Apple patents 3D interface for moving virtual items between surfaces
Apple has filed a patent application describing a way to organize virtual items in a 3D space. The system lets users move digital assets from a vertical surface, like a wall, to a horizontal surface, like a table, within a virtual environment. It also allows these items to be shared and interacted with by multiple people in a real-time video call.
In the filing’s own words
In some embodiments, a computer system facilitates interactions with one or more virtual assets associated with a vertical virtual object in a three-dimensional environment, including adding the one or more virtual assets for display on a horizontal virtual object in the three-dimensional environment. In some embodiments, a computer system facilitates changing a visual appearance of a horizontal virtual object within a vertical virtual object in a three-dimensional environment based on whether the horizontal virtual object and its content are open in the three-dimensional environment. In some embodiments, a first computer system facilitates sharing of and subsequent interactions with a horizontal virtual object in a three-dimensional environment within a real-time communication session that includes a plurality of participants, including a first user of the first computer system.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method comprising: at a computer system in communication with one or more display generation components and one or more input devices: while displaying, via the one or more display generation components, a first object including one or more representations of virtual assets in an environment, the first object having a first orientation relative to a current viewpoint of a user of the computer system, detecting, via the one or more input devices, a first input directed to a first representation of a first virtual asset of the one or more representations of virtual assets; and in response to detecting the first input, in accordance with a determination that the first input satisfies one or more first criteria: displaying, via the one or more display generation components, a second object, different from the first object, in the environment, the second object having a second orientation, different from the first orientation, relative to the current viewpoint of the user; and displaying, via the one or more display generation components, the first representation of the first virtual asset of the one or more representations of virtual assets relative to the second object in the environment.
Facts
- Company
- Apple (Apple Inc.)
- Official title
- METHODS OF FACILITATING DISPLAY OF CONTENT BETWEEN VIRTUAL OBJECTS IN A THREE-DIMENSIONAL ENVIRONMENT
- Publication number
- US20260299746A1
- Application number
- 19578482
- Filed
- Mar 25, 2026
- Published
- Oct 1, 2026
- Inventors
- 17
- Claims
- 27
Classified under
G06F 3/04815 Physics & computingG06F 3/017 Physics & computingG06F 3/0482 Physics & computingG06T 15/20 Physics & computingG06T 19/20 Physics & computingG06T 2200/24 Physics & computingMore from Apple in AR, VR & displays
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.