Managing shared state information produced by applications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9424239-B2
Application number	US-201314020723-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 6, 2013
Priority date	Sep 6, 2013
Publication date	Aug 23, 2016
Grant date	Aug 23, 2016

Abstract

A shared renderer maintains shared state information to which two or more augmented reality application contribute. The shared renderer then provides a single output presentation based on the shared state information. Among other aspects, the shared renderer includes a permission mechanism by which applications can share information regarding object properties. The shared renderer may also include: a physics engine for simulating movement of at least one object that is represented by the shared state information; an annotation engine for managing a presentation of annotations produced by plural applications; and/or an occlusion engine for managing the behavior of the output presentation when two or more objects, produced by two or more applications, overlap within the output presentation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented system comprising:
an output device;
a shared renderer comprising an application interaction module and a data store;
an access control module; and
at least one processing device configured to execute the shared renderer and the access control module,
wherein the application interaction module is configured to interact with applications that output objects of an augmented reality experience,
wherein the data store is configured to store shared state information including the objects, property information identifying properties of the objects, and permission information identifying permissions associated with the properties of the objects,
wherein the access control module is configured to:
present a user interface presentation which provides a gadget associated with an identified object property of a first object output by a first application;
receive an indication that a user has performed a prescribed gesture directed to the gadget; and
update first permission information in the data store associated with the identified object property to indicate that a second application has access rights with respect to the identified object property of the first object;

wherein the application interaction module is further configured to:
identify an update that affects the identified object property of the first object;
access the first permission information in the data store to confirm that the second application has access rights with respect to the identified object property of the first object; and
send information regarding the update that affects the identified object property to the second application.

2. The computer-implemented system of claim 1 , embodied as a single computing device.

3. The computer-implemented system of claim 1 , wherein the application interaction module is further configured to:
determine that the first permission information indicates that a third application does not have access rights with respect to the identified object property of the first object; and
not send the information regarding the update to the third application.

4. The computer-implemented system of claim 1 , wherein the shared renderer comprises trusted functionality and the applications comprise untrusted functionality.

5. The computer-implemented system of claim 1 , wherein the identified property is a system property which is defined by the shared renderer and is independent of property definitions provided by the first application.

6. The computer-implemented system of claim 1 , wherein the identified property is an application-specific property that is defined by the first application and is not independently defined by the shared renderer.

7. The computer-implemented system of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the permission information is programmatically specified by the applications.

8. A computing device comprising:
an output device;
at least one processing device; and
at least one computer readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to:
interact with two or more augmented reality applications that execute on the computing device to provide an augmented reality experience that augments an environment sensed by the computing device, wherein the two or more augmented reality applications provide objects that relate to the environment sensed by the computing device;
maintain a data store that stores shared state information for the two or more augmented reality applications that execute on the computing device, the shared state information including the objects and property information identifying one or more object properties of the objects;
provide an output presentation to the output device based on the shared state information, wherein the output presentation includes the objects provided by the two or more augmented reality applications as well as a representation of the environment sensed by the computing device;
simulate movement of an individual object that is represented in the shared state information based on instructions from an individual augmented reality application;
manage behavior of the output presentation when two or more of the objects, produced by different augmented reality applications, overlap within the output presentation; and
perform an update to the state information in the data store to reflect the simulated movement of the individual object and communicate the updated state information to another individual augmented reality application.

9. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein the shared state information also includes permission information identifying a set of permissions associated with each object property, and wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to:
confirm that the permission information indicates the another individual augmented reality application has permission to receive the updated state information before communicating the updated state information to the another individual augmented reality application.

10. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein the data store is maintained using trusted functionality, whereas said two or more augmented reality applications are implemented as untrusted functionality.

11. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein the output device is a display device and the two or more augmented reality applications each display different objects on the display device.

12. The computing device of claim 11 , wherein the computer readable instructions, when executed by the at least one processing device, cause the at least one processing device to:
manage collisions of other objects output to the display device by the different augmented reality applications.

13. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:
maintaining shared state information in a data store, the shared state information including objects output by plural augmented reality applications that execute on the computing device, wherein the objects relate to an environment sensed by the computing device;
the shared state information containing permission information, individual instances of permission information in the permission information specifying:
a sharer augmented reality application which is sharing an identified object property of a corresponding object,
any augmented reality applications with which the identified object property can be shared, and
at least one mode of sharing that is permitted;

identifying an update which affects a particular object property of a particular object output by a particular augmented reality application, wherein the particular object is conveyed in an output presentation with the environment sensed by the computing device;
identifying another augmented reality application that is entitled to receive information regarding the particular object property, based on corresponding permission information associated with the particular object property; and
sending information regarding the particular object property to the another augmented reality application.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising using a physics engine to simulate movement of the particular object based on instructions from the particular augmented reality application.

15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising managing presentation of annotations produced by the plural augmented reality applications.

16. The method of claim 1

Assignees

• Microsoft Corp
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Dunn Alan M
• Kohno Tadayoshi
• Molnar David A
• Moshchuk Alexander N
• Roesner Franziska
• Wang Jiahe Helen

Classifications

• G06F40/169 Primary

  Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes · CPC title

• G06T19/006

  Mixed reality (object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00) · CPC title

• G06F3/0481 Primary

  based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance · CPC title

• G06F21/6218

  to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database · CPC title

• G06F17/241 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic