SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AN INTERNET COMPETITION NETWORK

• US 20130165238A1
• Filed: 12/28/2012
• Published: 06/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Dionicio Melchor Batista Jerez
• Original Assignee: Dionicio Melchor Batista Jerez
• Inventors: BATISTA JEREZ, Dionicio MELCHOR
• Application Number:
  US13/729,157
• Publication Number:
  US 20130165238A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/558 by assessing the players' skills or ranking

Abstract

A service that allows users to collect, process and share data about competition and recreational activities. Human, Organization or Robot users using any internet connected device are provided with a single profile where they can view their data, challenge other users and be judged by other users. The service also allows users to add all means they use to compete as Dependent members such as Animals, Plants, Vehicles, Humans, Teams and Tools. The service also provides means for users to create activities with custom data types, formulas and ranking systems as a representation of an existing live or virtual activity or a variation of an existing one. Relationships between users and user roles are automatically assigned based on operations they do. Users can compare two or more elements of the network or just follow any element of the network receiving constant updates about topics of their interest.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

Creating activities with one or more custom sets of data types, rules, formulas and ranking system definitions to mimic a virtual or live activity;

or creating activities by using or modifying an existing set of rules, data types, formulas and ranking systems definitions as a template;

Adding and maintaining data of all means they use to compete;

Participating in competition events, having all data generated in said events on a centralized profile;

Sending requests and invitations to events where a predefined set of rules will apply;

Challenging one or more users, inviting them to an event that will be certified by an arbiter;

Establishing competition based relationships;

Accepting one or more arbiter designations to judge one or more events;

Sharing data and statistics;

Following users, organizations, dependent profiles, events or competition activities; and

Comparing network elements based on competition data and other sources;

2. The method cited in claim 1, further comprising a Human, Organization or Artificial intelligence that can login as a user into the network to perform one or more operations using one or more user roles.

3. User roles cited in claim 2, further comprising a set of privileges that can be automatically assigned by the system based on what the user does, or can be manually assigned by administrative personnel from the company that runs the network.

4. User roles cited in claim 2 further comprising the process of manually or automatically assigning a set of privileges based on operation that each user does in the network comprising:

Commissioner;

when creating an activity;

Sponsor;

when creating an activity and transferring control to another user;

Competitor;

when joining an activity and participating in one or more events;

Follower;

when subscribing to one or more elements of the network to receive continuous updated information on those topics;

Arbiter;

when accepting a request to judge an event;

Annotator;

when accepting a request to enter or capture data of an event;

Scout;

when subscribing to the network as an talent seeker; and

Administrator;

manually assigned to personnel of the company that runs the network.

5. Follower user role cited in claim 4, further comprising the right to do one or more operations comprising:

Following one or more users, activities, organizations or dependent members;

Following one or more Events of a specific activity;

Joining activities to view statistics, rakings and top competitors;

Comparing two or more elements of the network using the Comparison System cited in claim 50; and

Voting on polls or surveys.

6. Competitor user role cited in claim 4, further comprising the right to do one or more operations comprising:

Viewing statistics, rankings and top competitors of a given activity before joining;

Joining a competition activity, team, organization or event;

Participating in one or more events of any activity he joined;

Viewing his statistics and reputation of activities he has participated in;

Viewing and sharing his position on Top Competitors listings on an activity he joined;

Sending requests to Commissioner users, asking them to impugn, review or disqualify events, competitors, data or arbiters; and

Accepting or denying request sent by other users such as;

team, challenge or follow.

7. Arbiter user role cited in claim 4, further comprising accepting an arbiter request which give the user the right to do one or more operations on one or more events comprising:

Sending request to join a competition activity;

Accepting arbiter invitations to judge competition events;

Approving, certifying or disqualifying data, competitors or rules of an event once accepted as an arbiter;

Disqualifying competitors and specific data before or after the event took place;

Canceling or rescheduling competition events;

Viewing statistics on activities he has participated in;

Viewing top competitors in an activity he has participated in; and

Viewing the complete profiles of Competitor users attending to a competition event.

