Patent 9829996 was granted and assigned to Zspace, Inc. on November, 2017 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
System and method for invoking 2D and 3D operational modes of a 3D pointing device in a 3D presentation system. A 3D stereoscopic scene and a 2-dimensional (2D) scene are displayed concurrently via at least one stereoscopic display device. A current cursor position is determined based on a 6 degree of freedom 3D pointing device. The cursor is displayed concurrent with the 3D stereoscopic scene and the 2D scene, where the cursor operates in a 2D mode in response being inside a specified volume, where, in the 2D mode, the cursor is usable to interact with the 2D scene, and where the cursor operates in a 3D mode in response to being outside the specified volume, where, in the 3D mode, the cursor is usable to interact with the 3D stereoscopic scene.