Positional tracking assisted beam forming in wireless virtual reality systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10148324-B2
Application number	US-201715818624-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 20, 2017
Priority date	Feb 15, 2017
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure support a head-mounted display (HMD) wirelessly coupled to a console. The HMD includes a positional tracking system, a beam controller and a transceiver. The positional tracking system tracks position of the HMD and generates positional information describing the tracked position of the HMD. The transceiver communicates with a console via a wireless channel, in accordance with communication instructions, the communication instructions causing the transceiver to communicate over one directional beam of a plurality of directional beams. The beam controller determines a change in the positional information. Based on the change to the positional information, the beam controller determines a directional beam of the plurality of directional beams. The beam controller further generates the communication instructions identifying the determined directional beam, and provides the communication instructions to the transceiver.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a positional tracking system having built-in sensors, the positional tracking system configured to:
track, over a time period using the built-in sensors, a position of a head-mounted display (HMD) relative to the apparatus that wirelessly communicates with the HMD, and
generate positional information describing the tracked position of the HMD over the time period relative to the apparatus;

a beam controller configured to:
determine a change in the position of the HMD relative to the apparatus based on the positional information over the time period,
determine a directional beam of a plurality of directional beams of the HMD, based in part on the determined change, and
generate communication instructions identifying the determined directional beam; and

a transceiver configured to:
communicate directly with the HMD via a wireless channel, and
transmit the communication instructions to the HMD instructing the HMD to adjust a direction of wireless communication with the apparatus to the determined directional beam.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the transceiver is further configured to communicate directly with the HMD using one directional beam of one or more directional beams of the apparatus.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the transceiver is further configured to communicate directly with the HMD using one directional beam of one or more directional wide beams of the apparatus.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the transceiver is further configured to transmit to the HMD an indication that the HMD approaches a zone where a quality of communication between the apparatus and the HMD is below a threshold, based on the positional information of the HMD.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the beam controller is further configured to perform transmit beam selection associated with the apparatus, based on information about a region where a quality of communication between the apparatus and the HMD is above a threshold.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:
the transceiver is further configured to transmit a feedback signal to the HMD, the feedback signal comprising information about a region where a quality of communication between the apparatus and the HMD is above a threshold.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
a processor configured to predict motion of the HMD, wherein
the beam controller is further configured to determine some other directional beam of the plurality of directional beams of the HMD, based on the predicted motion of the HMD, and
the transceiver is further configured to transmit information about the other directional beam to the HMD, the information causing the HMD to switch communication with the apparatus to the other directional beam.

8. A method comprising:
tracking, over a time period at an apparatus using built-in sensors of the apparatus, a position of a head-mounted display (HMD) relative to the apparatus that wirelessly communicates with the HMD;
generating positional information describing the tracked position of the HMD over the time period relative to the apparatus;
determining a change in the position of the HMD relative to the apparatus based on the positional information over the time period;
determining a directional beam of a plurality of directional beams of the HMD, based in part on the determined change;
generating communication instructions identifying the determined directional beam;
communicating directly with the HMD via a wireless channel; and
transmitting the communication instructions to the HMD instructing the HMD to adjust a direction of wireless communication with the apparatus to the determined directional beam.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
transmitting a feedback signal to the HMD, the feedback signal comprising information about a region where a quality of communication between the apparatus and the HMD is above a threshold.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
predicting motion of the HMD;
determining some other directional beam of the plurality of directional beams of the HMD, based on the predicted motion of the HMD; and
transmitting information about the other directional beam to the HMD, the information causing the HMD to switch communication with the apparatus to the other directional beam.

Assignees

• Facebook Tech Llc

Inventors

• Qu Qi
• Venkatraman Ganesh
• Zhou Hongyu
• Brown Ryan Hamilton
• Linde Oskar
• Bainbridge Lyle David
• Devoe Matthew James
• Yazdan Ali
• Alex Sam Padinjaremannil
• Patel Nirav Rajendra

Classifications

• H04B7/26 Primary

  at least one of which is mobile · CPC title

• H04B7/0608

  Antenna selection according to transmission parameters · CPC title

• H04B7/0408 Primary

  using two or more beams, i.e. beam diversity · CPC title

• G01S5/163

  Determination of attitude (using inertial means G01C9/00; control of attitude G05D1/49) · CPC title

• G01S17/894

  Three-dimensional [3D] imaging with simultaneous measurement of time-of-flight at a two-dimensional [2D] array of receiver pixels, e.g. time-of-flight cameras or flash lidar · CPC title