Instrument Game System and Method

• US 20080200224A1
• Filed: 10/01/2007
• Published: 08/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Ubisoft Entertainment S.A.
• Original Assignee: Gametank, Inc.
• Inventors: Parks, Jakob
• Application Number:
  US11/865,681
• Publication Number:
  US 20080200224A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/7
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/44 involving timing of operations, e.g. performing an action within a time slot
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/46 Computing the game score
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/814 Musical performances, e.g. by evaluating the player's ability to follow a notation
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1062 being specially adapted to a type of game, e.g. steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/61 Score computation
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/638 according to the timing of operation or a time limit
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8047 Music games
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/368 displaying animated or moving pictures synchronized with the music or audio part
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/091 for performance evaluation, i.e. judging, grading or scoring the musical qualities or faithfulness of a performance, e.g. with respect to pitch, tempo or other timings of a reference performance
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/015 Musical staff, tablature or score displays, e.g. for score reading during a performance. graphical musical score editing G10H2220/121; musical score displays resulting from a transcription G10H2210/086
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/151 Musical difficulty level setting or selection

Abstract

A game system and method that uses an instrument as an input encourages a user to play along with the game'"'"'s soundtrack on an instrument (e.g. guitar, bass, etc.). The game cues the player to play notes and/or chords on the instrument at an appropriate time and then data is collected from the instrument via a connection between the instrument and the apparatus running the game. The game then scores the user based on note/chord and timing information it receives.

Claims

1. A method for evaluating a live instrument performance, comprising:

providing a set of arrangement performance data, the set of arrangement performance data further comprising a plurality of arrangement data points wherein each arrangement data point further comprises a note and a time tag associated with each note;

receiving a sequence of live instrument performance data points, wherein each live instrument performance data point has a note and a time tag;

determining, for a particular arrangement data point having a particular arrangement note and a particular arrangement time tag, if any live instrument performance data points in the plurality of live instrument performance data points have a note equal to the particular arrangement note and a time tag that is within a time window around the particular arrangement time tag that identifies matching live performance data points; and

scoring, if there are the matching live performance data points, the live instrument performance by comparing the notes and time tags of the matching live instrument performance data points with the particular note and particular time tag of the particular arrangement data point.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein scoring the live instrument performance further comprises scoring negatively the live instrument performance if no live instrument performance data point has a note equal to the particular arrangement note or a time tag that is within a time window around the particular arrangement time tag.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the live instrument performance further comprises a live stringed instrument performance.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the instrument further comprises a guitar, a bass, violin, a banjo, a piano, a voice, a clarinet or a steel drum.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining a periodicity component from the sequence of live instrument performance data points, converting the periodicity component to a frequency component, and converting the frequency component into a value representative of a note in the live instrument performance.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein scoring the live instrument performance further comprises comparing a time difference between the particular arrangement time tag and the time tag of the live instrument performance data point to generate a time difference value.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each arrangement data point further comprises a first time window around the particular time tag and a second time window around the particular time tag longer than the first time window, and wherein scoring the live musical performance further comprises assigning a first score if the live instrument performance note matches the particular note and the live instrument performance time tag is within the first time window and assigning a second score that is lower than the first score when the live instrument performance note matches the particular note and the live instrument performance time tag is within the second time window but not within the first time window.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the time window further comprises a time window whose time range is adjusted based on a difficulty level of the instrument performance data or a profile of a user performing the live instrument performance.

9. The method of claim 2 further comprising adjusting a note of one of the live instrument performance data points by one or more octaves, comparing the adjusted note to the particular arrangement data point note and scoring the live instrument performance positively if the adjusted note is equal to the particular arrangement note and not scoring the adjusted note if the adjusted note does not match the particular arrangement note.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the sequence of live instrument performance data points further comprises sampling a live instrument performance.

