Virtual reality floor mat activity region

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10496155-B2
Application number	US-201815943532-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 2, 2018
Priority date	Apr 2, 2018
Publication date	Dec 3, 2019
Grant date	Dec 3, 2019

Abstract

A virtual reality experience is provided to one or more users by a computing system through the use of a special-purpose virtual reality mat. The computing system receives image data from an optical sensor imaging a physical environment. The mat includes one or more fiducial markers that are recognizable by the computing system. A presence of these fiducial markers is detected based on the image data. An activity region within the physical environment is defined based, at least in part, on the detected fiducial markers. A positioning of a physical subject is identified within the physical environment relative to the activity region. The virtual reality experience is selectively augmented based on the positioning of the physical subject identified relative to the activity region.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A virtual reality system, comprising:
an optical sensor;
a floor mat having one or more fiducial markers; and
a computing system configured to:
receive image data from the optical sensor imaging a physical environment;
detect a presence of the one or more fiducial markers of the floor mat within the physical environment based on the image data;
define an activity region within the physical environment based on the one or more fiducial markers detected within the physical environment;
identify a positioning of a physical subject within the physical environment relative to the activity region; and
selectively augment a virtual reality experience based on the positioning of the physical subject identified relative to the activity region.

2. The virtual reality system of claim 1 , wherein the floor mat includes a plurality of spatially distributed pressure sensors integrated into the floor mat to detect a physical pressure applied to an activity surface of the floor mat; and
wherein the positioning of the physical subject is identified based, at least in part, on pressure data received from at least one pressure sensor of the plurality of pressure sensors.

3. The virtual reality system of claim 1 , wherein the floor mat includes one or more vibration devices integrated into the floor mat to generate vibration at the floor mat; and
wherein the virtual reality experience is augmented by generating vibration at the floor mat via at least one vibration device of the one or more vibration devices.

4. The virtual reality system of claim 1 , wherein the floor mat includes an interior region having a first surface texture and a surrounding region having a second surface texture that differs from the first surface texture.

5. A head-mounted display device, comprising:
one or more output devices including a near-eye graphical display;
one or more input devices including a camera; and
a computing device programmed with instructions executable by the computing device to:
receive image data from the camera;
detect a presence of one or more physical features of a floor mat for use with a session of the virtual reality system by applying one or more machine vision algorithms to the image data, the one or more machine vision algorithms previously trained using supervised machine learning with training images of the one or more physical features as training input;
retrieve profile data for the floor mat from a data storage device based on an identity of the floor mat indicated by the one or more physical features;
define an activity region within a physical environment based, at least in part, on the profile data for the floor mat;
identify a positioning of a physical subject within the physical environment relative to the activity region based on input data received via the one or more input devices; and
selectively augment a virtual reality experience provided via the one or more output devices of the head-mounted display device based on the positioning of the physical subject identified relative to the activity region.

6. The head-mounted display device of claim 5 , wherein the activity region is defined in relation to the one or more physical features of the floor mat.

7. The head-mounted display device of claim 5 , wherein the one or more physical features include one or more fiduciary markers.

8. The head-mounted display device of claim 7 , wherein the one or more fiduciary markers physically define a boundary of the activity region.

9. The head-mounted display device of claim 7 , wherein a machine-vision-readable code of the one or more fiduciary markers indicates the identity of the floor mat.

10. The head-mounted display device of claim 5 , wherein the virtual reality experience is selectively augmented by outputting one or more of a visual notification, an auditory notification, or a haptic notification via an output device of the one or more output devices.

11. The head-mounted display device of claim 10 , wherein the one or more notifications are output responsive to the physical subject being within a threshold proximity of a boundary of the activity region or being outside of the activity region.

12. The head-mounted display device of claim 5 , wherein the positioning of the physical subject relative to the activity region is identified based at least in part on the image data and/or subsequent image data received via the camera.

13. The head-mounted display device of claim 5 , wherein the one or more input devices of the head-mounted display device further includes one or more spatial positioning sensors; and
wherein the positioning of the physical subject relative to the activity region is identified based at least in part on positioning data received from the one or more spatial positioning sensors.

14. A virtual reality method performed by a computing system of a virtual reality system, the method comprising:
receiving input data via an input device of the virtual reality system;
identifying one or more physical features of a floor mat for use with a session of the virtual reality system based on the input data;
defining an activity region within a physical environment for one or more sessions of the virtual reality system based, at least in part, on the identified one or more physical features of the floor mat;
identifying a positioning of a physical subject within the physical environment relative to the activity region; and
selectively augmenting a virtual reality experience based on the positioning of the physical subject identified relative to the activity region.

15. The virtual reality method of claim 14 , wherein the input data includes user input data that indicates an identity of the floor mat for use with the session; and
wherein the method further comprises:
retrieving profile data for the floor mat from a data storage device based on the identity of the floor mat; and
wherein the activity region is at least partially defined within the physical environment based on the profile data for the floor mat.

16. The virtual reality method of claim 15 , wherein the user input data further indicates that the positioning of the physical subject is at a reference location and/or reference orientation indicated by the one or more physical features of the floor mat.

17. The virtual reality method of claim 14 , wherein the positioning of the physical subject relative to the activity region is identified based at least in part on the image data received via an optical sensor.

18. The virtual reality method of claim 14 , wherein the positioning of the physical subject relative to the activity region is identified based at least in part on positioning data received from one or more spatial positioning sensors.

19. The virtual reality method of claim 14 , wherein the input data includes image data captured via an optical sensor, and wherein the one or more physical features are identified by applying one or more machine vision algorithms to the image data, the one or more machine vision algorithms previously trained using supervised machine learning with training images of the one or more physical features as training input.

20. The virtual reality method of claim 14 , further comprising retrieving profile data for the floor mat from a data storage device based on an identity of the floor mat indicated by the one or more physical features; and
wherein the activity region is at least partially defined within the physical environment based on the profile data fo

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Schwarz Julia
• Ray Jason Michael

Classifications

• G02B2027/0187

  slaved to motion of at least a part of the body of the user, e.g. head, eye · CPC title

• G02B2027/014

  comprising information/image processing systems · CPC title

• G02B2027/0138

  comprising image capture systems, e.g. camera · CPC title

• G02B27/017

  Head mounted · CPC title

• G02B27/0093

  with means for monitoring data relating to the user, e.g. head-tracking, eye-tracking · CPC title