Amazon Awarded With Augmented Reality Patents
Amazon.com seems to consider bringing augmented reality technology to living rooms, as the company has been awarded with two patents outlining how to use computer projections to transform a room into a virtual setting that responds to the user’s senses. The Seattle-based company on Tuesday received two patents that outline a set of technologies that would project a digital world into someone’s room and let them navigate it by moving their bodies, or using some form of camera or headset to interact with it using virtual reality.
The first patent for "object tracking in a 3-dimensional environment" was applied by Rawles LLC of Wilmington, Delaware and was assigned to Amazon. Obviously, Amazon is working with Rawles on the project. The patent descibes how people could control devices through hand gestures that are monitored by cameras recognizing different parts of the hand.
The second patent for "reflector-based depth mapping of a scene," would use computer projections to transform a room into a virtual setting that responds to the user’s senses. The system would accomplish this with a single light source, differentiating it from existing technologies that rely on multiple light sources that have to be frequently re-calibrated, making them expensive, according to the patent.
Amazon has been trying to move beyond its existing line of products, which include the voice-activated Echo speaker/personal assistant.