8. Annotator user role cited in claim 4, further comprising the right to do one or more operations comprising:

Entering or Capturing competition data on an event; and

Correcting a mistake he made on the data before the data is certified by a user with the Arbiter user role.

9. Commissioner user role cited in claim 4, further comprising the right to do one or more operations comprising:

Creating or changing competition activities with all related data such as data types, rules, formulas or ranking systems;

Accepting or denying one or more request to be Commissioner of an activity sent by other users;

Changing existing competition data types, rules and formulas;

Scheduling, rescheduling or canceling an event;

Approving subscriptions requests to his activity sent by other users;

Approving, certifying or impugning an event;

Disqualifying competitors or Arbiters attending to an event and all data related;

Interacting with statistics definitions or creating new ones to view all the data related to an activity he created or has been assigned to be the commissioner of;

Defining or changing the ranking system of an activity;

Defining or changing the top competitor criteria of an activity he created or has been assigned as a Commissioner;

Sending invitations to one or more competitors to one or more events of the activity he created or has been assigned to be the Commissioner of; and

Responding to dispute requests made by users related to the activity he created or has been assigned to be the Commissioner of.

10. Sponsor user role cited in claim 4, further comprising the right to do one or more operations comprising:

Creating or changing competition activities and assigning another user to be the Commissioner;

Viewing top competitors, ranks and statistics of an activity he is sponsoring;

Interacting with previously defined formulas of an activity he is sponsoring or creating new ones to calculate and view competition data the way he wants;

Convening, Scheduling, Rescheduling or Canceling competition events on an activity he is sponsoring.

Viewing all events on a competition activity he is sponsoring; and

Sending invitation request to competitor users asking them to participate in one or more competition events he is sponsoring.

11. Scout user role cited in claim 4, further comprising the right to do one or more operations comprising:

Sending scout requests to Commissioners of competition activities to be able to follow and see all data related to a specific activity;

Creating formulas and reports to see competition data the way he wants; and

Sending special requests and offers to talented users in the activities he was allowed to scout.

12. Administrator user role cited in claim 4, further comprising the right to do one or more operations comprising:

Maintaining all network information infrastructure elements such as servers, routers, cabling or databases;

Resolving problems and correcting mistakes the data; and

Taking disciplinary actions against any element on the network that violates company policies.

13. Creating activities cited in claim 1, further comprising adding and arranging in a logical way a set of custom data types, formulas and predefined rules by users with the Commissioner or Sponsor user roles.

14. Arranging a set of data and formulas in a logical way as cited in claim 13, further comprising manipulating a set of software predefined data types and the default rule that will apply to each one. Each data type can refer to previously created data elements or can represent itself as a standalone element.

15. Default rule cited in claim 14, further comprising specifying predefined operators to enforce data validation comprising:

Numbers;

designed to store positive or negative numeric data;

Competitor Type;

designed to store the specification of a competitor type such as;

human, organization, robot or dependent member;

Event type;

designed to store the event type definition such as;

single event, round robin, single elimination, double elimination or contest;

Time;

designed to store numeric values related to time; and

Letters;

designed to store alphanumeric characters.

16. Custom data types as cited in claim 13, further comprising adding data elements that can store data element with special meaning in the network.

17. Data elements with special meaning as cited in claim 16, further comprising one or more rules that govern the type of data that can be stored, comprising:

Competitor type;

containing the type of competitor such as;

Human, Organization, Animal, Vehicle, Robot or Tool;

Event Type;

containing the type of event such as;

Single event, Single Elimination Tournament, Double Elimination Tournament, Round Robin, Contest;

Event Group;

containing one or more event parts, from a bigger event, such as;

game, contest or Tournament;

Event Part;

containing one or more element of an event group, such as;

Round, Match, Inning, Quarter time, or Half time;

Event Duration;

containing a numeric value that defines the duration of an event or one of its parts;

Arbiter Rule;

containing a specification that one or more Arbiters must check and approve; and

Counter;

containing a numeric value designated to count one or more elements in a competition event.

18. Predefined rules as cited in claim 13, further comprising one or more software validation checks to ensure that data is entered correctly.

