Patent Application
20240288946
This application claims the benefit of priority to Greece patent application Ser. No. 20/230,100168, filed on Feb. 28, 2023, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The present disclosure relates generally to augmented reality devices and, more particularly, to alignment of multiple mobile devices using somatic alignment markers.
A head-wearable apparatus may be implemented with a transparent or semi-transparent display through which a user of the head-wearable apparatus can view the surrounding environment. Such head-wearable apparatuses enable a user to see through the transparent or semi-transparent display to view the surrounding environment, and to also see objects (e.g., virtual objects such as a rendering of a 2D or 3D graphic model, images, video, text, and so forth) that are generated for display to appear as a part of, and/or overlaid upon, the surrounding environment. This is typically referred to as “augmented reality” or “AR.” A head-wearable apparatus may additionally completely occlude a user's visual field and display a virtual environment through which a user may move or be moved. This is typically referred to as “virtual reality” or “VR.” In a hybrid form, a view of the surrounding environment is captured using cameras, and then that view is displayed along with augmentation to the user on displays that occlude the user's eyes. In another form, a user device having a forward-facing camera and a rear-facing display is used to capture the surrounding environment and that view is displayed along with augmentation on the rear-facing display. As used herein, the term extended Reality (XR) refers to augmented reality, virtual reality and any of hybrids of these technologies unless the context indicates otherwise.
An XR environment allows users to interact with 2D and 3D data allowing a collaborative interactive XR experience. An XR collaboration approach can be effectively used to develop face to face interfaces and interactions with virtual elements and objects. The performance of such systems combines real and virtual worlds and performance is highly related to the alignment of user devices as they simultaneously experience the XR environment. An alignment of user devices in an XR system for shared collaborative experience aligns each user device with respect to alignment markers. This ensures the users experiences are coordinated with the position of virtual objects and with respect to each user. Alignment markers may have physical limitations, such as the use of a specific corner of room or other stationary marker. Such restraints limit XR expansion in a variety of environments.
In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the figure number in which that element is first introduced. Some non-limiting examples are illustrated in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which:
XR systems comprising user devices associated with individual users have the capability to identify their position (location) and orientation in 3-D space where the position and orientation taken together constitute a pose of the user device. A pose is comprised of 6 values, 3 values for a position within a 3D Cartesian coordinate system having three orthogonal axis (a horizontal or X axis, a vertical or Y axis, and a depth or Z axis), and 3 values for a rotation around each respective axis (pitch, yaw, and roll). The 6 values are compactly referred to as the 6-D pose of the device. This may incorporate sensors and components, such as a global positioning system (GPS), an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), gravitometers, and the like, whose outputs are combined in a pose tracker component of a user device to track movement, sensor units, and other devices as required for an XR application. The task of determining the pose of a device from camera images, and possibly data from other sensors, is referred to as pose estimation.
In XR applications, the user device estimates its pose in a 3D reference coordinate system. The position of the body (device) is measured by the positional displacement of the body's center from the origin of the 3D reference coordinate system and the orientation is measured by the angular (rotational) displacement of the body's axes from the axes of the 3D reference coordinate system. The position is expressed by a set of points, e.g. cartesian coordinates, such as (x,y,z). The orientation is typically expressed by a set of rotation angles, e.g. the Euler angles, such as (a, B, Y). Other parameterizations to express the rotational displacement may be used, such as quaternions or angle-axis representations. The pose may be expressed as a transformation matrix or mapping.
An XR experience provided by a user device allows a user to see a real-life environment right in front of them with a digital or virtual augmentation overlaid on it. For example, while moving down the street, the XR experience may provide an overlay of a restaurant's rating or special menu item. In other examples, virtual elements or objects are presented to a user in a game, where engagement may involve capturing an animal and so forth. An XR experience may be provided to a user by a variety of XR systems comprising user devices that may be stand alone devices or may be part of a larger network of computational devices provided computational resources and/or information used by the user device to provide an XR experience to a user. For example, a smartphone, tablet computer, or the like may provide an XR experience to a user using one or more cameras to capture a real-life environment while virtual elements are displayed to the user using a touchscreen or the like of the user device. Other user devices may include a head-wearable apparatus, such as head-wearable apparatus 100 more fully described in
As the use of XR systems expands, there are more collaborative environments developed, where multiple users access the virtual elements in an environment. For example, ground crews at an airport wear head-wearable apparatuses in the form of XR glasses to see information about cargo containers, which provide efficiencies and speed up loading times. In some examples, interactive platforms may provide XR experiences termed “lenses” that are applied to user photos for fun and communication.
In a collaborative XR experience, multiple users may interface with XR objects through user devices with XR capability. Each user device has a specific reference coordinate system used for measurements and operations of that device. The present disclosure provides a flexible way to align user devices participating in a common XR experience provided by two or more independent user devices of an XR system by aligning coordinate systems of the user devices to a common reference coordinate system without the use of stationary alignment markers. Alignment markers are selected dynamically using somatic joints on a user's body, such as the joints of a hand. In this way, users may align their respective user devices anywhere without the use of the prior techniques that require the use of stationary alignment markers.
Specifically, each user device in a real-life environment has a specific reference coordinate system used for measurements and operations of that user device. The coordinate system of a user device is typically centered at an initial location of the user device and the movement with respect to the initial position and orientation determines the 6DoF pose of the user device. A second user device may define its position and orientation in a coordinate system centered at the initial location of the second user device. This coordinate system is typically centered at the location of the user device, where the center of a 3D position is identified as (0,0,0) and movement of the user device is measured from this origin point. Each user then has a different origin point and reference coordinate system. For alignment, a common reference coordinate system is used for the multiple user devices. Examples of aligning two users' devices are provided to facilitate the description and the present disclosure can be applied to align user devices of any number of users.
A common reference coordinate system is used for a shared XR experience, where the individual user devices are aligned to the common reference coordinate system. In the examples provided herein, somatic points are used as alignment markers to align user devices in an XR system to a common reference coordinate system. Somatic points of the present examples are the joints and/or connectors of a hand; other somatic points may be used depending on the application.
As mentioned, XR systems often use precise alignment of virtual objects to a real environment. For shared collaboration of users in an XR system, the users align their respective user devices using a common reference coordinate system, also referred to herein as a Coordinate System (CS). As the use of XR applications expand it is desirable to enable alignment of user devices independently of a specific environment or location, adding flexibility to such systems.
In some examples, a user's hand provides an alignment marker, where each user device captures an image of the hand, identifies somatic points through object recognition, and measures the position of the somatic points of the hand in its own coordinate system. For alignment, the user devices determine a common reference coordinate system wherein one or more user devices map objects in their coordinate system to the common reference coordinate system. A first user has a first user device to capture an image of the hand from the perspective of first user device and a second user has a second user device to capture an image of the hand from the perspective of the second user device. Each user device performs object recognition to identify somatic points on the hand, such as joints, for use as alignment markers. The first user device determines the position of each somatic point, or joint, as measured in its coordinate system (CS1). The second user device determines the position of each somatic point, or joint, as measured in its own coordinate system (CS2). The first user device shares the position information measured in CS1 with the second user device. The second user device then maps the positions of alignment markers in CS2 to CS1, thus using CS1 as the common reference coordinate system. Once the mapping is completed, movement of the second user device, and therefore movement of the second user is described in CS1.
A shared XR experience may involve user devices such as glasses, mobile devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets,) or other types of user devices. The user devices are aligned to use the same coordinate system, or Common Reference Coordinate System (CRCS). The CRCS may be the CS of one of the user devices or may be defined otherwise, where the one or more user devices align to an independent CRCS. In some examples, the user devices align to a common reference coordinate system by determining a relationship between the individual coordinate systems.
The use of somatic points allows the users engage in a common XR session and to align the user devices in any location and condition without predefined alignment markers. The somatic points defined herein are hands and joints, however, any dynamic markers may be used where multiple users are able to map to a CRCS.
In some examples, a hand of one user is used as an alignment object having a set of alignment markers, where each user device identifies somatic points on the hand and measures the somatic points viewed at a same point in time. The hand is used as an alignment object to align the two coordinate systems, where both user devices are describing the environment according to a CRCS.
Once the user devices are aligned to a CRCS, movement and other measurements are performed within the CRCS., Each user device's tracking measurements are made in the CRCS such that each user device is describing their location and movement in the CRCS. This way all measurements are made in the CRCS and the users are aligned with each other as well as with respect to the XR objects presented in the real-life environment. The CRCS is applied to user tracking, such as for 6 degrees of freedom (6DoF) pose tracking. The pose tracking components of each user's device works independently of other calculations, components, applications and devices, while describing motion of a user in the CRCS. In this way, the CRCS is established as a reference coordinate system and is used for various purposes within a user device.
The use of alignment markers based on somatic points expands application of XR systems to a variety of areas and environments as alignment markers presented herein are dynamic and agnostic to location. They are not stationary pre-defined markers, but rather use information from each of the users in such a system to determine a relationship between users and apply a CRCS.
For alignment, the user devices employ cameras to capture an image or images of a hand and use object recognition components to identify somatic points on the images as alignment markers. The process uses the somatic points to align the user devices to a CRCS. A user pose definition is expressed in the CRCS, which may be the coordinate system of one user or may be an independent coordinate system. The user devices may be head-wearable apparatuses having capability to engage in an XR session.
Other technical features may be readily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following figures, descriptions, and claims.
The frame 102 additionally includes a left arm or left temple piece 122 and a right arm or right temple piece 124. In some examples the frame 102 can be formed from a single piece of material so as to have a unitary or integral construction.
