We’ve all seen those hilarious videos where people are so caught up while using virtual reality (VR) that they end up falling over, tripping over wires, or bumping into real world objects. While funny to watch, it can actually be pretty dangerous and Apple has come up with a system that will hopefully prevent it in the future.This is according to a patent discovered by AppleInsider in which the company has created a VR system that can determine the distance between itself and a physical real world object. Given that Apple already uses AR to help iPhone users measure distance and object dimensions using their phones, this actually doesn’t seem like a stretch of the imagination.
According to the patent, “The virtual reality device further determines whether the device has come within a (first) threshold distance to a physical object of a physical environment. If the device determines it is too close to the physical object, the device displays a visual effect in the virtual reality environment alerting the user to the presence of a nearby physical obstacle.”
The patent goes on to describe that if users continue to ignore the warnings, a live video feed which then be switched on to allow users to see what’s around them so that they can stop themselves from either crashing into their TVs or tripping over a chair.
Filed in . Read more about Patent and Virtual Reality (VR). Source: appleinsider