Display tracking systems and methods
A tracked device may be used in an extended reality system in coordination with a tracking device. The tracked device may be ordinarily difficult to track, for example due to changing appearances or relatively small surface areas of unchanging features, as may be the case with an electronic device with a relatively large display surrounded by a thin physical outer boundary. In these cases, the tracked device may periodically present an image to the tracking device that the tracking device stores as an indication to permit tracking of a known, unchanging feature despite the image not being presented continuously on the display of the tracked device. The image may include a static image, designated tracking data overlaid on an image frame otherwise scheduled for presentation, or extracted image features from the image frame otherwise scheduled for presentation. Additional power saving methods and known marker generation methods are also described.
1 . A system comprising:
a display; and
processing circuitry configured to:
generate a first image frame based on overlaying tracking data on image content;
send a notification comprising an indication of the tracking data to a tracking device at a time corresponding to a first time duration before the first image frame is presented via the display, wherein the first time duration corresponds to an amount of time used to prepare a camera subsystem of the tracking device to operate; and
provide the first image frame to the display, wherein the tracking data comprises image data configured to enable the display to be detected by the tracking device when the display is displaying the first image frame.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
generate a second image frame to be presented via the display; and
provide the second image frame via the display without providing the tracking data.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
receive sensed data indicative of an ambient environment associated with the display; and
generate the tracking data based on the sensed data to compensate for the ambient environment.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to generate a refresh pulse at a rate based on a refresh rate associated with presenting the first image frame relative to a second image frame.
5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
identify a subset of the image content as the tracking data; and
generate the notification to send the tracking data to the tracking device.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to provide the tracking data with the first image frame via the display at least in part by overlaying the tracking data visually on content of the first image frame for a second time duration less than a total presentation time associated with the first image frame.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
establish communication with the tracking device via a communicative coupling; and
send the notification configured to indicate that the tracking data is overlaid on a subsequent image frame to the tracking device via the communicative coupling.
8 . The system of claim 7 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
receive motion data from a motion sensor, wherein the motion data is configured to indicate an expected motion of the display; and
send the motion data to the tracking device via the communicative coupling.
9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the image content is visible on at least a portion of the display.
10 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the image data comprises a watermark image, a patterned image, or any combination thereof.
11 . A method, comprising:
generating, via processing circuitry, an image frame based on overlaying tracking data on image content;
sending, via the processing circuitry, a notification comprising an indication of the tracking data to a tracking device at a time corresponding to a time duration before the image frame is presented via a display, wherein the time duration corresponds to an amount of time used to prepare a camera subsystem of the tracking device to operate; and
providing, via the processing circuitry, the image frame to the display, wherein the tracking data comprises image data configured to enable the display to be detected by the tracking device when the display is displaying the image frame.
12 . The method of claim 11 , comprising:
receiving, via the processing circuitry, an indication of a delay value; and
programming, via the processing circuitry, a delay circuit based on the delay value.
13 . The method of claim 11 , comprising generating, via the processing circuitry, the notification, wherein the notification is configured to compensate for a variable refresh rate associated with presenting the image frame.
14 . The method of claim 13 , comprising:
determining, via the processing circuitry, the time at which the camera subsystem is to be operated to capture an image, wherein the time is determined based on the variable refresh rate and the amount of time used to prepare the camera subsystem to capture the image data of the display; and
generating, via the processing circuitry, the notification to include a timestamp corresponding to the time.
15 . The method of claim 11 , comprising designating a subset of the image content as the tracking data, wherein the subset of the image content corresponds to a portion of the image content a threshold amount different in average brightness, in average color value, or both from one or more other portions of the image frame.
16 . A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium, comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, are configured to cause a device configured to be tracked to perform operations comprising:
receiving sensed data indicative of an ambient environment associated with a display;
generating an image frame based on overlaying tracking data on image content and based on the sensed data, wherein the tracking data comprises image data configured to enable the display to be detected by a tracking device when the display is displaying the image frame;
sending a notification comprising an indication of the tracking data to the tracking device at a time corresponding to a time duration before the image frame is presented via the display, wherein the time duration corresponds to an amount of time used to prepare a camera subsystem to operate; and
providing the image frame to the display.
17 . The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the operations comprise generating a refresh pulse at a rate that equals a refresh rate corresponding to the image frame.
18 . The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the operations comprise overlaying the tracking data on the image content based on blending the tracking data with the image content, wherein blending the tracking data with the image content comprises adjusting a brightness level of a portion of the image content, and wherein the portion of the image content corresponds to a location of the tracking data overlayed on the image content.
19 . The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the operations comprise:
establishing a communicative coupling with the tracking device; and
sending the notification to the tracking device via the communicative coupling.
20 . The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the operations comprise:
receiving motion data from a motion sensor; and
sending the motion data to the tracking device via the communicative coupling.