The head-wearable apparatus 100 may include a computing device, such as a computer 120, which can be of any suitable type so as to be carried by the frame 102 and, in one or more examples, of a suitable size and shape, so as to be partially disposed in one of the left temple piece 122 or the right temple piece 124. The computer 120 can include one or more processors with memory, wireless communication circuitry, and a power source. As discussed below, the computer 120 comprises low-power circuitry, high-speed circuitry, and a display processor. Various other examples may include these elements in different configurations or integrated together in different ways. Additional details of aspects of the computer 120 may be implemented as illustrated by the machine 200 discussed herein.
The computer 120 additionally includes a battery 118 or other suitable portable power supply. In some examples, the battery 118 is disposed in left temple piece 122 and is electrically coupled to the computer 120 disposed in the right temple piece 124. The head-wearable apparatus 100 can include a connector or port (not shown) suitable for charging the battery 118, a wireless receiver, transmitter or transceiver (not shown), or a combination of such devices.
The head-wearable apparatus 100 includes a first or left camera 114 and a second or right camera 116. Although two cameras are depicted, other examples contemplate the use of a single or additional (i.e., more than two) cameras. In some examples, the head-wearable apparatus 100 includes any number of input sensors or other input/output devices in addition to the left camera 114 and the right camera 116. Such sensors or input/output devices can additionally include biometric sensors, location sensors, motion sensors, and so forth. In some examples, the motion sensors include acceleration sensor components (e.g., accelerometers), gravitation sensor components, rotation sensor components (e.g., gyroscopes), and the like. In some examples, the motion sensors may be incorporated in an Inertial Motion Unit (IMU) or the like.
In some examples, the left camera 114 and the right camera 116 provide tracking video frame data for use by the head-wearable apparatus 100 to extract 3D information from a real-life environment.
The head-wearable apparatus 100 may also include a touchpad 126 mounted to or integrated with one or both of the left temple piece 122 and right temple piece 124. The touchpad 126 is generally vertically-arranged, approximately parallel to a user's temple in some examples. As used herein, generally vertically aligned means that the touchpad is more vertical than horizontal, although potentially more vertical than that. Additional user input may be provided by one or more buttons 128, which in the illustrated examples are provided on the outer upper edges of the left optical element holder 104 and right optical element holder 106. The one or more touchpads 126 and buttons 128 provide a means whereby the head-wearable apparatus 100 can receive input from a user of the head-wearable apparatus 100.
The head-wearable apparatus 100 includes right forward optical assembly 130 comprising a left near eye display 150, a right near eye display 134, and a left forward optical assembly 142 including a left projector 146 and a right projector 152.
In some examples, the near eye displays are waveguides. The waveguides include reflective or diffractive structures (e.g., gratings and/or optical elements such as mirrors, lenses, or prisms). Light 138 emitted by the right projector 152 encounters the diffractive structures of the waveguide of the right near eye display 134, which directs the light towards the right eye of a user to provide an image on or in the right optical element 144 that overlays the view of the real-life environment of the user. Similarly, light 148 emitted by the left projector 146 encounters the diffractive structures of the waveguide of the left near eye display 150, which directs the light towards the left eye of a user to provide an image on or in the left optical element 140 that overlays the view of the real-life environment seen by the user. The combination of a Graphical Processing Unit, an image display driver, the right forward optical assembly 130, the left forward optical assembly 142, left optical element 140, and the right optical element 144 provide an optical engine of the head-wearable apparatus 100. The head-wearable apparatus 100 uses the optical engine to generate an overlay of the real-life environment view of the user including display of a user interface to the user of the head-wearable apparatus 100.
It will be appreciated however that other display technologies or configurations may be utilized within an optical engine to display an image to a user in the user's field of view. For example, instead of a projector and a waveguide, an LCD, LED or other display panel or surface may be provided.
In use, a user of the head-wearable apparatus 100 will be presented with information, content and various user interfaces on the near eye displays. As described in more detail herein, the user can then interact with the head-wearable apparatus 100 using a touchpad 126 and/or the button 128, voice inputs or touch inputs on an associated device (e.g. mobile device 814 illustrated in
In some examples, an optical engine of an XR system is incorporated into a lens that is contact with a user's eye, such as a contact lens or the like. The XR system generates images of an XR experience using the contact lens.
In some examples, the head-wearable apparatus 100 comprises an XR system. In some examples, the head-wearable apparatus 100 is a component of an XR system including additional computational components. In some examples, the head-wearable apparatus 100 is a component in an XR system comprising additional user input systems or devices.
The machine 200 may include processors 204, memory 206, and input/output I/O components 208, which may be configured to communicate with each other via a bus 210. In an example, the processors 204 (e.g., a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) Processor, a Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) Processor, a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Radio-Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 212 and a processor 214 that execute the instructions 202. The term “processor” is intended to include multi-core processors that may comprise two or more independent processors (sometimes referred to as “cores”) that may execute instructions contemporaneously. Although
The memory 206 includes a main memory 216, a static memory 240, and a storage unit 218, both accessible to the processors 204 via the bus 210. The main memory 206, the static memory 240, and storage unit 218 store the instructions 202 embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 202 may also reside, completely or partially, within the main memory 216, within the static memory 240, within machine-readable medium 220 within the storage unit 218, within at least one of the processors 204 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), or any suitable combination thereof, during execution thereof by the machine 200.
The I/O components 208 may include a wide variety of components to receive input, provide output, produce output, transmit information, exchange information, capture measurements, and so on. The specific I/O components 208 that are included in a particular machine will depend on the type of machine. For example, portable machines such as mobile phones may include a touch input device or other such input mechanisms, while a headless server machine will likely not include such a touch input device. It will be appreciated that the I/O components 208 may include many other components that are not shown in
In further examples, the I/O components 208 may include biometric components 226, motion components 228, environmental components 230, or position components 232, among a wide array of other components. For example, the biometric components 226 include components to detect expressions (e.g., hand expressions, facial expressions, vocal expressions, body gestures, or eye-tracking), measure biosignals (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, perspiration, or brain waves), identify a person (e.g., voice identification, retinal identification, facial identification, fingerprint identification, or electroencephalogram-based identification), and the like. The motion components 228 include acceleration sensor components (e.g., accelerometer), gravitation sensor components, rotation sensor components (e.g., gyroscope).
The environmental components 230 include, for example, one or cameras (with still image/photograph and video capabilities), illumination sensor components (e.g., photometer), temperature sensor components (e.g., one or more thermometers that detect ambient temperature), humidity sensor components, pressure sensor components (e.g., barometer), acoustic sensor components (e.g., one or more microphones that detect background noise), proximity sensor components (e.g., infrared sensors that detect nearby objects), gas sensors (e.g., gas detection sensors to detection concentrations of hazardous gases for safety or to measure pollutants in the atmosphere), depth or distance sensors (e.g., sensors to determine a distance to an object or a depth in a 3D coordinate system of features of an object), or other components that may provide indications, measurements, or signals corresponding to a surrounding physical environment.
With respect to cameras,
Further, the camera system of the computing system 902 may include dual rear cameras (e.g., a primary camera as well as a depth-sensing camera), or even triple, quad or penta rear camera configurations on the front and rear sides of the computing system 902. These multiple cameras systems may include a wide camera, an ultra-wide camera, a telephoto camera, a macro camera, and a depth sensor, for example.
Returning to
Communication may be implemented using a wide variety of technologies. The I/O components 208 further include communication components 234 operable to couple the machine 200 to a network 236 or devices 238 via respective coupling or connections. For example, the communication components 234 may include a network interface component or another suitable device to interface with the network 236. In further examples, the communication components 234 may include wired communication components, wireless communication components, cellular communication components, Near Field Communication (NFC) components, BluetoothR components (e.g., BluetoothR Low Energy), Wi-FiR components, and other communication components to provide communication via other modalities. The devices 238 may be another machine or any of a wide variety of peripheral devices (e.g., a peripheral device coupled via a USB).
Moreover, the communication components 234 may detect identifiers or include components operable to detect identifiers. For example, the communication components 234 may include Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag reader components, NFC smart tag detection components, optical reader components (e.g., an optical sensor to detect one-dimensional bar codes such as Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code, multi-dimensional bar codes such as Quick Response (QR) code, Aztec code, Data Matrix, Dataglyph, MaxiCode, PDF417, Ultra Code, UCC RSS-2D bar code, and other optical codes), or acoustic detection components (e.g., microphones to identify tagged audio signals). In addition, a variety of information may be derived via the communication components 234, such as location via Internet Protocol (IP) geolocation, location via Wi-Fi® signal triangulation, location via detecting an NFC beacon signal that may indicate a particular location, and so forth.
The various memories (e.g., main memory 216, static memory 240, and memory of the processors 204) and storage unit 218 may store one or more sets of instructions and data structures (e.g., software) embodying or used by any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. These instructions (e.g., the instructions 202), when executed by processors 204, cause various operations to implement the disclosed examples.
The instructions 202 may be transmitted or received over the network 236, using a transmission medium, via a network interface device (e.g., a network interface component included in the communication components 234) and using any one of several well-known transfer protocols (e.g., hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)). Similarly, the instructions 202 may be transmitted or received using a transmission medium via a coupling (e.g., a peer-to-peer coupling) to the devices 238.
The XR system 332 generates the XR user interface 346 provided to a user 326. For example, a user interface engine 324 includes XR user interface control logic 372 comprising a dialog script or the like that specifies a user interface dialog implemented by the XR user interface 346. The XR user interface control logic 372 also comprises one or more actions that are to be taken by the XR system based on detecting various dialog events such as user inputs. The user interface engine 324 further includes an XR user interface object model 370. The XR user interface object model 370 includes 3D coordinate data of one or more virtual objects and 3D coordinate data of one or more colliders associated with a virtual object. The XR user interface object model 370 also includes 3D graphics data of a virtual object. The 3D graphics data is used by an optical engine 344 to generate the XR user interface 346 for display to the user 326.
