Cross reality system

A method of operating an electronic system to render virtual content in a 3D environment comprising a portable device, the method comprising, with one or more processors:

• maintaining on the portable device a coordinate frame local to the portable device based on output of one or more sensors on the portable device;
• obtaining a stored coordinate frame from stored spatial information about the 3D environment;
• computing a transformation between the coordinate frame local to the portable device and the obtained stored coordinate frame;
• receiving a specification of a virtual object having a coordinate frame local to the virtual object and a location of the virtual object with respect to the selected stored coordinate frame;
• and
• rendering the virtual object on a display of the portable device at a location determined, at least in part, based on the computed transformation and the received location of the virtual object.

An electronic system for maintaining persistent spatial information about a 3D environment for rendering virtual content on each of a plurality of portable devices, comprising:

• a networked computing device comprising:
• at least one processor;
• at least one storage device connected to the processor;
• a map storing routine, executable with the at least one processor, to receive from portable devices of the plurality of portable devices, a plurality of maps and store map information on the at least one storage device, wherein each of the plurality of received maps comprises at least one coordinate frame;
• and
• a map transmitter, executable with the at least one processor, to:
• receive location information from a portable device of the plurality of portable devices;
• select one or more maps from among the stored maps;
• and
• transmit to the portable device of the plurality of portable devices information from the selected one or more maps, wherein the transmitted information comprises a coordinate frame of a map of the selected one or more maps.