Patent Application
20230367611
The present disclosure is directed to supporting multiple core types of augment virtual objects in an artificial-reality environment.
An “augment” in an artificial-reality (XR) environment is a virtual object that can include presentation data, context, and logic. An XR system can use augments as the fundamental building block for displaying 2D and 3D models in the artificial reality environment. For example, augments can represent people, places, and things in an artificial reality environment and can respond to a context such as a current display mode, time of day, a type of surface the augment is on, a relationship to other augments, etc.
An XR system provides the richest user experience when it supports both (i) augments with a broad range of capabilities and (ii) developers with a broad range of expertise. However, these requirements can conflict as broadly capable augments require significant expertise to develop.
The techniques introduced here may be better understood by referring to the following Detailed Description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals indicate identical or functionally similar elements.
To avoid limiting either augment capabilities or the set of potential developers, the present disclosure provides a system that supports two core types of augments: world-controlled augments and application-controlled augments. World-controlled augments can be controlled directly by an XR shell in the artificial reality environment, while application-controlled augments can be controlled by their hosting application. When a running application is halted, the application closes its application-controlled augments but can choose to have the XR system run a “place-holder” world-controlled augment. The place-holder world-controlled augment preserves the appearance of the application in the artificial reality environment but uses very few system resources. Upon a user selecting a place-holder world-controlled augment, the XR system can run the associated application and close the place-holder world-controlled augment.
The XR shell, or just “shell,” can be an artificial reality device operating system or another application in control of an artificial reality environment. The shell can create content in the artificial reality environment. The shell can define the rules for how applications and virtual objects (i.e., augments) get access to hardware and artificial reality environment resources, what they have to do to create new virtual objects, how application and virtual objects share information, and can coordinate operation of the artificial reality environment. World-controlled augments require no application installation and are run directly by the XR shell. The XR shell is in direct control of resource use by world-controlled augments, so the XR shell can choose to run many of them at once. World-controlled augments persist as long as the XR shell keeps them running or until a user closes them.
Augments can be developed from within an XR system or on a traditional system (e.g., laptop or other flat panel system). To allow even inexperienced users to develop world-controlled augments, a world-controlled builder system is provided. Users invoke the world-controlled augment builder system to quickly develop world-controlled augments from provided templates. A user, guided by the world-controlled augment builder system, fills values into the fields of the templates. These templates limit a world-controlled augment's range of capabilities (e.g., do not include augments that require hand tracking, have no access to permissioned resources, etc.), but they also ensure consistency and allow on-the-fly creation within the artificial reality environment.
In contrast to world-controlled augments, application-controlled augments are limited only by the level of expertise of their developers and by the resources available on their host system. Application-controlled augments may be resource intensive (e.g., use eye-tracking, social-media tie-ins, hand-tracking, AI support, etc.), may support complicated interactions among themselves, and may make extensive use of inputs permissioned resources. Application-controlled augments disappear when the application controlling them halts. To prevent over-commitment of limited resources, the XR shell can allow only one or a few active applications at one time, with their corresponding application-controlled augments.
As an example of place-holding, a checkers-playing application can present a fully interactive application-controlled augment that presents the current status of the game, allows a user to make her next move with hand tracking, responds with a move received through a communication channel with a remote player, and the like. If the user selects another application to activate or leaves the proximity of the checkers-playing application-controlled augment for at least a threshold amount of time, then the checkers-playing application is shut down along with its application-controlled checkers augment. That augment is replaced by a place-holder world-controlled augment, run directly by the XR shell, that may, for example, simply show the checkers board. If a user interacts with this place-holder augment, then the XR shell can replace it by running the checkers application again which, in turn runs its interactive checkers-playing application-controlled augment.
