BACKGROUND

Field of the Disclosure

This disclosure relates to a head mountable apparatus and methods.

Description of the Prior Art

The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.

A head-mountable display (HMD) is one example of a head-mountable apparatus for use in a virtual reality system in which an HMD wearer views a virtual environment. In an HMD, an image or video display device is provided which may be worn on the head or as part of a helmet. Either one eye or both eyes are provided with small electronic display devices.

Although the original development of HMDs and virtual reality was perhaps driven by the military and professional applications of these devices, HMDs are becoming more popular for use by casual users in, for example, computer game or domestic computing applications.

The techniques to be discussed are applicable to individual three-dimensional images or to video signals comprising successive three-dimensional images. Therefore, references to “images” in the discussion below should be taken to encompass the use of the same techniques in respect of video signals.

The foregoing paragraphs have been provided by way of general introduction, and are not intended to limit the scope of the following claims. The described embodiments, together with further advantages, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

SUMMARY

An example embodiment provides a method of assisting a user wearing a head mountable display (HMD) when determining that the user may be in a pathological state, the method comprising the steps of detecting, by one or more sensors, one or more parameters indicating one or more current properties of the user, generating information indicating the one or more current properties of the user based on the one or more parameters, determining whether the user may be in a pathological state or a non-pathological state based on the information indicating one or more of the current properties of the user, and performing a process under instruction of a processor in response to determining that the user may be in a pathological state, the process comprising one or more operations that the user can voluntarily instruct when the user is in a non-pathological state.

Another example embodiment provides computer software which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the steps of the method defined above.

Example embodiments provide a machine-readable, non-transitory storage medium which stores such computer software.

Another example embodiment provides an apparatus for assisting a user wearing a head mountable display (HMD) when determining that the user may be in a pathological state, the apparatus comprising: one or more sensors configured to detect one or more parameters indicating one or more current properties of the user, a processor configured to generate information indicating the one or more current properties of the user based on the one or more parameters and to determine whether the user may be in a pathological state or a non-pathological state based on the information, and an HMD configured to perform a process under instruction of the processor in response to determining that the user may be in a pathological state, the process comprising one or more operations that the user can voluntarily instruct when the user's body is in a non-pathological state.

Various other aspects and features of the present disclosure are defined in the appended claims and within the text of the accompanying description and include at least a head mountable apparatus such as a display and a method of operating a head-mountable apparatus as well as a computer program.

