The first generation of Samsung's Gear VR was for the most part a rudimentary accessory for Galaxy smartphones that provided their users with the ability to play games or dabble in VR-like applications using an enclosed environment in the form of a headset. In order to attract more consumers to this new product category, Samsung's Gear VR has to provide potential customers with a wider range of features and applications. This week the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Samsung that revealed a future version of Gear VR that will deliver their first original set of features and new input accessories that will go a long way in helping to excite consumers to this new product class. Google and partners are also about to update their VR headsets in a major way as well.
Google's Daydream View introduced a remote with an integrated touch pad to control onscreen activities. Next-gen headset will offer head-tracking and head-motion for certain games and functions that they'll call 'WorldSense.' It will allow users to move naturally within VR worlds. Standalone headset have been developed by HTC VIVE and Lenovo that won't require being tethered to a PC as noted in the video below.
Samsung intends to offer similar features while adding new ones. Instead of hand-held remote controllers, Samsung set out to do something different than the other Android competitors and this is what our patent report is all about today.
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All-New Gear VR Detachable Trackpad Accessory
Samsung's patent FIG. 1 noted above is an exploded view of a next-generation version of Gear VR illustrating a new face cover made of a clear glass substrate that allows the Galaxy smartphone's backside camera to take photos of the outside world, allow users to see their immediate environment and it could provide users a PIP view within the headset as noted in patent FIG. 16A at the bottom of this report.
The next set of major changes to Gear VR involves introducing a series of new input control accessories. The first of these new input controllers involve a trackpad accessory that is designed to provide users with a hands-free way of applying input to control games and menus as well as move and pick up items in virtual worlds.
In patent FIG. 6 you can partially see that the touch pad can be turned or folded so that the accessory could be optionally accessed at a different angle.
All-New Gear VR Trackball Input Accessory
As illustrated below, Samsung's patent FIG. 7A shows us a secondary input accessory that provides the user with a trackball to assist movement within certain next-gen applications. Samsung states that "if an input operation is performed by using the trackball #535, a movement may be more precisely controlled, and the movement may be controlled in a wide range as compared to a touch pad in which a movement is structurally restricted."
All-New Wheel Key Input Accessory
A third Gear VR input accessory is identified as the "Wheel Key" as noted above in patent FIGS. 8A and 8B. Professionals and students that have to read a lot of material at the office, at home, on a plane or in public will be able to use the wheel key to scroll. The accessory can also be used in context with taking photos by controlling a drone's camera as noted further below in patent FIG. 13A.
Shopping Mall VR Application
One of the ways to advance Gear VR is to broaden its range of future applications. As we can see below in a series of patent figures, Samsung is illustrating a VR shopping mall application where users will be able to pick up items and rotate them so as to view them from different angles as you would when shopping in a real mall. The trackpad could also provide added functionality such as the ability to zoom in and out to assist in viewing finer details of an item.
Panoramic and Drone Photography Applications
As noted in patent FIGS. 13A and 13B we're able to see how taking a panoramic photo of a scene could be done hands free by simply clicking on that option on your smartphone using the trackpad or wheel key input accessory and simply moving one's head. With the face plate of Gear VR now clear glass, the user is free to take photos with a single finger. You're likely to get a steadier panoramic or regular photo by not having to hold the smartphone.
Samsung also illustrates that Gear VR will be working a future drone device that could be controlled through the headset and various new input accessories.
In the final set of patent figures from one of Samsung's latest patents we're able to see a new PIP feature for Gear VR that could allow the user to see outside their headset. Technically speaking, it should also be able to be used as a window that could provide users with notifications or incoming texts or emails if urgent.
And lastly, patent FIG. 14 provides us with an overview of the Gear VR system with today's new features and new sensors like gesture and biometric sensors. The gesture sensor could be used in conjunction with the camera to understand gestures relating to a game or application. Biometric sensors could include fingerprint ID, electromyography (EMG), electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG) or iris sensors.
Other advanced sensors could include optic sensors to measure inter-pupil distance. An eye tracker may track the eyes of a user by using at least one of electrical oculography (EOG) sensors, coil systems, dual-Purkinje systems, bright pupil systems, or dark pupil systems. In addition, the eye tracker may include a micro camera to track a user's eyes. Review the right side of patent figure 14 above in order to see the sensor module that provides a list of sensors that could be used in the headset.
Samsung filed their U.S. patent application back in October 2016. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.
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