Systems and methods for modifying a safety boundary for virtual reality systems

1. A method comprising:

receiving an indication of a reference elevation representing a plane of a real-world environment;

establishing, with respect to the reference elevation, a virtual boundary for a virtual-world environment;

determining whether the virtual boundary satisfies a minimum area threshold;

displaying a warning when the virtual boundary does not satisfy the minimum area threshold;

receiving a request from a user to modify the virtual boundary;

in response to the request from the user, monitoring an orientation of a direction indicator to generate orientation data; and

modifying the virtual boundary based on the reference elevation and the orientation data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the orientation data includes elevation data of an elevation of the direction indicator with respect to the reference elevation.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein modifying the virtual boundary comprises determining an intersection between the plane and a virtual line that extends from the direction indicator at an elevation indicated by the elevation data and at the orientation indicated by the orientation data.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

capturing a view of the real-world environment with an imaging system of a head-mounted display system, the captured view having lens-induced distortion;

correcting the lens-induced distortion in the captured view to produce a compensated view of the real-world environment;

superimposing the virtual boundary on the compensated view of the real-world environment; and

displaying the compensated view of the real-world environment in a display of the head-mounted display system.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the virtual boundary is displayed as a filled-in shape defined by the virtual boundary.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying the virtual boundary includes adding portions to or subtracting portions from the virtual boundary.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a confirmation of the reference elevation.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving an indication to reset the virtual boundary.

9. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions

stored thereon that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations comprising:

receiving an indication of a reference elevation representing a plane of a real-world environment;

establishing, with respect to the reference elevation, a virtual boundary for a virtual-world environment;

determining whether the virtual boundary satisfies a minimum area threshold;

displaying a warning when the virtual boundary does not satisfy the minimum area threshold;

monitoring an orientation of a direction indicator to generate orientation data; and

modifying the virtual boundary based on the reference elevation and the orientation data.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the orientation data includes elevation data of an elevation of the direction indicator with respect to the reference elevation.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein modifying the virtual boundary comprises determining an intersection between the plane and a virtual line that extends from the direction indicator at an elevation indicated by the elevation data and at the orientation indicated by the orientation data.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , further comprising instructions for:

capturing a view of the real-world environment with an imaging system of a head-mounted display system, the captured view having lens-induced distortion;

correcting the lens-induced distortion in the captured view to produce a compensated view of the real-world environment;

superimposing the virtual boundary, as a filled-in shape defined by the virtual boundary, on the compensated view of the real-world environment; and

displaying the compensated view of the real-world environment in a display of the head-mounted display system.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein modifying the virtual boundary includes adding portions to or subtracting portions from the virtual boundary.

14. A head-mounted display system comprising:

a display secured to a user attachment system;

a direction indicator; and

a processing system configured to:

identify a reference elevation representing a plane of a real-world environment;

establish, with respect to the reference elevation, a virtual boundary for a virtual-world environment;

determine whether the virtual boundary satisfies a minimum area threshold;

display a warning when the virtual boundary does not satisfy the minimum area threshold; and

modify the virtual boundary based on the reference elevation and orientation data characterizing an orientation of the direction indicator.

15. The head-mounted display system of claim 14 , wherein the processing system is further configured to:

capture a view of the real-world environment with an imaging system of a head-mounted display system, the captured view having lens-induced distortion;

correct the lens-induced distortion in the captured view to produce a compensated view of the real-world environment;

superimpose the virtual boundary, as a filled-in shape defined by the virtual boundary, on the compensated view of the real-world environment; and

display the compensated view of the real-world environment in a display of the head-mounted display system.

16. The head-mounted display system of claim 14 , wherein modifying the virtual boundary includes adding portions to or subtracting portions from the virtual boundary.

17. The head-mounted display system of claim 14 , wherein the orientation data includes elevation data of an elevation of the direction indicator and wherein modifying the virtual boundary comprises determining an intersection between the plane and a virtual line that extends from the direction indicator at the elevation indicated by the elevation data and at the orientation indicated by the orientation data.