IP Library Granted Patent US 12711697
Granted Patent B2
US 12711697 · App. 18/623,308 · Granted Aug 18, 2026

Lightspill display for pass-through video

Inventor: Stuart M Pomerantz (Boulder, CO)
Assignee: Apple Inc.
G06T15/503G06T19/006G06T19/20G06T2219/2012G06T2219/2016
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12711697
App. No.
18/623,308
Granted
Aug 18, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

Various implementations disclosed herein include devices, systems, and methods that uses blend circuitry to provide a view of live pass-through video with a virtual object including a light-spill effect. For example, a process includes capturing pass-through video of a physical environment. The process further includes capturing virtual content. The process further includes calculating a color from the virtual content. The process further includes controlling the blend circuitry to generate an augmented reality video by blending the pass-through video with the virtual content and by modifying at least one portion of the pass-through video with the calculated color from the virtual content.

Claims (46)

1 . A device comprising: at least one camera capturing pass-through video of a physical environment;

a display;

blend circuitry that generates augmented reality video for the display from the pass-through video;

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed on the at least one processor, cause the device to perform operations comprising:

producing virtual content corresponding to a virtual light producing object, the virtual content comprising frame-specific virtual content for each of a plurality of frames of the pass-through video;

calculating a color from the virtual content; and

controlling the blend circuitry to generate the augmented reality video by blending the pass-through video with the virtual content and by modifying at least one portion of the pass-through video with the calculated color from the virtual content.

2 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the blend circuitry comprises a dedicated pathway to the at least one camera.

3 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the virtual light producing object is a virtual movie screen or a virtual television.

4 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the virtual light producing object is a virtual 3D object corresponding to a diffuse-light-producing 3D object.

5 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the modifying comprises combining,

via the blend circuitry, each of the frames of the pass-through video with the frame-specific virtual content and altering a portion of each of the frames of the pass-through video to provide a light-spill effect, wherein the light-spill effect is based on at least one color determined from the frame-specific virtual content.

6 . The device of claim 5 , wherein altering the portion of each of the frames of the pass-through video to provide the light-spill effect comprises tinting, dimming, or changing a brightness of a respective portion of each of the frames.

7 . The device of claim 5 , wherein altering the portion of each of the frames of the pass-through video to provide the light-spill effect comprises performing a hardware-implemented logic operation via the blend circuitry.

8 . The device of claim 5 , wherein altering the portion of each of the frames of the pass-through video to provide the light-spill effect comprises utilizing the blend circuitry to apply a tinting, dimming, or brightness adjustment of the portion.

9 . The device of claim 5 , wherein the at least one color determined from the frame-specific virtual content is determined by:

down-sampling the virtual content to produce a blurred image representing the virtual content; and

selecting the at least one color by identifying a dominant color of the down-sampled virtual content.

10 . The device of claim 5 , wherein the at least one color determined from the frame-specific virtual content is determined by:

down-sampling the virtual content to produce a blurred image representing the virtual content; and

selecting the at least one color by identifying at least a first color on a first side of the down-sampled virtual content and at least a second color on a second side of the down-sampled virtual content.

11 . The device of claim 5 , wherein said combining each of the frames of the pass-through video with the frame-specific virtual content comprises utilizing the blend circuitry to enable a hardware-based alpha blending process.

12 . The device of claim 5 , wherein said combining each of the frames of the pass-through video with the frame-specific virtual content comprises adjusting alpha-blend values corresponding to the pass-through video in areas corresponding to the virtual light producing object.

13 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the augmented reality video has a frame rate greater than 60 fps.

14 . The device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise displaying the augmented reality video.

15 . A device comprising: at least one camera capturing pass-through video of a physical environment;

a display;

blend circuitry that generates augmented reality video for the display from the pass-through video;

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed on the at least one processor, cause the device to perform operations comprising:

producing virtual content;

calculating a color from the virtual content; and

controlling the blend circuitry to generate the augmented reality video by blending the pass-through video with the virtual content and by modifying at least one portion of the pass-through video with the calculated color from the virtual content, wherein the augmented reality video is provided in approximately real time with the capturing of the pass-through video.

16 . A method comprising:

at a device having, at least one processor, at least one camera, a display, and blend circuitry:

capturing pass-through video of a physical environment via the at least one camera;

producing virtual content corresponding to a virtual light producing object, the virtual content comprising frame-specific virtual content for each of a plurality of frames of the pass-through video;

calculating a color from the virtual content; and

controlling the blend circuitry to generate an augmented reality video by blending the pass-through video with the virtual content and by modifying at least one portion of the pass-through video with the calculated color from the virtual content.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the blend circuitry comprises a dedicated pathway to the at least one camera.

18 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing program instructions executable via one or more processors, of a device having at least one camera, a display, and blend circuitry, to perform operations comprising:

capturing pass-through video of a physical environment via the at least one camera;

producing virtual content corresponding to a virtual light producing object, the virtual content comprising frame-specific virtual content for each of a plurality of frames of the pass-through video;

calculating a color from the virtual content; and

controlling the blend circuitry to generate an augmented reality video by blending the pass-through video with the virtual content and by modifying at least one portion of the pass-through video with the calculated color from the virtual content.