Virtual light in augmented reality

1. A method for a computing device, comprising:

receiving optical sensor information output by an optical sensor system observing a physical environment, the optical sensor system forming a sensory component of a head-mounted display system;

receiving position sensor information output by a position sensor system indicating a perspective of the optical sensor system within the physical environment, the position sensor system forming another sensory component of the head-mounted display system;

creating an ambient lighting model from the optical sensor information and the position sensor information, the ambient lighting model describing ambient lighting conditions of the physical environment;

modeling the physical environment from the optical sensor information and the position sensor information to create a virtual environment;

applying the ambient lighting model to the virtual environment including an added virtual object not present in the physical environment to obtain an illuminated virtual object; and

rendering a graphical representation of the illuminated virtual object for presentation via a see-through display of the head-mounted display system, the see-through display configured to visually augment an appearance of the physical environment to a user viewing the physical environment through the see-through display.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

applying the ambient lighting model to the virtual environment to obtain a virtual shadow of the illuminated virtual object projected on a virtual surface within the virtual environment; and

rendering a graphical representation of a non-shadow region of the virtual surface bordering the virtual shadow for presentation via the see-through display.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the virtual shadow is rendered with the graphical representation of the non-shadow region as one or more pixels omitted from the graphical representation.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

applying the ambient lighting model to the virtual environment to obtain a virtual shadow of the illuminated virtual object projected on a virtual surface within the virtual environment; and

rendering a graphical representation of the virtual shadow for presentation via the see-through display, the graphical representation of the virtual shadow configured to reduce an intensity of light transmitted through the see-through display corresponding to a location of the virtual shadow in the physical environment as viewed by the user through the see-through display.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ambient lighting model describes one or more of a light vector, a light intensity, and/or a light color of the ambient lighting conditions.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein applying the ambient lighting model to the virtual object includes adding a virtual light source at a location within the virtual environment that approximates the light vector, the light intensity, and/or the light color of the ambient lighting conditions within the physical environment.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

directly observing a light source within the physical environment via the optical sensor system;

identifying a location of the light source within the physical environment from the position sensor information; and

adding a virtual light source to the virtual environment at a location that approximates the location of the light source identified within the physical environment.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the position sensor information indicates the perspective of the optical sensor system as a measured change in a location and/or orientation of the head-mounted display system within the physical environment.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the position sensor information indicates the perspective of the optical sensor system within the physical environment as a location of the head-mounted display system measured in three-dimensional space along three orthogonal axes, and an orientation of the head-mounted display system about the three orthogonal axes.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optical sensor information includes time-based optical sensor information output by the optical sensor system observing the physical environment as the perspective of the optical sensor system within the physical environment changes over time; and

wherein the ambient lighting model and the virtual environment are based on multiple time-series frames of the time-based optical sensor information; and

wherein the graphical representation of the illuminated virtual object is rendered in real-time as the perspective of the optical sensor system within the physical environment changes over time.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the position sensor information includes time-based position sensor information output by the position sensor system as the perspective of the optical sensor system within the physical environment changes over time; and

wherein the ambient lighting model and the virtual environment are based on multiple time-series measurements of the time-based position sensor information.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optical sensor system is a first optical sensor system of a plurality of optical sensor systems within the physical environment;

wherein the method further comprises receiving optical sensor information output by a second optical sensor system observing the physical environment, the second optical sensor system forming a sensory component of a second head-mounted display system; and

wherein the ambient lighting model and virtual environment are further based on the optical sensor information output by the second optical sensor system.

13. A computing system, comprising:

a head-mounted display system including:

a see-through display configured to visually augment an appearance of the physical environment to a user viewing the physical environment through the see-through display, an optical sensor system configured to observe a physical environment, and

a position sensor system configured to indicate a perspective of the optical sensor system within the physical environment; and a computing device configured to:

receive optical sensor information output by the optical sensor system observing the physical environment;

receive position sensor information output by the position sensor system indicating the perspective of the optical sensor system;

create an ambient lighting model from a combination of the optical sensor information and the position sensor information describing ambient lighting conditions of the physical environment;

model the physical environment from the combination of the optical sensor information and the position sensor information to create a virtual environment;

apply the ambient lighting model to the virtual environment to obtain an illuminated virtual environment; and

render a graphical representation of the illuminated virtual environment in real-time for presentation via the see-through display as the perspective of the optical sensor system within the physical environment changes over time.

14. The computing system of claim 13 , wherein the computing device is further configured to:

add a virtual object not present in the physical environment to the virtual environment;

apply the ambient lighting model to the virtual object of the virtual environment to obtain an illuminated virtual object; and

render a graphical representation of the illuminated virtual object for presentation via the see-through display.

15. A head-mounted display system, comprising:

an optical sensor system configured to observe a physical environment;

a position sensor system configured to assess a perspective of the optical sensor system; and

a see-through display configured to visually augment an appearance of the physical environment with a virtual object that is virtually illuminated according to ambient lighting conditions of the physical environment, the see-through display applying an ambient lighting model to the physical environment to obtain a virtual shadow of the virtual object, and contrasting the virtual shadow with a graphical representation of a non-shadow region bordering the virtual shadow.

16. The head-mounted display system of claim 15 , wherein the virtual shadow is rendered with one or more omitted pixels.

17. The head-mounted display system of claim 15 , wherein the non-shadow region is displayed with relatively more see-through lighting than the virtual shadow.