CONTROLLER FOR PROVIDING INPUTS TO CONTROL EXECUTION OF A PROGRAM WHEN INPUTS ARE COMBINED

• US 20110118031A1
• Filed: 12/21/2010
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Marks, Richard L., Zalewski, Gary M., Mao, Xiadong
• Granted Patent: US 8,303,405 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/37
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/215 comprising means for detecting acoustic signals, e.g. using a microphone
• 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 13/42 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 2300/1018 Calibration; Key and button assignment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1056 involving pressure sensitive buttons
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1081 Input via voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1093 using visible light
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0383 Signal control means within the pointing device
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/455 Camera input, e.g. analyzing pictures from a video camera and using the analysis results as control data
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/23 Direction finding using a sum-delay beam-former
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A controller provides inputs to control execution of a program by combining controller input information and supplementary information indicating a three-dimensional motion of the controller. The combined input can be obtained by assigning the value of the controller input information as coarse control information and assigning the value of the supplementary input information as fine control information or vice versa.

Claims

1. A controller for controlling execution of a program, comprising:

a source of controller input information from a user-manipulable controller, the controller input information including information for identifying a current state of a user-movable switch or control stick on the controller;

a source of supplementary input information from the controller, wherein the supplementary input information includes information indicating a three-dimensional motion of the controller; and

wherein the controller input information and supplementary input information are configured to be combined to obtain a combined input for controlling the execution of the program by processing the controller input information and the supplementary input information to yield the combined input, wherein the combined input is obtained by assigning the value of the controller input information as coarse control information and assigning the value of the supplementary input information as fine control information or vice versa.

2. The controller of claim 1, wherein the controller input information and the supplementary input information are configured such that the combined input includes merged input for controlling a function during execution of the program, and at least some of the merged input is obtained by merging the controller input information relative to the function and the supplementary input information relative to the function.

3. The controller of claim 2, wherein the merging is performed by averaging a value representative of the controller input information with a value representative of the supplementary input information.

4. The controller of claim 3, wherein the value of the controller input information is averaged in a one-to-one ratio with the value of the supplementary input information.

5. The controller of claim 3, wherein the controller input information and the supplementary input information are each assigned different weights and the step of averaging is performed as a weighted average of the values of controller input information and supplementary input information in accordance with the assigned weights.

6. The controller of claim 1, wherein a value of a first one of the controller input information or the supplementary input information is configured to be used as modifying input to the program for modifying control over a still active function activated in accordance with at least one of a second one of the controller input information or the supplementary input information.

7. The controller of claim 1, wherein the source of supplementary information includes an LED light source and a diffuser on the controller, wherein the diffuser is configured to diffuse light from the light source and wherein the supplementary input information is derived from a diffuse image of the LED light source within an image obtained from an image capture device.

8. The controller of claim 1, wherein the supplementary input information further includes at least one of inertial sensor information obtained by operation of an inertial sensor or orientation information representative of an orientation of a user-movable object.

9. The controller of claim 8, wherein the inertial sensor is mounted to the controller and the inertial sensor includes at least one of an accelerometer or a gyroscope.

10. The controller of claim 1, wherein the supplementary input information includes information indicative of at least one of a position or an orientation of a user-movable object.

11. The controller of claim 10, wherein the user-movable object includes at least one of the controller or an article mounted to a body of the controller and the supplementary input information includes information indicative of an orientation of the user-movable object.

12. The controller of claim 10, wherein the supplementary input information includes information indicative of at least one of pitch, yaw or roll.

13. The controller of claim 12, wherein the supplementary input information includes information indicative of pitch, yaw and roll.

14. The controller of claim 10, wherein the combined input is obtained by merging a value of controller input information representative of a state of the switch or control stick with a value of the supplementary input information representative of the orientation of the user-movable object.

15. The controller of claim 14, wherein the combined input reflects an enhanced pitch up input when the control stick is moved backward while the pitch is increased to a positive (nose-up) value.

16. The controller of claim 15, wherein the combined input reflects an enhanced pitch down input when the control stick is moved forward while the pitch is decreased to a negative (nose-down) value.

17. The controller of claim 14, wherein the combined input is representative of the value of the coarse control information as adjusted a relatively small amount in accordance with the fine control information.

18. The controller of claim 14, wherein the combined input is obtained by assigning the value of the controller input information identifying whether the switch or control stick on the controller is active as coarse control information and assigning the value of the supplementary input information representative of the orientation of the user-movable object as fine control information, wherein the combined input is representative of the value of the coarse control information as adjusted a relatively small amount in accordance with the fine control information.

19. The controller of claim 14, wherein the controller input information and the supplementary information are configured such that the combined input is obtained by assigning the value of the controller input information identifying whether the switch or control stick on the controller is active as fine control information and assigning the value of the supplementary input information representative of the orientation of the user-movable object as coarse control information, wherein the combined input is representative of the value of the coarse control information as adjusted a relatively small amount in accordance with the fine control information.

20. The controller of claim 1, wherein the controller input information and the supplementary information are configured such that the combined input is obtained by additively combining a value represented by the controller input information with a value represented by the supplementary input information such that the combined input presents a signal having a higher value to the program than either of the values of the controller input information or the supplementary input information taken alone.

21. The controller of claim 1, wherein the controller input information and the supplementary information are configured such that the combined input is obtained by subtractively combining a value represented by the controller input information with a value represented by the supplementary input information such that the combined input presents a signal having a lower value to the program than either of the values of the controller input information or the supplementary input information taken alone.

22. The controller of claim 1, wherein the controller input information and the supplementary information are configured such that the combined input presents a signal having a smoothed value to the program, the smoothed value signal being subject to change more slowly with time than either of the values of the controller input information or the supplementary input information taken alone.

23. The controller of claim 1, wherein the controller input information and the supplementary information are configured such that the combined input presents a high definition signal having increased signal content to the program, the high definition signal being subject to change more rapidly with time than either of the values of the controller input information or the supplementary input information taken alone.

24. The controller of claim 1, wherein the supplementary input information includes acoustic information obtained from an acoustic transducer in the environment in response to sounds emitted from a sound source on the controller.

25. The controller of claim 1, wherein the controller input information includes information identifying whether a pressure-sensitive button is activated.

26. The controller of claim 1, wherein the supplementary input information includes at least one of:

i) information obtained from an image capture device in the environment, ii) information from an inertial sensor associated with at least one of the controller or the user, or iii) information from an acoustic transducer in the environment.

27. The controller of claim 1, wherein the supplementary input information includes information obtained from an image capture device in the environment, information from an inertial sensor associated with at least one of the controller or the user, and information from an acoustic transducer in the environment.