Virtualization of smartphone functions in a virtual reality application

A method of controlling a mobile telephone within a virtual reality (VR) application executing on a mobile telephone, said method comprising:

• installing a VR application within a sandbox module executing within a virtualization application on a mobile telephone;
• injecting a software program into memory space of a rendering function of said VR application by said virtualization application;
• receiving an input command from a user of said mobile telephone by said VR application;
• during execution of said rendering function, executing said software program in order to capture said input command;
• sending said input command from said software program to said virtualization application;
• and
• calling a native function of said mobile telephone by said virtualization application using said input command.

A system for controlling a mobile telephone from within a virtual reality (VR) application executing on said mobile telephone, said system comprising:

• a mobile telephone;
• a sandbox module executing on said mobile telephone and arranged to install and execute a VR application instance of said VR application;
• a software program arranged to render a VR model on a display of said mobile telephone within a VR environment of said VR application, said VR model providing a user interface;
• a virtualization module arranged to inject said software program into memory space of a renderer function of said VR application using a hooking mechanism;
• and
• a native function module arranged to forward a notification from said mobile telephone to said VR model and to forward an input command from said software program to said mobile telephone, whereby a user of said mobile telephone controls said mobile telephone using said VR model.