Amazon granted augmented reality patents

A pair of new patents has revealed Amazon’s potential plans for augmented reality in the living room.

Issued to the online behemoth on December 1st, the technology shows a system that utilises a projector and single light source to map a whole room in 3D space.

This ‘reflector-based depth mapping’ then combines with the ‘object tracking’ of multiple cameras to monitor gestures and movement within the environment.

The idea, of course, is to remove the presence of a headset from augmented reality – giving it a unique selling point versus the headset-heavy world of VR.

If that sounds rather familiar, it may be due to the concept’s similarities to Microsoft’s IllumiRoom demonstration from a few years ago, which united 3D object tracking using Kinect with the expansion of a television display into a room via the use of a projector.

Although, that idea was ultimately proved too expensive for a consumer release.