Caching and updating of dense 3D reconstruction data

A method of operating a portable electronic system, the method comprising:

• with at least one sensor, capturing sensor information about a physical world;
• and
• with at least one processor:
• processing the sensor information to:
• produce a representation of a portion of the physical world proximate the portable electronic device, the representation of the portion of the physical world comprising a plurality of blocks, each block including values representing objects in a region of the portion of the physical world at a corresponding point in time;
• associate altitude information with the portion of the physical world;
• generate a new version of a block of the plurality of blocks based on a comparison between incoming sensor-captured information and the plurality of blocks;
• and
• render a virtual object based on the new version of the block and its adjacent blocks of the plurality of blocks.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium with instructions stored thereon, that when executed on a processor, perform the acts comprising:

• processing sensor information about a physical world to:
• produce a representation of a portion of the physical world proximate a portable electronic device, the representation of the portion of the physical world comprising a plurality of blocks, each block including values representing objects in a region of the portion of the physical world at a corresponding point in time;
• associate altitude information with the portion of the physical world;
• generate a new version of a block of the plurality of blocks based on a comparison between incoming sensor information and the plurality of blocks;
• and
• render a virtual object based on the new version of the block and its adjacent blocks of the plurality of blocks.