Chaperone

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Concept Drawing of Chaperone's Visual Grid

The Chaperone system is a utility design by Valve to be used with their Head Mounted Display, the HTC Vive. Once set up, it keeps track of where a user is in relation to the physical walls around them, and if necessary, shows a blue grid[1] within the user's virtual space to notify them that they are in close proximity to a physical barrier. The HTC Vive provides tracking within an approximately 15 foot by 15 foot area, and the Chaperon system provides the user with confidence that they will not collide with physical barriers as they experience their virtual content.

Purpose

The main purpose of the HTC Vive is to warn the user when they approach a physical barrier, to which they are blind because of the headset they are wearing. This will ideally prevent collisions and minimize accidents. This may help virtual reality experiences be more immersive because the observer trusts that they are safe to move around in the environment.

A secondary purpose for the Chaperone system is to allow games to interact with the user in a unique way. Because the Chaperone system has information about the user's environment, virtual applications can react to the user's surroundings. It could, for example, generate a location that matches the orientation and layout of the user's room. Conversely, the system could use a techniques like overlapping spaces or directed walking[2] to make traverse-able, virtual environments that seem much larger than the user's physical space by distorting the user's perception of distance and rotational displacement.

Current Limitations

At the time of writing, the set up procedure for the Chaperon system involves manually delineating the corners of the physical space with the HTC Vive's controllers.

One other limitation of the Chaperone system is that it is currently limited to mapping the floor and walls of a space. This means that if the user's space includes a couch it would not be mapped and would present an invisible obstacle (it could, however, be defined as the limiting 'wall' on that side of the space).

Finally, the physical model built by the Chaperone system is static. If any portion of the setup changes, such as moved furniture, it would not be reflected in the model and therefore not be used to guide the user.

Likely Additions

According to comments by the Lighthouse developers at conventions and on Twitter[3], as well as the emphasis on mapping in its patent[4], it seems likely that the HTC Vive will eventually use a stereo pair of cameras or a depth camera to aid in "detection and measurement" the user's surroundings. This might be a one-time calibration, or it could provide constantly updating information to capture changes in the user's environment. Gathering data in this fashion would also likely allow the recognition of furniture and other small objects.

History

Valve Corporation filed for a patent entitled 'CHAPERONE' on March 09, 2015[5]. In it is contained this description of the Chaperone system:

"Hardware and software, sensors, and beacons for the detection and measurement of physical objects and the representation of such objects in virtual reality environments; Devices used for the detection and measurement of physical objects and the representation of such objects in virtual reality environments; Electronic apparatus for the detection and measurement of physical objects and the representation of such objects in virtual reality environments"

References

  1. http://www.tested.com/tech/concepts/504521-htc-vive-vs-oculus-crescent-bay-my-10-vr-takeaways/
  2. http://ict.usc.edu/pubs/Impossible%20Spaces-%20Maximizing%20Natural%20Walking%20in%20Virtual%20Environments%20with%20Self-Overlapping%20Architecture.pdf
  3. https://twitter.com/vk2zay/status/573909197949009920
  4. http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86558185&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch
  5. http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86558185&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch