Control method and virtual reality experience provision apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10713001-B2
Application number	US-201816144404-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 27, 2018
Priority date	Mar 30, 2016
Publication date	Jul 14, 2020
Grant date	Jul 14, 2020

Abstract

In a virtual reality space, a virtual reference body controlled to follow a player's hand, a virtual body part controlled to follow the player's ear, and a virtual smartphone being a virtual object as a prop are arranged. After the proximity of the virtual reference body to the virtual smartphone, the virtual smartphone is deemed as being gripped and the virtual reference body and the virtual smartphone are integrally moved. Stereophonic sound control is performed such that the emitted sound from the virtual smartphone is a ringtone before the proximity of the virtual reference body or the virtual smartphone to the virtual body part, and after the proximity, the emitted sound is switched to communication sound so that the player listens to the stereophonic sound by a headphone.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A control method for use with a user, the control method comprising:
tracking a position of a reference body in a real space, the reference body being a first body part of the user or a controller;
displaying an image of a virtual reality space associated with the real space on a head tracking-type head mounted display (HMD) worn by the user;
associating a position of a virtual object given a role in the virtual reality space with the position of the reference body to follow the position of the reference body;
performing a control to output sound according to the role from a headphone worn by the user based on whether a positional condition for changing sound determined based on the position of the reference body in the real space or the position of the virtual object in the virtual reality space is satisfied, wherein:
the control of the output sound is performed such that:
when the positional condition is not satisfied: (a) the sound according to the role is not output and instead environmental sound in the virtual reality space is output, or (b) the environmental sound in the virtual reality space is output louder than the sound according to the role, and
when the positional condition is satisfied: (i) the environmental sound in the virtual reality space is not output and instead the sound according to the role is output, or (ii) the sound according to the role is output louder than the environmental sound in the virtual reality space.

2. The control method according to claim 1 , further comprising changing the environmental sound based on the position of the reference body in the real space.

3. The control method according to claim 1 , further comprising changing the environmental sound based on the position of the virtual object in the virtual reality space.

4. The control method according to claim 1 , wherein the output control of the sound includes determining whether the positional condition is satisfied, the positional condition being a distance condition that a given real target object in the real space and the reference body has become close to each other.

5. The control method according to claim 1 , wherein the output control of the sound includes determining whether the positional condition is satisfied, the positional condition being a distance condition that a virtual target object in the virtual reality space corresponding to the real target object and the virtual object has become close to each other.

6. The control method according to claim 4 , wherein
the virtual object has the role of a sound emission object that emits sound in the virtual reality space, and,
the output control of the sound includes determining whether the positional condition is satisfied with an ear of the user as the real target object so that sound is output from the headphone as if the sound emission object in the virtual reality space has become close to the ear of the user.

7. The control method according to claim 5 , wherein
the virtual object has the role of a sound emission object that emits sound in the virtual reality space, and,
the output control of the sound includes determining whether the positional condition is satisfied with an ear of the user as the real target object so that sound is output from the headphone as if the sound emission object in the virtual reality space has become close to the ear of the user.

8. The control method according to claim 6 , wherein
the virtual object has the role of a sound output device with a telephone function, and
the output control of the sound is performed such that communication sound is output as the sound according to the role by the telephone function.

9. The control method according to claim 7 , wherein
the virtual object has the role of a sound output device with a telephone function, and
the output control of the sound is performed such that communication sound is output as the sound according to the role by the telephone function.

10. A control method comprising:
tracking a position of a reference body in a real space, the reference body being a first body part of a user or a controller;
displaying an image of a virtual reality space associated with the real space on a head tracking-type head mounted display (HMD) worn by the user;
associating a position of a virtual object given a role in the virtual reality space with the position of the reference body to follow the position of the reference body;
performing a control to output sound according to the role from a headphone worn by the user based on whether a positional condition for changing sound determined based on the position of the reference body in the real space or the position of the virtual object in the virtual reality space is satisfied, wherein:
the output control of the sound includes determining whether the positional condition is satisfied, the positional condition being a distance condition that a given real target object in the real space and the reference body has become close to each other,
the virtual object has the role of a sound emission object that emits sound in the virtual reality space,
the output control of the sound includes determining whether the positional condition is satisfied with an ear of the user as the real target object so that sound is output from the headphone as if the sound emission object in the virtual reality space has become close to the ear of the user,
the virtual object has the role of a sound output device with a telephone function,
the output control of the sound is performed such that communication sound is output as the sound according to the role by the telephone function, and
the output control of the sound is performed such that:
when the positional condition is not satisfied, the communication sound by the telephone function is not output and instead a ringtone by the telephone function is output, and
when the positional condition is satisfied, the ringtone by the telephone function is not output and instead the communication sound by the telephone function is output.

11. A control method comprising:
tracking a position of a reference body in a real space, the reference body being a first body part of a user or a controller;
displaying an image of a virtual reality space associated with the real space on a head tracking-type head mounted display (HMD) worn by the user;
associating a position of a virtual object given a role in the virtual reality space with the position of the reference body to follow the position of the reference body;
performing a control to output sound according to the role from a headphone worn by the user based on whether a positional condition for changing sound determined based on the position of the reference body in the real space or the position of the virtual object in the virtual reality space is satisfied, wherein:
the output control of the sound includes determining whether the positional condition is satisfied, the positional condition being a distance condition that a virtual target object in the virtual reality space corresponding to the real target object and the virtual object has become close to each other,
the virtual object has the role of a sound emission object that emits sound in the virtual reality space,
the output control of the sound includes determining whether the positional condition is satisfied with an ear of the user as the real target object so that sound is output from the headphone as if the sound emission object in the virtual reality space has become close to the ear of the user,
the virtual object has the role of a sound output device with a telephone function,
the output control of the sound is performed such that

Assignees

• Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc

Inventors

• Tamaoki Jun
• Yamamoto Haruyoshi
• Nakanishi Tetsukazu

Classifications

• H04M1/724097

  Worn on the head · CPC title

• A63F13/54

  involving acoustic signals, e.g. for simulating revolutions per minute [RPM] dependent engine sounds in a driving game or reverberation against a virtual wall · CPC title

• A63F13/52

  involving aspects of the displayed game scene · CPC title

• G06F3/012

  Head tracking input arrangements · CPC title

• G06F3/017

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title