Interactive augmented reality

1. A method comprising:

at an electronic device having a display on one side of the device and one or more image sensors on the opposite side of the device:

capturing image data using the one or more image sensors;

displaying on the display a portion of the captured image data on the display;

displaying on the display a first graphical object representing a virtual object over the displayed portion of the captured image data, wherein a displayed position of the first graphical object is based on a position of the virtual object;

detecting a user gesture after display of the first graphical object using the one or more image sensors, wherein the detected gesture includes multiple gestures linked together including a first portion and a second portion and the user gesture is visible in the displayed portion of the captured image data;

in accordance with a determination that a first portion of the detected user gesture meets a set of criteria, updating a position of the virtual object to follow a second portion of the user gesture visible in the displayed portion of the captured image data or replacing the display of the first graphical object with a second graphical object; and

in accordance with a determination that the first portion of the detected user gesture does not meet the set of criteria, updating the position of the virtual object to move away from the user gesture.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying a feature in image data captured from the one or more image sensors.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the set of criteria includes a criterion based on a direction of the user gesture with respect to the graphical object displayed on the display.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the set of criteria includes a criterion based on a distance of the gesture to the feature.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

in accordance with a determination that a distance from the electronic device to the feature has increased, reducing the displayed size of the first graphical object; and

in accordance with a determination that a distance from the electronic device to the feature has decreased, increasing the displayed size of the first graphical object.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of criteria includes a criterion based on whether the user gesture matches a first predefined gesture.

7. An electronic device comprising:

a display on one side of the device;

one or more image sensors on the opposite side of the device;

a processor; and

memory encoded with a computer programing having instructions executable by the processor, wherein the instructions are for:

capturing image data using the one or more image sensors;

displaying on the display a portion of the captured image data on the display;

displaying on the display a first graphical object representing a virtual object over the displayed portion of the captured image data, wherein a displayed position of the first graphical object is based on a position of the virtual object;

detecting a user gesture after display of the first graphical object using the one or more image sensors, wherein the detected gesture includes multiple gestures linked together including a first portion and a second portion and the user gesture is visible in the displayed portion of the captured image data;

in accordance with a determination that a first portion of the detected user gesture meets a set of criteria, updating a position of the virtual object to follow a second portion of the user gesture visible in the displayed portion of the captured image data or replacing the display of the first graphical object with a second graphical object; and

in accordance with a determination that the first portion of the detected user gesture does not meet the set of criteria, updating the position of the first graphical object to move away from the user gesture.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with a computer program executable by an electronic device having a display on one side of the device and one or more image sensors on the opposite side of the device, the computer program comprising instructions for:

capturing image data using the one or more image sensors;

displaying on the display a portion of the captured image data on the display;

displaying on the display a first graphical object representing a virtual object over the displayed portion of the captured image data, wherein a displayed position of the first graphical object is based on a position of the virtual object;

detecting a user gesture after display of the first graphical object using the one or more image sensors, wherein the detected gesture includes multiple gestures linked together including a first portion and a second portion and the user gesture is visible in the displayed portion of the captured image data;

in accordance with a determination that a first portion of the detected user gesture meets a set of criteria, updating a position of the virtual object to follow a second portion of the user gesture visible in the displayed portion of the captured image data or replacing the display of the first graphical object with a second graphical object; and

in accordance with a determination that the first portion of the detected user gesture does not meet the set of criteria updating the position of the first graphical object to move away from the user gesture.

9. A method comprising:

at an electronic device having a display on one side of the device and one or more image sensors on the opposite side of the device:

capturing image data of a scene using the one or more image sensors;

displaying on the display a portion of the captured image data on the display;

displaying on the display a first graphical object over the displayed portion of the captured image data at a first position, the first graphical object representing a virtual object, wherein a displayed position of the first graphical object is based on a position of the virtual object and the user gesture is visible in the displayed portion of the captured image data;

detecting a user gesture after display of the first graphical object from the captured image data, wherein the detected gesture includes multiple gestures linked together including a first portion and a second portion;

in accordance with a determination that a first portion of the detected user gesture meets a set of criteria:

updating a status of the virtual object to a first state; and

updating the position of the graphical object to follow a second portion of the user gesture visible in the displayed portion of the captured image data or replacing the display of the first graphical object with a second graphical object, wherein the second graphical object is associated with the updated status of the virtual object; and

in accordance with a determination that the first portion of the detected user gesture does not meet the set of criteria:

updating the status of the virtual object to a second state different than the first state; and

updating the position of the graphical object to move away from the user gesture or replacing the display of the first graphical object with a second graphical object, wherein the second graphical object is associated with the updated status of the virtual object.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

selecting a reference point in the scene.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the selection of the reference point in the scene is based on the portion of the scene that corresponds to first position in the displayed portion of the captured image data.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein selecting the reference point in the scene includes identifying a feature in the captured image data near the first position and assigning the reference point to the portion of the scene corresponding to the feature.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the set of criteria includes a criterion based on the distance of the gesture to a reference point in the scene.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein the set of criteria includes a criterion based on the type of gesture detected.

15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the set of criteria includes a criterion based on whether the type of gesture detected is associated with a type of the virtual object.

16. The method of claim 9 , wherein the set of criteria includes a criterion based on whether the gesture was detected within a threshold amount of time.

17. The method of claim 9 , wherein the updated status indicates that the virtual object has been captured.

18. The method of claim 9 , wherein the updated status indicates that the virtual object is still free to move.