Contextually accurate dialogue modeling in an online environment

• US 20040147324A1
• Filed: 10/29/2003
• Published: 07/29/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Geoffrey Parker Brown
• Original Assignee: Geoffrey Parker Brown
• Inventors: Brown, Geoffrey Parker
• Granted Patent: US 7,329,188 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/47 involving branching, e.g. choosing one of several possible scenarios at a given point in time
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/54 involving acoustic signals, e.g. for simulating revolutions per minute [RPM] dependent engine sounds in a driving game or reverberation against a virtual wall
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/63 by the player, e.g. authoring using a level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/67 adaptively or by learning from player actions, e.g. skill level adjustment or by storing successful combat sequences for re-use
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/79 involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/822 Strategy games; Role-playing games A63F13/825, A63F13/828 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/204 the platform being a handheld device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/208 for storing personal settings or data of the player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/513 server hierarchy, e.g. local, regional, national or dedicated for different tasks, e.g. authenticating, billing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5546 using player registration data, e.g. identification, account, preferences, game history
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6018 where the game content is authored by the player, e.g. level editor or by game device at runtime, e.g. level is created from music data on CD
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6027 using adaptive systems learning from user actions, e.g. for skill level adjustment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6081 generating an output signal, e.g. under timing constraints, for spatialization
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/632 by branching, e.g. choosing one of several possible story developments at a given point in time
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/807 Role playing or strategy games

Abstract

An interactive gaming system is described in which characters are generated and controlled to model human behavior in an accurate manner. The behaviors of the characters are contextually accurate because the behaviors adapt to accurately reflect the attitudes of the characters toward the user. A database stores relationship data representing the attitudes of the characters. A gaming engine executing on a computer is coupled to the database and receives input representing the user'"'"'s interaction with the character and updates the relationship data. The gaming engine generates media for display to the user based on the relationship data. The media may include text-based dialogue, digital photographs of the character, video, audio and the like. The database stores data defining one or more behavior patterns by which the gaming engine dynamically generates the gaming environment and controls the character so as to model human nature.

Claims

1. A method for modeling a two-way conversation between a computer-based character and a user, the method comprising:

storing situation data that defines a set of situation tags and associated situation text, wherein the situation tags represent situations that describe contexts in which the user interacts with the character;

storing character data that defines a set of character tags and associated character text, wherein the character tags define a set of computer-based characters;

storing a behavior pattern that defines a conversation between the user and the character, wherein the behavior pattern is represented as a set of linked frames that specify respective text-based dialogue between the character and the user, wherein the text-based dialogue includes embedded media tags selected from the situation tags and the character tags; and

modeling a two-way conversation between the user and the character within the online environment by merging the text-based dialogue specified by the frames with the situation text and the character text in accordance with the media tags defined within the frames.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising

storing the behavior pattern as one of a set of behavior patterns;

wherein generating a two-way conversation comprises;

selecting one of the situations, one of the characters and one of the behavior patterns; and

modeling the two-way conversation by merging the text-based dialogue specified by the frames of the selected behavior pattern with the situation text of the selected situation and the character text of the selected character.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the text-based dialog of each of the frames defines:

(a) text-based dialogue to present to the user from the character, and (b) response dialogue from the user to the character.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein modeling the two-way conversation further comprises:

selecting a current one of the frames of the behavior pattern

presenting the text-based dialogue from the character to the user; and

presenting the response dialogue from a plurality of the frames to the user for selection as a plurality of choices.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein modeling the two-way conversation further comprises:

receiving a selection from the user in response to the response dialogue from the plurality of the frames,

selecting a new current frame of the behavior pattern based on the selection.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the frames of the behavior pattern comprises a set of fixed pointers to other frames within the behavior pattern, and generating a two-way conversation comprises traversing the pointers of the linked frames based on the selection received from the user at each of the frames.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

storing the behavior pattern as one of a set of behavior patterns, wherein each of the behavior patterns define a series of interactions during which the computer-based character interacts with the user in accordance with a consistent attitude toward the user;

updating a set of relationship variables based on the selection, wherein the relationship variables represent the character'"'"'s attitude toward the user by the computer-based character; and

selecting a second behavior pattern for the character as a function of the updated relationship variables when the first behavior pattern has been traversed.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising

storing character-specific media of the computer-based character;

and

displaying character-specific media with the dialogue generated for each frame of the modeled conversation.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the character-specific media comprises a set of photographs associated with the computer-based character.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting the modeled conversation to the user via a computer network.

