METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OPERATING A SELF-PROPELLED VEHICLE ACCORDING TO SCENE IMAGES

• US 20110003640A9
• Filed: 01/13/2010
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meimadtek Limited
• Original Assignee: Meimadtek Limited
• Inventors: Ehrman, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 8,939,842 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/37
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2419 Optical
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2435 using a video camera
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1093 using visible light
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 7/0058 electric A63F7/027, A63F7/3065 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 7/0664 Electric
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 30/04 using wireless transmission

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a robotic system including one or more self-propelled motorized vehicles 120 (SPMV) whose motion is controlled in accordance with electronic image data acquired by one or more observing camera(s) 110 configured to image a scene including the SPMV 120. In some embodiments, the SPMV includes one or more on-board lights 124, and the SPMV is operated according to analyzing images acquired by the observing camera before and after an illumination transition of one or more of the point-lights. Some embodiments relate techniques to computer gaming and/or to stereoscopic image processing techniques.

Claims

1. ) A gaming system for providing a gaming service to a user 102, the gaming system comprising:

a. electronic control circuitry 130;

b. a user-directly-controlled self-propelled motorized vehicle (SPMV) 120U operative to move responsively to wirelessly-received user-generated direct commands provided by mechanical motion and/or brainwaves of the user 102;

c. an array of one or more cameras 110 configured to generate an electronic image a scene including the user-directly-controlled SPMV; and

d. a computer-directly-controlled SPMV 120C operative to move responsively to computer-generated direct commands that generated by the electronic control circuitry 130 in accordance with;

i) one or more game objectives; and

ii) a position and/orientation, within the electronic image of the scene, of the user-directly-controlled SPMV 120U.

2. ) The system of claim 1 wherein the electronic control circuitry 130 generates commands to control translational or rotational movement of computer-directly-controlled SPMV 120C in accordance with at least one of:

i) a distance between computer-directly-controlled SPMV 120C and/or user-directly-controlled SPMV 120U and a foreign object as determined in accordance with a Euclidian scene reconstruction of the electronic scene image;

ii) historical and/or present and/or predicted future contents of a Euclidian world description data structure 244 as determined in accordance with a Euclidian scene reconstruction of the electronic scene image; and

iii) historical and/or present and/or predicted contents of a game world description data structure 246.

3. ) The system of claim 1 wherein the electronic control circuitry 130 includes game strategy circuitry 170 for enforcing one or more of the one or more of the game objectives.

4. ) The gaming system of claim 1 wherein the electronic control circuitry 130 is operative to:

i) detect the user-generated direct commands according to mechanical motion of a user control device 104 or according to a detected gesture of the user 102 or a portion thereof; and

ii) wirelessly transmit the detected commands to the user-directly-controlled SPMV 120U.

5. ) The gaming system of claim 4 wherein the user control device 104 is selected from the group consisting of a joystick, a mouse, a keyboard, and an accelerometer.

6. ) The gaming system of claim 1 wherein the electronic control circuitry is operative to generate the computer-generated direct commands for controlling the computer-directly-controlled SPMV in accordance with game rules of and/or strategy directives for a game selected from the group consisting of:

a) a shooting game;

b) a ball game; and

c) a hand-to-hand combat game.

7. ) The gaming system of claim 1 wherein the control electronic circuitry is operative to generate the computer-generated direct commands in accordance with a measured Euclidian distance within the electronic image of the scene between the user-directly-controlled SPMV and foreign object in the scene.

8. ) The gaming system of claim 1 wherein at least one gaming objective is selected from the group consisting of:

a) an objective to score or a goal with a ball or puck;

b) an objective to block a goal from being scored with a ball or puck;

c) an objective to score or prevent a touchdown or field goal;

d) an objective to score a hit against combat game vehicle with a projectile or abeam of light;

e) an objective to reduce a probability of a hit being scored against a combat game vehicle with a projectile or a beam of light.

f) an objective to move or grab a game prop with computer SPMV 120C is the game prop is grabbed by user SPMV 120U.

9. ) A method of controlling a self-propelled motorized vehicle (SPMV) 120 including one or more onboard lights 124 operative to effect an illumination transition that modifies brightness and/or color of one or more of the onboard lights 124, the method comprising:

a) obtaining a time series of images of a scene including the SPMV 120;

b) determining a Euclidian location of the SPMV according to the illumination transition as described by the image time series; and

c) controlling rotational and/or translational movement of the SPMV or a portion thereof according to the determined Euclidian location.

11. ) The method of claim 9 wherein the Euclidian location of the SPMV is determined primarily by analyzing one or more image(s) of the image time series.

12. ) The method of claim 9 wherein the controlling of the rotational and/or translational movement of the SPMV is carried out according to the combination of:

i) the Euclidian location of the onboard light(s); and

ii) other information derivable from one or more electronic images acquired by the camera 110.

13. ) The method of claim 12 wherein the other information describes one or more foreign objects in the scene.

14. ) The method of claim 13 wherein the foreign object information is selected from the group consisting of color information for the foreign object, surface texture information for the foreign object, and motion information describing translational or rotational motion of the foreign object. Changes in position or status of the foreign object.

15. ) The method of claim 9 wherein the controlling of the rotational and/or translational movement of the SPMV is carried out according to the combination of:

i) the Euclidian location of the onboard light(s); and

ii) information that is a Euclidian description of a real or virtual boundary in the scene.

16. ) The method of claim 9 wherein the controlling of the rotational and/or translational movement of the SPMV is carried out according to the combination of:

i) the Euclidian location of the onboard light(s); and

ii) a stereoscopic description of the scene obtained by analyzing images from multiple observing cameras that view the scene.

one or more onboard lights 124 operative to effect an illumination transition that modifies brightness and/or color of one more of the onboard lights 124

b) an observing camera 110 operative to acquire a time series of images of a scene including the SPMV 120; and

c) electronic circuitry operative to;

i) determine a real-world location of the SPMV according to the illumination transition as described by the image time series and according to camera calibration data for the observing camera that relates pixel-image locations to real-world locations; and

ii) control rotational and/or translational movement of the SPMV or a portion thereof according to the determined real-world location of the SPMV.

10. ) A method of operating a self-propelled motorized vehicle (SPMV) 120 in accordance with camera calibration data of an electronic camera 110, the camera calibration data relating pixel-image locations to real-world locations, the SPMV including one or more onboard lights 124 the method comprising:

a) electronically controlling the onboard light(s) 124 of the SPMV 120 to induce an illumination transition that modifies brightness and/or color of one more of the onboard lights 124;

b) comparing first and second electronic images acquired by the camera, the first image being a pre-transition electronic image IMG_PRE describing the SPMV 120 before the illumination transition and the second electronic image being a post-transition electronic image IMG_POST describing the SPMV 120 after the illumination transition; and

c) in accordance with results of the comparing, electronically controlling rotational and/or translational movement of the SPMV or a portion thereof.