19. Software validation checks cited in claim 18, further comprising:

More than;

indicating that more than the default number or quantity can be allowed;

Less than;

indicating that no more than the default number or quantity can be allowed;

Arbiter check;

specifying a data that the attending arbiter must manually check and approve;

Single elimination;

indicating that a competitor is out of the event if loses once;

Double elimination;

indicating that a competitor is out of the event if lose twice;

Best of;

indicating an evaluation of a group of events specified by a numeric value;

the competitor with most wins of said group of events is the winner;

Win;

specifying a condition that determines the winner of an event. This condition can be numeric, alphanumeric, an arbiter check or a combination of one or more of the previously mentioned conditions; and

Lose;

specifying a condition that determines the loss of an event. This condition can be numeric, alphanumeric, an arbiter check or a combination of one or more of the previously mentioned conditions.

20. Adding all means user use to compete as cited in claim 1, further comprising adding and maintaining data of one or more secondary profiles containing the data of any mean a competitor uses to compete alongside with him or in his name;

those dependent member profiles can accommodate any real or virtual element such as animals, plants, vehicles, tools, gadgets or teams.

21. Adding and maintaining data of one or more secondary profiles cited in claim 20 further comprising the action of passing said secondary profiles from one user to another. When this happens the secondary profiles retain all previous competition data, achievements, custom data and statistics. Also a record of previous primary users or owners is kept for history purposes.

22. Animals as cited in claim 20, wherein referring to any living being except humans that can move from one place to another by its own means.

23. Plants as cited in claim 20, wherein referring to any vegetative living being that cannot move by itself.

24. Vehicle as cited in claim 20, wherein referring to a mobile mechanism that is used to transport passengers or cargo that include mechanism that can travel on land, water, air or outer space.

25. Tools as cited in claim 20, wherein referring to any physical item that can be used to achieve a goal and it'"'"'s not consumed in the process.

26. Gadgets as cited in claim 20, wherein referring to a tool or machine that has a particular function, but is often thought of as a novelty.

27. Teams as cited in claim 20, wherein referring to a group of Humans, Animals, or artificial intelligences linked in a common purpose.

28. Participating in competition events as cited in claim 1, further comprising one or more users with the Arbiter, Competitor or Annotator roles to join one or more events and add data by interacting with the rules and formulas previously defined for that event or letting other users with the Arbiter or Annotator user roles enter the data related to his participation in the event if the participates in the event as a Competitor.

29. Participating in competition events as cited in claim 1, further comprising users being evaluated automatically by the Reputation system after the event closes.

30. The Reputation system as cited in claim 29, further comprising a service that qualifies users based on their competition data, the result of those calculations are expressed by a percentage number or an Alphanumeric Character such as a letter.

31. Sending requests and invitation to events as cited in claim 1, further comprising sending a special message from a user with the Commissioner or Sponsor role to one or more users asking them to participate in one or more events.

32. The special message asking to participate in one or more event as cited in claim 31, wherein the receiving user can answer in several ways, including:

Accept;

The user is listed on the attenders to the event or activity;

Reject;

The request is dismissed and the user is no longer related to the event or activity in any form; and

Report sender;

report the request as a spam to an administrator user.

33. The Accept action as cited in claim 32, further comprising the privilege of viewing all relevant data about the activity and the specific event. Once accepting the invitation the user can also view the users that will compete against him or her in the event.

34. The Accept action as cited in claim 32, further comprising other operations that users can do before the event take place such as:

Accept arbiter;

The user accepts being judged by the arbiter;

Reject arbiter;

The user do not accept being judged by the arbiter, in which case an rejection request is sent to the Commissioner of the activity;

Propose another arbiter;

The user specifies another user to be included as an arbiter for the event;

Propose another date;

The user proposes another day for the event or activity to take place; and

Reject competitor;

The user rejects a competitor, sending a check request to either the Arbiter or the Commissioner of the activity.

35. Challenging other competitors as cited in claim 1, further comprising sending a special message from one Competitor user one or more Competitor users asking them to compete against him in an event that will be judged by a proposed arbiter.

36. The special message asking to compete as cited in claim 35, wherein the receiving user can answer in several ways, including:

Accept;

The user is listed on the attenders to the event or activity;

Reject;

The request is dismissed and the user is no longer related to the event or activity in any form; and

Report sender;

report the request as a spam to an administrator user.

37. Establishing competition driven relationships as cited in claim 1, wherein are established automatically when users do operations on the network or by request from one user to another. Users can have one or more relationships. Competition based relationships comprise but are not limited to:

Teammate, Roommate, Mentor, Colleague, Rival, Opponent or Enemy.

38. The Teammate relationship as cited in claim 37, further comprising automatically assigning a relationship that joins all members of the same team. The relationship is automatically assigned when a user joins a team and lost when the user leaves the team.

39. The Roommate relationship as cited in claim 37, further comprising automatically assigning a relationship that joins all members of the network who check into a place. The relationship is automatically assigned when the member check into the place and lost when leaving the place.

40. The Mentor relationship as cited in claim 37, further comprising automatically assigning a relationship that joins a user with a team or organization. The relationship is automatically assigned when the user accepts to be the mentor of the team becoming the mentor of all members of the team and the team itself and lost when the user leaves the team organization.

41. The Mentor relationship as cited in claim 37, also further comprising automatically assigning a relationship that joins a user who ask for help to another user. The relationship is automatically assign while the helping user is helping the helped user and lost when the helping period ends.

42. The Colleague relationship as cited in claim 37, further comprising automatically assigning a relationship that joins all Mentors of the same team or organization. The relationship is automatically assigned when a Mentor is assigned to a team or organization and lost when the Mentor leaves the team or organization.

43. The Rival relationship as cited in claim 37, further comprising automatically assigning a relationship that joins two or more competitors that competes against each other on a regular basis. The relation is automatically lost when the competition ratio between those competitors decreases in time.

44. The Opponent relationship as cited in claim 37, further comprising automatically assigning a relationship that joins two or more competitors who compete in an event. The relation is automatically lost when the event ends.

45. The Enemy relationship as cited in claim 37, further comprising automatically assigning a relationship that joins two or more Robot or artificial intelligences competitors who compete against each other in events which involve the physical or virtual elimination of at least one of them. This relationship is automatically assigned only when the competitors join a virtual competition event, War simulation or videogame session and is lost when the virtual event, War simulation or Videogame session ends. This relationship cannot be assigned to living beings.

46. Be elected as an arbiter as cited in claim 1, further comprising accepting one or more requests to judge one or more events. Any user can be elected as an arbiter by the user who creates the event or send a challenge request cited in claim 35. After accepting an arbiter request the accepting user can then view all profiles and statistics of competitors attending to the event and can perform other operations in the event comprising:

Disqualify;

Action of Disqualifying a competitor or dependent, voiding all data gained;

Reschedule;

Set the event to take place in another moment, day, month or year; and

Approve;

Accept and certify data previously entered by him or other users.

47. Share action as cited in claim 1, further comprising sending information to other networks to be viewed and commented by users of said networks, those networks comprise but are not limited to social networks, business networks or student networks. Information that can be shared to other networks comprises but is not limited to Ranks, Achievements, Events results, Dependent member data or Announcements.

48. The follow action as cited in claim 1, wherein a user adds one or more elements of the network to receive updated information about them. Those elements of the network comprise but are not limited to:

Users, Organizations, Teams, Dependent members, Events or Activities. The user can also choose the time period that this information is updated and sanded to be viewed in his profile. Said time periods comprises but are not limited to seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks or years.

49. The compare action as cited in claim 1, further comprising adding two or more elements of the network to a virtual computational space to view automatically computed comparisons of each one versus the others.

50. Automatically computed comparisons cited in claim 49, further comprising calculating which element is better than the other based on data collected on the network and other external sources. Said calculations take place when computing both the data element and the Which is better rule.

51. The Which is better rule cited in claim 50, further comprising analyzing a special declaration attached to each data element that instructs the computation system to choose as winner one or more comparing elements. Said special declarations comprising:

More;

a higher numerical value is better;

Less;

a lower numerical value is better;

Before;

an earlier time value is better;

After;

a later time value is better; and

Value;

a specific numeric or alphanumeric value is better.

