System and method for measuring spatial positioning in virtual reality display

An apparatus comprising:

• at least one processor;
• and
• at least one non-transitory computer readable memory connected to the at least one processor and including computer program code, wherein the at least one non-transitory computer readable memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to:
• displaying, in a head mounted display (HMD), a virtual environment comprising virtual models of physical elements surrounding a user;
• generate a target to identify a virtual reference point in the virtual environment, wherein the virtual reference point corresponds to a physical element in a physical environment, and wherein a virtual reference point position of the virtual reference point is recorded;
• project the target at the virtual reference point on a virtual model of the virtual environment to the user through the HMD;
• monitor a physical pointer of the user that is contacting the physical element in the physical environment that corresponds to the virtual reference point identified by the target;
• generate a virtual pointer in the virtual environment corresponding to the physical pointer of the user;
• and
• measure a vector characterizing a difference between a position of the virtual pointer and the virtual reference point position in the virtual environment.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer program instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one processor, cause a device to perform:

• displaying, in a head mounted display (HMD), a virtual environment comprising virtual models of physical elements surrounding a user;
• generating a target to identify a virtual reference point in the virtual environment, wherein the virtual reference point corresponds to a physical element in a physical environment, and wherein a virtual reference point position of the virtual reference point is recorded;
• projecting the target at the virtual reference point on a virtual model of the virtual environment to the user through the HMD, wherein the user identifies the target;
• monitoring a physical pointer of the user that is contacting the physical element in the physical environment that corresponds to the virtual reference point identified by the target;
• generating a virtual pointer in the virtual environment corresponding to the physical pointer of the user;
• and
• measuring a vector characterizing a difference between a position of the virtual pointer and the virtual reference point position in the virtual environment.