The Reality of Virtual Reality: Patent Analysis

Published: Mar, 2016 | Pages: 15 | Publisher: Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute
Industry: ICT | Report Format: Electronic (PDF)

Virtual Reality (VR) is a computer-simulated, three-dimensional environment that can be explored and interacted with by a person via a human-machine interface device. VR technologies have been applied to a broad range of fields, including video games, flight training, combat training, and surgical training. This report provides an overview of VR technologies, together with their major sectors, fields, and applications. Meanwhile, a US startup company has received a patent related to head-mounted VR goggles with the use of a mobile computing device in late 2015. Against the backdrop, whether other vendors, particularly Google's Cardboard and Samsung's Gear VR will infringe on that patent is also discussed in this report.

List Of Topics
Introduction of the patent mining procedure and distribution—by country, by sector, and by field—of the 870 VR-related patents identified by the use of data mining technique 
Identifying 30 key technologies and applications of the 870 VR-related patents; also included is an analysis of the US-based startup Merge Labs' patent and its impact on existing vendors of head-mounted VR goggles

List Of Companies
Google 
Merge Labs 
Inc. 
Samsung 
Son

 Table of Contents

1. Overview of VR Technologies5
1.1 Immersion VR5
1.2 Desktop VR5
1.3 Simulator VR5
1.4 Projection VR5

2. Patent Mining6

3. Data Analysis7
3.1 Patent Distribution by Country7
3.2 Patent Distribution by Sector and by Field8
3.3 Key Technologies & Applications9
3.4 Analysis of Merge Labs' Patent12

MIC Perspecitve14
Medical Applications Relatively Uncontested14
HMI & AI Crucial to Product Differentiation14
Vendors Should Design Around Head-Mounted VR Goggles to Minimize Risks of Infringement15
Appendix16
Glossary of Terms16
List of Companies17

List of Tables

Table 1: Key Technology Fields Identified by Text Mining1

List of Figures

Figure 1: Popular VR Devices on the Market6 
Figure 2: VR Patents by Country8 
Figure 3: VR Patents by Sector8 
Figure 4: VR Patents by Field9 
Figure 5: VR Patents by Major Technology and Application12 
Figure 6: An Embodiment of Merge Labs' Claimed Invention of a Head-Mounted VR Goggle13 
Figure 7: Samsung Gear VR & Google Cardboard13