[0003] 2. Description of the Related Art



[0004] It is common that a user plays a game while wearing a head mounted display connected to a game device on the head, watching the screen displayed on the head mounted display, and operating a controller or the like. With a typical stationary display connected to a game device, since the user's field of vision includes the outside of the display's screen, the user may not be able to concentrate on the screen or the user's feeling of being immersed in the game may be reduced. Wearing a head mounted display, on the other hand, the user only sees images displayed on the head mounted display, so that the user feels more immersed in the world of the images and the entertainment capabilities of the game will be enhanced.



[0005] However, since a user wearing a head mounted display cannot see the outside world, the user may bump into an obstacle around the user or may knock something off a desk when stretching a hand or moving the user's body during game play.



SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION



[0006] The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and a purpose thereof is to provide an obstacle avoidance apparatus and an obstacle avoidance method that can avoid the situation where a user wearing a head mounted display bumps into an obstacle.



[0007] To solve the problem above, an obstacle avoidance apparatus of an embodiment of the present invention comprises: an obstacle detecting unit configured to detect an obstacle for a user wearing a head mounted display from an image of the outside world; an obstacle replacing unit configured to replace the detected obstacle with a virtual object; and a virtual object synthesizing unit configured to generate the virtual object within a virtual space displayed on the head mounted display.



[0008] Another embodiment of the present invention relates to an obstacle avoidance method. The method comprises: detecting an obstacle for a user wearing a head mounted display from an image of the outside world; replacing the detected obstacle with a virtual object; and generating the virtual object within a virtual space displayed on the head mounted display.



[0009] Optional combinations of the aforementioned constituting elements, and implementations of the invention in the form of methods, apparatuses, systems, computer programs, data structures, and recording media may also be practiced as additional modes of the present invention.