Embodiments of the disclosed technology may include or be implemented in conjunction with an artificial reality system. Artificial reality or extra reality (XR) is a form of reality that has been adjusted in some manner before presentation to a user, which may include, e.g., virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), hybrid reality, or some combination and/or derivatives thereof. Artificial reality content may include completely generated content or generated content combined with captured content (e.g., real-world photographs). The artificial reality content may include video, audio, haptic feedback, or some combination thereof, any of which may be presented in a single channel or in multiple channels (such as stereo video that produces a three-dimensional effect to the viewer). Additionally, in some embodiments, artificial reality may be associated with applications, products, accessories, services, or some combination thereof, that are, e.g., used to create content in an artificial reality and/or used in (e.g., perform activities in) an artificial reality. The artificial reality system that provides the artificial reality content may be implemented on various platforms, including a head-mounted display (HMD) connected to a host computer system, a standalone HMD, a mobile device or computing system, a “cave” environment or other projection system, or any other hardware platform capable of providing artificial reality content to one or more viewers.
“Virtual reality” or “VR,” as used herein, refers to an immersive experience where a user's visual input is controlled by a computing system. “Augmented reality” or “AR” refers to systems where a user views images of the real world after they have passed through a computing system. For example, a tablet with a camera on the back can capture images of the real world and then display the images on the screen on the opposite side of the tablet from the camera. The tablet can process and adjust or “augment” the images as they pass through the system, such as by adding virtual objects. “Mixed reality” or “MR” refers to systems where light entering a user's eye is partially generated by a computing system and partially composes light reflected off objects in the real world. For example, a MR headset could be shaped as a pair of glasses with a pass-through display, which allows light from the real world to pass through a waveguide that simultaneously emits light from a projector in the MR headset, allowing the MR headset to present virtual objects intermixed with the real objects the user can see. “Artificial reality,” “extra reality,” or “XR,” as used herein, refers to any of VR, AR, MR, or any combination or hybrid thereof.
Existing XR systems do not support the simultaneous use of many sophisticated virtual objects. In addition, only the most experienced developers can create fully capable virtual objects with features such as communications to third parties, use of hand and eye tracking, AI assistant capabilities, etc. The world-controlled augment builder system and methods disclosed herein are expected to overcome these deficiencies in existing systems. The present disclosure provides a template-based augment builder by means of which even by the most inexperienced users can readily create world-controlled augments. Application-controlled augments, with a more extensive full range of capabilities, are also supported and can be created by more knowledgeable developers. The two types of augments can interact in beneficial ways. A world-controlled place-holder augment can preserve the appearance of an application in the artificial reality environment for as long as that application is not running, even while consuming very few system resources. Upon a user selecting a place-holder world-controlled augment, the XR system can run the associated application and close the place-holder world-controlled augment. By allowing both types of augments to work together, the present technology avoids limiting either augment capabilities or the set of potential developers. By allowing a place-holder world-controlled augment to preserve the appearance of an application, the present technology allows for an enriched artificial reality environment even in the face of limited resources, and thus enhances the value of the systems running the artificial reality environment.
Several implementations are discussed below in more detail in reference to the figures.
Computing system 100 can include one or more processor(s) 110 (e.g., central processing units (CPUs), graphical processing units (GPUs), holographic processing units (HPUs), etc.) Processors 110 can be a single processing unit or multiple processing units in a device or distributed across multiple devices (e.g., distributed across two or more of computing devices 101-103).
Computing system 100 can include one or more input devices 120 that provide input to the processors 110, notifying them of actions. The actions can be mediated by a hardware controller that interprets the signals received from the input device and communicates the information to the processors 110 using a communication protocol. Each input device 120 can include, for example, a mouse, a keyboard, a touchscreen, a touchpad, a wearable input device (e.g., a haptics glove, a bracelet, a ring, an earring, a necklace, a watch, etc.), a camera (or other light-based input device, e.g., an infrared sensor), a microphone, or other user input devices.
Processors 110 can be coupled to other hardware devices, for example, with the use of an internal or external bus, such as a PCI bus, SCSI bus, or wireless connection. The processors 110 can communicate with a hardware controller for devices, such as for a display 130. Display 130 can be used to display text and graphics. In some implementations, display 130 includes the input device as part of the display, such as when the input device is a touchscreen or is equipped with an eye direction monitoring system. In some implementations, the display is separate from the input device. Examples of display devices are: an LCD display screen, an LED display screen, a projected, holographic, or augmented reality display (such as a heads-up display device or a head-mounted device), and so on. Other I/O devices 140 can also be coupled to the processor, such as a network chip or card, video chip or card, audio chip or card, USB, firewire or other external device, camera, printer, speakers, CD-ROM drive, DVD drive, disk drive, etc.