11. A computer-readable medium comprising instruction to cause a computer to model a two-way conversation between a computer-based character and a user by:

storing situation data that defines a set of situation tags and associated situation text, wherein the situation tags represent situations that describe contexts in which the user interacts with the character;

storing character data that defines a set of character tags and associated character text, wherein the character tags define a set of computer-based characters;

storing a behavior pattern that defines a conversation between the user and the character, wherein the behavior pattern is represented as a set of linked frames that specify respective text-based dialogue between the character and the user, wherein the text-based dialogue includes embedded media tags selected from the situation tags and the character tags; and

modeling a two-way conversation between the user and the character within the online environment by merging the text-based dialogue specified by the frames with the situation text and the character text in accordance with the media tags defined within the frames.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions to cause the processor to model the two-way conversation by:

storing the behavior pattern as one of a set of behavior patterns, and

wherein generating a two-way conversation comprises;

selecting one of the situations, one of the characters and one of the behavior patterns; and

modeling the two-way conversation by merging the text-based dialogue specified by the frames of the selected behavior pattern with the situation text of the selected situation and the character text of the selected character.

13. A system comprising:

a database to store;

(a) situation data that defines a set of situation tags and associated situation text, wherein the situation tags represent situations that describe contexts in which the user interacts with the character,

(b) character data that defines a set of character tags and associated character text, wherein the character tags define a set of computer-based characters, and

(c) a behavior pattern that defines a conversation between the user and the character, wherein the behavior pattern is represented as a set of linked frames that specify respective text-based dialogue between the character and the user, wherein the text-based dialogue includes embedded media tags selected from the situation tags and the character tags;

a computer coupled to the database; and

a software engine executing on the computer, wherein the software engine models a two-way conversation between a user and a character by merging the text-based dialogue specified by the frames with the situation text and the character text in accordance with the media tags defined within the frames.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a client device, wherein the computer communicates the modeled conversation to the client device via a computer network for presentment to the user.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the database stores the behavior pattern as one of a set of behavior patterns, and the software engine generates the two-way conversation by:

selecting one of the situations, one of the characters and one of the behavior patterns from the database; and

merging the text-based dialogue specified by the frames of the selected behavior pattern with the situation text of the selected situation and the character text of the selected character.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the text-based dialog of each of the frames defines:

(a) text-based dialogue to present to the user from the character, and (b) response dialogue from the user to the character.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the software engine selects a current one of the frames of the behavior pattern, presents the text-based dialogue from the character to the user, and presents the response dialogue from a plurality of the frames to the user for selection as a plurality of choices.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the software engine receives a selection from the user in response to the response dialogue from the plurality of the frames, and selects a new current frame of the behavior model based on the selection.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the database stores each of the frames of the behavior pattern to include a set of fixed pointers to other frames within the behavior pattern, and the software engine generates the two-way conversation by traversing the pointers of the linked frames based on the selection received from the user at each of the frames.

20. The system of claim 13,

wherein the database stores the behavior pattern as one of a set of behavior patterns, wherein each of the behavior patterns define a series of interactions during which the computer-based character interacts with the user in accordance with a consistent attitude toward the user, and

wherein the software engine updates a set of relationship variables based on the selection, wherein the relationship variables represent the character'"'"'s attitude toward the user by the computer-based character, and selects a second behavior pattern for the character as a functions of the updated relationship variables when the first behavior pattern has been traversed.