Methods and system for managing and displaying virtual content in a mixed reality system

Abstract

Disclosed is an approach for managing and displaying virtual content in a mixed reality environment on a one-on-one basis independently by each application, each virtual content is rendered by its respective application into a bounded volume referred herein as a “Prism.” Each Prism may have characteristics and properties that allow a universe application to manage and display the Prism in the mixed reality environment such that the universe application may manage the placement and display of the virtual content in the mixed reality environment by managing the Prism itself.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for managing application states of virtual content in a mixed reality system, the method comprising:
 segmenting a 3D volume into a volumetric grid;   determining a first location of a user within the volumetric grid;   determining a second location of an application within the 3D volume;   calculating a distance between the user and the application within the 3D volume; and   modifying a state of the application based at least in part on the distance calculated between the user and the application.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a radius of an active zone defines a circular/spherical area around the user using a mixed reality device. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising a buffer zone around an exterior of the active zone, wherein the buffer zone prevents intermittent or rapid changes to the state of the applications. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein modifying the state of the application is based at least in part on whether the application is occluded by another application. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein modifying the state of the application is based at least in part on a head pose of the user. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the distance of known positions of applications within the cell is determined only for the cell the user using the mixed reality device is in and the neighboring cells. 
     
     
         7 . A method for opening and placing an application in an augmented reality environment, the method comprising:
 receiving a first user input from a user indicating a request for new content;   launching an application to generate the content;   creating a mini display volume of a 3D display volume managing unit, wherein a page preview is displayed in the mini display volume, wherein the 3D display volume managing unit is created simultaneously with the launching of the application;   receiving a second user input indicating a movement of the mini display volume;   receiving a third user input indicating a placement of the mini display volume at a location in the augmented reality environment; and   expanding the 3D display volume managing unit in place of the mini display volume at the location, the 3D display volume managing unit displaying the content fully loaded within the 3D display volume managing unit.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the first user input is a cursor movement over a link on a web page. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the second user input is a selection of the link, and movement of the mini display volume. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the 3D display volume managing unit replaces the mini display when the 3D display volume managing unit expands in place of the mini display. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the content is loaded into the 3D display volume managing unit while the user is moving the mini display. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the location is fixed to an object in the augmented reality environment. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the object is the user. 
     
     
         14 . A method comprising:
 accessing a scene graph for a scene, wherein the scene graph comprises one or more transform trees, each tree comprising a plurality of nodes;   adding a tag to one or more nodes from a plurality of nodes within the one or more transform trees, wherein the one or more nodes tagged form a transform group, wherein the one or more nodes tagged comprise a first tagged node and a second tagged node; and   moving the first tagged node, wherein moving the first tagged node causes the second tagged node to move.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the second tagged node is not a direct descendant of the first tagged node. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the first tagged node and second tagged node are not from a same transform tree. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the plurality of nodes comprises a first node and a second node, the method further comprising parenting the first node to the second node, wherein parenting the first node to the second node does not cause the parented node to move.