In some implementations, input from the I/O devices 140, such as cameras, depth sensors, IMU sensor, GPS units, LiDAR or other time-of-flights sensors, etc. can be used by the computing system 100 to identify and map the physical environment of the user while tracking the user's location within that environment. This simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system can generate maps (e.g., topologies, girds, etc.) for an area (which may be a room, building, outdoor space, etc.) and/or obtain maps previously generated by computing system 100 or another computing system that had mapped the area. The SLAM system can track the user within the area based on factors such as GPS data, matching identified objects and structures to mapped objects and structures, monitoring acceleration and other position changes, etc.
Computing system 100 can include a communication device capable of communicating wirelessly or wire-based with other local computing devices or a network node. The communication device can communicate with another device or a server through a network using, for example, TCP/IP protocols. Computing system 100 can utilize the communication device to distribute operations across multiple network devices.
The processors 110 can have access to a memory 150, which can be contained on one of the computing devices of computing system 100 or can be distributed across of the multiple computing devices of computing system 100 or other external devices. A memory includes one or more hardware devices for volatile or non-volatile storage, and can include both read-only and writable memory. For example, a memory can include one or more of random access memory (RAM), various caches, CPU registers, read-only memory (ROM), and writable non-volatile memory, such as flash memory, hard drives, floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, magnetic storage devices, tape drives, and so forth. A memory is not a propagating signal divorced from underlying hardware; a memory is thus non-transitory. Memory 150 can include program memory 160 that stores programs and software, such as an operating system 162, a world-controlled augment builder 164, and other application programs 166. Memory 150 can also include data memory 170 that can include, e.g., a library of world-controlled augments, templates for creating world-controlled augments, configuration data, settings, user options or preferences, etc., which can be provided to the program memory 160 or any element of the computing system 100.
Some implementations can be operational with numerous other computing system environments or configurations. Examples of computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the technology include, but are not limited to, XR headsets, personal computers, server computers, handheld or laptop devices, cellular telephones, wearable electronics, gaming consoles, tablet devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set-top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, or the like.
The electronic display 245 can be integrated with the front rigid body 205 and can provide image light to a user as dictated by the compute units 230. In various embodiments, the electronic display 245 can be a single electronic display or multiple electronic displays (e.g., a display for each user eye). Examples of the electronic display 245 include: a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode display (AMOLED), a display including one or more quantum dot light-emitting diode (QOLED) sub-pixels, a projector unit (e.g., microLED, LASER, etc.), some other display, or some combination thereof.
In some implementations, the HMD 200 can be coupled to a core processing component such as a personal computer (PC) (not shown) and/or one or more external sensors (not shown). The external sensors can monitor the HMD 200 (e.g., via light emitted from the HMD 200) which the PC can use, in combination with output from the IMU 215 and position sensors 220, to determine the location and movement of the HMD 200.
The projectors can be coupled to the pass-through display 258, e.g., via optical elements, to display media to a user. The optical elements can include one or more waveguide assemblies, reflectors, lenses, mirrors, collimators, gratings, etc., for directing light from the projectors to a user's eye. Image data can be transmitted from the core processing component 254 via link 256 to HMD 252. Controllers in the HMD 252 can convert the image data into light pulses from the projectors, which can be transmitted via the optical elements as output light to the user's eye. The output light can mix with light that passes through the display 258, allowing the output light to present virtual objects that appear as if they exist in the real world.
Similarly to the HMD 200, the HMD system 250 can also include motion and position tracking units, cameras, light sources, etc., which allow the HMD system 250 to, e.g., track itself in 3DoF or 6DoF, track portions of the user (e.g., hands, feet, head, or other body parts), map virtual objects to appear as stationary as the HMD 252 moves, and have virtual objects react to gestures and other real-world objects.
