Apple has been granted a patent for the creation of “synthetic scenes” that combine extended reality and real world images.
About the patent
The patent related to creating synthetic scenes by combining synthetic data and real environment data in extended reality (XR) environments. In the patent Apple notes that some computer graphical XR environments provide two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional environments where some of the objects presented for a user’s viewing are representations of real-world objects (e.g., a table, a chair, a lamp, etc.) that have been scanned (e.g., captured using various sensors) using an electronic device (e.g., a smartphone, a tablet, a head-mounted display, etc.), and some of the objects are virtual and generated by software executing on a computer.
However, the tech giant says that atesting and debugging XR applications can be difficult, because XR applications may be designed to operate on a particular type of electronic device, and operate within XR environments generated from physical environments that are not readily accessible to developers and thus not available to be captured by sensors in the electronic device. In addition, XR applications may be designed to interact with objects in a particular way, but these objects may not be present in the physical environment, or the objects may be virtual, lacking the necessary attributes to enable the XR application to interact with the virtual object as though it were a real object.
Even if the objects are present in the physical environment, they may not be captured in the XR environment with the attributes needed for meaningful testing and debugging the XR application. Apple’s patent involves ways to overcome such issues.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “The creation of synthetic scenes from a combination of synthetic data and real environment data to allow for testing of extended reality (XR) applications on an electronic device is disclosed. In order to efficiently test an XR application, a scene data configuration can be specified within a synthetic service, representing a combination of different synthetic data and real environment data.
“In addition, scene understanding and alignment metadata can be added to the scene data. When the XR application is initiated, a synthetic scene in accordance with the scene data configuration and the added metadata can be rendered and presented on a display of the electronic device. The XR application can then be tested within the presented synthetic scene, with the application interacting with both the synthetic data and the real environment data of the synthetic scene as though it were interacting with real objects in a real environment.”
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