The user interface engine 324 generates XR user interface graphics data 334 based on the XR user interface object model 370. The XR user interface graphics data 334 includes image video data of the one or more virtual objects of the XR user interface 346. The user interface engine 324 communicates the XR user interface graphics data 334 to an image display driver 336 of an optical engine 344 of the XR system 332. The image display driver 336 receives the XR user interface graphics data 334 and generates display control signals 338 based on the XR user interface graphics data 334. The image display driver 336 uses the display control signals 338 to control the operations of one or more optical assemblies 320 of the optical engine 344. In response to the display control signals 338, the one or more optical assemblies 320 generate visible images of the XR user interface 346 that are provided to the user 326.
The XR system 332 detects hand poses or gestures made by the user 326. For example, the XR system 332 uses one or more hand-tracking cameras 348 to capture tracking video frame data 350 of hand poses 340 or gestures being made by the user 326 using one or more of the user's hands 352. The hand-tracking cameras 348 communicate the tracking video frame data 350 to a hand-tracking component 322 of a hand-tracking pipeline 342 of the XR system 332.
The hand-tracking component 322 receives the tracking video frame data 350 and generates hand-tracking data 330 based on the tracking video frame data 350. The hand-tracking data 330 comprises skeletal model data of one or more skeletal models of the one or more hands 352 of the user in a 3D coordinate system based on the landmark features extracted from the tracking video frame data 350, and hand pose categorization data of a hand pose 340 or gesture being made by the user's one or more hands 352. The skeletal models comprise skeletal model features that correspond to recognized visual landmarks of portions of the one or more hands 352 of the user 326. In some examples, the hand-tracking data 330 includes landmark data such as landmark identification, a physical location of the landmark, links between joints of the user's fingers and categorization information of one or more landmarks associated with the one or more hands 352 of the user 326. In some examples, the hand pose categorization data includes an indication of a hand pose or gesture being made by one or more of the hands 352 of the user 326.
For example, the hand-tracking component 322 may recognize landmark features on portions of the one or more hands 352 of the user 326 captured in the tracking video frame data 350. In some examples, the hand-tracking component 322 extracts landmarks of the one or more hands 352 of the user 326 from the tracking video frame data 350 using computer vision methodologies including, but not limited to, Harris corner detection, Shi-Tomasi corner detection, Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF), Features from Accelerated Segment Test (FAST), Oriented FAST and Rotated BRIEF (ORB), and the like.
In some examples, the hand-tracking component 322 generates the hand pose categorization data and the sequence of skeletal models of hand-tracking data 330 based on the landmarks extracted from the tracking video frame data 350 using artificial intelligence methodologies and an ML hand-tracking model 328 that was previously generated using machine learning methodologies. In some examples, an ML hand-tracking model 328 comprises, but is not limited to, a neural network, a learning vector quantization network, a logistic regression model, a support vector machine, a random decision forest, a naïve Bayes model, a linear discriminant analysis model, and a K-nearest neighbor model. In some examples, machine learning methodologies used to generate the ML hand-tracking model 328 may include, but are not limited to, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, semi-supervised learning, reinforcement learning, dimensionality reduction, self-learning, feature learning, sparse dictionary learning, and anomaly detection.
In some examples, the hand-tracking component 322 generates the hand pose categorization data and the sequence of skeletal models of the hand-tracking data 330 based on the landmarks extracted from the tracking video frame data 350 using geometric methodologies.
In some examples, the XR system 332 comprises an IMU 354 that generates 6DoF data of a pose of the head-wearable apparatus 100. A pose tracker component 368 uses the 6DoF data of the IMU 354 to determine a pose in a real-life environment based on a reference frame of the 3D environmental model 370. In addition, the 3D environmental model 370 includes 3D position data of physical objects and one or more users wearing head-wearable apparatuses, such as head-wearable apparatus 100, within a physical environment of a real-life environment.
An XR session involves presentation of XR data through one or more user devices in a physical area. The user device may be a head-wearable apparatus as shown in
User device movement, location and other measures are defined in the CRCS, such as the CS of the first user device, where other user devices in the XR system, such as the second user device, align with that CRCS by translating their 3D position.
In some examples, a common reference coordinate system is defined other than those of the first and second user devices, where each of the first and second user devices translate their data sets to the common reference coordinate system. This may be used where multiple user devices are aligning in shared collaborative application.
The position information may be defined by a location vector representing a center point of a user device as reference origin, O, such as illustrated in
Once aligned, user devices identify their location in the physical area by measuring position and orientation in the CRCS, such as to measure a set of 6DoF values, referred to as a 6DoF pose, using an IMU of the user device. As each user device has an individual coordinate system, one or more of the user devices calculate respective corrections of their location using the CRCS in real-time. The estimation of the relative difference of position values between an individual coordinate system and the CRCS provides a relationship between user devices for user device alignment.
Consider two users, a first user and a second user, where alignment involves estimation of the relative position of a first user device of the first user with respect to a second user device of the second user. The first user device calculates pose information in its coordinate system. The first user provides their hand at a position and orientation. The camera of the first user device captures an image of the hand. Using object recognition, the first user device identifies somatic points on the hand and applies the identified somatic points as alignment markers in the first user device's coordinate system (CS1). The CS1 of the first user device is selected as the common reference coordinate system. User device 1 transmits the pose information to the second user device for alignment, which receives the position and orientation information in the common reference coordinate system. The second user device also captures an image of the hand and uses object recognition to identify the same somatic points as the first user device did, but from a different perspective. While the second user device uses the coordinate system of the second user device, or CS2, to identify position and orientation of the somatic points, the second user device then applies the first user device values in the CS1 for translation of the second user device values to the common reference coordinate system. At this point, both user devices are defining their individual position and orientation within the XR environment and with respect to each other and the XR objects in the common reference coordinate system. This process aligns the user devices as each understands the location of XR objects consistently.
The alignment markers comprise somatic information, such as somatic points within a user's hand or hands, to estimate relative position and orientation or pose, of two user devices, providing a dynamic alignment method that may be performed between user devices in a variety of situations. These types of alignment markers allow the user devices in an XR system to align in reference to each other without the use of stationary objects. This may be considered user-relative alignment and may extend to multiple users, however, for clarity of understanding two users are described, a first user and a second user,, each having a respective user device, such as a head-wearable apparatus with camera and XR capabilities of
The first user device uses object recognition to identify a joint location 402 at the base of the thumb, and joint locations 404, 406, 408 and 410 at the base of fingers. The second user device also uses object recognition to identify the joint location 422 at the base of the thumb, and joint locations 424, 426, 428 and 430 at the base of fingers. The joint locations of image 400 correspond to the joint locations of image 420. The identified joints are somatic points used as alignment markers and the estimated difference between position values of the joints measured in a first coordinate system (CS1) of the first user device and position values of the joints measured in a second coordinate system (CS2) of the second user device. The first user device generates a reference data set based on the position information of the somatic points in CS1 being used as alignment markers and shares reference data set with the second user device. The position of the somatic points from the first user device in CS1 are compared to their measured position values in CS2 of the second user device. The second user device calculates a mapping or translation of position values of the somatic points from CS2 to CS1. Accordingly, the second user device aligns itself to the first user device by using CS1 of the first user device as the CRCS and the difference is the estimated relative position between the first user device and the second user device.
In operation 462, a user of a first user device positions a hand such that the hand is perceivable by the first user device and a second user device of a second user. In some examples, the hand is held in a defined position or pose. In some examples, the first user positions both of their hands so that they are perceivable by the first device and the second device.
In operation 464, the first user device and the second user device capture a set of images of the hand. For example, the first device captures a set of images of the hand from a first perspective, and the second device captures a set of images from a second perspective. In some examples, the first set of images and the second set of images include time stamps identifying a time at which each image of a set of images is captured.
In operation 466, the first user device and the second user device perform object recognition to identify somatic points on the hand that are used as alignment markers. For example, in reference to
In operation 468, the first user device and the second device determine position information of the somatic points based on the object recognition. For example, first user device determines the somatic point location information in the CS1 of the first user device, and the second user device determines the location information of the somatic points in the CS2 of the second user device.
In operation 470, the user devices select a CRCS determine which user device's CS, either CS1 of the first user device or CS2 of the second user device, is to be used as the CRCS. For example, when each user device enters the XR session, the user device records a timestamp and the CS of the user device with the oldest timestamp for the XR system is used as the CRCS. In some examples, the CS1 of the first user device is selected as the CRCS. In some examples, the CS2 of the second user device is selected as the CRCS.
In response to determining that the CS1 of the first device is to be used as the CRCS, the first user device generates a reference data set based on the location information of the somatic points. For example, the first user device generates the reference data set based on the 6DoF location and orientation (pose) information of the somatic points in the CS1. In some examples, the first user device also generates a time stamp for the reference data set based on a time at which the image data from which the somatic points were extracted, was captured.
In operation 472, the first user device transmits the reference data set to the second user device. For example, the first user device transmits the reference data set to the second user device via a point to point communication protocol such as Bluetooth. In some examples, the user devices communicate using a wireless network such as a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) or a wireless Wide Area Network (WAP). In some examples, the user devices are in an XR session that is being coordinated by a remote server and the user devices communicate with each other via the remote server.
