Abstract: A method of improving accessibility for the user operation of a first application on a computer includes the steps of taking one or more measurements of a current user's interaction with an application on the computer, comparing the one or more measurements with expectations derived from measurements from a first corpus of users, characterising one or more needs of the current user based upon the comparison, and modifying at least a first property of the first application responsive to the characterised need or needs.

Abstract: An entertainment system includes circuitry configured to receive input signals from at least a first input device and a second input device, where each input signal corresponds to a control in one of the input devices, determine whether each input signal is included in a respective control subset allocated to the input device from which the input signal was received, determine if each input signal is an input signal to be utilised based on whether it is included in the respective control subset, treat input signals to be utilised from any of the input devices as input signals from the same single input device, and determine, according to a predetermined control scheme, a process to be executed based on the input signals to be utilised, and where the respective control subsets each comprise at least one control not found in the other control subsets, and the respective control subsets together comprise a full complement of controls for an input device.

Abstract: A visual perception assistance apparatus includes a rendering unit configured to render, for display, a virtual environment, the virtual environment comprising one or more virtual elements; a selection unit configured to select one or more of the virtual elements; and an adapting unit configured to, for a given selected virtual element, adapt one or more aspects associated with an appearance of the given selected virtual element in dependence upon a distance between the given selected virtual element and a predetermined location within the virtual environment.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes allocation circuitry to allocate a graphical feature for a virtual environment to a respective layer from a plurality of respective layers in dependence upon one or more properties for the graphical feature, where the plurality of respective layers comprise a mobile layer and at least one of a mobile re-projection layer and a static re-projection layer, rendering circuitry to render graphical features allocated to respective different layers of the plurality of respective layers with a different rendering quality, and an output image generator to generate an image for display according to a viewpoint of a virtual camera, where the image includes graphical features allocated to respective different layers of the plurality of layers.

Abstract: A method of environment mapping comprising the steps of receiving a plurality of images from respective different viewpoints; using a simultaneous localisation and mapping ‘SLAM’ process, detect feature points in the plurality of images; classifying one or more objects within the plurality of images as being objects of interest; determining the position of the or each object of interest using feature points corresponding to the objects of interest in the images; and providing an indication of the position of one or more objects of interest to a user of a virtual display; and wherein the step of determining the position of the or each object of interest using their feature points is repeated, more frequently than for other feature points in the images.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes receiving circuitry to receive a plurality of images of an environment captured from respective different viewpoints, detection circuitry to detect a plurality of feature points in the plurality of captured images and to associate image information with each detected feature point indicative of an image property for a detected feature point, where each detected feature point represents a candidate landmark point for mapping the environment, selection circuitry to select one or more of the plurality of candidate landmark points, the one or more selected landmark points corresponding to a subset of the plurality of candidate landmark points, and mapping circuitry to generate, for the environment, a map including one or more of the selected landmark points, where each landmark point included in the map is defined by a three dimensional position and the associated image information for that landmark point.

Abstract: A system for improving a discovery process for a virtual environment, the system comprising an environment discovery unit operable to perform a discovery process comprising navigation of the virtual environment and identification of one or more aspects of the virtual environment, a performance analysis unit operable to evaluate the effectiveness of the discovery process, and a discovery update unit operable to modify future operation of the environment discovery unit in dependence upon the evaluation.

Abstract: A system includes a head-mountable display (HMD) configured to receive one or more signals via a wired connection with an external device, processing circuitry to generate an output indicative of at least one of a predicted disconnect event and a detected disconnect event for the wired connection, and control circuitry to instruct one or more operations to be performed by the HMD in response to the generated output.

Abstract: An entertainment system includes a two-handed controller comprising corresponding controls in each of opposing halves of the controller, a first of the corresponding controls in each half providing input in at least two dimensions and a second of the corresponding controls in each half providing input in at least one dimension; and an entertainment device comprising a receiver adapted to receive control input signals from the two-handed controller, and adapted to operate in a first mode where the received control input signals from the controller are interpreted according to an asymmetric control assignment, and to operate in a second mode where control input signals from the first and second controls for a respective half of the controller are used to control the position of a respective virtual limb in three dimensions within a virtual environment provided by the entertainment device.

Abstract: A system for modifying data representing a virtual environment includes: an environment navigation unit operable to control navigation within the virtual environment to generate one or more viewpoints within the virtual environment, an environment identification unit operable to identify one or more aspects of the geometry of the virtual environment visible in the one or more viewpoints, a geometry evaluation unit operable to evaluate the visibility of one or more aspects of the geometry based upon the identification for each of one or more viewpoints, and a data modification unit operable to modify one or more elements of data representing the virtual environment.

