Associating application states with a physical object
First Claim
1. A method for associating a state of a computer application with a physical object on an interactive display surface of a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
- (a) identifying the physical object based upon a characteristic of the physical object that is detectable when the physical object is disposed adjacent to the interactive display surface and by at least determining a position of the physical object relative to the interactive display surface and with the use of infrared light;
(b) receiving an indication to save the state of the computer application;
(c) storing attributes representative of the state in data storage not contained in the physical object; and
(d) associating the attributes representative of the state with the characteristic of the physical object, and thus, with the physical object.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An application state of a computer program is stored and associated with a physical object and can be subsequently retrieved when the physical object is detected adjacent to an interactive display surface. An identifying characteristic presented by the physical object, such as a reflective pattern applied to the object, is detected when the physical object is positioned on the interactive display surface. The user or the system can initiate a save of the application state. For example, the state of an electronic game using the interactive display surface can be saved. Attributes representative of the state are stored and associated with the identifying characteristic of the physical object. When the physical object is again placed on the interactive display surface, the physical object is detected based on its identifying characteristic, and the attributes representative of the state can be selectively retrieved and used to recreate the state of the application.
183 Citations
40 Claims
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1. A method for associating a state of a computer application with a physical object on an interactive display surface of a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) identifying the physical object based upon a characteristic of the physical object that is detectable when the physical object is disposed adjacent to the interactive display surface and by at least determining a position of the physical object relative to the interactive display surface and with the use of infrared light; (b) receiving an indication to save the state of the computer application; (c) storing attributes representative of the state in data storage not contained in the physical object; and (d) associating the attributes representative of the state with the characteristic of the physical object, and thus, with the physical object. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method for using a physical object to retrieve a state of an application running on a computer system that is coupled to an interactive display surface, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) reading a characteristic presented by the physical object upon detecting the physical object is disposed adjacent to the interactive display surface and by at least determining a position of the physical object relative to the interactive display surface with the use of infrared light, said characteristic and thus, said physical object being associated with attributes representative of a state of the application, said attributes having previously been stored by the computer system; (b) receiving an indication to retrieve the state of the application that was previously stored; (c) retrieving the attributes representative of the state associated with the characteristic and with the physical object from a storage device not contained in the physical object; and (d) processing the attributes to recreate the state of the application. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. A method for associating a state of a computer application with a physical object on an interactive display surface of a computer system, the method comprising the steps of:
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identifying the physical object based upon a characteristic of the physical object that is detectable when the physical object is disposed adjacent to the interactive display surface; receiving an indication to save the state of the computer application; storing attributes representative of the state in data storage not contained in the physical object; associating the attributes representative of the state with the characteristic of the physical object, and thus, with the physical object; reading a second characteristic associated with a second physical object when the second physical object is disposed adjacent to the interactive display surface; and associating the attributes representative of the state with both the characteristic associated with the physical object and the second characteristic associated with the second physical object, and thus with both physical objects.
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Specification