XR Patents to Watch from Q1 2020 👁‍🗨

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According to a recent report from Lexology, Q1 2020 saw over 2500 patents issued worldwide related to AR/VR technologies¹.

Some of the top assignees included familiar faces like Microsoft, Magic Leap, Facebook, and Sony, but also lesser-known technologists like Align Technology, who work in the dental and orthodontic sector.

While patents are by no means indicative of finalised designs for upcoming XR products, they can give us a lot of hints about what direction the industry might be headed in.

Here are just a few of the most intriguing we’ve seen so far:

Patent №10,589,625, Disney

Photo by Ilnur Kalimullin on Unsplash

Earlier this year, Disney was issued a U.S patent for what looks like an augmented reality or mixed reality system involving cars/vehicles.

“Patent №10,589,625 […] is directed to systems and methods for augmenting an appearance of an actual vehicle component with a virtual vehicle component. The technology allows a mixed experience between virtual components and actual components of the vehicle”.

For those who aren’t familiar, MR or ‘mixed reality’ refers to an experience where virtual and physical objects exist in the same space & can interact in real time.

Like augmented reality, it represents the projection of digitally-modelled objects, surfaces, or characters onto real environments (think Pokemon GO). But MR goes one step further: allowing the real and imagined to interface with one another in new & exciting ways. An MR object might be simulated to follow, bump, or collide with a real-life object. An MR character could hypothetically appear to sit, stand, or fall according to the real-world environment.

If this is the kind of experience that Disney is aiming for with this patent, the possibilities are pretty exciting.

Imagine a rollercoaster car with digital elements that accurately follow & interact with the car’s motion. If Disney plans to “augment [the] appearance of an actual vehicle component with a virtual vehicle component”, they could alter the look of a coaster car to make it appear themed or fantastical. To add SFX like flames or sparks. To hide ugly mechanisms that detract from the aesthetic of the storyline. The car could even seem to change design and shape according to its position within the coaster’s track & narrative. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that Disney World adapted cutting-edge technology to bring new levels of immersion to their coasters and attractions.

We could imagine marketing applications too. Mixed reality OOO advertising where digital elements can be ‘attached’ & fully-integrated into moving buses or taxis.

On a more mundane level, perhaps the planned use is to facilitate rollercoaster/vehicle design. Designers could use MR to ‘replace’ old vehicle parts with updated components to test their look and function.

“Controller Device”, Sony

In February 2020, Sony Interactive Entertainment published a patent for a ‘controller device’ that generated a lot of speculation.

According to a VentureBeat article on the subject, the device was described an input mechanism for a ‘home-use game machine [that] detects movement of a user’s hand’ — specifically ‘detect[ing] the fingers of the user’².

From the design specs, it looks like it would function like this:

The device is fitted with sensor units configured by either an ‘electrostatic [or] infrared sensor’. These would detect which fingers are wrapped around the controller & infer which are outstretched. The user’s in-game hands would be updated accordingly.

All pretty familiar stuff. But also all-new to the PSVR.

Could this be the basis for a new PSVR controller? Perhaps one designed for the launch of PSVR 2 with the PS5?

Only time will tell.

“Ring Device”, Apple

Last on our list — there’s Apple’s continuation patent for the ‘ring device’/accessory, published this month³.

From what we can see, the patent represents Apple’s attempt to build a input device for an XR HMD that resembles a ring.

Claim 1 outlines how the system works, with the ring’s ‘visual marker’ technology allowing it to be detected and interpreted by the user’s headset.

A system configured to be interacted with by a user, the system comprising: a wearable electronic device configured to be worn by the user and having a visual marker and a first sensor that gathers input from the user; and a head-mounted device comprising a display viewable by the user and a second sensor that is configured to detect the visual marker to track the wearable electronic device.

Equally exciting here is the specific nod to AR technology, which tells us pretty clearly what kind of software the ring is designed to control.

The system defined in claim 1 wherein the head-mounted device displays virtual content overlaid on real-world objects [=AR], the head mounted device further comprising: control circuitry that is configured to modify the virtual content based on the input gathered by the first sensor in the wearable electronic device.

But when and if such a product would come to market? Still, sadly, a mystery.

² Jamie Feltham, ‘Sony patents a VR controller that feels a lot like Valve’s Index’, VentureBeat (2020)

³ Jack Purcher, ‘Apple updates their Ring Accessory invention that is designed to control content on Future VR/AR Eyewear’, Patently Apple (2020)

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