TECHNICAL FIELD

This relates generally to detecting planes and/or quadtrees within a scene, including but not limited to electronic devices that enable the detected planes and/or quadtrees to be sued as virtual substrates.

BACKGROUND

Placing augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) objects in an unmapped or dynamic scene presents a challenge from at least a user experience perspective. If an AR/VR object is placed within a scene without a suitable virtual substrate, the AR/VR object may not be anchored to a real-world surface in the scene. As such, the AR/VR may float in mid-air, occlude a real-world object, or collide with a real-world object. This produces a poor user experience that is neither lifelike nor believable.

In embodiments described below, this challenge is solved by detecting planes or quadtrees within the scene and determining their extents in order to provide virtual substrates on which to place AR/VR objects.

SUMMARY

In accordance with some embodiments, a method is performed at an electronic device with one or more processors, non-transitory memory, an image sensor, a display, and one or more input devices. The method includes displaying, on the display, a reticle element in a first appearance state overlaid on a media capture preview of objects in a field of view of the image sensor, where the media capture preview changes as the objects in the field of view of the image sensor change. The method also includes: detecting a plane in the media capture preview; and, in response to detecting the plane, displaying, on the display, the reticle element in a second appearance state overlaid on the media capture preview, where the reticle element corresponds to an indication of a portion of the extent of the plane while displayed in the second appearance state.

In accordance with some embodiments, a method is performed at an electronic device with one or more processors and non-transitory memory. The method includes: obtaining a plurality of sets of images; synthesizing a three-dimensional point cloud for each of the plurality of sets of images; constructing planes using the respective three-dimensional point clouds; and generating a merged set of quadtrees characterizing a merged set of planes across the three-dimensional point clouds.

In accordance with some embodiments, an electronic device includes a display, one or more input devices, one or more processors, non-transitory memory, and one or more programs; the one or more programs are stored in the non-transitory memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors and the one or more programs include instructions for performing or causing performance of the operations of any of the methods described herein. In accordance with some embodiments, a non-transitory computer readable storage medium has stored therein instructions which when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device with a display and one or more input devices, cause the device to perform or cause performance of the operations of any of the methods described herein. In accordance with some embodiments, an electronic device includes: a display, one or more input devices; and means for performing or causing performance of the operations of any of the methods described herein. In accordance with some embodiments, an information processing apparatus, for use in an electronic device with a display and one or more input devices, includes means for performing or causing performance of the operations of any of the methods described herein.

