Techniques for representing imaginary participants in an immersive play environment

• US 10,039,975 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2015
• Issued: 08/07/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Inventors: Olson, Joseph, Olson, Blade, Goslin, Michael P., Moneypenny, Charles, Alexandre, Ivone
• Primary Examiner(s): GARNER, WERNER G
• Application Number:
  US14/596,115
• Publication Number:
  US 20160199730A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,302 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/216 using geographical information, e.g. location of the game device or player using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/28 responding to control signals received from the game device for affecting ambient conditions, e.g. for vibrating players' seats, activating scent dispensers or affecting temperature or light controlling the output signals based on the game progress A63F13/50
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/537 using indicators, e.g. showing the condition of a game character on screen

Abstract

An immersive play environment providing techniques for generating an imaginary enemy within the environment is disclosed. A tracker device is provided in the play environment for determining a location of a user. A controller device is provided to generate an invisible interactive object (an “imaginary enemy”), to engage the user during gameplay. The controller device generates tracking information indicating a location of the imaginary enemy. The controller device determines the location of the enemy relative to the location of the user and transmits that information to the tracker device. The tracker device can communicate the location of the imaginary enemy to the user for engagement.

Claims

1. An immersive play experience platform, comprising:

a sensor device configured to generate tracking information corresponding to a location of a user wearing the sensor device in a physical space;

a beaconing device associated with a virtual location in the immersive play experience; and

a controller device configured to perform an operation for presenting a scenario in the physical space suggesting a presence of a plurality of imaginary elements in the physical space, wherein the plurality of imaginary elements are not visually depicted by the immersive play experience platform, the operation comprising;

receiving first tracking information from the sensor device,

generating one or more sensory cues suggesting a presence of at least a first imaginary element of the plurality of imaginary elements in the physical space, wherein the plurality of imaginary elements are not visually depicted by the immersive play experience platform, and

presenting the one or more sensory cues to the user, wherein the one or more sensory cues indicate that the first virtual element is located at the virtual location associated with the beaconing device.

2. The immersive play experience platform of claim 1, wherein the operation further comprises:

receiving user actions as determined by the sensor device in response to the generated one or more sensory cues; and

adjusting a profile of the first imaginary element based on the user actions.

3. The immersive play experience platform of claim 2, wherein the profile includes one or more status attributes corresponding to the first imaginary element.

4. The immersive play experience platform of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensory cues include audio representing the first imaginary element.

5. The immersive play experience platform of claim 1, wherein the first tracking information includes at least one of position information and orientation information corresponding to the location of the user.

6. The immersive play experience platform of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensory cues are generated relative to the first tracking information.

7. The immersive play experience platform of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensory cues instruct the user to move from a first location in the physical space to a physical location of the beaconing device in the physical space.

8. The immersive play experience platform of claim 7, wherein the one or more sensory cues additionally instruct the user to perform a specified action at the physical location of the beaconing device.

9. The immersive play experience platform of claim 8, the operation further comprising:

receiving second tracking information from the sensor device;

determining, based on the second tracking information, that the user did not complete, within a predefined time limit, the specified action at the physical location of the beaconing device;

generating one or more updated sensory cues based on the determination that the user did not complete the specified action at the physical location of the beaconing device within the predefined time limit; and

presenting the one or more updated sensory cues to the user.

10. The immersive play experience platform of claim 8, the operation further comprising:

receiving second tracking information from the sensor device;

determining, based on the second tracking information, that the user completed, within a predefined time limit, the specified action at the physical location of the beaconing device;

generating one or more updated sensory cues based on the determination that the user completed the specified action at the physical location of the beaconing device within the predefined time limit; and

presenting the one or more updated sensory cues to the user.

11. The immersive play experience platform of claim 1, wherein the scenario presented by the controller device requires a predefined minimum number of beaconing devices to be present in the physical space.

12. The immersive play experience platform of claim 1, wherein the scenario presented by the controller device is determined at least in part based on a number of beaconing devices that are present in the physical space.

13. The immersive play experience platform of claim 1, wherein the first imaginary element is invisible and is not visually depicted by the immersive play experience platform when the user has a direct line of sight to the first imaginary element.

14. A method for presenting a scenario in a physical space suggesting a presence of a plurality of imaginary elements in the physical space, wherein the plurality of imaginary elements are not visually depicted by an immersive play experience platform, the method comprising:

receiving first tracking information corresponding to a location of a user in the physical space;

generating one or more sensory cues suggesting a presence of at least a first imaginary element of the plurality of imaginary elements in the physical space, wherein the plurality of imaginary elements are not visually depicted by the immersive play experience platform; and

presenting the one or more sensory cues to the user, wherein the one or more sensory cues indicate that the first virtual element is located at a virtual location in the immersive play experience that is associated with a physical beaconing device.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving user actions in response to the generated one or more sensory cues; and

adjusting a profile of the first imaginary element based on the user actions.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the first tracking information includes at least one of position information and orientation information corresponding to the location of the user.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more sensory cues are generated relative to the first tracking information.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed on a processor, perform an operation for presenting a scenario in a physical space suggesting a presence of a plurality of imaginary elements in the physical space, wherein the plurality of imaginary elements are not visually depicted by an immersive play experience platform, the operation comprising:

receiving first tracking information corresponding to a location of a user in the physical space,

generating one or more sensory cues suggesting a presence of at least a first imaginary element of the plurality of imaginary elements in the physical space, wherein the plurality of imaginary elements are not visually depicted by the immersive play experience platform, and

presenting the one or more sensory cues to the user, wherein the one or more sensory cues indicate that the first virtual element is located at a virtual location in the immersive play experience that is associated with a physical beaconing device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the operation further comprises:

receiving user actions in response to the generated one or more sensory cues; and

adjusting a profile of the first imaginary element based on the user actions.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, the operation further comprising:

instructing the user to move from a first location in the physical space to a second location in the physical space,

upon determining that the user has moved to the second location in the physical space, generating one or more updated sensory cues, and

presenting the one or more updated sensory cues to the user.