Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent that relates to computer systems that are in communication with a display generation component and one or more input devices that provide computer-generated experiences, including, but not limited to, electronic devices that provide virtual reality and mixed reality experiences via a display on Macs and HMDs.

Apple’s granted patent covers methods and interfaces for interacting with three-dimensional environments that are cumbersome, inefficient, and limited. For example, some systems do not enable use of a cursor to interact with virtual objects, which can make performing precise operations, such as text editing or drawing, cumbersome and/or inefficient. Further, other systems that enable the use of a cursor to interact with virtual objects are complex, tedious, and error-prone, create a significant cognitive burden on a user, and detract from the experience with the virtual/augmented reality environment. In addition, these methods take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy of the computer system. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.

Accordingly, there is a need for computer systems with improved methods and interfaces for interacting with virtual objects using a cursor to make interaction with three-dimensional environments more efficient and intuitive for a user. Such methods and interfaces optionally complement or replace conventional methods for interacting with three-dimensional environments. Such methods and interfaces reduce the number, extent, and/or nature of the inputs from a user by helping the user to understand the connection between provided inputs and device responses to the inputs, thereby creating a more efficient human-machine interface.

There is a need for electronic devices with improved methods and interfaces for interacting with three-dimensional environments using a cursor. Such methods and interfaces may complement or replace conventional methods for interacting with three-dimensional environments. Such methods and interfaces reduce the number, extent, and/or the nature of the inputs from a user and produce a more efficient human-machine interface. For battery-operated computing devices, such methods and interfaces conserve power and increase the time between battery charges.

Patent FIGS. 7E & 7FI below illustrate example techniques for controlling a cursor based on detected hand movements; FIGS. 12A-B illustrate example techniques for updating different cursors in different manners.

For techies, there’s deep details and many more patent figures to review in granted patent 12271531.