Apple has filed for a patent (number 20220262080) for “interfaces for presenting avatars in three-dimensional environments.”
About the patent filing
In the patent filing Apple notes that the development of computer systems for augmented reality (AR) has increased significantly in recent years. Example augmented reality environments include at least some virtual elements that replace or augment the physical world. Input devices, such as cameras, controllers, joysticks, touch-sensitive surfaces, and touch-screen displays for computer systems and other electronic computing devices are used to interact with virtual/augmented reality environments.
Examples of virtual elements include virtual objects such as digital images, video, text, icons, and control elements such as buttons and other graphics. Apple says that some methods and interfaces for interacting with environments that include at least some virtual elements (e.g., applications, AR environments, mixed reality environments, and virtual reality environments) are “cumbersome, inefficient, and limited.” In addition, these methods take longer than necessary and waste battery life on mobile devices.
Apple says there’s a need for computer systems with improved methods and interfaces for providing computer-generated experiences to users that make interaction with the computer systems more efficient and intuitive for a user. Such methods and interfaces optionally complement or replace conventional methods for providing extended reality experiences to users.
Apple says that such methods and interfaces reduce the number, extent, and/or nature of the inputs from a user by helping the user to understand the connection between provided inputs and device responses to the inputs, thereby creating a more efficient human-machine interface. The company thins one of them involves the ability to create and use avatars in 3D environments.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “In some embodiments, a computer system displays user interfaces for enrolling one or more features of a user of a computer system. In some embodiments, a computer system displays visual effects associated with a virtual avatar in an XR environment. In some embodiments, a computer system displays objects having different visual characteristics in an XR environment. In some embodiments, a computer system switches between different presentation modes associated with a user represented in an XR environment. In some embodiments, a computer system displays a virtual avatar in an XR environment.”
