ACCELEROMETER SENSING AND OBJECT CONTROL

• US 20150153381A1
• Filed: 02/04/2015
• Published: 06/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: POLLATSEK, David
• Granted Patent: US 10,697,996 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/22 Setup operations, e.g. calibration, key configuration or button assignment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/42 by mapping the input signals into game commands, e.g. mapping the displacement of a stylus on a touch screen to the steering angle of a virtual vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/57 Simulating properties, behaviour or motion of objects in the game world, e.g. computing tyre load in a car race game A63F13/56 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/803 Driving vehicles or craft, e.g. cars, airplanes, ships, robots or tanks
• 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 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/64 for computing dynamical parameters of game objects, e.g. motion determination or computation of frictional forces for a virtual car
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/643 by determining the impact between objects, e.g. collision detection
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8017 Driving on land or water; Flying
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/18 in two or more dimensions

Abstract

A handheld controller includes a three-axis, linear acceleration sensor that can detect linear acceleration in three directions, i.e., the up/down direction (Y-axis), the left/right direction (Z-axis), and the forward/backward direction (X-axis). A programmed object adjustment process adjusts a falling object to decrease the velocity v at which the object is moving in response to detected tilt changes in a first direction, and to increase the velocity v at which the object is moving in response to detected tilt changes in a second direction different from the first direction.

Claims

1. A system for manipulating an object comprising:

a linear accelerometer sensor disposed within a handheld housing and configured to sense tilt of the handheld housing, the linear acceleration sensor comprising an electrostatic capacitance or capacitance-coupling type silicon micro-machined MEMS micro-electromechanical systems sensor, the sensor supplying a signal indicating sensed tilt to a processor;

the processor being connected to receive the signal and configured to control an object to fall towards a surface and at the same time move forward at a forward velocity, and to adjust the forward velocity of said falling object at least in part responsively to said sensed signal, by decreasing the forward velocity at which the falling object is moving in response to detected tilt in a first direction and increasing the forward velocity at which the falling object is moving in response to detected tilt in a second direction different from the first direction.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor changes the object traveling direction at least in response to said sensed tilt.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said processor controllably inclines the object upwardly or downwardly while the object falls through the air, and the processor uses the amount of inclination to affect the forward velocity at which the object moves as it falls through the air.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said tilt corresponds to at least one of a yaw, a pitch, and a roll.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to adjust the attitude of said object in response to the sensed tilt.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine an input device neutral tilt corresponding to an object neutral orientation.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the processor is configured to cause the object to adopt the same orientation away from said object neutral orientation as the input device is tilted away from said input device neutral tilt.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to specify if said object is in contact with a surface, and ignores aspects of tilt of the handheld housing other than tilt about a single predetermined axis whenever said object is in contact with a surface.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the handheld housing has an upper face and said predetermined axis is substantially perpendicular to the upper face of the handheld housing, the handheld housing upper face having at least a control button provided thereon.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the processor continually adjusts the velocity v of said displayed objects based on the following:

f(Vo,tback)=Vo*kmax, and

f(Vo,tfront)=Vo*kmin.

10. A non-transitory storage device that stores instructions for execution by a computer processor to control an object at least in part responsive to movement of a handheld input device having at least one inertial sensor therein, the inertial sensor having an output, the instructions comprising:

first program instructions for controlling the processor to provide a surface, and an object moving along the surface at a velocity v;

second program instructions controlling the processor to detect tilt of the handheld input device in response to the inertial sensor output; and

third program instructions controlling the processor to continually adjust the mid-air lateral velocity v of said object at least in part responsively to detected tilt, including decreasing the lateral velocity v at which the object is moving in response to detected tilt in a first direction, and increasing the velocity v at which the object is moving in response to detected tilt in a second direction different from the first direction.

11. The non-transitory storage device of claim 10, further comprising fourth program instructions for controlling the processor to cause the object to break contact with the surface and return, at a predetermined rate, said object back to contact with said surface.

12. Apparatus, provided with at least a display and a handheld input device having at least one inertial sensor therein, comprising:

a programmed virtual object first movement process that displays a virtual object moving laterally along a displayed virtual surface;

a programmed tilt determination process that determines changes in tilt of the input device in response to signals the inertial sensor provides; and

a programmed object adjustment process that adjusts said falling virtual object display to decrease the velocity v at which the virtual object is moving in response to detected tilt changes in a first direction, and to increase the velocity v at which the virtual object is moving in response to detected tilt changes in a second direction different from the first direction.

13. A method of providing a simulation comprising:

(a) sensing rotation of a handheld device having an inertial sensor therein;

(b) using a computer processor, steering a falling object at least in part in response to sensed rotation of said handheld device about a first axis;

(c) using the computer processor, controlling the pitch of said falling object at least in part in response to sensed rotation of said handheld device about a second axis that is substantially orthogonal to said first axis;

(d) using the computer processor, decreasing the velocity v at which the falling object is moving in a direction different from the falling direction in response to detected tilt about the first axis; and

(e) using the computer processor, increasing the velocity v at which the object is moving in said direction different from the falling direction in response to detected tilt about the second axis.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein said pitch controlling comprises controlling the pitch of an object while the object is in mid-air.

15. A method of controlling a virtual object as it moves through free space controlled by a user holding a bar-shaped device, the method comprising:

(a) sensing with at least one inertial sensor disposed within the bar-shaped device, first rotation of said bar-shaped device responsive to up and down motion;

(b) sensing, with the at least one inertial sensor, second rotation of said bar-shaped device responsive to forward and backward rotation;

(c) using a computer processor, at least in part controlling the path of said virtual object as it moves through a virtual world at least in part in response to said sensed first rotation;

(d) using the computer processor, at least in part controlling the pitch of said virtual object in response to said sensed second rotation;

(e) using the computer processor, decreasing the velocity v at which the virtual object is moving in response to said forward rotation; and

(f) using the computer processor, increasing the velocity v at which the virtual object is moving in response to said backward rotation.

17. A method of manipulating a virtual object comprising:

using a processor, displaying a virtual object moving along a virtual surface;

using an inertial sensor disposed within a handheld housing to sense tilt of the handheld housing about a first axis;

supplying the sensed first axis tilt to the processor;

with the processor, controlling the moving direction of the virtual object on the displayed virtual surface based on the sensed first axis tilt;

using the processor, causing said displayed virtual object to break contact with the displayed virtual surface;

using the inertial sensor disposed within the handheld housing, continually sensing tilt of the handheld housing about a second axis different from the first axis;

supplying the sensed second axis tilt to the processor; and

continually changing the orientation of said displayed virtual object responsively to said sensed second axis tilt.