Methods for displaying and repositioning objects in an environment

Inventors

Lemay, Stephen O. • Chiu, Shih-Sang • Boesel, Benjamin H. • PERRON, Jonathan • MCKENZIE, Christopher D. • DARGAN, Dorian D. • Gitter, Nathan • Ravasz, Jonathan • Hylak, Benjamin • Taylor, Zoey C.

Assignees

Apple Inc

Abstract

In some embodiments, a computer system selectively recenters virtual content to a viewpoint of a user, in the presence of physical or virtual obstacles, and/or automatically recenters one or more virtual objects in response to the display generation component changing state, selectively recenters content associated with a communication session between multiple users in response detected user input, changes the visual prominence of content included in virtual objects based on viewpoint and/or based on a detected user attention of a user, modifies visual prominence of one or more virtual objects to resolve apparent obscuring of the one or more virtual objects, modifies visual prominence based on user viewpoint relative to virtual objects, concurrently modifies visual prominence based various types of user interaction, and/or changes an amount of visual impact of an environmental effect in response to detected user input.

Core Innovation

The invention relates to computer-implemented updating of one or more virtual objects in a three-dimensional environment while the three-dimensional environment is visible via a display generation component. A first virtual object has a first spatial arrangement relative to a first viewpoint of a user, and the system receives a first input requesting an update to a spatial arrangement of the one or more virtual objects relative to the first viewpoint to satisfy a first set of one or more criteria specifying a range of distances or a range of orientations.

In response to the first input, the system maintains the current viewpoint as the first viewpoint and determines whether the first virtual object satisfies a second set of one or more criteria while the first virtual object is not visible from the first viewpoint. When the first virtual object satisfies the second set of criteria while not visible, the system displays the first virtual object in the three-dimensional environment with a second spatial arrangement different from the first spatial arrangement relative to the first viewpoint, and the second spatial arrangement satisfies the first set of one or more criteria.

When the first virtual object does not satisfy the second set of one or more criteria while the first virtual object is not visible from the first viewpoint, the system maintains the first spatial arrangement of the first virtual object in the three-dimensional environment relative to the first viewpoint of the user. The disclosure further includes conditional visibility-dependent presentation behavior for virtual objects and their spatial arrangements, including maintaining the current viewpoint during the update decision.

The document further describes recentering of virtual objects for collections or groups of virtual objects, and conditions related to whether objects are anchored to a physical environment, visibility and occlusion, and prior placement viewpoint. Additional aspects include visual indication related to anchoring determinations for a first virtual object, and handling of occupied target locations with physical or virtual obstacles, including shifted target locations and optional animated feedback.

Claims Coverage

The independent claims cover a computer-implemented workflow, a non-transitory computer-readable medium, and a computer system for conditionally updating a first virtual object’s spatial arrangement relative to a maintained current viewpoint. Across the independent claims, the inventive behavior is based on satisfaction of distance/orientation criteria under visibility or occlusion conditions, with conditional updating versus maintaining spatial arrangement, and refinements for anchored status visual indication and viewpoint-change related rendering behaviors.

Across the independent claim set, the core coverage is the conditional update of a virtual object’s spatial arrangement relative to a current viewpoint when the object is not visible and satisfies specified distance or orientation criteria, with alternative behavior of maintaining the spatial arrangement when the criteria are not satisfied. The independent claims further support refinements such as anchored status visual indication and viewpoint-change related rendering behaviors.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications