Amazon patents headset-free augmented reality: report

PanARMENIAN.Net - Amazon.com Inc. is trying to lower the cost of augmented reality to bring a technology normally associated with futuristic military training and video-game conventions to living rooms, Bloomberg reports.

The Seattle-based company 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.

One patent for “object tracking in a 3-dimensional environment” would allow people to control devices through hand gestures that are monitored by cameras recognizing different parts of the hand. The technology attempts to solve the problem of tracking a user’s hand over time to control devices.

The other 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.

The patents reveal Amazon’s hardware ambitions beyond its existing line of products, which include the voice-activated Echo speaker/personal assistant that can play music, deliver news and be synced with calendars. It can also control home lighting and heating systems. An Amazon representative couldn’t immediately be reached to comment on the patents.