Artificial reality systems with detachable personal assistant for gating user interface elements

A method comprising:

• capturing, by a head-mounted display (HMD), image data representative of a physical environment;
• outputting, by the HMD, artificial reality content including a display element that appears superimposed on and attached to an arm;
• identifying, by a gesture detector, from the image data, a gesture comprising:
• a gripping motion of a hand to form a gripping configuration of the hand with respect to the display element, and
• a movement of the hand, while in the gripping configuration, away from the arm;
• updating, by a user interface (UI) engine, in response to identifying of the gesture, the display element to appear detached from and separate from the arm;
• generating, by the UI engine, in response to identifying the gesture, a UI element that appears detached from the arm;
• and
• rendering, by a rendering engine, the UI element as an overlay to at least some of the artificial reality content.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed, cause processing circuitry of an artificial reality system to:

• receive, from a head-mounted display (HMD), image data representative of a physical environment;
• output, via the HMD, artificial reality content including a display element that appears superimposed on and attached to an arm;
• identify, from the image data, a gesture comprising:
• a gripping motion of a hand to form a gripping configuration of the hand with respect to the display element, and
• a movement of the hand, while in the gripping configuration, away from the arm;
• update, in response to the identification of the gesture, the display element to appear detached from and separate from the arm;
• generate, in response to the identification of the gesture, a UI element that appears detached from the arm;
• and
• render, the UI element as an overlay to at least some of the artificial reality content.