Head-mountable display systems and methods
A system includes one or more sensors to detect one or more properties for a current user wearing a head-mountable display (HMD), control circuitry to select a user profile from a plurality of stored user profiles in dependence upon one or more of the detected properties, where each stored user profile is associated with a respective user and includes data indicative of one or more reference properties for the respective user, where the selected user profile includes data indicative of at least one reference property that is substantially the same as at least one of the one or more of the detected properties, and processing circuitry to generate at least one of audio and video content for output by the HMD in dependence upon the selected user profile and in response to the selection of the user profile.
1. A system, comprising:
one or more sensors to detect one or more properties for a current user of a head-mountable display (HMD);
control circuitry to select a user profile from a plurality of stored user profiles in dependence upon one or more of the detected properties, wherein each stored user profile is associated with a respective user and comprises data indicative of one or more reference properties for the respective user, wherein the selected user profile comprises data indicative of at least one reference property that is substantially the same as at least one of the one or more of the detected properties; and
processing circuitry to generate at least one of audio and video content for output by the HMD in dependence upon the selected user profile and in response to the selection of the user profile, wherein:
the one or more sensors comprise an image sensor and the one or more detected properties comprise one or more hand characteristics of a hand of the current user wearing the HMD,
the one or more hand characteristics comprise a detected skin colour for the hand, and
the image sensor is configured to detect a controller held by the hand of the current user, and wherein the control circuitry is configured to:
apply a correction to the detected skin colour in dependence upon a difference between a detected colour of the controller and a predetermined reference colour for the controller.
2. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to detect a change of the current user of the HMD in response to a change in one or more of the detected properties, and wherein the control circuitry is configured to select a second user profile from the plurality of stored user profiles in dependence upon one or more of the properties detected after the change of the current user.
3. A system according to claim 2 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to detect the change of the current user of the HMD in response to a change in one or more of the detected properties by at least a threshold amount.
4. A system according to claim 2 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to detect the change of the current user of the HMD in response to a change in one or more of the detected properties indicative of a predetermined movement of the HMD.
5. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to detect a change of the current user of the HMD based on a periodic analysis of one or more of the detected properties.
6. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more candidate user profiles comprise one or more from the list consisting of:
a predetermined number of the stored user profiles most recently selected by the control circuitry;
a predetermined number of the stored user profiles selected in advance by a user;
each of the stored user profiles previously selected within a predetermined time period by the control circuitry; and
a predetermined number of the stored user profiles previously selected by the control circuitry at least a threshold number of times.
7. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more detected properties comprise a displacement of the HMD from a floor indicative of a height for the current user wearing the HMD.
8. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more detected properties comprise one or more of:
one or more properties of an iris of an eye of the current user;
an inter-pupillary distance of the current user;
a voice of the current user; and
one or more behavioural aspects of the current user.
9. A system according to claim 1 , wherein the selected user profile comprises one or more of:
one or more display settings;
one or more audio settings; and
saved data for one or more video games.
10. A data processing method, comprising:
detecting, by one or more sensors, one or more properties for a current user of a head-mountable display (HMD);
selecting a user profile from a plurality of stored user profiles in dependence upon one or more of the detected properties, wherein each stored user profile is associated with a respective user and comprises data indicative of one or more reference properties for the respective user, wherein the selected user profile comprises data indicative of at least one reference property that is substantially the same as at least one of the one or more of the detected properties; and
generating at least one of audio and video content for output by the HMD in dependence upon the selected user profile and in response to the selection of the user profile, wherein:
the one or more sensors comprise an image sensor and the one or more detected properties comprise one or more hand characteristics of a hand of the current user wearing the HMD;
the one or more hand characteristics comprise a detected skin colour for the hand;
the detecting step comprises detecting, using the image sensor, a controller held by the hand of the current user, and
the method further comprises:
applying a correction to the detected skin colour in dependence upon a difference between a detected colour of the controller and a predetermined reference colour for the controller.
11. A non-transitory, computer readable storage medium containing computer software which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to carry out a data processing method comprising:
detecting, by one or more sensors, one or more properties for a current user of a head-mountable display (HMD);
selecting a user profile from a plurality of stored user profiles in dependence upon one or more of the detected properties, wherein each stored user profile is associated with a respective user and comprises data indicative of one or more reference properties for the respective user, wherein the selected user profile comprises data indicative of at least one reference property that is substantially the same as at least one of the one or more of the detected properties; and
generating at least one of audio and video content for output by the HMD in dependence upon the selected user profile and in response to the selection of the user profile, wherein:
the one or more sensors comprise an image sensor and the one or more detected properties comprise one or more hand characteristics of a hand of the current user wearing the HMD;
the one or more hand characteristics comprise a detected skin colour for the hand;
the detecting step comprises detecting, using the image sensor, a controller held by the hand of the current user, and
the method further comprises:
applying a correction to the detected skin colour in dependence upon a difference between a detected colour of the controller and a predetermined reference colour for the controller.