In operation 474, the second user device receives the reference data set and the second user device aligns itself to the first user device based on the reference data set. For example, the second user device uses the reference data set having the location information of the somatic points of the hand in the CS1 of the first device, and the location information of the somatic points in the CS2 of the second user device to create a transformation matrix that transforms locations in the CS2 into locations in the CS1. In subsequent operations, the second user device applies the transformation matrix to subsequent 6DoF data received from the second device's IMU to calculate the location and orientation (pose) of the second user device, and thus the second user. In some examples, the second user device resets an origin point of the CS2 of the second device based on the reference data set. Accordingly, subsequent 6DoF received from the IMU of the second user device are referenced to the reset origin of the CS2.
In response to determining that the CS2 of the second device is to be used as the CRCS in operation 470, operations 472 and 474 are performed with the roles of the first user device and the second user device being reversed, that is the CRCS is based on the CS2 of the second device and the first user device aligns itself to the second user device using a reference data set generated by the second user device.
In reference to
There are a variety of ways for the user devices to identify the location of the somatic points used as alignment markers. Using machine learning (ML), a model takes the captured image and identifies the 3D location, points and boundaries of the joints as the somatic points to use as alignment markers. Other features may be used as somatic points used as alignment markers, where ML is designed to identify or infer other features. In some examples, in a user device with stereo camera capability, the user device may capture two images of the user's hand at the same time resulting in images from different viewpoints. The user device may match the corresponding 2D joint locations and use a stereo baseline for triangulation to find the position of the joints of the hand used as somatic points in 3D. In examples when the user device includes a depth sensor, the user device detects the hand joints in the image and receives the 3D information from the depth image. In each of these methods, the user device creates position data for the somatic points in its CS, which may be stored in memory as a point-cloud. An alignment process then aligns the somatic point position information of one user device to a CRCS, which may be through point-cloud alignment or mapping of points from one point-cloud to another. This use of the stereo images and multiple views of the hand allow stereo matching for accurate identification and reconstructed such as by triangulation techniques.
In some examples, alignment markers are determined by somatic points captured from images of the users' hands in multiple poses. Each user device captures images of each pose using object recognition to identify somatic points, such as joints and connectors, for use as alignment markers. This alignment process does not rely on labeled stationary markers, such as positions on a wall, but may be used in any environment or location as it is based on the pose of one user device in relation to another. In some examples, the camera of a user device is part of a head-wearable apparatus and captures images from the perspective of the pose of the head-wearable apparatus in an individual coordinate system. Communication with of one user device to another may be via a wireless transmission, may be through a network, and so forth.
Multiple user devices may align with respect to a common reference coordinate system in a variety of ways. For N users in an XR session, a first user coordinate system of a first user device is used to determine adjustments to the N−1 other user devices. This may be done individually, between the first or reference user device of the CRCS and each other user device individually, one by one. Alternately, alignment may be done in a daisy chain fashion where each of the N−1 user devices aligns with a previously aligned user device. In this way all user devices are aligned to a CRCS of the first or reference user device.
Continuing with the alignment example, in
The process 600 aligns user devices to a CRCS. The alignment process 600 uses somatic points on the hands of one or more users, such as a first user and a second user to determine positions and orientation of the first user device and the second user device within an XR environment. Alignment is initiated for an XR session, in operation 602 and the first user device and the second user device initiate camera sessions in operation 604. A first user positions a hand in operation 606 such that the hand is perceivable by the first user device and the second user device. In some examples, a two or more users position their hands in location that is perceivable by all user devices of the XR session. In some examples, the a defined hand position is used to signal to the user devices that they user devices should initiate the alignment process. In some examples, the gesture is a raised hand of one user as in
In some examples, the first user device and the second user device communicate to agree one which somatic points to use for alignment, such as by one user device instructing another user device as to which joints to use for somatic points.
In some examples, user devices take images at approximately the same time from different perspectives.
In some examples, a hand being used for alignment is in motion during an image capturing process, where the trajectory may be used in addition to, or in place of, the somatic points.
Other examples may use other gestures, multiple gestures, other somatic points, and so forth. In some examples, two hands are used for a gesture to initiate alignment, such as for a user to raise both hands.
In some examples, somatic points may be selected for a given application to provide accurate alignment, and other features may be used, such as the distance between two hands as an alignment marker.
In some examples, a hand boundary or outline and other use hand segmentation are incorporated for somatic alignment markers to provide additional somatic points. These methods alone or in combination with somatic points of the hand may enable pose estimation with more data. In some examples, when creating a point cloud of data, increasing a number of somatic information used for alignment markers improves accuracy while allowing alignment of a denser point cloud to recreate the articulated shape.
System with Head-Wearable Apparatus
The head-wearable apparatus 100 includes one or more cameras, each of which may be, for example, one or more camera 808, a light emitter 810, and one or more wide-spectrum cameras 812.
The mobile device 814 connects with head-wearable apparatus 100 using both a low-power wireless connection 816 of low-power circuitry 826 and a high-speed wireless connection 818. The mobile device 814 is also connected to the server system 804 and the network 806.
The head-wearable apparatus 100 further includes two image displays of the image display of optical assembly 820. The two image displays of optical assembly 820 include one associated with the left lateral side and one associated with the right lateral side of the head-wearable apparatus 100. The head-wearable apparatus 100 also includes an image display driver 822, and a GPU 824. The image display of optical assembly 820, image display driver 822, and GPU 824 constitute an optical engine of the head-wearable apparatus 100. The image display of optical assembly 820 is for presenting images and videos, including an image that can include a graphical user interface to a user device of the head-wearable apparatus 100.
The image display driver 822 commands and controls the image display of optical assembly 820. The image display driver 822 may deliver image data directly to the image display of optical assembly 820 for presentation or may convert the image data into a signal or data format suitable for delivery to the image display device. For example, the image data may be video data formatted according to compression formats, such as H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10), HEVC, Theora, Dirac, RealVideo RV40, VP8, VP9, or the like, and still image data may be formatted according to compression formats such as Portable Network Group (PNG), Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) or exchangeable image file format (EXIF) or the like.
The head-wearable apparatus 100 includes a frame and stems (or temples) extending from a lateral side of the frame. The head-wearable apparatus 100 further includes a user input device 830 (e.g., touch sensor or push button), including an input surface on the head-wearable apparatus 100. The user input device 830 (e.g., touch sensor or push button) is to receive from the user an input selection to manipulate the graphical user interface of the presented image.
The components shown in
The head-wearable apparatus 100 includes a memory 802, which stores instructions to perform a subset or all of the functions described herein. The memory 802 can also include storage device.
As shown in
The low-power wireless circuitry 836 and the high-speed wireless circuitry 834 of the head-wearable apparatus 100 can include short-range transceivers (Bluetooth™) and wireless wide, local, or wide area network transceivers (e.g., cellular or WiFi). Mobile device 814, including the transceivers communicating via the low-power wireless connection 816 and the high-speed wireless connection 818, may be implemented using details of the architecture of the head-wearable apparatus 100, as can other elements of the network 806.
The memory 802 includes any storage device capable of storing various data and applications, including, among other things, camera data generated by the left and right cameras 808, the wide-spectrum cameras 812, and the GPU 824, as well as images generated for display by the image display driver 822 on the image displays of the image display of optical assembly 820. While the memory 802 is shown as integrated with high-speed circuitry 828, in some examples, the memory 802 may be an independent standalone element of the head-wearable apparatus 100. In certain such examples, electrical routing lines may provide a connection through a chip that includes the high-speed processor 832 from the GPU 824 or the low-power processor 838 to the memory 802. In some examples, the high-speed processor 832 may manage addressing of the memory 802 such that the low-power processor 838 will boot the high-speed processor 832 any time that a read or write operation involving memory 802 is needed.
As shown in
The head-wearable apparatus 100 is connected to a host computer. For example, the head-wearable apparatus 100 is paired with the mobile device 814 via the high-speed wireless connection 818 or connected to the server system 804 via the network 806. The server system 804 may be one or more computing devices as part of a service or network computing system, for example, that includes a processor, a memory, and network communication interface to communicate over the network 806 with the mobile device 814 and the head-wearable apparatus 100.
The mobile device 814 includes a processor and a network communication interface coupled to the processor. The network communication interface allows for communication over the network 806, low-power wireless connection 816, or high-speed wireless connection 818. Mobile device 814 can further store at least portions of the instructions for generating binaural audio content in the mobile device 814's memory to implement the functionality described herein.
Output components of the head-wearable apparatus 100 include visual components, such as a display such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display panel (PDP), a light-emitting diode (LED) display, a projector, or a waveguide. The image displays of the optical assembly are driven by the image display driver 822. The output components of the head-wearable apparatus 100 further include acoustic components (e.g., speakers), haptic components (e.g., a vibratory motor), other signal generators, and so forth. The input components of the head-wearable apparatus 100, the mobile device 814, and server system 804, such as the user input device 830, may include alphanumeric input components (e.g., a keyboard, a touch screen configured to receive alphanumeric input, a photo-optical keyboard, or other alphanumeric input components), point-based input components (e.g., a mouse, a touchpad, a trackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or other pointing instruments), tactile input components (e.g., a physical button, a touch screen that provides location and force of touches or touch gestures, or other tactile input components), audio input components (e.g., a microphone), and the like.
The head-wearable apparatus 100 may also include additional peripheral device elements. Such peripheral device elements may include biometric sensors, additional sensors, or display elements integrated with the head-wearable apparatus 100. For example, peripheral device elements may include any I/O components including output components, motion components, position components, or any other such elements described herein.
