Virtual reality presentation of body postures of avatars
A computing system and method to implement a three-dimensional virtual reality world with avatar posture animation without user posture tracking devices. A position and orientation of a respective avatar in the virtual reality world is tracked to generate a view of the virtual world for the avatar and to present the avatar to others. In response to input data tracking a position, orientation, and motions of a head of a user of the virtual reality world, the server system uses a posture model to predict, from the input data, a posture of an avatar of the user in the virtual reality world, and computes an animation of the avatar showing the posture of the avatar in the virtual reality world.
1 . A computing system, comprising:
a server system;
wherein the server system is configured to:
generate data stream to client devices that are connected to the server system via a computer network, the data stream providing views of a virtual reality world;
receive, from a client device, input data tracking position of a user of the client device, wherein the input data is generated by a virtual reality (VR) headset;
present, based on the input data tracking position, a body posture of an avatar in the virtual reality world, wherein the body posture is predicted without the client device tracking relative positions or movements of portions of the user that represent a body posture of the user;
identifying a pattern of head motion of the user from the input data generated by the VR headset, wherein the prediction is based on a detection of the pattern;
wherein the presented body posture of the avatar is presented via an animation of the avatar;
wherein the predicted body posture of the avatar identifies a position change or movement of a body part of the avatar relative to a head of the avatar.
2 . The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the body posture is predicted further based at least in part on a context of the avatar in the virtual reality world.
3 . The computing system of claim 2 , wherein the body posture is predicted further based on personalization parameters of the avatar.
4 . A method, comprising:
generating data stream to client devices that are connected to the server system via a computer network, the data stream providing views of the virtual reality world;
receiving, from a client device, input data tracking position of a user of the client device, wherein the input data is generated by a virtual reality (VR) headset;
presenting, based on the input data tracking position, a body posture of an avatar of the user in the virtual reality world;
identifying a pattern of head motion of the user from the input data generated by the VR headset, wherein the prediction is based on a detection of the pattern;
wherein the body posture is predicted without an input device sensing a position or movement of a body of the user.
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the body of the user includes a limb or torso of the user.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the avatar is presented in the virtual reality world to second avatars in the virtual reality world.
7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the body posture of the avatar is not presented to the user in the virtual reality world.
8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
controlling an orientation and position of the avatar based on the input data.
9 . A non-transitory computer storage medium storing instructions configured to instruct a computer system to perform a method, the method comprising:
generating data stream to client devices that are connected to the server system via a computer network, the data stream providing views of the virtual reality world;
receiving, from a client device, input data tracking position of a user of the client device, wherein the input data is generated by a virtual reality (VR) headset;
presenting, based on the input data tracking position, a body posture of an avatar of the user in the virtual reality world;
identifying a pattern of head motion of the user from the input data generated by the VR headset, wherein the prediction is based on a detection of the pattern;
wherein the body posture is predicted without an input device sensing a position or movement of a body of the user.
10 . The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 9 ,
wherein the pattern represents a head gesture of the user.
11 . The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises:
determining personalization parameters of a posture model corresponding to the head gesture using a machine learning technique.
12 . The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the posture model is trained at least via machine learning using postures captured in video images of people engaging in social activities.
13 . The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the posture model is trained at least via machine learning using body movements tracked using position and motion tracking devices attached to a portion of users of the virtual reality world.