MOBILE INPUT AND SENSOR DEVICE FOR A COMPUTER-CONTROLLED VIDEO ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM

• US 20110159962A1
• Filed: 12/21/2010
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CryTek GmbH
• Original Assignee: CryTek GmbH
• Inventors: Yerli, Cevat
• Granted Patent: US 9,344,753 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/39
• 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 13/214 for locating contacts on a surface, e.g. floor mats or touch pads
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/2145 the surface being also a display device, e.g. touch screens
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/215 comprising means for detecting acoustic signals, e.g. using a microphone
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/235 using a wireless connection, e.g. infrared or piconet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/332 using wireless networks, e.g. cellular phone networks
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• 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 13/424 involving acoustic input signals, e.g. by using the results of pitch or rhythm extraction or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/428 involving motion or position input signals, e.g. signals representing the rotation of an input controller or a player's arm motions sensed by accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1075 using a touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1081 Input via voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1093 using visible light
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/406 Transmission via wireless network, e.g. pager or GSM
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6072 of an input signal, e.g. pitch and rhythm extraction, voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42221 Transmission circuitry, e.g. infrared [IR] or radio frequency [RF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42222 Additional components integrated in the remote control device, e.g. timer, speaker, sensors for detecting position, direction or movement of the remote control, microphone or battery charging device

Abstract

Mobile input and sensor device for a computer-controlled video entertainment system, in particular a mobile input and sensor device providing user-related input data to said system. This provides an easy-to-handle mobile input and sensor device having direct access to an IP-based network, for transmitting sensor signals or data derived thereof as user-related input data via the IP-based network to a remote computing device or server, preferably to a cloud of servers, which then process these input data for controlling the running entertainment program. The mobile input and sensor device can be made simple, since it is designed to detect user activities and to generate sensor signals which are transmitted as input data to the remote computer(s) or server(s). The mobile input and sensor device directly communicates with any IP-based computing device (gaming server or the like) installed remotely and having powerful hardware and software to process the received input data.

Claims

1. A mobile input and sensor device for a computer-controlled video entertainment system comprising a display device for displaying video entertainment pictures to at least one user;

at least one computing device executing an entertainment software application for providing output data to be transmitted to said the display device to display the video entertainment pictures;

wherein

the mobile input and sensor device is held by the at least one user in front of said display device and/or said computing device for providing user-related input data to be processed by said entertainment software application, and wherein the mobile input and sensor device comprises at least one optical sensory element being directed towards the user and at least one input element and further comprises at least one wireless interface for transmitting input data to said at least one computing device.

2. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 1, wherein said at least one optical sensory elements comprises a camera being directed towards the user, in particular the user'"'"'s face, when the mobile input and sensor device being held by said user.

3. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 1, wherein said at least one input element comprises a touch panel, a keyboard, an array of keys or a key pad to be touched by the user for making user-related inputs.

4. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 1, wherein said device further comprises at least one acoustic sensory element, in particular a microphone, and/or at least one thermal sensory element.

5. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 1, wherein said at least one interface of said mobile input and sensor device is at least one of the following interfaces:

a wireless network interface for an IP-based network, in particular for the Internet,

a wireless interface module for providing a wireless connection between said mobile input and sensor device and said at least one computing device being a single computing devices or a plurality of computing devices, in at least one game console, server and/or server cloud.

6. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 1, wherein the device comprises an input and sensor module comprising said sensory elements for detecting user activities, in particular natural user inputs such as physical gestures by said at least one optical sensory elements and/or speech by said at least one or two acoustic elements, and for producing sensor signals.

7. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 6, wherein said at least one sensory element is an optical sensor for detecting physical gestures or appearance, an acoustical sensor for detecting user-produced speech, sound or noise and/or a thermal sensor for detecting physical presence or temperature.

8. The mobile input and sensor device claim 6, wherein said mobile input and sensor device further comprises a processing unit for processing said sensor signals to generate said user-related input data representing said detected user activities.

9. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 8, wherein the processing unit provides said user-related input data to said network interface for being transmitted via said IP-based network to said at least one computing device.

10. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 8, wherein said processing unit receives from said sensor elements the sensor signals and generates input data which represent said sensor signals.

11. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 8, wherein said processing unit receives from said sensor elements the sensor signals and pre-processes these signals to generate said input data, in particular by applying signal and/or data recognition to generate input data which represent recognized user-related input patterns, in particular gestures and/or speech commands.

12. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 8, wherein said processing unit receives sensor signals which relate to a plurality of users and processes these signals to generate collective input data, in particular by applying signal and/or data recognition to generate collective input data which represent recognized multi-user or user-group-related input patterns, in particular collective gestures and/or collective speech commands.

13. The mobile input and sensor device claim 1, wherein said mobile input and sensor device further comprises a visual output or projection module to output visual data to said at least one user.

14. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 1, wherein said mobile input and sensor device further comprises a wireless interface/networking module to receive further input data from external user input devices, in particular form gamepads, joysticks, keypads, keyboards.

15. The mobile input and sensor device of claim 1, wherein said mobile input and sensor device is a built-in device being installed in a mobile communications and/or entertainment device.

16. A mobile communications and/or entertainment device comprising a display device for displaying video entertainment pictures to at least one user and a mobile input and sensor device for a computer-controlled video entertainment system comprising at least one computing device executing an entertainment software application for providing output data to be transmitted to said the display device to display the video entertainment pictures;

wherein

the mobile input and sensor device comprises a touch panel being integrated in said display device for providing user-related input data to be processed by said entertainment software application, and wherein the mobile input and sensor device comprises at least one optical sensory element being directed towards the user and at least one input element and further comprises at least one wireless interface for transmitting input data to said at least one computing device.

17. A computer-controlled video entertainment system, the system comprising:

a display device for displaying video entertainment pictures to at least one user;

at least one computing device, in particular at least one server, being installed remotely from said display device and executing an entertainment software application for providing output data to be transmitted via an IP-based network to said the display device to display the video entertainment pictures;

a mobile input and sensor device being held by the at least one user in front of said display device and/or said computing device for providing user-related input data to be processed by said entertainment software application, wherein the mobile input and sensor device comprises at least one optical sensory element being directed towards the user and at least one input element and further comprises at least one wireless interface for transmitting input data to said at least one computing device.

18. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 17, wherein the at least one computing device is constituted by a plurality of remotely installed computing servers being linked to each other to form a cluster or cloud of computing servers to form an overall cloud.

19. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 18, wherein the computing servers are linked to each other via said IP-based network.

20. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 17, wherein said IP-based network is constituted by the Internet.

21. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 17, wherein said network interface of said mobile input and sensor device is a wireless Internet module.

22. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 17, wherein said mobile input and sensor device comprises a sensor module with at least one sensory element for detecting user activities, in particular natural user inputs such as physical gestures and/or speech, and for producing sensor signals.

23. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 22, wherein said mobile input and sensor device further comprises a processing unit for processing said sensor signals to generate said user-related input data representing said detected user activities.

24. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 23, wherein the processing unit provides said user-related input data to said network interface for being transmitted via said IP-based network to said at least one computing device.

25. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 23, wherein said at least one sensor element is an optical sensor for detecting physical gestures or appearance, an acoustical sensor for detecting user-produced speech, sound or noise and/or a thermal sensor for detecting physical condition by temperature.

26. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 23, wherein said processing unit receives from said sensor elements the sensor signals and generates raw input data which represent said sensor signals.

27. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 23, wherein said processing unit receives from said sensor elements the sensor signals and pre-processes these signals to generate said input data, in particular by applying signal and/or data recognition to generate input data which represent recognized user-related input patterns, in particular gestures and/or speech commands.

28. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 23, wherein said processing unit receives sensor signals which relate to a plurality of users and processes these signals to generate collective input data, in particular by applying signal and/or data recognition to generate collective input data which represent recognized multi-user or user-group-related input patterns, in particular collective gestures and/or collective speech commands.

29. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 17, wherein said mobile input and sensor device further comprises a visual output or projection module to output visual data to said at least one user, in particular laser-based projection allowing user activities.

30. The computer-controlled video entertainment system of claim 17, wherein said mobile input and sensor device further comprises a wireless interface/networking module to receive further input data from external user input devices, in particular form gamepads, joysticks, keypads, keyboards.