You may one day be able to draw in a computer generated environment with a Vision Pro/iPad combo

You may one day be able to draw in a computer generated environment with the Apple Vision Pro and an iPad. Apple has filed for a patent (number US 20240104813 A1) for “techniques fore enabling drawing in a computer-generated reality environment.”

About the patent filing

The patent application relates generally to a computer-generated reality environment, and more specifically to techniques for providing an interactive computer-generated reality environment for creating a virtual drawing. A computer-generated reality (CGR) environment refers to a wholly or partially simulated environment that people sense and/or interact with via an electronic system. 

A CGR environment can be based on different types of realities, including virtual reality and mixed reality. An electronic device such as the Vision Pro detects a user’s real movements and projects and simulates those movements within the CGR environment.

Apple wants Vision Pro users to be able to create a virtual drawing on a drawing surface using an iPad, where the CGR environment provides a user with a realistic and immersive experience while creating the virtual drawing as if the user was creating a real drawing in the real world. 

The techniques described in the patent filing enable a user to create a drawing without the need for traditional physical drawing tools.What’s more, because the drawing is created within a CGR environment, the described techniques allow a user to manipulate (e.g., change, erase, alter) a portion of a drawing as desired. 

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “The present disclosure relates to techniques for providing an interactive computer-generated reality environment for creating a virtual drawing using one or more electronic devices. Specifically, the described techniques provide a user with a computer-generated reality environment, which can be based on different types of realities including virtual reality and mixed reality, for creating a virtual drawing on a drawing surface within the computer-generated reality environment. The computer-generated reality environment provides the user with a realistic and immersive experience while creating the virtual drawing.”