For example, the biometric components include components to detect expressions (e.g., hand expressions, facial expressions, vocal expressions, body gestures, or eye-tracking), measure biosignals (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, perspiration, or brain waves), identify a person (e.g., voice identification, retinal identification, facial identification, fingerprint identification, or electroencephalogram based identification), and the like. The motion components include acceleration sensor components (e.g., accelerometer), gravitation sensor components, rotation sensor components (e.g., gyroscope), and so forth. The position components include location sensor components to generate location coordinates (e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver component), Wi-Fi or Bluetooth™ transceivers to generate positioning system coordinates, altitude sensor components (e.g., altimeters or barometers that detect air pressure from which altitude may be derived), orientation sensor components (e.g., magnetometers), and the like. Such positioning system coordinates can also be received over low-power wireless connections 816 and high-speed wireless connection 818 from the mobile device 814 via the low-power wireless circuitry 836 or high-speed wireless circuitry 834.
Each computing system 902 may comprise one or more user devices, such as a mobile device 814 of
An interaction client 904 interacts with other interaction clients 904 and with the interaction server system 910 via the network 908. The data exchanged between the interaction clients 904 (e.g., interactions 916) and between the interaction clients 904 and the interaction server system 910 includes functions (e.g., commands to invoke functions) and payload data (e.g., text, audio, video, or other multimedia data).
The interaction server system 910 provides server-side functionality via the network 908 to the interaction clients 904. While certain functions of the interaction system 900 are described herein as being performed by either an interaction client 904 or by the interaction server system 910, the location of certain functionality either within the interaction client 904 or the interaction server system 910 may be a design choice. For example, it may be technically preferable to initially deploy particular technology and functionality within the interaction server system 910 but to later migrate this technology and functionality to the interaction client 904 where a computing system 902 has sufficient processing capacity.
The interaction server system 910 supports various services and operations that are provided to the interaction clients 904. Such operations include transmitting data to, receiving data from, and processing data generated by the interaction clients 904. This data may include message content, client device information, geolocation information, media augmentation and overlays, message content persistence conditions, social network information, and live event information. Data exchanges within the interaction system 900 are invoked and controlled through functions available via user interfaces (UIs) of the interaction clients 904.
Turning now specifically to the interaction server system 910, an Application Program Interface (API) server 918 is coupled to and provides programmatic interfaces to Interaction servers 920, making the functions of the Interaction servers 920 accessible to interaction clients 904, other applications 906 and third-party server 912. The Interaction servers 920 are communicatively coupled to a database server 922, facilitating access to a database 924 that stores data associated with interactions processed by the Interaction servers 920. Similarly, a web server 926 is coupled to the Interaction servers 920 and provides web-based interfaces to the Interaction servers 920. To this end, the web server 926 processes incoming network requests over the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and several other related protocols.
The Application Program Interface (API) server 918 receives and transmits interaction data (e.g., commands and message payloads) between the Interaction servers 920 and the XR systems 902 (and, for example, interaction clients 904 and other application 906) and the third-party server 912. Specifically, the Application Program Interface (API) server 918 provides a set of interfaces (e.g., routines and protocols) that can be called or queried by the interaction client 904 and other applications 906 to invoke functionality of the Interaction servers 920. The Application Program Interface (API) server 918 exposes various functions supported by the Interaction servers 920, including account registration; login functionality; the sending of interaction data, via the Interaction servers 920, from a particular interaction client 904 to another interaction client 904; the communication of media files (e.g., images or video) from an interaction client 904 to the Interaction servers 920; the settings of a collection of media data (e.g., a story); the retrieval of a list of friends of a user of a computing system 902; the retrieval of messages and content; the addition and deletion of entities (e.g., friends) to an entity graph (e.g., a social graph); the location of friends within a social graph; and opening an application event (e.g., relating to the interaction client 904). The interaction servers 920 host multiple systems and subsystems.
Returning to the interaction client 904, features and functions of an external resource (e.g., a linked application or applet) are made available to a user via an interface of the interaction client 904. In this context, “external” refers to the fact that the application 906 or applet is external to the interaction client 904. The external resource is often provided by a third party but may also be provided by the creator or provider of the interaction client 904. The interaction client 904 receives a user selection of an option to launch or access features of such an external resource. The external resource may be the application 906 installed on the computing system 902 (e.g., a “native app”), or a small-scale version of the application (e.g., an “applet”) that is hosted on the computing system 902 or remote of the computing system 902 (e.g., on third-party servers 912). The small-scale version of the application includes a subset of features and functions of the application (e.g., the full-scale, native version of the application) and is implemented using a markup-language document. In some examples, the small-scale version of the application (e.g., an “applet”) is a web-based, markup-language version of the application and is embedded in the interaction client 904. In addition to using markup-language documents (e.g., a .*ml file), an applet may incorporate a scripting language (e.g., a .*js file or a .json file) and a style sheet (e.g., a .*ss file).
In response to receiving a user selection of the option to launch or access features of the external resource, the interaction client 904 determines whether the selected external resource is a web-based external resource or a locally-installed application 906. In some cases, applications 906 that are locally installed on the computing system 902 can be launched independently of and separately from the interaction client 904, such as by selecting an icon corresponding to the application 906 on a home screen of the computing system 902. Small-scale versions of such applications can be launched or accessed via the interaction client 904 and, in some examples, no or limited portions of the small-scale application can be accessed outside of the interaction client 904. The small-scale application can be launched by the interaction client 904 receiving, from a third-party server 912 for example, a markup-language document associated with the small-scale application and processing such a document.
In response to determining that the external resource is a locally-installed application 906, the interaction client 904 instructs the computing system 902 to launch the external resource by executing locally-stored code corresponding to the external resource. In response to determining that the external resource is a web-based resource, the interaction client 904 communicates with the third-party servers 912 (for example) to obtain a markup-language document corresponding to the selected external resource. The interaction client 904 then processes the obtained markup-language document to present the web-based external resource within a user interface of the interaction client 904.
The interaction client 904 can notify a user of the computing system 902, or other users related to such a user (e.g., “friends”), of activity taking place in one or more external resources. For example, the interaction client 904 can provide participants in a conversation (e.g., a chat session) in the interaction client 904 with notifications relating to the current or recent use of an external resource by one or more members of a group of users. One or more users can be invited to join in an active external resource or to launch a recently-used but currently inactive (in the group of friends) external resource. The external resource can provide participants in a conversation, each using respective interaction clients 904, with the ability to share an item, status, state, or location in an external resource in a chat session with one or more members of a group of users. The shared item may be an interactive chat card with which members of the chat can interact, for example, to launch the corresponding external resource, view specific information within the external resource, or take the member of the chat to a specific location or state within the external resource. Within a given external resource, response messages can be sent to users on the interaction client 904. The external resource can selectively include different media items in the responses, based on a current context of the external resource.
The interaction client 904 can present a list of the available external resources (e.g., applications 906 or applets) to a user to launch or access a given external resource. This list can be presented in a context-sensitive menu. For example, the icons representing different ones of the application 906 (or applets) can vary based on how the menu is launched by the user (e.g., from a conversation interface or from a non-conversation interface).
The database 1004 includes message data stored within a message table 1006. This message data includes, for any particular message, at least message sender data, message recipient (or receiver) data, and a payload. Further details regarding information that may be included in a message, and included within the message data stored in the message table 1006, are described below with reference to
An entity table 1008 stores entity data, and is linked (e.g., referentially) to an entity graph 1010 and profile data 1002. Entities for which records are maintained within the entity table 1008 may include individuals, corporate entities, organizations, objects, places, events, and so forth. Regardless of entity type, any entity regarding which the interaction server system 910 stores data may be a recognized entity. Each entity is provided with a unique identifier, as well as an entity type identifier (not shown).
The entity graph 1010 stores information regarding relationships and associations between entities. Such relationships may be social, professional (e.g., work at a common corporation or organization), interest-based, or activity-based, merely for example. Certain relationships between entities may be unidirectional, such as a subscription by an individual user to digital content of a commercial or publishing user (e.g., a newspaper or other digital media outlet, or a brand). Other relationships may be bidirectional, such as a “friend” relationship between individual users of the interaction system 900 of
Certain permissions and relationships may be attached to each relationship, and also to each direction of a relationship. For example, a bidirectional relationship (e.g., a friend relationship between individual users) may include authorization for the publication of digital content items between the individual users, but may impose certain restrictions or filters on the publication of such digital content items (e.g., based on content characteristics, location data or time of day data). Similarly, a subscription relationship between an individual user and a commercial user may impose different degrees of restrictions on the publication of digital content from the commercial user to the individual user, and may significantly restrict or block the publication of digital content from the individual user to the commercial user. A particular user, as an example of an entity, may record certain restrictions (e.g., by way of privacy settings) in a record for that entity within the entity table 1008. Such privacy settings may be applied to all types of relationships within the context of the interaction system 900, or may selectively be applied to only certain types of relationships.
The profile data 1002 stores multiple types of profile data about a particular entity. The profile data 1002 may be selectively used and presented to other users of the interaction system 900 based on privacy settings specified by a particular entity. Where the entity is an individual, the profile data 1002 includes, for example, a username, telephone number, address, settings (e.g., notification and privacy settings), as well as a user-selected avatar representation (or collection of such avatar representations). A particular user may then selectively include one or more of these avatar representations within the content of messages communicated via the interaction system 900, and on map interfaces displayed by interaction clients 904 to other users. The collection of avatar representations may include “status avatars,” which present a graphical representation of a status or activity that the user may select to communicate at a particular time.
Where the entity is a group, the profile data 1002 for the group may similarly include one or more avatar representations associated with the group, in addition to the group name, members, and various settings (e.g., notifications) for the relevant group.
