PHOTOGRAPHIC MAPPING IN A SIMULATION

• US 20080018667A1
• Filed: 07/18/2007
• Published: 01/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: World Golf Tour, Inc. (Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp.)
• Original Assignee: World Golf Tour, Inc. (Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp.)
• Inventors: Cheng, YuChiang, Nelson, Chad M., Castelnuovo, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,847,808 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/632
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/52 involving aspects of the displayed game scene
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/57 Simulating properties, behaviour or motion of objects in the game world, e.g. computing tyre load in a car race game A63F13/56 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/655 by importing photos, e.g. of the player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/812 Ball games, e.g. soccer or baseball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/64 for computing dynamical parameters of game objects, e.g. motion determination or computation of frictional forces for a virtual car
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/66 for rendering three dimensional images
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/69 Involving elements of the real world in the game world, e.g. measurement in live races, real video
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/695 Imported photos, e.g. of the player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8011 Ball
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00

Abstract

Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, for determining a location for a virtual object on a course terrain for a course. A photographic image of the course corresponding to the location is identified. The virtual object is incorporated in a presentation of the photographic image such that the virtual object appears in the photographic image.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining a location for a virtual object on or above a course terrain for a course;

identifying a photographic image of the course corresponding to the location; and

incorporating the virtual object in a presentation of the photographic image such that the virtual object appears in the photographic image.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, where determining the location includes simulating interaction of the virtual object with one or more portions of the course terrain.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising incorporating a visual representation of the interaction in the presentation of the photographic image.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising pre-fetching the photographic image based on a history associated with a user or a group of users.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising accepting user input to cause interaction of the virtual object with one or more portions of the course terrain.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, where the location is a first location and the photographic image is a first photographic image, the method further comprising:

in response to movement of the virtual object;

determining a second location for a virtual object on or above the course terrain for the course;

identifying a second photographic image of the course corresponding to the second location; and

incorporating the virtual object in a presentation of the second photographic image such that the virtual object appears in the second photographic image.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising incorporating the virtual object in a presentation of the photographic image such that the virtual object is animated in the photographic image.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising incorporating a visual effect into the presentation of the photographic image.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, where the course is one or more of:

a golf course, a baseball diamond, a track, a tennis court, one or more roadways, or open terrain.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, where the virtual object is one of:

a golf ball, a baseball, a tennis ball, an automobile, a bicycle, an animal, an avatar, a motorcycle, or a flying craft.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, where the photographic image is a composition of two or more photographs of the course.

15. A computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising altering the terrain to account for distortion in the photographic image.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising scaling the virtual object in the presentation of the photographic image.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, where:

the course terrain represents a three dimensional space and the photographic image is a two dimensional image; and

incorporating the virtual object into the presentation of the photographic image includes corresponding the location in the three dimensional space to a horizontal and vertical position in the two dimensional image.

7. The computer-implemented of method 1, where the location is a real-world location on the course.

8. The computer-implemented of method 1, further comprising incorporating an avatar or a piece of virtual equipment into the presentation of the photographic image.

14. The computer-implemented of method 1, where identifying the photographic image includes identifying a photograph from a plurality of photographs where a target location is nearest to the horizontal center of the photograph.

18. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining one or more potential locations for a virtual object on or above a course terrain for a course, the potential location based on a user history;

identifying a photographic image of the course corresponding to each potential location; and

obtaining each of the identified photographic images.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, further comprising incorporating the virtual object in a presentation of one of the obtained photographic images.

20. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

dividing a course into cells;

determining a target point for the course; and

determining camera parameters for each cell based on a size of the cell and the target point.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, further comprising generating a shot list based on the determined camera parameters.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, where dividing the course into cells further comprises altering cell density based on course features.

23. A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

determining a location for a virtual object on a course terrain for a course;

identifying a photographic image of the course corresponding to the location; and

incorporating the virtual object in a presentation of the photographic image such that the virtual object appears in the photographic image.

24. A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

determining one or more potential locations for a virtual object on a course terrain for a course, the potential location based on a user history;

identifying a photographic image of the course corresponding to each potential location; and

obtaining each of the identified photographic images.

25. A computer program product, encoded on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

dividing a course into cells;

determining a target point for the course; and

determining camera parameters for each cell based on a size of the cell and the target point.