52. A distributed computer system that provides a service to users using one or more connected devices over a network to perform a method comprising:

Receiving and storing information about competition or recreational activities;

Generating consolidated user profiles for each user, having all data the user generates or follows in said central virtual space;

Generating mini profiles showing basic user information and his reputation;

Providing a search infrastructure based on competition data;

Providing a user interface for the comparison of two or more elements of the network based on competition data and other sources as cited in claim 49;

Providing a user interface for the creation and administration of one or more activities, as cited in claims 13 to 19;

Providing a user interface for adding dependent member profiles of one or more non-user element used to compete in events, as cited in claims 20 to 27;

Providing a user interface for users to send and receive one or more invitation requests, as cited in claims 31 to 34;

Providing an interface allowing users to chat and add comments to events;

Providing an interface allowing users to send or share their data and achievements to other networks, as cited in claim 47;

Provide a user interface to receive the information of other elements of the network a user is following, as cited in claim 48;

Providing a user interface to manage one or more challenge requests as cited in claims 26 and 27; and

Providing a user interface to manage one or more Arbiter request as cited in claim 46.

53. The distributed computer system cited in claim 52, further comprising one or more server farms, a connection mean such as the internet and network connected devices.

54. Server farms as cited in claim 53, further comprising one or more physical locations in which one or more servers can be installed and connected. Those servers comprise but are not limited to:

Web servers, Database servers, Application servers, Mobile app servers, Firewall servers or Load balancing servers.

55. Servers as cited in claim 54, further comprising a computer machine with a processor, a memory, an being programmed, via executable program instructions to run one or more services that can store or retrieve data from storage means, process data at a user request and send the results to the user using a network connection.

56. The Web servers as cited in claim 54, further comprising specialized software to perform operations and send or receive information using web standard ports and protocols.

57. The Database servers as cited in claim 54, further comprising specialized software for storing and retrieving information from one or more Databases stored into one or more memory devices such as Hard disks, Random Access Memory Modules or Solid State Drives.

58. The Databases cited in claim 57, further comprising one or more SQL and No-SQL databases. SQL databases are used to store and retrieve structured and slow changing data and rules while No-SQL databases are used to store and retrieve semi-structured fast changing data and rules.

59. The Application servers as cited in claim 54, further comprising specialized software to retrieve data from database servers, make calculations and send said information to requesting applications running on personal computers and videogame consoles.

60. The Mobile application servers as cited in claim 54, further comprising specialized software to retrieve data from database servers, make calculations and send said information to requesting applications running on mobile devices.

61. The Firewall servers as cited in claim 54, further comprising specialized software to filter unauthorized access to the server farm from user not belonging to the network or filtering access to users not accessing the services using the correct ports.

62. The Load balancing Servers as cited in claim 54, further comprising specialized software to redirect flow of data, ensuring that all servers doing the same function have the same processing or network workload.

63. The Internet connected devices as cited in claim 54, further comprising devices that can connect to the server farm using a network to perform operations or send and receive information, said devices comprising:

Personal computers, Tablet devices, Laptops, Smartphones, Home videogame consoles, Portable videogame consoles, Robots or Smart televisions.

64. The Personal computers as cited in claim 63, further comprising computing devices comprising of a processor and a memory whose it size makes it useful for individuals to be operated on a desk or table.

65. The Laptops as cited in claim 63, further comprising computing devices comprising of a processor, a screen and a memory whose it size make it useful for individuals to be carried and operated in many environments.

66. The Tablet devices as cited in claim 63, further comprising one piece computer devices with a processor and a memory primarily operated by a touch screen whose it size makes it useful for users to operate them in any environment.

67. The Smartphones as cited in claim 63, further comprising mobile devices with advanced computing capabilities whose wide range of functions make them useful for users to use them as a substitute for several other electronic devices such as mobile phones, mp3 players, digital agendas, calculators, personal digital assistants, digital cameras, video cameras, PC web browsers or GPS navigators.

68. The Home videogame consoles as cited in claim 63, further comprising an interactive computers or customized computer systems which can be used with a display device such a TV or Monitor to display a game.

69. The Portable videogame consoles as cited in claim 63, further comprising lightweight portable electronic devices with a built-in screen, game controls, speakers and a battery whose main purpose is to display a game.

70. The Robots as cited in claim 63, further comprising mechanical apparatus comprised of electromechanical parts guided by a computer program or electronic circuitry.

71. The Smart televisions as cited in claim 63, further comprising network connected hybrid televisions whose it primarily design is to display on demand video, run internet connected apps or surf the web.

72. Receiving and storing information as cited in claim 52, further comprising specialized software which can reside on one or more servers to perform operations comprising:

providing a user interface to users for the definition of one or more activities as cited in claims 13 to 19;

providing a user interface to users for adding dependent profiles as cited in claims 20 to 27. providing a user interface to users for participating in one or more competition events as cited in claims 29 to 30;

providing a user interface to users for sending one or more invitations to one or more events as cited in claims 33 to 35;

providing a user interface to users for sending one or more challenge requests as cited in claim 36;

providing a service for automatically assigning competition driven relationship as cited in claims 38 to 46;

providing a user interface for users to manage arbiter request as cited in claim 47;

providing a user interface for users to share information as cited in claim 48; and

providing an interface for users to follow other elements of the network as cited in claim 49.

73. Generating a consolidated user profile as cited in claim 52, further comprising a centralized virtual space in which users can perform operations and have all data related to competition activities, dependent members or updates about elements of the network the user is following.

74. The centralized virtual space cited in claim 73, further comprising the result of one or more dynamic calculations from various database sources and text or picture hyperlinks that enables the user to perform one or more operation when pressed.

75. Database sources as cited in claim 74, further comprising database entities to store data and rules. Those database entities comprise but are not limited to:

Activity, Competition data, Formula, Event, Statistics, Rank or Top Competitors.

76. The Activity database entity as cited in claim 75, wherein basic activity definition and rules are stored such as:

title, subtitle, logo, class, type or supporting company logo.

77. The Competition data database entity as cited in claim 75, wherein custom data types, link to other data types and default rules are created are stored.

78. The Formula database entity as cited in claim 75, wherein arithmetic operators and calculation steps are declared and linked to previously declared custom data types.

79. The Event database entity as cited in claim 75, further comprising an instance of the custom data types are created and filled by the users one for each occurrence of the activity previously created.

80. The Statistics database entity as cited in claim 75, wherein contains one or more results of one or more calculations using formulas created in the Formula database entity and applying them to the data instances stored in the events database entity.

81. The Rank database entity as cited in claim 75, wherein containing one or more rules or goals that competitors must meet to be rewarded.

82. The Top Competitors database entity as cited in claim 75, wherein containing one or more rules to select and reward the best competitors of the activity and the period of time this reward will remain.

83. Generating mini profiles as cited in claim 52, further comprising automatically generating a portion of the screen containing basic user data and a calculated result showing his reputation in all his activities to date.

84. Basic user data as cited in claim 83, comprising but not limited to profile picture, name, last name, country name, country flag, events won, events lost, total of events, new indicator, reputation percentage, reputation letter.

85. The portion of the screen as cited in claim 83, further comprising a background frame that is filled with color according to the reputation result. Background colors according to reputation result comprise but is not limited to:

Red;

for a percentage from 0 to 39 or letter D;

Yellow;

for a percentage from 40 to 59 or letter C;

Orange;

for a percentage from 60 to 89 or letter B; and

Green;

for a percentage from 90 to 100 or letter A.

86. Search infrastructure as cited in claim 52, further comprise specialized software routines and dynamically generated filters and categories allowing one or more users to find other elements of the network.

87. The Dynamically generated filters and categories as cited in claim 86 further comprising one or more lists that are generated in concordance to the elements the user is searching for. After being generated by the system said filters and categories are shown on the screen and can then be used by the user to limit the results of his search.

88. The add chat and comments action cited in claim 52, further comprising specialized software and database entities allowing users to send and receive instant messages linked to the virtual space of one or more events. Said instant messages are kept and presented in sequential order in said event virtual space.

89. The virtual space of one or more events as cited in claim 88, further comprising a generated profile of the event containing all data related to the event such as:

attending competitors, arbiters, winners, statistics, date or location.