The database 1004 also stores augmentation data, such as overlays or filters, in an augmentation table 1012. The augmentation data is associated with and applied to videos (for which data is stored in a video table 1014) and images (for which data is stored in an image table 1016).
Filters, in some examples, are overlays that are displayed as overlaid on an image or video during presentation to a message receiver. Filters may be of various types, including user-selected filters from a set of filters presented to a message sender by the interaction client 904 when the message sender is composing a message. Other types of filters include geolocation filters (also known as geo-filters), which may be presented to a message sender based on geographic location. For example, geolocation filters specific to a neighborhood or special location may be presented within a user interface by the interaction client 904, based on geolocation information determined by a Global Positioning System (GPS) unit of the computing system 902.
Another type of filter is a data filter, which may be selectively presented to a message sender by the interaction client 904 as in
Other augmentation data that may be stored within the image table 1016 includes XR content items (e.g., corresponding to applying Lenses or XR experiences). An XR content item may be a real-time special effect and sound that may be added to an image or a video.
As described above, augmentation data includes XR, VR, and mixed reality (MR) content items, overlays, image transformations, images, and modifications that may be applied to image data (e.g., videos or images). This includes real-time modifications, which modify an image as it is captured using device sensors (e.g., one or multiple cameras) of the computing system 902 and then displayed on a screen of the computing system 902 with the modifications. This also includes modifications to stored content, such as video clips in a collection or group that may be modified. For example, in a computing system 902 with access to multiple XR content items, a user can use a single video clip with multiple XR content items to see how the different XR content items will modify the stored clip. Similarly, real-time video capture may use modifications to show how video images currently being captured by sensors of a computing system 902 would modify the captured data. Such data may simply be displayed on the screen and not stored in memory, or the content captured by the device sensors may be recorded and stored in memory with or without the modifications (or both). In some systems, a preview feature can show how different XR content items will look within different windows in a display at the same time. This can, for example, enable multiple windows with different pseudorandom animations to be viewed on a display at the same time.
Data and various systems using XR content items or other such transform systems to modify content using this data can thus involve detection of objects (e.g., faces, hands, bodies, cats, dogs, surfaces, objects, etc.), tracking of such objects as they leave, enter, and move around the field of view in video frames, and the modification or transformation of such objects as they are tracked. In various examples, different methods for achieving such transformations may be used. Some examples may involve generating a three-dimensional mesh model of the object or objects, and using transformations and animated textures of the model within the video to achieve the transformation. In some examples, tracking of points on an object may be used to place an image or texture (which may be two-dimensional or three-dimensional) at the tracked position. In still further examples, neural network analysis of video frames may be used to place images, models, or textures in content (e.g., images or frames of video). XR content items thus refer both to the images, models, and textures used to create transformations in content, as well as to additional modeling and analysis information needed to achieve such transformations with object detection, tracking, and placement.
Real-time video processing can be performed with any kind of video data (e.g., video streams, video files, etc.) saved in a memory of a computerized system of any kind. For example, a user can load video files and save them in a memory of a device, or can generate a video stream using sensors of the device. Additionally, any objects can be processed using a computer animation model, such as a human's face and parts of a human body, animals, or non-living things such as chairs, cars, or other objects.
In some examples, when a particular modification is selected along with content to be transformed, elements to be transformed are identified by the computing device, and then detected and tracked if they are present in the frames of the video. The elements of the object are modified according to the request for modification, thus transforming the frames of the video stream. Transformation of frames of a video stream can be performed by different methods for different kinds of transformation. For example, for transformations of frames mostly referring to changing forms of an object's elements, characteristic points for each element of an object are calculated (e.g., using an Active Shape Model (ASM) or other known methods). Then, a mesh based on the characteristic points is generated for each element of the object. This mesh is used in the following stage of tracking the elements of the object in the video stream. In the process of tracking, the mesh for each element is aligned with a position of each element. Then, additional points are generated on the mesh.
In some examples, transformations changing some areas of an object using its elements can be performed by calculating characteristic points for each element of an object and generating a mesh based on the calculated characteristic points. Points are generated on the mesh, and then various areas based on the points are generated. The elements of the object are then tracked by aligning the area for each element with a position for each of the at least one element, and properties of the areas can be modified based on the request for modification, thus transforming the frames of the video stream. Depending on the specific request for modification, properties of the mentioned areas can be transformed in different ways. Such modifications may involve changing the color of areas; removing some part of areas from the frames of the video stream; including new objects into areas that are based on a request for modification; and modifying or distorting the elements of an area or object. In various examples, any combination of such modifications or other similar modifications may be used. For certain models to be animated, some characteristic points can be selected as control points to be used in determining the entire state-space of options for the model animation.
In some examples of a computer animation model to transform image data using face detection, the face is detected on an image using a specific face detection algorithm (e.g., Viola-Jones). Then, an Active Shape Model (ASM) algorithm is applied to the face region of an image to detect facial feature reference points.
Other methods and algorithms suitable for face detection can be used. For example, in some examples, visual features are located using a landmark, which represents a distinguishable point present in most of the images under consideration. For facial landmarks, for example, the location of the left eye pupil may be used. If an initial landmark is not identifiable (e.g., if a person has an eyepatch), secondary landmarks may be used. Such landmark identification procedures may be used for any such objects. In some examples, a set of landmarks forms a shape. Shapes can be represented as vectors using the coordinates of the points in the shape. One shape is aligned to another with a similarity transform (allowing translation, scaling, and rotation) that minimizes the average Euclidean distance between shape points. The mean shape is the mean of the aligned training shapes.
A transformation system can capture an image or video stream on a client device (e.g., the computing system 902) and perform complex image manipulations locally on the computing system 902 while maintaining a suitable user experience, computation time, and power consumption. The complex image manipulations may include size and shape changes, emotion transfers (e.g., changing a face from a frown to a smile), state transfers (e.g., aging a subject, reducing apparent age, changing gender), style transfers, graphical element application, and any other suitable image or video manipulation implemented by a convolutional neural network that has been configured to execute efficiently on the computing system 902.
In some examples, a computer animation model to transform image data can be used by a system where a user may capture an image or video stream of the user (e.g., a selfie) using the computing system 902 having a neural network operating as part of an interaction client 904 operating on the computing system 902. The transformation system operating within the interaction client 904 determines the presence of a face within the image or video stream and provides modification icons associated with a computer animation model to transform image data, or the computer animation model can be present as associated with an interface described herein. The modification icons include changes that are the basis for modifying the user's face within the image or video stream as part of the modification operation. Once a modification icon is selected, the transform system initiates a process to convert the image of the user to reflect the selected modification icon (e.g., generate a smiling face on the user). A modified image or video stream may be presented in a graphical user interface displayed on the computing system 902 as soon as the image or video stream is captured and a specified modification is selected. The transformation system may implement a complex convolutional neural network on a portion of the image or video stream to generate and apply the selected modification. That is, the user may capture the image or video stream and be presented with a modified result in real-time or near real-time once a modification icon has been selected. Further, the modification may be persistent while the video stream is being captured, and the selected modification icon remains toggled. Machine-taught neural networks may be used to enable such modifications.
The graphical user interface, presenting the modification performed by the transform system, may supply the user with additional interaction options. Such options may be based on the interface used to initiate the content capture and selection of a particular computer animation model (e.g., initiation from a content creator user interface). In various examples, a modification may be persistent after an initial selection of a modification icon. The user may toggle the modification on or off by tapping or otherwise selecting the face being modified by the transformation system and store it for later viewing or browsing to other areas of the imaging application. Where multiple faces are modified by the transformation system, the user may toggle the modification on or off globally by tapping or selecting a single face modified and displayed within a graphical user interface. In some examples, individual faces, among a group of multiple faces, may be individually modified, or such modifications may be individually toggled by tapping or selecting the individual face or a series of individual faces displayed within the graphical user interface.
A story table 1018 stores data regarding collections of messages and associated image, video, or audio data, which are compiled into a collection (e.g., a story or a gallery). The creation of a particular collection may be initiated by a particular user (e.g., each user for which a record is maintained in the entity table 1008). A user may create a “personal story” in the form of a collection of content that has been created and sent/broadcast by that user. To this end, the user interface of the interaction client 904 may include an icon that is user-selectable to enable a message sender to add specific content to his or her personal story.
A collection may also constitute a “live story,” which is a collection of content from multiple users that is created manually, automatically, or using a combination of manual and automatic techniques. For example, a “live story” may constitute a curated stream of user-submitted content from various locations and events. Users whose client devices have location services enabled and are at a common location event at a particular time may, for example, be presented with an option, via a user interface of the interaction client 904, to contribute content to a particular live story. The live story may be identified to the user by the interaction client 904, based on his or her location. The end result is a “live story” told from a community perspective.
A further type of content collection is known as a “location story,” which enables a user whose computing system 902 is located within a specific geographic location (e.g., on a college or university campus) to contribute to a particular collection. In some examples, a contribution to a location story may require a second degree of authentication to verify that the end-user belongs to a specific organization or other entity (e.g., is a student on the university campus).
As mentioned above, the video table 1014 stores video data that, in some examples, is associated with messages for which records are maintained within the message table 1006. Similarly, the image table 1016 stores image data associated with messages for which message data is stored in the entity table 1008. The entity table 1008 may associate various augmentations from the augmentation table 1012 with various images and videos stored in the image table 1016 and the video table 1014. The databases 1004 also include social network information collected by a social network system.
An image processing system 1102 provides various functions that enable a user to capture and augment (e.g., augment or otherwise modify or edit) media content associated with a message.
