SYNTHETIC ENVIRONMENT BROADCASTING

• US 20100304869A1
• Filed: 03/02/2010
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Trion World ABC LLC
• Original Assignee: Trion World Network, Inc.
• Inventors: Lee, Robert Ernest, Giarrusso, Jean M., Turner, Erin, Huang, Peter Chi-Hao
• Application Number:
  US12/716,250
• Publication Number:
  US 20100304869A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• 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 13/26 having at least one additional display device, e.g. on the game controller or outside a game booth
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/338 using television networks
• 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 13/355 Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/49 Saving the game status; Pausing or ending the game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/71 using secure communication between game devices and game servers, e.g. by encrypting game data or authenticating players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/209 characterized by low level software layer, relating to hardware management, e.g. Operating System, Application Programming Interface
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/409 Data transfer via television network
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering

Abstract

Synthetic environment broadcasting is described, including receiving an input from a client indicating a request to retrieve data associated with a synthetic environment, using an emulated game client to capture data in a first display perspective associated with the synthetic environment, graphically encoding the data captured by the emulated game client using a graphics engine, the data being encoded into a graphical format, transmitting the data from the graphics engine to a video encoding server, broadcasting the data after being encoded by the video encoding server to the client in response to the request, the data being broadcast in substantially real-time by the video encoding server, and presenting the data being broadcast on the client, wherein the data is rendered on the client in a second display perspective that is substantially similar to the first display perspective.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving an input from a client indicating a request to retrieve data associated with a synthetic environment;

using an emulated game client to capture data in a first display perspective associated with the synthetic environment;

graphically encoding the data captured by the emulated game client using a graphics engine, the data being encoded into a graphical format;

transmitting the data from the graphics engine to a video encoding server;

broadcasting the data after being encoded by the video encoding server to the client in response to the request, the data being broadcast in substantially real-time by the video encoding server; and

presenting the data being broadcast on the client, wherein the data is rendered on the client in a second display perspective that is substantially similar to the first display perspective.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises video data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data comprises audio data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical format comprises one or more parameters.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the one or more parameters comprises pitch.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the one or more parameters comprises roll.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the one or more parameters comprises yaw.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the one or more parameters indicates a Cartesian coordinate.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein substantially real-time is equal to 15 seconds or less.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first display perspective is similar to the second display perspective.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein broadcasting the data further comprises streaming a video feed to the client in substantially real-time.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the emulated game client is a camera script configured to capture video data associated with the synthetic environment.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the emulated game client is configured to identify video data to be encoded, the video data being associated with a synthetic environment.

14. A method, comprising:

receiving an input from a client indicating a request to retrieve world data associated with a synthetic environment;

using a camera script instantiated on a first server to capture the world data in a first display perspective associated with the synthetic environment;

recording one or more parameters associated with the first display perspective;

graphically encoding the world data captured by the camera script using a graphics engine;

transmitting the world data from the graphics engine to a video encoding server;

broadcasting the world data after being encoded by the video encoding server to the client in response to the request, the world data being broadcast in substantially real-time by the video encoding server; and

using the one or more parameters associated with the first display perspective to present the world data being broadcast on the client, wherein the one or more parameters are used to present the world data on the client in a second display perspective that is substantially similar to the first display perspective.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the request is associated with an event occurring within the synthetic environment.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the emulated game client is hosted on a server.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the video encoding server comprises a file server.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing one or more interactive controls.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the one or more interactive controls is play.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the one or more interactive controls is pause.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the one or more interactive controls is stop.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one of the one or more interactive controls is record.

23. The method of claim 14, wherein transmitting the data from the encoding engine to a video encoding server is performed using an application programming interface.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the application programming interface is a video encoding standard application programming interface.

25. A system, comprising:

a memory configured to store data associated with a synthetic environment; and

a processor configured to receive an input from a client indicating a request to retrieve the data associated with the synthetic environment, to use an emulated game client to capture data in a first display perspective associated with the synthetic environment, to graphically encode the data captured by the emulated game client using a graphics engine, the data being encoded into a graphical format, to transmit the data from the graphics engine to a video encoding server, to broadcast the data after being encoded by the video encoding server to the client in response to the request, the data being broadcast in substantially real-time by the video encoding server, and to present the data being broadcast on the client, wherein the data is rendered on the client in a second display perspective that is substantially similar to the first display perspective.

26. A system, comprising:

a database configured to store world data associated with a synthetic environment;

a game server configured to receive an input from a client indicating a request to retrieve the world data associated with the synthetic environment;

a camera script instantiated on a first server and configured to capture the world data in a first display perspective associated with the synthetic environment, the camera script being configured to also record one or more parameters associated with the first display perspective;

a graphics engine configured to graphically encoding the world data captured by the camera script, the graphics engine being configured to transmit the world data from the graphics engine to a video encoding server;

a video encoding server being configured to broadcast the world data in response to the request, the world data being broadcast in substantially real-time by the video encoding server; and

a client configured to use the one or more parameters associated with the first display perspective to present the world data being broadcast on the client, wherein the one or more parameters are used to present the world data on the client in a second display perspective that is substantially similar to the first display perspective.

27. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving an input from a client indicating a request to retrieve data associated with a synthetic environment;

using an emulated game client to capture data in a first display perspective associated with the synthetic environment;

graphically encoding the data captured by the emulated game client using a graphics engine, the data being encoded into a graphical format;

transmitting the data from the graphics engine to a video encoding server;

broadcasting the data after being encoded by the video encoding server to the client in response to the request, the data being broadcast in substantially real-time by the video encoding server; and

presenting the data being broadcast on the client, wherein the data is rendered on the client in a second display perspective that is substantially similar to the first display perspective.

28. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving an input from a client indicating a request to retrieve world data associated with a synthetic environment;

using a camera script instantiated on a first server to capture the world data in a first display perspective associated with the synthetic environment;

recording one or more parameters associated with the first display perspective;

graphically encoding the world data captured by the camera script using a graphics engine;

transmitting the world data from the graphics engine to a video encoding server;

broadcasting the world data after being encoded by the video encoding server to the client in response to the request, the world data being broadcast in substantially real-time by the video encoding server; and

using the one or more parameters associated with the first display perspective to present the world data being broadcast on the client, wherein the one or more parameters are used to present the world data on the client in a second display perspective that is substantially similar to the first display perspective.