DISPLAY DEVICE, GAME SYSTEM, AND GAME PROCESS METHOD

• US 20120088580A1
• Filed: 02/02/2011
• Published: 04/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Takeda, Genyo, Kawai, Eizi
• Granted Patent: US 8,684,842 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• 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 13/2145 the surface being also a display device, e.g. touch screens
• 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 13/323 between game devices with different hardware characteristics, e.g. hand-held game devices connectable to game consoles or arcade machines
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/327 using wireless networks, e.g. Wi-Fi® or piconet
• 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 13/428 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 13/5252 using two or more virtual cameras concurrently or sequentially, e.g. automatically switching between fixed virtual cameras when a character changes room or displaying a rear-mirror view in a car-driving game
• 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 13/837 Shooting of targets
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• 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 2300/1087 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. a camera
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/301 using an additional display connected to the game console, e.g. on the controller
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/403 Connection between platform and handheld device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/405 being a wireless ad hoc network, e.g. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Pico net
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering

Abstract

A game system includes a home-console type game device, a controller device, and a portable display device. The portable display device includes an infrared light-emitting portion capable of emitting infrared light. The controller device wirelessly transmits to the game device operation data including data representing a detection result by an image-capturing section, data representing a detection result by an inertia sensor, and data representing an operation performed on an operation button. The game device receives the operation data from the controller device, and performs a game process based on the operation data. Moreover, the game device successively compresses a first game image, which is successively generated based on the game process, to generate compressed image data. The compressed image data is successively wirelessly transmitted to the portable display device. The portable display device successively receives the compressed image data from the game device, successively expands the compressed image data to obtain the game image, and successively displays the game image.

Claims

1. A game system comprising a home-console type game device, a controller device and a portable display device,

the game device comprising:

an operation data reception section for receiving operation data from the controller device;

a game process section for performing a game process based on the operation data;

a game image generation section for successively generating a first game image based on the game process;

a game image compression section for successively compressing the first game image to generate compressed image data; and

a data transmission section for successively wirelessly transmitting the compressed image data to the portable display device,

the controller device comprising;

an image-capturing section capable of detecting infrared light;

an inertia sensor;

at least one operation button; and

an operation data transmission section for wirelessly transmitting the operation data to the game device, wherein the operation data includes data representing a detection result from the image-capturing section, data representing a detection result from the inertia sensor, and data representing an operation performed on the operation button,

the portable display device comprising;

an infrared light-emitting portion capable of emitting infrared light;

a game image reception section for successively receiving the compressed image data from the game device;

a game image expansion section for successively expanding the compressed image data to obtain the first game image; and

a display section for successively displaying the first game image obtained by the expansion.

2. The game system according to claim 1, wherein:

the game system further comprises a marker device capable of emitting infrared light;

the game image generation section further generates a second game image based on the game process; and

the game device further comprises;

an image outputting section for successively outputting the second game image to an external display device which is separate from the portable display device; and

a light emission control section for controlling the light emission of the marker device.

3. The game system according to claim 2, wherein:

the game system includes two controller devices; and

the game process section performs the game process based on the operation data received from the controller devices.

4. The game system according to claim 2, wherein the light emission control section controls the light emission of the marker device and the infrared light-emitting portion in accordance with content of the game process.

5. The game system according to claim 4, wherein:

the light emission control section generates control data representing control instructions for the light emission of the infrared light-emitting portion;

the data transmission section wirelessly transmits the control data to the portable display device;

the portable display device further comprises a control data reception section for receiving the control data from the game device; and

the infrared light-emitting portion operates based on the received control data.

6. A portable display device capable of wirelessly communicating with a game device, wherein:

the game device receives, from a controller device including an image-capturing section capable of detecting infrared light, data representing a detection result of the image-capturing section, and successively transmits, to the display device, compressed image data which is obtained by compressing a game image generated based on a game process performed based on the data; and

the display device comprises;

an infrared light-emitting portion capable of emitting infrared light;

a game image reception section for successively receiving the compressed image data from the game device;

a game image expansion section for successively expanding the compressed image data to obtain the game image; and

a display section for successively displaying the game image obtained by the expansion.

7. The display device according to claim 6, further comprising:

a touch panel provided on a screen of the display section;

an inertia sensor; and

an operation data transmission section for wirelessly transmitting to the game device operation data including output data of the touch panel and the inertia sensor,

wherein the game device performs the game process based on the operation data.

8. The display device according to claim 6, wherein:

the game device wirelessly transmits a game sound generated based on the game process to the display device; and

the game device further comprises;

a game sound reception section for receiving the game sound from the game device; and

a speaker for outputting the game sound received by the game sound reception section.

9. The display device according to claim 7, wherein:

the display device further comprises a microphone; and

the operation data transmission section further wirelessly transmits data of sound detected by the microphone to the game device.

10. The display device according to claim 7, further comprising:

a camera; and

a camera image compression section for compressing a camera image captured by the camera to generate compressed captured image data,

wherein the operation data transmission section further wirelessly transmits the compressed captured image data to the game device.

11. The display device according to claim 7, comprising:

a plurality of front surface operation buttons provided on a front surface of the display device, on which a screen of the display section is provided, on opposite sides of the screen; and

direction input sections capable of specifying directions, provided on the front surface on opposite sides of the screen,

wherein the operation data further comprises data representing operations performed on the plurality of front surface operation buttons and the direction input sections.

12. The display device according to claim 7, further comprising:

a plurality of back surface operation buttons provided on a back surface of the display device opposite to a front surface of the display device, on which the screen of the display section is provided; and

a plurality of side surface operation buttons provided on a side surface between the front surface and the back surface,

wherein the operation data further comprises data representing operations performed on the plurality of back surface operation buttons and the side surface operation buttons.

13. The display device according to claim 7, further comprising a magnetic sensor,

wherein the operation data further comprises data of a detection result of the magnetic sensor.

14. The display device according to claim 7, wherein the inertia sensor includes a 3-axis acceleration sensor and a 3-axis gyrosensor.

15. A game process method carried out in a game system comprising a home-console type game device, a controller device and a portable display device, wherein:

the portable display device comprises an infrared light-emitting portion capable of emitting infrared light;

the controller device includes an image-capturing section capable of detecting infrared light, an inertia sensor and at least one operation button, and performs an operation data transmission step of wirelessly transmitting operation data to the game device, wherein the operation data includes data representing a detection result of the image-capturing section, data representing a detection result of the inertia sensor, and data representing an operation performed on the operation button;

the game device performs;

an operation data reception step of receiving operation data from the controller device;

a game process step of performing a game process based on the operation data;

a game image generation step of successively generating a first game image based on the game process;

a game image compression step of successively compressing the first game image to generate compressed image data; and

a data transmission step of successively wirelessly transmitting the compressed image data to the portable display device; and

the portable display device performs;

a game image reception step of successively receiving the compressed image data from the game device;

a game image expansion step of successively expanding the compressed image data to obtain the first game image; and

a display step of successively displaying the first game image obtained by the expansion.