In various implementations, the HMD 200 or 250 can also include additional subsystems, such as an eye tracking unit, an audio system, various network components, etc., to monitor indications of user interactions and intentions. For example, in some implementations, instead of or in addition to controllers, one or more cameras included in the HMD 200 or 250, or from external cameras, can monitor the positions and poses of the user's hands to determine gestures and other hand and body motions. As another example, one or more light sources can illuminate either or both of the user's eyes and the HMD 200 or 250 can use eye-facing cameras to capture a reflection of this light to determine eye position (e.g., based on set of reflections around the user's cornea), modeling the user's eye and determining a gaze direction.
In some implementations, server 310 can be an edge server which receives client requests and coordinates fulfillment of those requests through other servers, such as servers 320A-C. Server computing devices 310 and 320 can comprise computing systems, such as computing system 100. Though each server computing device 310 and 320 is displayed logically as a single server, server computing devices can each be a distributed computing environment encompassing multiple computing devices located at the same or at geographically disparate physical locations.
Client computing devices 305 and server computing devices 310 and 320 can each act as a server or client to other server/client device(s). Server 310 can connect to a database 315. Servers 320A-C can each connect to a corresponding database 325A-C. As discussed above, each server 310 or 320 can correspond to a group of servers, and each of these servers can share a database or can have their own database. Though databases 315 and 325 are displayed logically as single units, databases 315 and 325 can each be a distributed computing environment encompassing multiple computing devices, can be located within their corresponding server, or can be located at the same or at geographically disparate physical locations.
Network 330 can be a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a mesh network, a hybrid network, or other wired or wireless networks. Network 330 may be the Internet or some other public or private network. Client computing devices 305 can be connected to network 330 through a network interface, such as by wired or wireless communication. While the connections between server 310 and servers 320 are shown as separate connections, these connections can be any kind of local, wide area, wired, or wireless network, including network 330 or a separate public or private network.
Mediator 420 can include components which mediate resources between hardware 410 and specialized components 430. For example, mediator 420 can include an operating system, services, drivers, a basic input output system (BIOS), controller circuits, or other hardware or software systems.
Specialized components 430 can include software or hardware configured to perform operations for supporting world-controlled and application-controlled augments. Specialized components 430 can include an XR shell 434, a world-controlled augment builder 436, a library of world-controlled augments 438, one or more applications with their associated application-controlled augments 440 and 442, and components and APIs which can be used for providing user interfaces, transferring data, and controlling the specialized components, such as interfaces 432. In some implementations, components 400 can be in a computing system that is distributed across multiple computing devices or can be an interface to a server-based application executing one or more of specialized components 430. Although depicted as separate components, specialized components 430 may be logical or other nonphysical differentiations of functions and/or may be submodules or code-blocks of one or more applications.
The XR shell 434 can be an application that presents an artificial reality environment to users and can coordinate the user's interactions with the artificial reality environment. The XR shell 434 can coordinate the work of XR subcomponents, such as the applications 440 and 442 and can control interactions between augments. The XR shell 434 can be responsible for running world-controlled augments.
Users can invoke the world-controlled augment builder 436 to build their augments. The world-controlled augment builder 436 can present to the user templates. The user, guided by the world-controlled augment builder 436, can select a template and fill values into the fields of the selected template. Through its use of templates, the world-controlled augment builder can limit a world-controlled augment's range of capabilities and can ensure consistency among world-controlled augments build by different users. In some variations, the world-controlled augment builder 436 can allow the user to create augments “on-the-fly” while within the artificial reality environment. In other cases, the world-controlled augment builder 436 can be used through an alternate system, such as a traditional computer, allowing the user to create augments for future use in an artificial reality environment.
Because the XR shell 434 can directly run all world-controlled augments, it can have access to them. The library of world-controlled augments 438 can be the repository of these world-controlled augments the XR shell 434 can run. In some cases, world augments can live in the cloud and be serviced to an end point device depending on its context, such as geolocation, user profile/preferences, system or user state, recent actions, etc.
Applications 440 and 442 represent any number of applications that may run, at one time or another, in the user's artificial reality environment. Each application can be associated with one or more application-controlled augments.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the components illustrated in
The differences between the capabilities of world-controlled augments and application-controlled augments are reflected in their different creation processes.
