Systems and methods for immersing spectators in sporting event and evaluating spectator-participant performance

• US 10,587,905 B2
• Filed: 12/07/2017
• Issued: 03/10/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Esports Immersion LLC
• Original Assignee: Esports Immersion LLC
• Inventors: Ortiz, Luis M., Lopez, Kermit D.
• Primary Examiner(s): D'Agostino, Paul A
• Application Number:
  US15/834,271
• Publication Number:
  US 20180167656A1
• Time in Patent Office: 824 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/355 Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/46 Computing the game score
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/798 for assessing skills or for ranking players, e.g. for generating a hall of fame computing the game score A63F13/46
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3218 wherein at least part of the system is portable
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/323 wherein the player is informed, e.g. advertisements, odds, instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3237 about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3255 Incentive, loyalty and/or promotion schemes, e.g. comps, gaming associated with a purchase, gaming funded by advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3269 Timing aspects of game play, e.g. blocking/halting the operation of a gaming machine
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3276 wherein the players compete, e.g. tournament
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3288 Betting, e.g. on live events, bookmaking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game

Abstract

Systems and methods enable sporting event spectators to do more than just observe an online or live contest with the spectators'"'"' engagement being limited to group messaging with other spectators (and possibly also the game stars/participants) during an event. The present invention provides a new level of participation for spectators. Spectators can play the game alongside their favorite athlete/star and a computer system evaluates how the participants perform compared to the athlete. The system can monitor several participants and rank their performance against performance of actual athletes to determine which participants made similar moves, took similar actions, or took action that may be deemed superior to action taken by actual athletes. From the collected data top performers can be acknowledge/awarded. The data can also be useful to identify rising stars from the pool of participants, and new athletes worthy of participants in future competitions cane identified.

Claims

1. A method for electronically facilitating the immersion of spectators as competitors with eSports athletes in a live multiplayer computer game occurring as part of an eSports event, the method comprising:

monitoring a live multiplayer computer game;

storing in at least one server associated with the live multiplayer computer game and the eSports event, a first set of data including digital video of the live multiplayer computer game and plays associated with action entered on a human-computer interface by at least one eSports athlete participating in the eSports event and the multiplayer computer game;

storing in the at least one server a second set of data associated with the eSports event and electronically provided by action in the form of spectator-participant plays provided on a human-computer interface associated with a spectator-participant participating in the eSports event, wherein the spectator-participant plays are provided contemporaneously with the plays executed by the at least one eSports athlete and are provided through a human-computer interface included in a client device connected via a data network to the at least one server and associated with the spectator-participant;

evaluating the first set of data and the second set of data, wherein results of the evaluating include a comparison of the spectator-participant plays with respect to the at least one eSports athlete plays to render performance data with respect to the spectator-participant and the at least one eSports athlete.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

image-processing the digital video so as to transform the digital video associated with the live multiplayer computer game occurring as part of the eSports event into a digital format suitable for display of the digital video in a first display area of a graphical user interface of the client device associated with the spectator-participant; and

simultaneously displaying data representing spectator-participant plays in a second display area of the graphical user interface of client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the spectator-participant is also a spectator of the eSports event when receiving data at the client device and is a spectator-participant in the eSports event when providing data in the form of spectator-participant plays via the human-computer interface included in a client device connected via a data network to the at least one server associated with the eSports event.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the performance data are utilized to determine rankings for use in at least one of:

a prize allocation to at least one top performer selected from a pool of spectator-participants; and

an establishment of a talent pool of spectator-participants for use by recruiters of future professional competitions.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the digital video is enhanced for VR rendering via the VR device utilized by the at least one eSports athlete and the spectator-participant.

6. The method of claim 1, permitting the at least one spectator to wager on an outcome of the performance data through a mobile device.

