MULTI-INPUT GAME CONTROL MIXER

• US 20060264258A1
• Filed: 05/06/2006
• Published: 11/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Marks, Richard L., Zalewski, Gary M., Mao, Xiadong
• Granted Patent: US 7,918,733 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/36
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/213 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells A63F13/219, A63F13/655 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/215 comprising means for detecting acoustic signals, e.g. using a microphone
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/424 involving acoustic input signals, e.g. by using the results of pitch or rhythm extraction or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/428 involving motion or position input signals, e.g. signals representing the rotation of an input controller or a player's arm motions sensed by accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1006 having additional degrees of freedom
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1062 being specially adapted to a type of game, e.g. steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1081 Input via voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1087 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. a camera
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1093 using visible light
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/308 Details of the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6072 of an input signal, e.g. pitch and rhythm extraction, voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/042 by opto-electronic means

Abstract

Systems, methods and for analyzing game control input data are disclosed. A machine-readable medium having embodied thereon instructions for analyzing game control input data is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A system for analyzing game control input data, comprising:

an image analyzer configured to receive and analyze input data from an image capture device, the input control data;

an inertial analyzer configured to receive and analyze input data from an inertial sensor;

an acoustic analyzer configured to receive and analyze input data from an acoustic receiver; and

a mixer configured to receive analyzed input data from one or more of the inertial analyzer, the image analyzer and the acoustic analyzer and generate tracking information based information received from one or more of the image analyzer, the inertial analyzer and the acoustic analyzer.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a gesture recognizer, the gesture recognizer configured to associate at least one action in a game environment with one or more user actions based on the tracking information.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a game controller, wherein the game controller includes at least one inertial sensor operable coupled to the inertial analyzer and/or one or more light sources configured to provide one or more light signals and/or one or more acoustic signal generators.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the at least one inertial sensor includes at least one of an accelerometer or a gyroscope.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an image capture unit coupled to the image analyzer.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the image capture device includes a camera.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a microphone array operably coupled to the acoustic analyzer unit.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the mixer is further configured to assign one or more distribution values to analyzed input data received by the mixer from one or more of the inertial analyzer, the image analyzer and the acoustic analyzer.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the tracking information includes position and/or orientation information of a user-manipulable object.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the position and/or orientation information includes information indicative of at least one of pitch, yaw and roll of the user-manipulable object.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the position and/or orientation information includes information indicative of a position with respect to one or more coordinates.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the position and/or orientation information includes information indicative of a velocity with respect to one or more coordinates.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the position and/or orientation information includes information indicative of an acceleration with respect to one or more coordinates.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the user manipulable object is a controller for a video game system.

15. A method for analyzing game control input data, comprising:

receiving input control data from one or more input devices, the input control data associated with one or more user actions;

assigning a distribution value to the received input control data;

identifying at least one action in a game environment associated with the one or more user actions based on the distribution value assigned to the received input control data; and

executing the at least one action in the game environment.

16. A machine-readable medium having embodied thereon instructions for analyzing game control input data, the instructions comprising:

receiving input control data from one or more input devices, the input control data associated with one or more user actions;

assigning a distribution value to the received input control data;

identifying at least one action in a game environment associated with the one or more user actions based on the distribution value assigned to the received input control data; and

executing the at least one action in the game environment.