MUSIC VIDEO GAME WITH USER DIRECTED SOUND GENERATION

• US 20190192969A1
• Filed: 03/04/2019
• Published: 06/27/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Chrzanowski, Michael J., Hilliker, Jonathan L., Gallerani, Robert L.
• Granted Patent: US 11,173,399 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/21 characterised by their sensors, purposes or types
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/214 for locating contacts on a surface, e.g. floor mats or touch pads
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/245 specially adapted to a particular type of game, e.g. steering wheels
• 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 13/44 involving timing of operations, e.g. performing an action within a time slot
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/5375 for graphically or textually suggesting an action, e.g. by displaying an arrow indicating a turn in a driving game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/54 involving acoustic signals, e.g. for simulating revolutions per minute [RPM] dependent engine sounds in a driving game or reverberation against a virtual wall
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/814 Musical performances, e.g. by evaluating the player's ability to follow a notation
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1006 having additional degrees of freedom
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1062 being specially adapted to a type of game, e.g. steering wheel
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/305 for providing a graphical or textual hint to the player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6018 where the game content is authored by the player, e.g. level editor or by game device at runtime, e.g. level is created from music data on CD
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8047 Music games
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/342 for guitar-like instruments with or without strings and with a neck on which switches or string-fret contacts are used to detect the notes being played electric guitars in which the tones are generated by the vibration of strings G10H3/18
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/36 Accompaniment arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/386 One-finger or one-key chord systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/091 for performance evaluation, i.e. judging, grading or scoring the musical qualities or faithfulness of a performance, e.g. with respect to pitch, tempo or other timings of a reference performance
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/096 : using a touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/135 : Musical aspects of games or videogames; Musical instrument-shaped game input interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/395 : Acceleration sensing or accelerometer use, e.g. 3D movement computation by integration of accelerometer data, angle sensing with respect to the vertical, i.e. gravity sensing

Abstract

A music based video game provides a user directed sound generation feature. In some embodiments, the user is provided a video game controller simulating a musical instrument, which the user may operate similarly to its real musical instrument counterpart. A free play feature is provided for users to operate the video game controller, where a processor of a video game console receives input signals from the video game controller and outputs audio samples based on the received input signals. During the free play feature, multiple suggestions as to how to operate the video game controller are simultaneously provided to give users some guidance as to what to play using the video game controller.

Claims

1-9. -9. (canceled)

10. A method of complying with one of a plurality of suggested note sequences in a musical video game, comprising:

presenting a plurality of sequences of suggested user inputs;

receiving an input signal generated based on user operation of input devices on a video game controller, the input signal in compliance with a first suggested input of at least one of the plurality of sequences;

determining compliance of subsequently received input signals from the video game controller with the at least one of the plurality of sequences; and

replacing the at least one of the plurality of sequences with a new sequence of suggested user inputs.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of each user'"'"'s sequences suggests user inputs mapped audio samples complimentary to a background audio track.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the plurality of sequences are replaced by a further plurality of sequences if the provided background audio track is modified.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the video game controller is a guitar shaped video game controller, and the input devices include a plurality of fret inputs, and wherein suggested user inputs include information of operation of the plurality of fret inputs and timing of the operation of the plurality of fret inputs.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the video game controller further includes a touch pad input, and wherein suggested user inputs include status information of the touch pad input.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein three sequences of suggested user inputs are presented.

16-43. -43. (canceled)