Connecting external devices to a gaming voice chat service

• US 7,882,243 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2008
• Issued: 02/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Ivory, Andrew J., Pellas, Barry J., Pellas, Matthew T., Thomas, Matthew K.
• Primary Examiner(s): ISMAIL, SHAWKI SAIF
• Application Number:
  US12/113,610
• Publication Number:
  US 20090276529A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,006 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-207, 709/227
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/87 Communicating with other players during game play, e.g. by e-mail or chat
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/402 Communication between platforms, i.e. physical link to protocol
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5546 using player registration data, e.g. identification, account, preferences, game history
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/572 Communication between players during game play of non game information, e.g. e-mail, chat, file transfer, streaming of audio and streaming of video
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4025 where none of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. downloading a file in a parallel FTP session, initiating an email or combinational services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality

Abstract

Voice chat enhances the game playing experience by allowing gamers in different locations to have conversations within the gaming environment. Functionality can be implemented within a gaming system to send an external invitation a user who is logged out of the game system to participate in a voice chat and/or multiplayer game session. The user can choose to accept the invitation and participate in the voice chat session on a device such as a mobile phone. Automatically generating external requests improves convenience for players, especially when inviting several other players to a voice chat session, because they do not have to find external contact information for each player who is not logged in.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting a request to initiate a voice chat session with a user who is not logged in to a voice chat service for a gaming system;

sending an external invitation to join the voice chat session to an external device of the user, wherein the external device is external to the gaming system;

detecting rejection of the external invitation;

responsive to said detecting rejection of the external invitation, storing an indication to send an internal invitation to the user, wherein the internal invitation is internal to the gaming system;

detecting sign-in of the user into the voice chat service for the gaming system;

determining that the voice chat session is still active based on determining that an entry exists in a queue of voice chat reservations;

sending the internal invitation to the user through the gaming system responsive to said determining that the voice chat session is still active; and

connecting the user to the voice chat session responsive to acceptance of the internal invitation.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining a sign in status of the user on the voice chat service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said invitation comprises at least one of a short message service text message, an instant message and an electronic mail message.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said invitation comprises an invitation to a voice chat session and an invitation to join an online game session.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said external device comprises at least one of a mobile phone, a landline phone and a computer running an application for second voice chat service.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising accessing external contact information for the user, wherein the external contact information indicates the external device.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising determining preferences associated with the external contact information, wherein said sending the invitation to join the voice chat session to the external device of the user is in accordance with the preferences.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating the entry for the internal invitation in the queue of voice chat reservations.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

detecting a request to initiate a second voice chat session with a second user who is not signed in to the voice chat service;

sending a second external invitation to join the second voice chat session to an external device of the second user;

detecting rejection of the second external invitation;

responsive to said detecting rejection of the second external invitation, storing an indication to send a second internal invitation to the second user;

detecting, at least one of, that the internal invitation has been rejected and that the voice chat session is no longer active; and

removing an entry that represents the second internal invitation from the queue.

10. One or more non-transitory machine-readable media having stored therein a program product, which, when executed a set of one or more processor units, causes the set of one or more processor units to perform operations that comprise:

detecting a request to initiate a voice chat session with a user who is not logged in to a voice chat service for a gaming system;

sending an external invitation to join the voice chat session to an external device of the user, wherein the external device is external to the gaming system;

detecting rejection of the external invitation;

responsive to said detecting rejection of the external invitation, storing an indication to send an internal invitation to the user, wherein the internal invitation is internal to the gaming system;

detecting sign-in of the user into the voice chat service for the gaming system;

sending the internal invitation to the user through the gaming system, wherein said sending the internal invitation to the user through the gaming system comprises determining that the voice chat session is still active based on determining that an entry exists in a queue of voice chat reservations; and

connecting the user to the voice chat session responsive to acceptance of the internal invitation.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise determining a sign in status of the user on the voice chat service.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 10, wherein said invitation comprises at least one of a short message service text message, an instant message and an electronic mail message.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 10, wherein said invitation comprises an invitation to a voice chat session and an invitation to join an online game session.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 10, wherein said external device comprises at least one of a mobile phone, a landline phone and a computer running an application for second voice chat service.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise accessing external contact information for the user, wherein the external contact information indicates the external device.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise determining preferences associated with the external contact information, wherein said sending the invitation to join the voice chat session to the external device of the user is in accordance with the preferences.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise creating the entry for the internal invitation in the queue of voice chat reservations.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable media of claim 17, wherein the operations further comprise:

detecting a request to initiate a second voice chat session with a second user who is not signed in to the voice chat service;

sending a second external invitation to join the second voice chat session to an external device of the second user;

detecting rejection of the second external invitation;

responsive to said detecting rejection of the second external invitation, storing an indication to send a second internal invitation to the second user;

detecting, at least one of, that the internal invitation has been rejected and that the voice chat session is no longer active; and

removing an entry that represents the second internal invitation from the queue.