A camera system 1104 includes control software (e.g., in a camera application) that interacts with and controls hardware camera hardware (e.g., directly or via operating system controls) of the computing system 902 to modify and augment real-time images captured and displayed via the interaction client 904.
The augmentation system 1106 provides functions related to the generation and publishing of augmentations (e.g., media overlays) for images captured in real-time by cameras of the computing system 902 or retrieved from memory of the computing system 902. For example, the augmentation system 1106 operatively selects, presents, and displays media overlays (e.g., an image filter or an image lens) to the interaction client 904 for the augmentation of real-time images received via the camera system 1104 or stored images retrieved from memory 802 of a computing system 902. These augmentations are selected by the augmentation system 1106 and presented to a user of an interaction client 904, based on a number of inputs and data, such as for example:
An augmentation may include audio and visual content and visual effects. Examples of audio and visual content include pictures, texts, logos, animations, and sound effects. An example of a visual effect includes color overlaying. The audio and visual content or the visual effects can be applied to a media content item (e.g., a photo or video) at computing system 902 for communication in a message, or applied to video content, such as a video content stream or feed transmitted from an interaction client 904. As such, the image processing system 1102 may interact with, and support, the various subsystems of the communication system 1108, such as the messaging system 1110 and the video communication system 1112.
A media overlay may include text or image data that can be overlaid on top of a photograph taken by the computing system 902 or a video stream produced by the computing system 902. In some examples, the media overlay may be a location overlay (e.g., Venice beach), a name of a live event, or a name of a merchant overlay (e.g., Beach Coffee House). In further examples, the image processing system 1102 uses the geolocation of the computing system 902 to identify a media overlay that includes the name of a merchant at the geolocation of the computing system 902. The media overlay may include other indicia associated with the merchant. The media overlays may be stored in the databases 924 and accessed through the database server 922.
The image processing system 1102 provides a user-based publication platform that enables users to select a geolocation on a map and upload content associated with the selected geolocation. The user may also specify circumstances under which a particular media overlay should be offered to other users. The image processing system 1102 generates a media overlay that includes the uploaded content and associates the uploaded content with the selected geolocation.
The augmentation creation system 1114 supports XR developer platforms and includes an application for content creators (e.g., artists and developers) to create and publish augmentations (e.g., XR experiences) of the interaction client 904. The augmentation creation system 1114 provides a library of built-in features and tools to content creators including, for example custom shaders, tracking technology, and templates.
In some examples, the augmentation creation system 1114 provides a merchant-based publication platform that enables merchants to select a particular augmentation associated with a geolocation via a bidding process. For example, the augmentation creation system 1114 associates a media overlay of the highest bidding merchant with a corresponding geolocation for a predefined amount of time.
A communication system 1108 is responsible for enabling and processing multiple forms of communication and interaction within the interaction system 900 and includes a messaging system 1110, an audio communication system 1116, and a video communication system 1112. The messaging system 1110 is responsible for enforcing the temporary or time-limited access to content by the interaction clients 904. The messaging system 1110 incorporates multiple timers (e.g., within an ephemeral timer system 1118) that, based on duration and display parameters associated with a message or collection of messages (e.g., a story), selectively enable access (e.g., for presentation and display) to messages and associated content via the interaction client 904. Further details regarding the operation of the ephemeral timer system 1118 are provided below. The audio communication system 1116 enables and supports audio communications (e.g., real-time audio chat) between multiple interaction clients 904. Similarly, the video communication system 1112 enables and supports video communications (e.g., real-time video chat) between multiple interaction clients 904.
A user management system 1120 is operationally responsible for the management of user data and profiles, and includes a social network system 1122 that maintains social network information regarding relationships between users of the interaction system 900.
A collection management system 1124 is operationally responsible for managing sets or collections of media (e.g., collections of text, image video, and audio data). A collection of content (e.g., messages, including images, video, text, and audio) may be organized into an “event gallery” or an “event story.” Such a collection may be made available for a specified time period, such as the duration of an event to which the content relates. For example, content relating to a music concert may be made available as a “story” for the duration of that music concert. The collection management system 1124 may also be responsible for publishing an icon that provides notification of a particular collection to the user interface of the interaction client 904. The collection management system 1124 includes a curation function that allows a collection manager to manage and curate a particular collection of content. For example, the curation interface enables an event organizer to curate a collection of content relating to a specific event (e.g., delete inappropriate content or redundant messages). Additionally, the collection management system 1124 employs machine vision (or image recognition technology) and content rules to curate a content collection automatically. In certain examples, compensation may be paid to a user to include user-generated content into a collection. In such cases, the collection management system 1124 operates to automatically make payments to such users to use their content.
A map system 1126 provides various geographic location functions and supports the presentation of map-based media content and messages by the interaction client 904. For example, the map system 1126 enables the display of user icons or avatars (e.g., stored in profile data 1002) on a map to indicate a current or past location of “friends” of a user, as well as media content (e.g., collections of messages including photographs and videos) generated by such friends, within the context of a map. For example, a message posted by a user to the interaction system 900 from a specific geographic location may be displayed within the context of a map at that particular location to “friends” of a specific user on a map interface of the interaction client 904. A user can furthermore share his or her location and status information (e.g., using an appropriate status avatar) with other users of the interaction system 900 via the interaction client 904, with this location and status information being similarly displayed within the context of a map interface of the interaction client 904 to selected users.
A game system 1128 provides various gaming functions within the context of the interaction client 904. The interaction client 904 provides a game interface providing a list of available games that can be launched by a user within the context of the interaction client 904 and played with other users of the interaction system 900. The interaction system 900 further enables a particular user to invite other users to participate in the play of a specific game by issuing invitations to such other users from the interaction client 904. The interaction client 904 also supports audio, video, and text messaging (e.g., chats) within the context of gameplay, provides a leaderboard for the games, and also supports the provision of in-game rewards (e.g., coins and items).
An external resource system 1130 provides an interface for the interaction client 904 to communicate with remote servers (e.g., third-party servers 912) to launch or access external resources, i.e., applications or applets. Each third-party server 912 hosts, for example, a markup language (e.g., HTML5) based application or a small-scale version of an application (e.g., game, utility, payment, or ride-sharing application). The interaction client 904 may launch a web-based resource (e.g., application) by accessing the HTML5 file from the third-party servers 912 associated with the web-based resource. Applications hosted by third-party servers 912 are programmed in JavaScript leveraging a Software Development Kit (SDK) provided by the Interaction servers 920. The SDK includes Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) with functions that can be called or invoked by the web-based application. The Interaction servers 920 host a JavaScript library that provides a given external resource access to specific user data of the interaction client 904. HTML5 is an example of technology for programming games, but applications and resources programmed based on other technologies can be used.
To integrate the functions of the SDK into the web-based resource, the SDK is downloaded by the third-party server 912 from the Interaction servers 920 or is otherwise received by the third-party server 912. Once downloaded or received, the SDK is included as part of the application code of a web-based external resource. The code of the web-based resource can then call or invoke certain functions of the SDK to integrate features of the interaction client 904 into the web-based resource.
The SDK stored on the interaction server system 910 effectively provides the bridge between an external resource (e.g., applications 906 or applets) and the interaction client 904. This gives the user a seamless experience of communicating with other users on the interaction client 904 while also preserving the look and feel of the interaction client 904. To bridge communications between an external resource and an interaction client 904, the SDK facilitates communication between third-party servers 912 and the interaction client 904. A Web ViewJavaScriptBridge running on a computing system 902 establishes two one-way communication channels between an external resource and the interaction client 904. Messages are sent between the external resource and the interaction client 904 via these communication channels asynchronously. Each SDK function invocation is sent as a message and callback. Each SDK function is implemented by constructing a unique callback identifier and sending a message with that callback identifier.
By using the SDK, not all information from the interaction client 904 is shared with third-party servers 912. The SDK limits which information is shared based on the needs of the external resource. Each third-party server 912 provides an HTML5 file corresponding to the web-based external resource to Interaction servers 920. The Interaction servers 920 can add a visual representation (such as a box art or other graphic) of the web-based external resource in the interaction client 904. Once the user selects the visual representation or instructs the interaction client 904 through a GUI of the interaction client 904 to access features of the web-based external resource, the interaction client 904 obtains the HTML5 file and instantiates the resources to access the features of the web-based external resource.
The interaction client 904 presents a graphical user interface (e.g., a landing page or title screen) for an external resource. During, before, or after presenting the landing page or title screen, the interaction client 904 determines whether the launched external resource has been previously authorized to access user data of the interaction client 904. In response to determining that the launched external resource has been previously authorized to access user data of the interaction client 904, the interaction client 904 presents another graphical user interface of the external resource that includes functions and features of the external resource. In response to determining that the launched external resource has not been previously authorized to access user data of the interaction client 904, after a threshold period of time (e.g., 3 seconds) of displaying the landing page or title screen of the external resource, the interaction client 904 slides up (e.g., animates a menu as surfacing from a bottom of the screen to a middle or other portion of the screen) a menu for authorizing the external resource to access the user data. The menu identifies the type of user data that the external resource will be authorized to use. In response to receiving a user selection of an accept option, the interaction client 904 adds the external resource to a list of authorized external resources and allows the external resource to access user data from the interaction client 904. The external resource is authorized by the interaction client 904 to access the user data under an OAuth 2 framework.
