such that from the perspective of the user, the closed loop corresponds to the region the user wishes to select. The user could select the region by using a prop, such as a picture frame. In response to the selection, the selected region could be presented using a different rendering technique than other regions of the virtual imagery. Various rendering techniques such as zooming, filtering, etc. could be applied to the selected region. The identification of the region by the user could also serve as a selection of an element in that portion of the virtual image.

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Tom G Salter