Information processing apparatus and information processing method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11449133-B2
Application number	US-202117168231-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 5, 2021
Priority date	Mar 31, 2015
Publication date	Sep 20, 2022
Grant date	Sep 20, 2022

Abstract

An information processing apparatus including circuitry that acquires information indicating a spatial relationship between a real object and a virtual object, and initiate generation of a user feedback based on the acquired information, the user feedback being displayed to be augmented to a generated image obtained based on capturing by an imaging device, or augmented to a perceived view of the real world, and wherein a characteristic of the user feedback is changed when the spatial relationship between the real object and the virtual object changes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A display control apparatus, comprising:
a sensor configured to acquire positional information of a hand of a user of a head-mounted display; and
a processor configured to:
set a virtual light source corresponding to a gaze direction of the user;
control the head-mounted display to display a virtual object over a view of a real world; and
control, based on the positional information and the virtual light source, the head-mounted display to display a virtual indicator of the hand on the virtual object.

2. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to set the virtual light source to radiate a virtual light forward from a position of a head of the user.

3. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to control, based on the positional information, the head-mounted display to decrease a size of the virtual indicator as a distance between the hand and the virtual object decreases.

4. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
set an effective range of visual feedback of the virtual indicator in a depth direction, excluding a range around a face of the user; and
control the head-mounted display not to display the virtual indicator in a case where the hand is not within the effective range.

5. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the head-mounted display is an optical see-through head-mounted display configured to stereoscopically display, using optical units for left and right eyes of the user, the virtual object and the virtual indicator by adjustment of a convergence of the user.

6. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the head-mounted display is a smartphone,
the sensor is an imaging device that is installed in the smartphone and configured to capture the real world, and
the processor is further configured to control the smartphone to display the view of the real world, a first virtual object, and a second virtual object simultaneously.

7. The display control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to control, based on the positional information, the head-mounted display to increase a sharpness of the virtual indicator as a distance between the hand and the virtual object decreases.

8. A display control method, comprising:
acquiring, from a sensor of a head-mounted display, positional information of a hand of a user of the head-mounted display;
setting a virtual light source corresponding to a gaze direction of the user;
controlling the head-mounted display to display a virtual object over a view of a real world; and
controlling, based on the positional information and the virtual light source, the head-mounted display to display a virtual indicator of the hand on the virtual object.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a display control apparatus for a head-mounted display, cause the display control apparatus to execute operations, the operations comprising:
acquiring, from a sensor of the head-mounted display, positional information of a hand of a user of the head-mounted display;
setting a virtual light source corresponding to a gaze direction of the user;
controlling the head-mounted display to display a virtual object over a view of a real world; and
controlling, based on the positional information and the virtual light source, the head-mounted display to display a virtual indicator of the hand on the virtual object.

10. A display control apparatus, comprising:
a sensor configured to acquire positional information of a hand of a user of a head-mounted display; and
a processor configured to:
control the head-mounted display to display a virtual object over a view of a real world;
control, based on the positional information, the head-mounted display to display a virtual indicator of the hand on the virtual object, wherein the virtual indicator is a ring-shaped indicator; and
control, based on the positional information, the head-mounted display to decrease a radius of the ring-shaped indicator as a distance between the hand and the virtual object decreases.

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Ishihara Atsushi
• Ishikawa Tsuyoshi
• Aga Hiroyuki
• Kawasaki Koichi
• Nishibe Mitsuru
• Kusano Yuji

Classifications

• G06F3/011 Primary

  Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality (blind teaching G09B21/00) · CPC title

• G09G2354/00

  Aspects of interface with display user · CPC title

• G09G2340/14

  Solving problems related to the presentation of information to be displayed · 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

• G09G3/003

  to produce spatial visual effects · CPC title