Using HMD camera touch button to render images of a user captured during game play

A method for processing content for head mounted display (HMD) use, comprising:

• providing images of a virtual reality (VR) scene of a video game for rendering on a display screen of the HMD, the images of the VR scene generated in response to a request for game play of the video game received from a user wearing the HMD;
• receiving a user input provided at a user interface on the HMD, during game play of the video game;
• in response to receiving the user input, pausing the game play of the video game, wherein the pausing includes storing a current location of the video game for resuming game play;
• receiving an image of the user interacting in a physical space during the game play, the image captured by an image capturing device that was activated to capture the image of the user during game play, wherein the image capturing device is external to the HMD and is oriented toward the user;
• processing the image of the user received from the image capturing device, wherein the processing includes associating the image of the user to a portion of the game play of the video game, the association allowing the image of the user and the portion of the game play to be shared with other users, wherein processing the image further includes,
• formatting the image of the user so as to render the image in a first portion of the display screen of the HMD during game play of the video game and rendering image of the VR scene in a second portion of the display screen, the image of the user being presented for a pre-defined period of time;
• and
• after expiration of the pre-defined period of time, resuming rendering of the VR scene in the first portion of the display screen of the HMD without the image of the user.

A system, comprising:

• a computing device including:
• a memory to store game code of a video game;
• a game processor that is configured to:
• execute an instance of the video game and generate video frames of a virtual reality scene of the video game for rendering on a display screen of a head mounted display (HMD) for viewing;
• receive user interaction during game play of the video game, the user interaction used to drive interactivity of the video game;
• receive a user input provided at an user interface of the HMD that is communicatively coupled to the computing device;
• pause the game play of the video game, in response to the user input received from the HMD, and store a current location of the video game as a pointer to re-start the video game;
• and
• an input analyzer that is configured to:
• receive the user input provided at the user interface of the head mounted display (HMD) during game play of the video game, analyze the user input and forward the analyzed user input for further processing;
• a signal generator that is configured to:
• generate a signal to activate an image capturing device that is communicatively coupled to the computing device, in response to the user input received from the HMD, the activation enables the image capturing device to capture an image of a user interacting in a physical space;
• and
• an image data processor that is configured to receive the image of the user and process the image of the user for rendering on a display screen of the HMD.

A method for processing content for head mounted display (HMD) use, comprising:

• providing images of a virtual reality (VR) scene of a video game for rendering on a display screen of the HMD, the images of the VR scene generated in response to a request for game play of the video game received from a user wearing the HMD;
• tracking gaze direction of the user using a gaze detection camera that is directed toward one or both eyes of the user wearing the HMD;
• when the gaze direction of the user is directed toward a pre-defined area on the display screen of the HMD and last for a pre-defined amount of time, pausing the game play of the video game, wherein the pausing includes storing a current location of the video game for later resuming game play;
• generating a signal to activate a plurality of image capturing devices, wherein the plurality of image capturing devices includes at least one forward facing camera of the HMD and at least one image capturing device that is external to the HMD, the plurality of image capturing devices are oriented to capture an image of the user interacting in a physical space, the images captured by the plurality of image capturing devices used to generate a three-dimensional image of the user;
• and
• rendering the three-dimensional image of the user at the pre-defined area on the display screen of the HMD,
• wherein operations of the method are performed by a processor of a computer that is communicatively connected to the HMD and is executing the video game.