7. A system for electronically facilitating the immersion of spectators in an eSports event wherein a primary aspect of the eSports event is scoring user video gaming entries entered into an electronic video gaming system by eSports athletes as plays by competitors in a multiplayer computer game and wherein input by eSports athletes in the eSports event are entered into the electronic video gaming system by human-computer interfaces connected to the electronic video gaming system, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

access to at least one server associated with the eSports event and providing eSports athletes and spectator-participants access to a multiplayer computer game via electronic video gaming systems, the at least one server programmed to communicate with the at least one processor, and provide instructions executable by at least one of the at least one processor and the at least one server for;

monitoring a live multiplayer computer game;

storing in the at least one server associated with the eSports event a first set of data associated with the eSports event, the first set of data including digital video of the multiplayer computer game and plays associated with action by at least one eSports athlete participating in the eSports event and the multiplayer computer game and entered on a human-computer interface associated with the at least one eSports athlete;

storing in the at least one server associated with the eSports event a second set of data associated with the eSports event and electronically provided by action of a spectator-participant taken on a human-computer interface from the spectator-participant while the spectator-participant is contemporaneously participating in the eSports event and the multiplayer computer game with the at least one eSports athlete through a client device connected to the at least one server via a data network and associated with the spectator-participant; and

evaluating the first set of data and the second set of data, wherein results of the evaluating include a omparison of the spectator-participant plays with respect to plays by the at least one eSports athlete to render data indicative of performance of the spectator-participant with respect to the at least one eSports athlete.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

image-processing the digital video so as to transform the digital video associated with the eSports event into a digital format suitable for display of the digital video in a first display area of a graphical user interface of at least one electronic video gaming system; and

simultaneously displaying data associated with the spectator-participant in a second display area of the graphical user interface of the at least one electronic video gaming system as the spectator-participant is competing in a multiplayer computer game with at least one eSports athlete by contemporaneously entering commands with the at least one eSports athlete on the human-computer interface.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions are further configured for storing results of the comparing in at least one database associated with the at least one server.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the evaluating further includes digital streaming of results of the comparison of the first set of data and the second set of data to at least one client device receiving data associated with the eSports event.

11. A system for electronically facilitating the immersion of spectators in an eSports event wherein the eSports event comprises operation of a multiplayer electronic computer game wherein a primary aspect of the computer game is an analysis of user gaming entries entered onto a human-computer interfaces of a computer gaming system, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, the computer-usable medium capable of communicating with the at least one processor, the computer program code comprising instructions executable by the at least one processor and configured for;

monitoring a live multiplayer computer game;

storing in at least one server associated with the eSports event a first set of data associated with the eSports event, the first set of data including digital video and plays associated with at least one eSports athlete of the eSports event, wherein the plays associated with the at least one eSports athlete are provided by the at least one eSports athlete through at least one human-computer interface associated with the at least one eSports athlete;

storing in the at least one server a second set of data associated with and electronically provided by action of a spectator-participant of the eSports event entered as plays of the spectator-participant into the system contemporaneously with the plays of the at least one eSports athlete, wherein the plays of the spectator-participant are provided by the spectator-participant through at least one human-computer interface associated with the spectator-participant; and

evaluating the first set of data and the second set of data, wherein results of the evaluating include a comparison of the plays of the spectator-participant with respect to the plays associated with the at least one eSports athlete to render data indicative of performance rankings of the spectator-participant of the eSports event with respect to a performance of the at least one eSports athlete.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

image-processing the digital video so as to transform the digital video associated with the eSports event into a digital format suitable for display of the digital video in a first display area of a graphical user interface of at least one electronic video gaming system; and

simultaneously displaying data associated with the at least one spectator-participant in a second display area of the graphical user interface of the at least one electronic video gaming system as the at least one spectator-participant is competing in the multiplayer computer game with at least one eSports athlete by contemporaneously entering commands with the at least one eSports athlete on the at least one respective human-computer interface.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions are further configured for storing results of the multiplayer computer game in at least one database associated with the at least one server.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions configured for evaluating further includes intstructions further configured for digital streaming of results of the comparison of the first set of data and the second set of data to at least one client device receiving data associated with the eSports event.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions are further configured for permitting at least one spectator to wager on an outcome of the performance through a mobile device.