Outer Rim Archives
Archives · 2019 · 10255725

Granted patent

Augmented reality interactive experience

Number
10255725
Published
2019-04-09
Filed
2016-11-16
Assignee
Disney Enterprises, Inc.
Inventors
Nocon; Nathan, Bassett; Katherine M.
CPC
G02B27/017; G06F3/147; A63F13/00; A63F13/426; A63F13/213; G02B27/0172
Verdict
Medium Notable software
Source
Google Patents · FreePatentsOnline

The keeper's note

Augmented reality interactive experience.

Abstract

An augmented reality (AR) system for providing an AR experience to a user of an AR venue includes a hardware processor, a memory, a light detector, a display, and an AR application stored in the memory. The hardware processor can execute the AR application to provide a virtual environment corresponding to the AR venue on the display, and to detect a light event resulting from interaction of an infrared (IR) light produced by an AR accessory utilized by the user with a surface within the AR venue. The hardware processor can further execute the AR application to identify a location of the light event within the AR venue, determine whether the location of the light event is within an activation zone of the AR venue, and render a visual effect corresponding to the light event on the display if the location is within the activation zone.

Background

BACKGROUND(1) Augmented reality (AR) experiences, such as single and multi-player AR games, merge computer generated imagery with real physical actions in a way that provides a deeply immersive and stimulating sensory experience to a user. One constraint imposed by conventional AR applications can be the data processing overhead required to track and render interactions between such a user, and other users or objects within an AR environment. For example, in a multi-player simulated combat game, tracking and rendering the movements of opposing players, the trajectories of their simulated weapons, and the hits scored by each player against others may require substantial computing resources. However, due to the ever wider use of mobile computing devices, such as smartphones, for example, an AR tracking and rendering solution requiring less intensive data processing is needed.SUMMARY(2) There are provided systems and methods for providing an augmented reality (AR) experience to a user of an AR venue, substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at least one of the figures, and as set forth more completely in the claims.

Claims

1. An augmented reality (AR) system for providing an AR experience to a user utilizing an AR accessory within an AR venue, the AR system comprising: a hardware processor; a memory; a light detector; a display; and an AR application stored in the memory and executed by the hardware processor to: provide a virtual environment corresponding to the AR venue on the display; detect, using the light detector, a light event resulting from interaction of a light produced by the AR accessory with a surface within the AR venue, wherein the surface corresponds to another user within the AR venue; identify a location of the light event within the AR venue; determine whether the identified location of the detected light event is within a volumetric region surrounding the AR accessory; when the determining determines that the identified location of the detected light event is not within the volumetric region surrounding the AR accessory, not render any visual effect in response to the detected light event; and when the determining determines that the identified location of the detected light event is within the volumetric region surrounding the AR accessory, render a visual effect corresponding to the light event on the display, in response to the detected light event. 10. A method for use by an augmented reality (AR) system including a hardware processor, a memory storing an AR application, a light detector, and a display, for providing an AR experience to a user utilizing an AR accessory within an AR venue, the method comprising: providing, using the hardware processor, a virtual environment corresponding to the AR venue on the display; detecting, using the hardware processor and the light detector, a light event resulting from interaction of a light produced by the AR accessory with a surface within the AR venue, wherein the surface corresponds to another user within the AR venue; identifying, using the hardware processor, a location of the light event within the AR venue; determining, using the hardware processor, whether the identified location of the detected light event is within a volumetric region surrounding the AR accessory; when the determining determines that the identified location of the detected light event is not within the volumetric region surrounding the AR accessory, not rendering any visual effect in response to the detected light event; and when the determining determines that the identified location of the detected light event is within the volumetric region surrounding the AR accessory, rendering, using the hardware processor, a visual effect corresponding to the light event on the display, in response to the detected light event.