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US 12,161,934 B2Granted
Mobile haptic robots
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsMar Gonzalez Franco, Eyal Ofek, Michael Jack Sinclair, Ryo Suzuki
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present concepts relate to devices that can approximate virtual objects when touched by a user. One example device can include a location assembly configured to sense a location of the device on a surface and configured to move the robotic device on the surface and a shape assembly secured to the location assembly and configured to adjust a height and a pitch of an upper surface of the robotic device.
Claims15
A system, comprising:
- a virtual reality device capable of generating an image comprising a virtual object for a user;
- multiple graspable independently controllable robots;
- and,
- a module configured to receive a prediction that the user is reaching for the virtual object at a location, the module configured to identify a subset of at least two of the multiple robots to utilize to approximate the virtual object, to cause the subset of the multiple robots to move to the location and to temporarily secure to one another and to change shape to be collectively grasped by the user based at least in part upon information about the virtual object, wherein changing the shape comprises controlling a collective height, a width, and a surface angle of the subset of the multiple robots.
1 more element
A device implemented method, comprising:
- receiving information about a user reaching for a virtual object at a location in three-dimensional (3D) space;
- obtaining shape information about the virtual object;
- selecting multiple individual robots from a swarm of robots to approximate the virtual object;
- causing the multiple individual robots to move toward the location;
- causing the multiple individual robots to temporarily secure to one another and to change heights and upper surface angles to collectively approximate the virtual object that can be grasped by the user;
- and
- responsive to the user ceasing to grasp the multiple individual temporarily secured robots, causing the multiple individual robots to separate and disperse away from the location.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.