Apple patent filing involves viewing CGR images on Macs, iPads, other devices

Apple has filed for a patent (number 20210365108) for “controlling representations of virtual objects in a computer generated reality (CGR) environment.” It involves viewing CGR images on Macs, iPads, and other devices.

About the patent filing

In the patent filing,  Apple notes that computer-generated reality (CGR) environments are environments where at least some objects displayed for a user’s viewing are generated by a computer. In some uses, a user may interact with virtual objects. The user may move the virtual objects to different locations within the computer-generated reality environment. However, Apple says there’s a lack of “robust functionality” for controlling how the virtual objects are represented at the different locations within the computer-generated reality environments. 

In addition, the tech giant says there’s a lack of functionality for controlling representations of virtual objects in the computer-generated environments based on characteristics of an input mechanism that may be used by the users to interact with the virtual objects. 

What’s more, the virtual objects may be represented as two-dimensional objects and/or three-dimensional objects within the computer-generated reality environments. However, Apple says there’s a lack of,  again, “robust functionality” for controlling the concurrent display of the representations of the virtual objects. The company wants to overcome such limitations when CGR images are viewed on its various devices.

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “In accordance with some embodiments, an exemplary process for controlling representations of virtual objects based on respective user contexts that each correspond to different respective locations in a computer-generated reality (CGR) environment is described.”