Abstract: A method of rendering an image includes generating a virtual scene comprising a set of virtual resources, the virtual resources being virtual objects and/or virtual light sources; pre-processing the virtual scene by ray-tracing with respect to a virtual camera position to detect one or more virtual resources not required for ray-tracing rendering of at least an aspect of rendering the image; and rendering the image by a ray-tracing process from the virtual camera position, the ray-tracing process being configured to omit ray-tracing for at least a given aspect of the image, with respect to the one or more virtual resources not required for ray-tracing rendering of at least the given aspect of the image.

Abstract: A lighting probe placement system for estimating lighting probe positions within a virtual environment includes a geometry input processor configured to receive geometry of at least part of the virtual environment and prepare it for input to a machine learning system; a processor configured to implement the machine learning system, which has been trained to output lighting probe positions upon receiving input geometry of the at least part of the virtual environment; and an association processor configured to associate the output lighting probe positions with the at least part of the virtual environment for subsequent rendering.

Abstract: A head mountable display apparatus includes a display unit to display one or more images to a user wearing the HMD, a first optical element and a second optical element each configured to direct light from the one or more images displayed by the display unit for viewing by a respective eye of the user, a first input unit to receive user information for the user indicative of a separation of the user's eyes, a second input unit to receive a user input, and an adjustment unit to adjust a current separation of the first and second optical elements responsive to the user input, where the display unit is configured to display a first image comprising one or more indicators indicative of the current separation of the first and second optical elements with respect to the separation of the user's eyes.

Abstract: A method of recording a seamless customised video recording of a video game, the method comprising the steps of: video recording a first run-through of at least a part of the video game; saving a saved-game state of a first game state of the video game, the saved-game state enabling a game state of the video game to be reset to the saved-game state that is at least visually identical to the first game state; detecting, in response to the saving of the saved-game state, a time within the video recording of the first run-through corresponding to the time the saved-game state is saved; video recording, when the game state is reset to the saved-game state, another run-through from the saved-game state; and editing the video recording of the first run-through by replacing some or all the video recording of the first run-through recorded from the detected time with the video recording of the other run-through when the other run-through meets a predetermined preference criterion.

Abstract: An image generation system comprising a bounding volume hierarchy, BVH, storage unit operable to store a BVH comprising a hierarchical structure of a plurality of triangles describing a virtual scene, a BVH position buffer operable to store data for identifying the location of one or more triangles within the BVH, and a fetch shader operable to identify vertex indices for use in rendering images, to obtain one or more triangles within the BVH corresponding to those vertex indices, and to provide vertex data corresponding to those triangles to a vertex shader operable to perform a vertex shading process.

Abstract: An image generation system comprising an image rendering unit operable to render a first image for display to a first one of a user's eyes, an image obtaining unit operable to obtain a second image for a second one of the user's eyes, the obtained image having been rendered for display at an earlier time, an image reprojection unit operable to reproject the first image from a viewpoint associated with the first one of the user's eyes to a viewpoint associated with the second one of the user's eyes, and an image generation unit operable to generate an output image for the second one of the user's eyes in dependence upon the reprojected first image and the obtained second image.

Abstract: An image rendering system for generating one or more images of a virtual environment, the system comprising an object identifying unit operable to identify one or more objects in the virtual environment, and to identify one or more rendering parameters associated with each object, and a rendering unit operable to render an image comprising one or more of the identified objects in accordance with the corresponding rendering parameter, wherein the rendering parameter specifies a respective minimum level of detail with which the object is to be rendered.

Abstract: An image rendering instruction generation system includes an object identification unit operable to identify one or more objects for rendering in a virtual scene, a shader identification unit operable to identify a shader for rendering the identified objects, wherein the shader comprises two or more shading processes corresponding to different levels of detail, a draw call generation unit operable to generate a draw call comprising the identified shader, and a draw call output unit operable to provide the generated draw call to an image rendering system.

Abstract: A method of rendering an image includes generating a virtual scene comprising a set of virtual resources, the virtual resources being virtual objects and/or virtual light sources; pre-processing the virtual scene by ray-tracing with respect to a virtual camera position to detect one or more virtual resources not required for ray-tracing rendering of at least an aspect of rendering the image; and rendering the image by a ray-tracing process from the virtual camera position, the ray-tracing process being configured to omit ray-tracing for at least a given aspect of the image, with respect to the one or more virtual resources not required for ray-tracing rendering of at least the given aspect of the image.

Abstract: A method of generating a data set includes determining a vertex count of a reference polygonal mesh, generating a second polygonal mesh by adding a predetermined number of vertices to the reference polygonal mesh, comparing a representation of the second polygonal mesh with a representation of the reference polygonal mesh, assigning a first value of a quality parameter to the reference polygonal mesh, and assigning a second value of the quality parameter to the second polygonal mesh based on the comparison of the representations, the value of the quality parameter for a given polygonal mesh indicative of a degree of difference between a representation of the given polygonal mesh and a representation of the reference polygonal mesh, and generating the data set comprising data indicative of a vertex count for the reference and second polygonal meshes and a value of a quality parameters for the reference and second polygonal meshes.