At block 502, process 500 receives a user's selection of a template appropriate to the world-controlled augment he wishes to create. In some variations, the user's selection is from a menu of templates presented to the user by the world-controlled augment builder 436. These templates can be presented to the user with some fields already filled in with default values, for example, for values, permissions, actions, etc. In some variations, the “template” is an already-created world-controlled augment whose features the user's new world-controlled augment may copy or inherit.
At block 504, process 500 presents the selected template to the user with, in some variations, tips on how to populate the fields of the template.
At block 506, process 500 interacts with the user to populate the template for the new world-controlled augment. This can include filling in fields for values, permissions, actions, etc. Some value fields can be metadata such as a name for the world-controlled augment, the augment's author or owner, and a unique identifier for the world-controlled augment. Other value fields can include the world-controlled augment's visual elements including images and 3D models, parameters, and links to external data sources (such as time of day, a news feed).
The user can, with the aid of the templates, define actions allowed to this type of world-controlled augment and can define permissions associated with those actions. Actions define how the world-controlled augment interacts with users and with the artificial reality environment in general. Types of action can include object behaviors, spatial behaviors, data-management interactions, notification actions, privacy actions, system actions, etc. Object behaviors can include how the world-controlled augment reacts to other objects in the artificial reality environment, inputs, and events, and can specify triggers for the world-controlled augment to make responsive display, configuration, or other output actions. Spatial behaviors can include how the world-controlled augment moves, reacts to surface placement, sets view states in different contexts, etc. Other actions can define how the world-controlled augment responds to changing situations including data-management interactions (e.g., what data the world-controlled augment retrieves or updates in response to given triggers), notifications (e.g., how the world-controlled augment surfaces detected events in the artificial reality environment), privacy and security actions (e.g., what data and interfaces the world-controlled augment makes available to the user, other virtual objects, and other entities and how the world-controlled augment protects its internal resources), and/or system actions (e.g., changing states for power management, managing and requesting resources, hardware access, interfacing with the OS or other controlling application, thread execution management, etc.).
In some variations, the user can define how the world-controlled augment responds to user input, in some cases via a user interface defining touch, voice, and other interactions.
The user can specify permissions for the new world-controlled augment including, for example, the volume in the user's artificial reality environment into which the world-controlled augment is authorized to write. In some variations, the world-controlled augment may be defined with multiple view states and contextual breakpoint rules for transitioning among them. Each view state can control what and how the world-controlled augment presents its data and what the virtual object can use as an anchor point while in that state. Other permissions can be associated with the other action types listed above and with their associated data.
While the scope of data, data types, and data sources possibly associated with a world-controlled augment is effectively unlimited, specific templates can require specific fields. For example, a world-controlled augment representing a character in the artificial reality environment may require a name, current status, and an avatar.
As mentioned above, the template may include default values for some or all of the object's parameters and values. In some cases, the “template” is an existing world-controlled augment from which the augment being created copies or inherits values, actions, parameters, etc. The user can, generally speaking, add to the inherited components, remove them, or replace them with user-specified alternatives. In some cases, the “parent” augment can specify which of these inheritances may be overwritten by the user's choice. In the same manner, the user can be given permission to change some defaults included with a template.
As discussed above, the capabilities added to the world-controlled augment in block 506 can be limited by the template. In some variations, for example, the world-controlled augment is prevented from accessing any permissioned resources (e.g., camera, messaging service) and is prevented from using very much computing power.
Throughout block 506, process 500 may guide the user in populating the template, thus easing the creation of the new world-controlled augment while the template also limits what actions that augment can perform.
At block 508, process 500 can add the newly created world-controlled augment to a library 438 from which it can be drawn later as needed. In some variations, the newly created world-controlled augment can be associated with an application to serve as a place-holder augment when the application is not running. Step 806 of
Compare the above description of the templated creation of a world-controlled augment with
At block 602, the process 600 begins the creation of the new application, e.g., in an artificial reality environment or traditional computer application development system. While, like the creation of world-controlled augments (see
At block 604, process 600, in some variations, defines at least one application-controlled augment that will be controlled by the developing application. As when developing the application itself, the developer has a great deal of freedom in how to develop an application-controlled augment. In some variations, the application developer can choose to begin the creation process with templates from the world-controlled augment builder 436 or can choose to begin with an existing augment as a jumping-off place.
