Apple ‘virtual drawing’ tools might not be far away as the latest patents filed by the Cupertino powerhouse have shown the brand’s plans for VR and AR sketch tools.
A drawing surface within ‘a computer-generated reality environment’ is set out by image sensors, with the hands of the user being the input device, et voila! Apple MR finger painting:
In accordance with a determination that the first input from the first hand
includes the first predefined finger orientation type: causing display, on the display, of a drawing tool that is controlled within the computer-generated reality environment by hand movement of the first hand detected using the one or more image sensors, wherein the drawing tool is moved within the computer-generated reality environment in accordance with the detected hand movement; and drawing on the drawing surface within the computer-generated reality environment responsive to the hand movement of the first hand detected using the one or more image sensors, wherein drawing on the drawing surface within the computer-generated reality environment responsive to the hand movement of the first hand comprises producing a visual effect on the drawing surface within the computer-generated reality environment corresponding to the detected hand movement.
Apple states in the patent that the computer-generated reality environment is to provide the user with a “realistic and immersive experience” while creating the virtual drawing.
Invented by Apple software engineering manager Edwin Iskander, the patent looks to involve the use of head mounted display, although from what we can glean it seems less focussed on 3D modelling than the likes of Gravity Sketch.
