Discrete and continuous gestures for enabling hand rays

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for selectively enabling or disabling control rays in mixed-reality environments. A system presents a mixed-reality environment to a user with a mixed-reality display device, displays a control ray as a hologram of a line extending away from the user control within the mixed-reality environment, and obtains a control ray activation variable associated with a user control. The control ray activation variable includes a velocity or acceleration of the user control. After displaying the control ray within the mixed-reality environment, and in response to determining that, the control ray activation variable exceeds a predetermined threshold, the system selectively disables display of the control ray within the mixed-reality environment.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system configured for selectively enabling generation and display of a control ray in a mixed-reality environment, the system comprising:
 one or more processors; and   one or more computer-readable media that store computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to configure the system to:
 present a mixed-reality environment to a user with a nixed-reality display, device; 
 display a control ray as a hologram of a line extending away from a user control within the mixed-reality environment; 
 obtain a control ray activation variable associated with the user control, the control ray activation variable comprising a velocity or acceleration of the user control; and 
 after displaying the control ray within the mixed-reality environment, and in response to determining that the control ray activation variable exceeds a predetermined threshold, selectively disable display of the control ray within the mixed-reality environment. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the control ray is displayed within the mixed-reality environment in response to detecting a user gesture input associated with the user control during presentation of the mixed-reality environment. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the user gesture input comprises a voice command. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the user gesture input comprises a predefined pose or sequence of predefined poses of the user control. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the user gesture input comprises a movement of the user control that exceeds a motion characteristic threshold. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the control ray is displayed within the mixed-reality environment with an orientation that is based on an axial alignment of at least a portion of the user control. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the user control comprises at least a part of a body of the user. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the user control comprises a hand or finger of the user. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the computer-executable instructions are executable by the one or more processors to further configure the system to, in response to determining that the control ray activation variable fails to exceed the predetermined threshold, continue to display the control ray within the mixed-reality environment. 
     
     
         10 . A system for selectively enabling a display of a control ray in a mixed-reality environment, the system comprising:
 one or more processors; and.   one or more computer-readable media that store computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to configure the system to:
 present a mixed-reality environment to a user with a mixed-reality display device; 
 display a control ray as a hologram of a line extending away from a user control within the mixed-reality environment; 
 obtain a control ray activation variable associated with the user control, the control ray activation variable comprising a dot product between an orientation of the user control and an orientation of a field of view of the user; and 
 after displaying the control ray within the mixed-reality environment, and in response to determining that the control ray activation variable fails to exceed a predetermined threshold, selectively disable display of the control ray within the mixed-reality environment. 
   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the control ray is displayed within the mixed-reality environment in response to detecting a user gesture input associated with the user control during presentation of the mixed-reality environment. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the user gesture input comprises a voice command. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the user gesture input comprises a predefined pose or sequence of predefined poses of the user control. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the user gesture input comprises a movement of the user control that exceeds a motion characteristic threshold. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the control ray is displayed within the mixed-reality environment with an orientation that is based on an axial alignment of at least a portion of the user control. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the user control comprises at east a part of a body of the user. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the user control comprises a hand or finger of the user. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the computer-executable instructions are executable by the one or more processors to further configure the system to, in response to determining that the control ray activation variable exceeds the predetermined threshold, continue to display the control ray within the mixed-reality environment. 
     
     
         19 . A method for selectively enabling a display of a control ray in a mixed-reality environment, the method comprising:
 presenting a mixed-reality environment to a user with a mixed-reality display device;   displaying a control ray as a hologram of a line extending away from a user control within the mixed-reality environment;   obtaining a control ray activation variable associated with the user control, the control ray activation variable comprising a dot, product between an orientation of the user control and an orientation of a field of view of the user; and   after displaying the control ray within the mixed-reality environment, and in response to determining that the control ray activation variable fails to exceed a predetermined threshold, selectively disabling display of the control ray within the mixed-reality environment.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising, in response to determining that the control ray activation variable exceeds the predetermined threshold, continue to display the control ray within the mixed-reality environment.