SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMMERSING SPECTATORS IN SPORTING EVENT AND EVALUATING SPECTATOR-PARTICIPANT PERFORMANCE

• US 20180167656A1
• Filed: 12/07/2017
• Published: 06/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/07/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Esports Immersion LLC
• Original Assignee: Esports Immersion LLC
• Inventors: Ortiz, Luis M., Lopez, Kermit D.
• Granted Patent: US 10,587,905 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 13/46 Computing the game score
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/65 automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/798 for assessing skills or for ranking players, e.g. for generating a hall of fame computing the game score A63F13/46
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3218 wherein at least part of the system is portable
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/323 wherein the player is informed, e.g. advertisements, odds, instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3237 about the players, e.g. profiling, responsible gaming, strategy/behavior of players, location of players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3255 Incentive, loyalty and/or promotion schemes, e.g. comps, gaming associated with a purchase, gaming funded by advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3269 Timing aspects of game play, e.g. blocking/halting the operation of a gaming machine
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3276 wherein the players compete, e.g. tournament
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3288 Betting, e.g. on live events, bookmaking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/254 Management at additional data server, e.g. shopping server, rights management server arrangements for maintenance or administration in data networks H04L41/00; network services using third party service providers H04L67/53
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game

Abstract

Systems and methods enable sporting event spectators to do more than just observe an online or live contest with the spectators'"'"' engagement being limited to group messaging with other spectators (and possibly also the game stars/participants) during an event. The present invention provides a new level of participation for spectators. Spectators can play the game alongside their favorite athlete/star and a computer system evaluates how the participants perform compared to the athlete. The system can monitor several participants and rank their performance against performance of actual athletes to determine which participants made similar moves, took similar actions, or took action that may be deemed superior to action taken by actual athletes. From the collected data top performers can be acknowledge/awarded. The data can also be useful to identify rising stars from the pool of participants, and new athletes worthy of participants in future competitions cane identified.

Claims

1. A method for electronically facilitating the immersion of spectators in a live event, the method comprising:

storing in at least one server associated with a live event, a first set of data associated with the live event, the first set of data including digital video associated with the live event and actual plays associated with action by at least one athlete of the live event;

storing in the at least one server a second set of data associated with and electronically provided by an action in the form of anticipated plays by at least one spectator-participant of the live event provided through at least one spectator-participant client device;

monitoring the anticipated plays with respect to the at least one spectator-participant;

collecting the anticipated plays provided by the at least one spectator-participant from the second set of data; and

matching the anticipated plays with actual plays, the actual plays contained within the first set of data, wherein the matching results in a correlation of the anticipated plays with respect to actual plays by the at least one athlete to render performance data with respect to the at least one spectator-participant.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

image-processing the digital video so as to transform the digital video associated with the live event into a digital format suitable for display of the digital video in a first display area of a graphical user interface of the at least one client device associated with at least one of spectators and spectator-participants; and

simultaneously displaying data representing anticipated plays associated with the at least one spectator-participant in a second display area of the graphical user interface of the at least one client device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one spectator-participant is also a spectator of the live event when receiving data at the at least one spectator-participant client device and is a spectator-participant in the live event when providing data in the form of anticipated action via the at least one spectator-participant client device to the at least one server associated with the live event, and more than one spectator also receives the data at client devices associated with each of the more than one spectator.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the live event comprises an esports event and wherein the at least one athlete comprises an esports athlete.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring the anticipated plays with respect to the at least one spectator-participant includes recording the anticipated plays in the at least one server.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the matching includes real-time matching of the anticipated plays with an actual play by the at least one athlete in real time.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the matching includes digital streaming of results of the matching to at least one client device receiving data associated with the live event.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance rankings are utilized to determine at least one of:

a prize allocation to at least one top performer selected from a pool of spectator-participants; and

establishment of a talent pool of spectator-participants for use by recruiters of future professional competitions.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one client device comprises a VR (Virtual Reality) device and the digital streaming is enhanced for VR rendering via the VR device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of data is stored in at least one database of the at least one server.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of data is stored in at least one database of the at least one server.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of data is stored in at least one database of the at least one server and the second set of data is stored in at least one other database of the at least one server.

13. The method of claim 1, permitting the at least one spectator to wager on an outcome of the matching through the graphical user interface.

14. A system for electronically facilitating the immersion of spectators in a live event, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a non-transitory computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, the computer-usable medium capable of communicating with the at least one processor, the computer program code comprising instructions executable by the at least one processor and configured for;

storing in at least one server associated with a live event, a first set of data associated with the live event, the first set of data including digital video associated with the live event and data indicative of plays associated with at least one athlete of the live event;

storing in the at least one server, a second set of data associated with and electronically provided by an action of at least one spectator-participant of the live event through at least one client device;

monitoring anticipated plays with respect to the at least one spectator-participant, the anticipated plays provided through the at least one client device;

collecting the anticipated plays from the at least one spectator-participant from the second set of data; and

matching the anticipated plays with an actual play by the at least one athlete after collecting the anticipated plays, the actual play contained within the first set of data, wherein the matching results in a correlation of the anticipated plays with respect to actual plays by the at least one athlete to render data indicative of performance rankings with respect to the at least one spectator-participant.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the instructions are further configured for:

image-processing the digital video so as to transform the digital video associated with the live event into a digital format suitable for display of the digital video in a first display area of a graphical user interface of the at least one client device; and

simultaneously displaying data associated with the at least one spectator-participant in a second display area of the graphical user interface of the at least one client device.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the instructions are further configured for storing results of the matching in at least one database associated with the at least one server.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one spectator-participant also comprises a spectator of the live event when receiving data at the at least one spectator client device and a participant in the live event when providing data to at least one server associated the live event through the at least one client device.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the live event comprises an esports event and wherein the at least one athlete comprises an esports athlete.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein:

monitoring the anticipated plays with respect to the at least one spectator-participant includes recording the anticipated plays in the at least one server;

matching includes real-time matching of the anticipated plays with an actual play by the at least one athlete in real time; and

the matching further includes digital streaming of results of the matching to at least one client device receiving data associated with the live event.

20. A system for electronically facilitating the immersion of spectators in an esports event, the system comprising:

at least one processor, and

a non-transitory computer-usable medium embodying computer program code, the computer-usable medium capable of communicating with the at least one processor, the computer program code comprising instructions executable by the at least one processor and configured for;

storing in at least one server associated with a esports event, a first set of data associated with the esports event, the first set of data including digital video associated with the esports event and data indicative of plays associated with at least one athlete of the esports event, the plays of the at least one athlete provided by the at least one athlete through at least one athlete client device respectively associated with the at least one athlete;

storing in the at least one server, a second set of data associated with and electronically provided by an action of at least one spectator-participant of the esports event through at least one client device;

monitoring anticipated plays with respect to the at least one spectator-participant, the anticipated plays provided through the at least one spectator client device;

collecting the anticipated plays from the at least one spectator-participant from the second set of data; and

matching the anticipated plays with an actual play by the at least one athlete after collecting the anticipated plays, the actual play contained within the first set of data, wherein the matching results in a correlation of the anticipated plays with respect to actual plays by the at least one athlete to render data indicative of performance rankings with respect to the at least one spectator.