Any of the world-controlled augment's capabilities and features discussed above in relation to block 506 of
When developing an application-controlled augment, the developer is free to go beyond the limits imposed by the XR system on capabilities for world-controlled augments. The specifics of those limits can vary from system to system, but can include denial of permission to world-controlled augments to richly interact with other augments or with users and denial of the use of permissioned resources. Thus, the developer can at block 606 give the application-controlled augment advanced features with much greater capabilities. These features can include, for example, user gaze-tracking, hand tracking, complicated interaction modes with users and between augments controlled by this application, access to messaging or other network resources, access to AI assistants or other machine-learning powered systems, and, in general, whatever capabilities the XR system that will host the application provides. This is one area that distinguishes applications and their application-controlled augments from world-controlled augments. To keep them easy to create and low on computing resource requirements, world-controlled augments are not given access to these advanced features and/or are limited in what the world-controlled augments can do with various resources and inputs.
At block 608, process 600 sets permissions for the application and, by inheritance from the application, permissions for the application-controlled augments. In order to implement many of the advanced features added in block 606, the application must secure permission to access certain system resources such as a camera, a microphone, profile information about an interacting user, and the like. Once those permissions are granted to the application, the application can in turn extend those same permissions, or a strict subset of them, to its application-controlled augments. The use of inheritance of permissions, like the use of inheritance of field definitions, allows the application-controlled augment to present to the user a unified experience. This is an area that distinguishes applications and their application-controlled augments from world-controlled augments. Applications may be given much a much broader range of permissions than world-controlled augments can have.
At block 610, process 600 associates the newly create application-controlled augment with the developing application. At block 612, process 600 associates at least one world-controlled augment with at least one of the new application's application-controlled augments. The creation of this world-controlled augment can be templated as described above in relation to
At block 614, process 600 specifies the circumstances under which the application can run. For examples of this, see the flows of
At block 702, process 700 runs one or more world-controlled augments that are relevant to the user's current location. For example, process 700 can identify anchor points in the current environment and select world-controlled augments that match those anchor points and/or can identify various contextual factors such as who the user is, what other objects are in the area, time, date, other people around, etc. and perform an analysis on available world-controlled augments to rank them according to which best match the contextual factors. Process 700 can use perform these checks in regard to world-controlled augments in a local and/or cloud based version of the library 438 and can display the chosen or highest ranking world-controlled augments. This set of displayed world-controlled augments can change as the user changes context, location, and/or orientation.
Process 700 can execute one or more applications (i.e., one or more current active applications) along with its associated application-controlled augments. The application chosen to run can be a system default, may depend upon the user's situation when entering the artificial reality environment, or may be based on a user selection. For example, a user may open a launcher which lists available applications and can select one to be a current active application. As another example, a user may select a world-controlled augment in the environment which may be associated with an application and cause that application to execute as the current active application (as discussed in the next block).
At block 704, process 700 receives the user's selection of a world-controlled augment. In some variations, the user interacts with a world-controlled augment that is associated with an application, and the world-controlled augment is acting as a place-holder when the application is not running. (In some cases, not all world-controlled augments are place-holders for application-controlled augments of stopped applications.) The user's interaction can include, for example, looking at, pointing at, touching, or indicating with a voice command, the world-controlled augment. In some variations, the user verbally expresses a command to select an application or its associated world-controlled augment, and that expression is mapped into a semantic space (e.g., by applying an NLP model) to determine the user's intent from the words of the command.
At block 706, process 700 can shut down an executing active application (e.g., executed at block 702 or previously executed) and can begin to run the application selected by the user in block 704. The newly selected application can begin to run one or more of its application-controlled augments. See
At block 802, process 800 runs a first application that comes with its application-controlled augments. Unlike the case for the world-controlled augments which is run directly by the XR shell, application-controlled augments are under the control of their hosting application. That application can decide the circumstances under which each of the augments it controls will run and the circumstances under which each stops running. When the application itself stops running, all of its application-controlled augments also stop running, but may be replaced with world-controlled augments as discussed below.
