In a patent application filed at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Microsoft filed a patent for a “virtual reality floor mat activity region.” The purpose of this virtual reality (VR) floor mat is apparently to help VR users avoid real-life obstacles while wearing VR headsets.
While VR headsets excel at providing immersive user experiences, many users are also familiar with the real-life risks of putting on a headset, wherein they become effectively blind to their real world surroundings. According to the details of the patent, Microsoft hopes to provide users with a VR mat that can track users’ locations in real time and communicate with VR headsets to steer users away from the edge of the mat and any potential hazards.
One way this VR mat could help users have a safe VR experience is by using fiducial markers—objects placed in the field of view of the VR headset’s imaging system that would appear in the users field of vision. In other words, VR headsets could recognise this VR mat and adjust the VR game space accordingly.
Other features could include pressure sensors and “vibration devices’ integrated into the mat itself. The pressure sensors would help relay the user’s physical position to the VR headset. “Such pressure sensors enable the virtual reality system to identify where the user is standing in relation to the mat, without necessarily requiring that the user be visually detected by an optical sensor.”
In terms of the “vibration devices,” it seems to basically refer to haptic feedback capabilities. “The floor mat may include one or more vibration devices integrated into the floor mat to generate vibration at the floor mat; and the virtual reality experience may be augmented by generating vibration at the floor mat via at least one vibration device of the one or more vibration devices.”
While Microsoft’s patent indicates a variety of possible avenues for this VR mat, from personal computers to Microsoft’s own Xbox console with the now-defunct Kinect, Microsoft’s version of a peripheral motion sensor. Whichever of these avenues Microsoft chooses to pursue, this new patent could provide a more safe and more interactive experience for VR users.
