INTERACTIVE GAMING WITH CO-LOCATED, NETWORKED DIRECTION AND LOCATION AWARE DEVICES

• US 20120315994A1
• Filed: 08/17/2012
• Published: 12/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Huang, Ronald Keryuan, Mayor, Rob, Mahe, Isabel, Piemonte, Patrick
• Granted Patent: US 9,333,424 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/216 using geographical information, e.g. location of the game device or player using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/22 Setup operations, e.g. calibration, key configuration or button assignment
• 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 13/34 using peer-to-peer connections
• 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 13/533 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 13/837 Shooting of targets
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1006 having additional degrees of freedom
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• 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 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands

Abstract

An interactive game environment includes two or more co-located, networked, direction and location aware interactive game devices. The game devices share a common reference coordinate frame (e.g., a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate frame). Each game device maintains its own device state (e.g., position, orientation, time) in the reference coordinate frame. Each interactive game device shares its device state with the other interactive game devices using communication technology (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular). Each interactive game device can use the device states of the other interactive game devices to project the relative positions and orientations of the other interactive game devices into a local, fixed coordinate frame of the interactive game device. These projections allow each interactive gaming device to know the position and orientation of the other interactive game devices in an interactive game environment defined by the reference coordinate frame.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of calibrating an interactive game device, comprising:

presenting a user interface on a display of the interactive game device, the user interface indicating an orientation of the interactive game device relative to a predefined direction;

detecting a movement of the interactive game device;

adjusting the user interface based on the movement;

detecting when the interactive game device is aligned with the predefined direction; and

indicating on the user interface that the interactive game device is aligned with the predefined direction.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the user interface on the display of the interactive game device comprises:

activating a calibration mode of the interactive game device; and

presenting the user interface on the display of the interactive game device responsive to activating the calibration mode.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein activating the calibration mode comprises:

placing the interactive game device in the calibration mode by interacting with a hardware button on the interactive game device, or virtual user interface element displayed on the interactive game device.

4. The method of claim 2, comprising:

indicating, on the user interface, the predefined direction and a current direction of the interactive game device; and

providing, on the user interface, information instructing a user of the interactive game device to rotate the interactive game device in a specified direction until the current direction of the interactive game device is aligned with the predefined direction.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

recording at least one of a position and an orientation of the interactive game device; and

computing elements of a reference coordinate frame to a device frame transformation matrix using the recorded orientation of the interactive game device.

6. An interactive game device, comprising:

a processor; and

memory coupled to the processor and operable for storing instructions, which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

presenting a user interface on a display of the interactive game device, the user interface indicating an orientation of the interactive game device relative to a predefined direction;

detecting a movement of the interactive game device;

adjusting the user interface based on the movement;

detecting when the interactive game device is aligned with the predefined direction; and

indicating on the user interface that the interactive game device is aligned with the predefined direction.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising presenting the user interface on the display of the interactive game device comprises instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

activating a calibration mode of the interactive game device; and

presenting the user interface on the display of the interactive game device responsive to activating the calibration mode.

8. The device of claim 7, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising activating the calibration mode comprises instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

placing the interactive game device in the calibration mode by interacting with a hardware button on the interactive game device, or virtual user interface element displayed on the interactive game device.

9. The device of claim 7, comprising instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

indicating, on the user interface, the predefined direction and a current direction of the interactive game device; and

providing, on the user interface, information instructing a user of the interactive game device to rotate the interactive game device in a specified direction until the current direction of the interactive game device is aligned with the predefined direction.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the user interface includes a compass diagram indicating direction.

11. The device of claim 6, comprising an orientation sensor that are used by the processor in detecting the movement or the orientation of the interactive game device.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the orientation sensor is one of a magnetic compass and an accelerometer.

13. The device of claim 6, comprising instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

recording at least one of a position and an orientation of the interactive game device; and

computing elements of a reference coordinate frame to a device frame transformation matrix using the recorded orientation of the interactive game device.

14. The device of claim 13, comprising an integrated GPS receiver that is configured for use by the processor in recording at least one of the position and the orientation of the interactive game device.

15. A computer program product, embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

presenting a user interface on a display of an interactive game device, the user interface indicating an orientation of the interactive game device relative to a predefined direction;

detecting a movement of the interactive game device;

adjusting the user interface based on the movement;

detecting when the interactive game device is aligned with the predefined direction; and

indicating on the user interface that the interactive game device is aligned with the predefined direction.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising presenting the user interface on the display of the interactive game device comprises instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

activating a calibration mode of the interactive game device; and

presenting the user interface on the display of the interactive game device responsive to activating the calibration mode.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising activating the calibration mode comprises instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

placing the interactive game device in the calibration mode by interacting with a hardware button on the interactive game device, or virtual user interface element displayed on the interactive game device.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, comprising instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

indicating, on the user interface, the predefined direction and a current direction of the interactive game device; and

providing, on the user interface, information instructing a user of the interactive game device to rotate the interactive game device in a specified direction until the current direction of the interactive game device is aligned with the predefined direction.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the user interface includes a compass diagram indicating direction.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, comprising instructions that cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

recording at least one of a position and an orientation of the interactive game device; and

computing elements of a reference coordinate frame to a device frame transformation matrix using the recorded orientation of the interactive game device.