Interactive Device For Video Games

• US 20080286733A1
• Filed: 10/18/2006
• Published: 11/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Will International Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Will International Ltd.
• Inventors: Claudel, Frederic, Nicolas, Frederic
• Application Number:
  US12/091,009
• Publication Number:
  US 20080286733A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 434/251
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 69/002 for football American-football dummies A63B69/34
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/218 using pressure sensors, e.g. generating a signal proportional to the pressure applied by the player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/245 specially adapted to a particular type of game, e.g. steering wheels
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/42 by mapping the input signals into game commands, e.g. mapping the displacement of a stylus on a touch screen to the steering angle of a virtual vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/812 Ball games, e.g. soccer or baseball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1056 involving pressure sensitive buttons
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1062 being specially adapted to a type of game, e.g. steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8011 Ball

Abstract

The invention concerns a device for interactive football practice combined with an imaging and sound system constituting the football programme to be followed by a player, comprising an object relatively fixed to the ground (I), of spherical shape which the player can kick, and various means for determining the types of kicks practised by the player and the intensity thereof.

Claims

1. Device for interactive football (soccer) practice combined with an imaging and sound system constituting a football program operating on a digital processing unit,

characterised in that it comprises a Ball (1) relatively fixed to the floor, with a shape and consistency resembling those of a football, sensors showing the existence and location on the surface of the Ball of a kick applied to said Ball, quantifying the intensity of said kick on said Ball and the length of travel of the leg of the user kicking said Ball and a module transforming the information supplied by these sensors into command signals sent to the digital processing unit to which the device according to the invention is connected.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterised in that the Ball is connected to a base resting on the floor by an element providing a flexible, semi-rigid link between the Ball and the base.

3. Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that the module is arranged to calculate one or more command signals according to information provided by the sensors of the device when a kick is applied to the Ball and the internal consistency of this information, and then to transmit the signal or signals to the digital processing unit.

4. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the information spectra of the sensors are divided into categories which have sets of signals of the football program associated with them and in that, in order to determine the signal or signals to be sent, the module of the device according to the invention proceeds by intersecting the sets associated with the categories to which the information supplied by the sensors belongs.

5. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the means indicating whether a force is exerted on the Ball as well as the area for detecting said force on the surface of the Ball consist of at least three impact or acceleration sensors arranged at the centre of the Ball so that the information they supply allows the force exerted on the surface of the ball to be reconstructed as a vector.

6. Device according to the preceding claim, characterised in that the surface of the Ball (1) has four areas (2), (3), (4) and (5) for locating the application of the force exerted on the Ball and that these areas are independent and divide the surface of the Ball (1).

7. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the area for locating the force exerted on the Ball is sensed by sensors measuring the tilt of the Ball in relation to its vertical axis.

8. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the means indicating the trajectory of the leg that kicked the Ball consist of one or more light-ray emitters placed behind the player and one or more light-ray receivers placed opposite said emitters, signalling an interruption of their light rays, mainly caused by the player'"'"'s leg passing through them according to its amplitude of movement.

9. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the means quantifying the intensity of the kick of the player'"'"'s foot on the Ball consist of one or more impact or vibration sensors (22) placed in the Ball.

10. Device according to any one of the claims from 1 to 8, characterised in that the means quantifying the intensity of the kick of the player'"'"'s foot on the Ball and identifying the area where said force is located on the Ball consist of one or more sensors which respond in accordance with the pressure applied to them, placed around the vertical axis of the Ball, on a surface pressed by the Ball when the latter is tilted due to a force exerted on it.

11. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the module is arranged to transmit the signal triggered by kicking the Ball for a time depending on the intensity of the kick exerted on the Ball.

12. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the module is arranged to assess a “

time for pressing a force on the Ball”

, assessed as a period longer than a minimum time during which the sensors for detecting a force exerted on the Ball were activated uninterruptedly.

13. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the module is arranged to take into account, when creating command signals based on sensor information, the consistency between the length of the trajectory of the leg that kicked the Ball and the intensity of the kick on the Ball and, in the event of inconsistency, the module is arranged to transmit a signal corresponding to a feint in the football program.

14. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the module is arranged to transmit a signal to the digital processing unit connected to the device when the force triggering the emission of said signal is exerted on the Ball.

15. Device according to claims 12, 13 or 14, characterised in that the module is arranged to transmit specific signal to the digital processing unit a when a pressure is exerted on the Ball, a signal which can be different from the signal of the kick initiating said pressure.

16. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the Ball is attached to a mat (11) equipped with pressure-sensitive surfaces which the player can press with his/her feet in order to send additional signals to the football program.

17. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the device is completed by a Handle (16) equipped with various buttons sending signals to the digital processing unit connected to the device.

18. Device according to the preceding claim, characterised in that the activation of one or more buttons of the Handle (16) modifies the signal sent to the digital processing unit due to an action performed on the Ball.

19. Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the device has a connector by means of which the player can connect a gamepad of the digital processing unit to the device according to the invention, all or part of the signals of which can be sent to the digital processing unit connected to the device.