Method and system for providing visual feedback in a virtual reality environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016019718-A1
Application number	US-201414478277-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 5, 2014
Priority date	Jul 16, 2014
Publication date	Jan 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method of providing visual feedback to a user in a virtual reality environment is disclosed. The method may comprise: capturing position and depth information of the user using a depth sensor; determining a potential interaction point between the user and a 3D virtual object associated with the virtual reality environment based on the position and depth information of the user; determining, using a virtual depth camera, depth of the 3D virtual object at the potential interaction point; calculating a distance between the user and the 3D virtual object based on the position and depth information of the user and the depth of the 3D virtual object; and rendering a soft shadow of the user on the 3D virtual object based on the distance between the user and the 3D virtual object.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for providing visual feedback to a user in a virtual reality environment, the method comprising:
capturing, by the feedback management computing device, position and depth information of the user using a depth sensor; determining, by the feedback management computing device, a potential interaction point between the user and a 3D virtual object associated with the virtual reality environment based on the position and depth information of the user; determining, by the feedback management computing device, using a virtual depth camera, depth of the 3D virtual object at the potential interaction point; calculating, by the feedback management computing device, a distance between the user and the 3D virtual object based on the position and depth information of the user and the depth of the 3D virtual object; and rendering, by the feedback management computing device, a soft shadow of the user on the 3D virtual object based on the distance between the user and the 3D virtual object.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the position and depth information of the user is determined from at least one of an image and a video captured by the depth sensor.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the position and the depth information of the user comprises at least one of body joints position information and head position information.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the soft shadow of the user corresponds to a body part of the user interacting with the virtual reality environment.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the soft shadow is rendered by looking-up a predefined color look-up table to convert the distance between the user and the 3D virtual object to a black color image with alpha transparency.

6 . The method of claim 5 further comprising applying, by the feedback management computing device, a spatially variant blur effect to the black color image, wherein the radius of the blur effect is based on the distance between the user and the 3D virtual object.

7 . A feedback management computing device comprising:
a processor; a memory, wherein the memory coupled to the processor which are configured to execute programmed instructions stored in the memory comprising: receiving position and depth information of the user from a depth sensor; determining a potential interaction point between the user and a 3D virtual object associated with the virtual reality environment based on the position and depth information of the user; receiving depth of the 3D virtual object at the potential interaction point from a virtual depth camera; calculating a distance between the user and the 3D virtual object based on the position and depth information of the user and the depth of the 3D virtual object; and rendering a soft shadow of the user on the 3D virtual object based on the distance between the user and the 3D virtual object.

8 . The device of claim 7 , wherein the position and depth information of the user is determined from at least one of an image and a video captured by the depth sensor.

9 . The device of claim 7 , wherein the position and the depth information of the user comprises at least one of body joints position information and head position information.

10 . The device of claim 7 , wherein the soft shadow of the user corresponds to a body part of the user interacting with the virtual reality environment.

11 . The device of claim 7 , wherein the instructions comprise instructions to render the soft shadow by looking-up a predefined color look-up table to convert the distance between the user and the 3D virtual object to a black color image with alpha transparency.

12 . The device of claim 11 , wherein the instructions further comprise instructions to apply a spatially variant blur effect to the black color image, wherein the radius of the blur effect is based on the distance between the user and the 3D virtual object.

13 . A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions for providing visual feedback to a user in a virtual reality environment comprising machine executable code which when executed by at least one processor, causes the processor to perform steps comprising:
receiving position and depth information of the user from a depth sensor; determining a potential interaction point between the user and a 3D virtual object associated with the virtual reality environment based on the position and depth information of the user; receiving depth of the 3D virtual object at the potential interaction point from a virtual depth camera; calculating a distance between the user and the 3D virtual object based on the position and depth information of the user and the depth of the 3D virtual object; and rendering a soft shadow of the user on the 3D virtual object based on the distance between the user and the 3D virtual object.

14 . The medium of claim 13 , wherein the position and depth information of the user is determined from at least one of an image and a video captured by the depth sensor.

15 . The medium of claim 13 , wherein the position and the depth information of the user comprises at least one of body joints position information and head position information.

16 . The medium of claim 13 , wherein the soft shadow of the user corresponds to a body part of the user interacting with the virtual reality environment.

17 . The medium of claim 13 , wherein the operations comprise rendering the soft shadow by looking-up a predefined color look-up table to convert the distance between the user and the 3D virtual object to a black color image with alpha transparency.

18 . The medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise applying a spatially variant blur effect to the black color image, wherein the radius of the blur effect is based on the distance between the user and the 3D virtual object.

Assignees

• Wipro Ltd

Inventors

• Mukkamala Sreenivasa Reddy
• Madhusudhanan Manoj

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

• H04N13/0203

  Electricity · mapped topic

• 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

• G06F3/016

  Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user · CPC title

• G06T15/205

  Image-based rendering · CPC title