11. An apparatus for evaluating a live instrument performance, comprising:

a storage unit that stores a set of arrangement instrument performance data, the set of arrangement instrument performance data further comprising a plurality of arrangement data points wherein each arrangement data point further comprises a note and a time tag associated with each note;

a computing device coupled to the storage unit, the computing device having an instrument interface that is capable of receiving a sequence of live instrument performance data points, wherein each live instrument performance data point has a note and a time tag; and

the computing device further comprising a game unit having a scoring unit that determines, for a particular arrangement data point having a particular arrangement note and a particular arrangement time tag, if any live instrument performance data points in the plurality of live instrument performance data points have a note equal to the particular arrangement note and a time tag that is within a time window around the particular arrangement time tag that identifies matching live performance data points, and that scores, if there are matching live performance data points, the live instrument performance by comparing the notes and time tags of the matching live instrument performance data points with the particular note and particular time tag of the particular arrangement data point.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the scoring unit negatively scores the live instrument performance if no live instrument performance data point has a note equal to the particular arrangement note or a time tag that is within a time window around the particular arrangement time tag.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the instrument further comprises a stringed instrument.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the instrument further comprises a guitar, a bass, violin, a banjo, a piano, a voice, a clarinet or a steel drum.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the scoring unit further comprises a time window unit that defines a first time window around the particular time tag and a second time window around the particular time tag longer than the first time window, and wherein scoring the live musical performance further comprises assigning a first score if the live instrument performance note matches the particular note and the live instrument performance time tag is within the first time window and assigning a second score that is lower than the first score when the live instrument performance note matches the particular note and the live instrument performance time tag is within the second time window but not within the first time window.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the instrument interface samples a user performance using the instrument.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the computing device further comprises a personal computer, a game console, a networked computer or a gaming apparatus.

18. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instruction which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the operations of:

providing a set of arrangement performance data, the set of arrangement performance data further comprising a plurality of arrangement data points wherein each arrangement data point further comprises a note and a time tag associated with each note;

receiving a sequence of live instrument performance data points, wherein each live instrument performance data point has a note and a time tag;

determining, for a particular arrangement data point having a particular arrangement note and a particular arrangement time tag, if any live instrument performance data points in the plurality of live instrument performance data points have a note equal to the particular arrangement note and a time tag that is within a time window around the particular arrangement time tag that identifies matching live performance data points; and

scoring, if there are the matching live performance data points, the live instrument performance by comparing the notes and time tags of the matching live instrument performance data points with the particular note and particular time tag of the particular arrangement data point.

19. A method for displaying the time and pitch cues to the player of a musical instrument performance, the method comprising:

providing a representation of a musical instrument having one or more elements;

providing a plurality of note symbols representing a musical instrument performance to be played by the player, each note symbol having a graphical symbol and a character within the graphical symbol that represents a position of the musical instrument to be played by the player to generate a particular note;

displaying the representation of a musical instrument having one or more elements and the plurality of note symbols traveling across the representation of the musical instrument; and

cueing the player to play the particular note when the note symbol associated with the particular note crosses an element of the representation of a musical instrument.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein each note symbol further comprises an alphanumeric symbol that specifies a chord associated with the particular pitch for the note symbol.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising displaying a score of the player.

22. The method of claim 19 further comprising displaying a performance meter that displays the performance of the player.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein displaying the representation further comprises displaying a user interface in which a vertical position of the note symbol represents a string of the musical instrument, a number inside of the note symbol corresponds to a fret of the musical instrument, and wherein cueing the player further comprises cueing the player, when an event of the note symbol traveling in a horizontal direction and crossing the graphical element occurs, to play the string represented by the vertical position of the note symbol and hold down the fret of the musical instrument indicated by the number inside of the note symbol.

24. A method for changing the difficulty of an instrument game, the method comprising:

providing an arrangement having a plurality of notes to be played by a player;

determining a level of difficulty of a game for a particular player; and

adjusting the difficulty of the arrangement by changing the numbers of notes in the arrangement to be played by the player based on the determined level of difficulty of the player.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein adjusting the difficulty further comprises increasing the difficulty of the arrangement by adding more notes in the arrangement to be played by the player and decreasing the difficulty of the arrangement by reducing a number of notes in the arrangement to be played by the player.