GROUND PLANE ADJUSTMENT IN A VIRTUAL REALITY ENVIRONMENT

摘要

An HMD device is configured to vertically adjust the ground plane of a rendered virtual reality environment that has varying elevations to match the flat real world floor so that the device user can move around to navigate and explore the environment and always be properly located on the virtual ground and not be above it or underneath it. Rather than continuously adjust the virtual reality ground plane, which can introduce cognitive dissonance discomfort to the user, when the user is not engaged in some form of locomotion (e.g., walking), the HMD device establishes a threshold radius around the user within which virtual ground plane adjustment is not performed. The user can make movements within the threshold radius without the HMD device shifting the virtual terrain. When the user moves past the threshold radius, the device will perform an adjustment as needed to match the ground plane of the virtual reality environment to the real world floor.

主权项

1. A method performed by a head mounted display (HMD) device supporting rendering of a virtual reality environment, comprising:
obtaining sensor data describing a physical space adjoining a user of the HMD device; using the sensor data, reconstructing a geometry of the physical space including a real world floor; using the reconstructed geometry, determining a location of the user's head in the physical space including a height of the user's head from the real world floor; establishing a threshold radius around the location; maintaining a ground plane for the virtual reality environment when the location is within the threshold radius; and adjusting the ground plane as needed to match the real world floor when the location is outside the threshold radius.