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Video game apparatus, method and recording medium storing program for controlling viewpoint movement of simulated camera in video game

  • US 6,890,262 B2
  • Filed: 07/17/2002
  • Issued: 05/10/2005
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2001
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. In a video game apparatus including a display having a screen for displaying images, display control means for creating game images as seen from a simulated camera viewpoint and displaying said images on the screen of said display;

  • and a game control part for conducting the game in response to reactions of a player responsive to the images displayed on said display;

    said video game apparatus comprising;

    image capture means which can be arranged in such an orientation that a field of view is a play area in front of the display screen, and said image capture means periodically capturing an image of the play area in a state arranged;

    a main memory having a first buffer storing the captured images by the image capture means and a second buffer storing a position of a reference region of the player;

    said image capture means including;

    an averaging processor generating an average image based on a plurality of the captured images stored in the first buffer except a last captured image;

    a first differentiator/binary converter generating a difference regarding color information between the last captured image and the averaged image;

    an area determinator checking whether an area of a region corresponding to said difference is below a threshold value or not;

    position detecting means for detecting from the captured images a position of a player'"'"'s reference region in case said area is found to be greater than the threshold value and for storing the position of the detected reference region into the second buffer;

    movement detecting means for detecting two-dimensional movement of said position of the reference region detected by said position detecting means; and

    viewpoint changing means for moving the simulated camera viewpoint to a new viewpoint in accordance with a change direction and change amount of the position of the detected reference region and displaying on the screen a view from said new viewpoint.

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