At block 804, a user selects a second application to run. There are numerous ways in which the selection can be made. For instance, blocks 704 and 706 of
At block 806, process 800 triggers the already running active application to shut down. This happens because each application may consume significant resources and the XR system can simultaneously run only one or a limited number at a time. In this scenario, the XR system cannot afford to start running the user-selected second application while leaving the first application running. Closing the active application can include saving a state of the active application, including one or more of the application-controlled augments. This state allows the application to re-run itself and its application-controlled application from the same point the next time the application executes.
Note that while in the scenario of block 806, it is the user's selection of the second application that causes the first application to shut down, in other scenarios the first application shuts down for other reasons. For example, the system may be running out of resources and may shut down the first application as an “emergency” measure. In another example, the user chooses to shut down the first application but does not yet wish for another application to be run. In all these cases, the process of block 806 can be followed.
When the first active application stops running, all of its application-controlled augments will cease to run. In the scenario of block 806, the first active application prepares for this by causing one or more of its application-controlled augments to be replaced with a place-holder world-controlled augment. The place-holder world-controlled augment is run by the XR shell in response to a request from the first active application or is passed off to the XR shell. The place-holder world-controlled augment from the first application is then run directly by the XR shell, allowing it to remain after the active application has closed. The first active application is then halted, and all of its application-controlled augments are closed.
At block 808, the selected second application is run. As with the first application while it was running, during its lifetime the second application may run application-controlled augments, which may include providing an application-controlled augment in lieu of any world-controlled augments that were placeholders for that application's application-controlled augments (e.g., an augment that was selected to cause the new active application to execute).
If the user chooses to switch back to the first application, that choice can be implemented by choosing the place-holder world-controlled augment initiated in block 806 (effectively re-executing process 800).
At block 810, if the user selected the second application by means of a place-holder world-controlled augment set up expressly for that purpose or there were other placeholder world-control augments for the active application that have been replaced with application-controlled augments, then the place-holder world-controlled augments have served their purpose, and process 800 can stop running them.
Eventually the user 902 leaves the game and selects another active application by selecting a corresponding world-controlled augment 1002 (causing the corresponding application to execute). Rather than needlessly continuing to consume precious system resources, the host application for the checkers game saves its state (e.g., the status of the game) and is shut down. As part of its shut-down process, the host application presents the place-holder world-controlled augment 1004 of
Reference in this specification to “implementations” (e.g., “some implementations,” “various implementations,” “one implementation,” “an implementation,” etc.) means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the implementation is included in at least one implementation of the disclosure. The appearances of these phrases in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same implementation, nor are separate or alternative implementations mutually exclusive of other implementations. Moreover, various features are described which may be exhibited by some implementations and not by others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirements for some implementations but not for other implementations.
As used herein, being above a threshold means that a value for an item under comparison is above a specified other value, that an item under comparison is among a certain specified number of items with the largest value, or that an item under comparison has a value within a specified top percentage value. As used herein, being below a threshold means that a value for an item under comparison is below a specified other value, that an item under comparison is among a certain specified number of items with the smallest value, or that an item under comparison has a value within a specified bottom percentage value. As used herein, being within a threshold means that a value for an item under comparison is between two specified other values, that an item under comparison is among a middle-specified number of items, or that an item under comparison has a value within a middle-specified percentage range. Relative terms, such as high or unimportant, when not otherwise defined, can be understood as assigning a value and determining how that value compares to an established threshold. For example, the phrase “selecting a fast connection” can be understood to mean selecting a connection that has a value assigned corresponding to its connection speed that is above a threshold.
As used herein, the word “or” refers to any possible permutation of a set of items. For example, the phrase “A, B, or C” refers to at least one of A, B, C, or any combination thereof, such as any of: A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; A, B, and C; or multiple of any item such as A and A; B, B, and C; A, A, B, C, and C; etc.
Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Specific embodiments and implementations have been described herein for purposes of illustration, but various modifications can be made without deviating from the scope of the embodiments and implementations. The specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims that follow. Accordingly, the embodiments and implementations are not limited except as by the appended claims.
Any patents, patent applications, and other references noted above are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems, functions, and concepts of the various references described above to provide yet further implementations. If statements or subject matter in a document incorporated by reference conflicts with statements or subject matter of this application, then this application shall control.