The interaction client 904 controls the type of user data that is shared with external resources based on the type of external resource being authorized. For example, external resources that include full-scale applications (e.g., an application 906) are provided with access to a first type of user data (e.g., two-dimensional avatars of users with or without different avatar characteristics). As another example, external resources that include small-scale versions of applications (e.g., web-based versions of applications) are provided with access to a second type of user data (e.g., payment information, two-dimensional avatars of users, three-dimensional avatars of users, and avatars with various avatar characteristics). Avatar characteristics include different ways to customize a look and feel of an avatar, such as different poses, facial features, clothing, and so forth.
An advertisement system 1132 operationally enables the purchasing of advertisements by third parties for presentation to end-users via the interaction clients 904 and also handles the delivery and presentation of these advertisements.
The operating system 1212 manages hardware resources and provides common services. The operating system 1212 includes, for example, a kernel 1224, services 1226, and drivers 1228. The kernel 1224 acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and the other software layers. For example, the kernel 1224 provides memory management, processor management (e.g., scheduling), component management, networking, and security settings, among other functionalities. The services 1226 can provide other common services for the other software layers. The drivers 1228 are responsible for controlling or interfacing with the underlying hardware. For instance, the drivers 1228 can include display drivers, camera drivers, BLUETOOTH® or BLUETOOTH® Low Energy drivers, flash memory drivers, serial communication drivers (e.g., USB drivers), WI-FI® drivers, audio drivers, power management drivers, and so forth.
The libraries 1214 provide a common low-level infrastructure used by the applications 1218. The libraries 1214 can include system libraries 1230 (e.g., C standard library) that provide functions such as memory allocation functions, string manipulation functions, mathematic functions, and the like. In addition, the libraries 1214 can include API libraries 1232 such as media libraries (e.g., libraries to support presentation and manipulation of various media formats such as Moving Picture Experts Group-4 (MPEG4), Advanced Video Coding (H.264 or AVC), Moving Picture Experts Group Layer-3 (MP3), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) audio codec, Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG or JPG), or Portable Network Graphics (PNG)), graphics libraries (e.g., an OpenGL framework used to render in two dimensions (2D) and three dimensions (3D) in a graphic content on a display), database libraries (e.g., SQLite to provide various relational database functions), web libraries (e.g., WebKit to provide web browsing functionality), and the like. The libraries 1214 can also include a wide variety of other libraries 1234 to provide many other APIs to the applications 1218.
The frameworks 1216 provide a common high-level infrastructure that is used by the applications 1218. For example, the frameworks 1216 provide various graphical user interface (GUI) functions, high-level resource management, and high-level location services. The frameworks 1216 can provide a broad spectrum of other APIs that can be used by the applications 1218, some of which may be specific to a particular operating system or platform.
In an example, the applications 1218 may include a home application 1236, a contacts application 1238, a browser application 1240, a book reader application 1242, a location application 1244, a media application 1246, a messaging application 1248, a game application 1250, and a broad assortment of other applications such as a third-party application 1252. The applications 1218 are programs that execute functions defined in the programs. Various programming languages can be employed to create one or more of the applications 1218, structured in a variety of manners, such as object-oriented programming languages (e.g., Objective-C, Java, or C++) or procedural programming languages (e.g., C or assembly language). In a specific example, the third-party application 1252 (e.g., an application developed using the ANDROID™ or IOS™ software development kit (SDK) by an entity other than the vendor of the particular platform) may be mobile software running on a mobile operating system such as IOS™, ANDROID™, WINDOWS® Phone, or another mobile operating system. In some examples, the third-party application 1252 can invoke the API calls 1220 provided by the operating system 1212 to facilitate functionalities described herein.
Changes and modifications may be made to the disclosed examples without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. These and other changes or modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present disclosure, as expressed in the following claims.
“Carrier signal” refers to any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the machine and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible media to facilitate communication of such instructions. Instructions may be transmitted or received over a network using a transmission medium via a network interface device.
“Client device” refers to any machine that interfaces to a communications network to obtain resources from one or more server systems or other client devices. A client device may be, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, desktop computer, laptop, portable digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, tablets, ultrabooks, netbooks, laptops, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, game consoles, set-top boxes, or any other communication device that a user may use to access a network.
“Communication network” refers to one or more portions of a network that may be an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), the Internet, a portion of the Internet, a portion of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a plain old telephone service (POTS) network, a cellular telephone network, a wireless network, a Wi-Fi® network, another type of network, or a combination of two or more such networks. For example, a network or a portion of a network may include a wireless or cellular network, and the coupling may be a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) connection, a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) connection, or other types of cellular or wireless coupling. In some examples, the coupling may implement any of a variety of types of data transfer technology, such as Single Carrier Radio Transmission Technology (1×RTT), Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology, third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) including 3G, fourth-generation wireless (4G) networks, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, others defined by various standard-setting organizations, other long-range protocols, or other data transfer technology.
“Component” refers to a device, physical entity, or logic having boundaries defined by function or subroutine calls, branch points, APIs, or other technologies that provide for the partitioning or modularization of particular processing or control functions. Components may be combined via their interfaces with other components to carry out a machine process. A component may be a packaged functional hardware unit designed for use with other components and a part of a program that usually performs a particular function of related functions. Components may constitute either software components (e.g., code embodied on a machine-readable medium) or hardware components. A “hardware component” is a tangible unit capable of performing certain operations and may be configured or arranged in a certain physical manner. In various examples, one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone computer system, a client computer system, or a server computer system) or one or more hardware components of a computer system (e.g., a processor or a group of processors) may be configured by software (e.g., an application or application portion) as a hardware component that operates to perform certain operations as described herein. A hardware component may also be implemented mechanically, electronically, or any suitable combination thereof. For example, a hardware component may include dedicated circuitry or logic that is permanently configured to perform certain operations. A hardware component may be a special-purpose processor, such as a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). A hardware component may also include programmable logic or circuitry that is temporarily configured by software to perform certain operations. For example, a hardware component may include software executed by a general-purpose processor or other programmable processors. Once configured by such software, hardware components become specific machines (or specific components of a machine) uniquely tailored to perform the configured functions and are no longer general-purpose processors. It will be appreciated that the decision to implement a hardware component mechanically, in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry, or in temporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software), may be driven by cost and time considerations. Accordingly, the phrase “hardware component” (or “hardware-implemented component”) should be understood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner or to perform certain operations described herein. Considering examples in which hardware components are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed), each of the hardware components need not be configured or instantiated at any one instance in time. For example, where a hardware component comprises a general-purpose processor configured by software to become a special-purpose processor, the general-purpose processor may be configured as respectively different special-purpose processors (e.g., comprising different hardware components) at different times. Software accordingly configures a particular processor or processors, for example, to constitute a particular hardware component at one instance of time and to constitute a different hardware component at a different instance of time. Hardware components can provide information to, and receive information from, other hardware components. Accordingly, the described hardware components may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Where multiple hardware components exist contemporaneously, communications may be achieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuits and buses) between or among two or more of the hardware components. In examples in which multiple hardware components are configured or instantiated at different times, communications between such hardware components may be achieved, for example, through the storage and retrieval of information in memory structures to which the multiple hardware components have access. For example, one hardware component may perform an operation and store the output of that operation in a memory device to which it is communicatively coupled. A further hardware component may then, at a later time, access the memory device to retrieve and process the stored output. Hardware components may also initiate communications with input or output devices, and can operate on a resource (e.g., a collection of information). The various operations of example methods described herein may be performed, at least partially, by one or more processors that are temporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured to perform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanently configured, such processors may constitute processor-implemented components that operate to perform one or more operations or functions described herein. As used herein, “processor-implemented component” refers to a hardware component implemented using one or more processors. Similarly, the methods described herein may be at least partially processor-implemented, with a particular processor or processors being an example of hardware. For example, at least some of the operations of a method may be performed by one or more processors or processor-implemented components. Moreover, the one or more processors may also operate to support performance of the relevant operations in a “cloud computing” environment or as a “software as a service” (SaaS). For example, at least some of the operations may be performed by a group of computers (as examples of machines including processors), with these operations being accessible via a network (e.g., the Internet) and via one or more appropriate interfaces (e.g., an API). The performance of certain of the operations may be distributed among the processors, not only residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number of machines. In some examples, the processors or processor-implemented components may be located in a single geographic location (e.g., within a home environment, an office environment, or a server farm). In other examples, the processors or processor-implemented components may be distributed across a number of geographic locations.
“Machine-readable storage medium” refers to both machine-storage media and transmission media. Thus, the terms include both storage devices/media and carrier waves/modulated data signals. The terms “computer-readable medium,” “machine-readable medium” and “device-readable medium” mean the same thing and may be used interchangeably in this disclosure.
“Machine storage medium” refers to a single or multiple storage devices and media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and associated caches and servers) that store executable instructions, routines and data. The term shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media, including memory internal or external to processors. Specific examples of machine-storage media, computer-storage media and device-storage media include non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), FPGA, and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks The terms “machine-storage medium,” “device-storage medium,” “computer-storage medium” mean the same thing and may be used interchangeably in this disclosure. The terms “machine-storage media,” “computer-storage media,” and “device-storage media” specifically exclude carrier waves, modulated data signals, and other such media, at least some of which are covered under the term “signal medium.”
“Non-transitory machine-readable storage medium” refers to a tangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying the instructions for execution by a machine.
“Signal medium” refers to any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying the instructions for execution by a machine and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible media to facilitate communication of software or data. The term “signal medium” shall be taken to include any form of a modulated data signal, carrier wave, and so forth. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a matter as to encode information in the signal. The terms “transmission medium” and “signal medium” mean the same thing and may be used interchangeably in this disclosure.
Changes and modifications may be made to the disclosed examples without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. These and other changes or modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present disclosure, as expressed in the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20230100168 | Feb 2023 | GR | national |
