Apparatuses, Methods and Systems For An Interactive Proximity Display Tether With Remote Co-Play

• US 20120079080A1
• Filed: 02/11/2010
• Published: 03/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Platform-A Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Platform-A Incorporated
• Inventors: Pishevar, Shervin
• Application Number:
  US13/148,996
• Publication Number:
  US 20120079080A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• 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 13/216 using geographical information, e.g. location of the game device or player using GPS
• 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 13/327 using wireless networks, e.g. Wi-Fi® 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 13/34 using peer-to-peer connections
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/533 for prompting the player, e.g. by displaying a game menu
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/803 Driving vehicles or craft, e.g. cars, airplanes, ships, robots or tanks
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/812 Ball games, e.g. soccer or baseball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, 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 2300/205 for detecting the geographical location of the game platform
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/301 using an additional display connected to the game console, e.g. on the controller
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/308 Details of the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/405 : being a wireless ad hoc network, e.g. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Pico net
• 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 2300/408 : Peer to peer connection
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/552 : for downloading to client devices, e.g. using OS version, hardware or software profile of the client device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/556 : Player lists, e.g. online players, buddy list, black list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5566 : by matching opponents or finding partners to build a team, e.g. by skill level, geographical area, background, play style
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5573 : player location
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/643 : by determining the impact between objects, e.g. collision detection
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8011 : Ball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8017 : Driving on land or water; Flying

Abstract

The APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR AN INTERACTIVE PROXIMITY DISPLAY TETHER WITH REMOTE CO-PLAY (“CO-PLAY”) teaches an interactive cooperative gameplay platform, which provides an interactive communications and display tether between a source device and a remote display device, and between a source device and a co-play client device. The CO-PLAY allows multiple users to operate an application platform, e.g., in game environments. For example, a user may employ a mobile device, such as the Apple iPhone, and launch a CO-PLAY implemented video game to query and connect to an available client device (e.g., another Apple iPhone) to co-play the video game. In one implementation, the CO-PLAY may tether the mobile device with a remote display device for visualization on a larger display.

Claims

1. A processor-implemented interactive co-play method, comprising:

receiving a request to initialize an interactive co-play component;

querying for co-play client devices;

providing a list of available co-play client devices based on the query;

obtaining a selection of a co-play client device;

configuring a communications channel for the selected co-play client device; and

instantiating the interactive co-play component through the communications channel.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein querying for co-play client devices comprises:

receiving an indication of co-play client devices; and

search a range of local area network for co-play client devices based on the received indication,

wherein the received indication may be any of an IP address, MAC address, acronym, hardware label, digital signature and driver certificate.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein querying for co-play client devices comprises:

forming a query based on registered co-play client devices on a communication stack database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein querying for co-play client devices comprises:

locating co-play client devices based on zero configuration protocols,

wherein the zero configuration protocols may be any of Service Location Protocol (SLP), Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), Jini, Bluetooth Service Discovery Protocol, WS-Discovery, Proprietary Discovery Protocol and Bonjour.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein querying for co-play client devices comprises:

searching for active users connected to available co-play client devices on an Internet gaming platform.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the configured communications channel may be any of Bluetooth, 3G, Wi-Fi and physical connection.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the configured communications channel is established between a source device and the selected co-play client device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein instantiating the interactive co-play component through the communications channel comprises:

receiving control inputs via a user interface;

receiving control commands from the client device via the configured communications channel; and

engaging the interactive co-play component based on the received control inputs and the received control commands.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the received control commands is transmitted based on a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) mechanism.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the received control commands are in the format of a binary data packet, wherein the binary data packet includes fields:

message type, sequence number, acknowledgement number, data offset, data length, checksum, options and data payload.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the received control inputs and the received control commands comprise at least one of accelerometer information, pointer coordinates (pressing on the screen), images, GPS information, user information.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the interactive co-play component is engaged based on the received control inputs and the received control commands in a real-time manner.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tethering with a remote display device; and

casting gaming visualization data to drive the remote display.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the gaming visualization data comprises at least two gaming avatars for co-play.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the selected co-play device is tethered with the remote display device and sends control commands to the remote display device.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving control commands of the selected co-play client device forwarded by the remote display device.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a communications channel with a remote gaming server;

providing the selection of co-play client devices to the remote gaming ie server; and

sending control commands to the remote gaming server.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the remote gaming server receives control commands of the selected co-play client device and engage a co-play platform based on the received control commands from both the selected co-play client device and a source device.

19. An interactive co-play system, comprising:

means to receive a request to initialize an interactive co-play component;

means to query for co-play client devices;

means to provide a list of available co-play client devices based on the query;

means to obtain a selection of a co-play client device;

means to configure a communications channel for the selected co-play client device; and

means to instantiate the interactive co-play component through the communications channel.

20. A processor-readable medium storing a plurality of processing instructions, comprising issuable instructions by a processor to:

receive a request to initialize an interactive co-play component;

query for co-play client devices;

provide a list of available co-play client devices based on the query;

obtain a selection of a co-play client device;

configure a communications channel for the selected co-play client device; and

instantiate the interactive co-play component through the communications channel.