Method and apparatus for video game simulations using motion capture

• US 8,408,982 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2012
• Issued: 04/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pillar Vision Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Pillar Vision Incorporated
• Inventors: Marty, Alan W., Carter, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Suhol, Dmitry
• Assistant Examiner(s): Liddle, Jay Trent
• Application Number:
  US13/561,260
• Publication Number:
  US 20120289296A1
• Time in Patent Office: 246 Days
• Field of Search: 463/2, 463/3, 463/7, 463/36, 463/37
• US Class Current: 463/2
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2102/32 Golf
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2243/0037 Basketball
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 69/0071 for basketball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/213 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells A63F13/219, A63F13/655 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/42 by mapping the input signals into game commands, e.g. mapping the displacement of a stylus on a touch screen to the steering angle of a virtual vehicle
• 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 13/573 using trajectories of game objects, e.g. of a golf ball according to the point of impact
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/812 Ball games, e.g. soccer or baseball
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1093 using visible light
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5553 user representation in the game field, e.g. avatar
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8011 Ball
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/20 3D [Three Dimensional] animation
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2215/16 Using real world measurements to influence rendering
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/23 Recognition of whole body movements, e.g. for sport training
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0038 Sports

Abstract

A method in a video gaming system including a processor, a memory and a sensor system for capturing body motion is described. In one embodiment, the body motion can be associated with a person pretending to hit or launch an object, such as an object used in a sporting activity. In general, body motion can be associated with any activity involving similar body motions that are repeated during the activity. In a video game generated by the video gaming system, a consistency with which the repeated body motions are made over time can be used to determine an outcome for a single instance of the body motion. In a particular embodiment, a probability of a more desirable outcome resulting from the single instance of the body motion can increase as the consistency with which the repeated body motions are made increases.

Claims

1. A method in a video gaming system including a processor, a memory and a sensor system for capturing body motion associated with a person pretending to hit or launch an object, the method comprising:

receiving in the processor a motion consistency parameter wherein the motion consistency parameter is generated from data captured during a plurality of different instances of the person attempting to repeat a body motion and wherein a determining of the motion consistency parameter includes determining a position of at least one point on a body of the person during each of the plurality of different instances of the body motion and determining a standard deviation using the determined positions;

capturing via the sensor system data of a single instance of the person attempting to repeat the body motion while pretending to hit or launch the object;

based upon the data from the single instance, in the processor, predicting a magnitude of a force and a direction of the force that would be imparted to the object if it was actually hit or launched wherein physical properties of the object including its size and mass are simulated;

based upon the predicted magnitude of the force and the predicted direction of the force, determining in the processor whether a desired outcome for a simulated object having the mass and the size properties is possible;

when the desired outcome is determined to be possible, determining in the processor whether the desired outcome or a non-desired outcome has occurred wherein a probability of the desired outcome occurring increases as the standard deviation associated with the motion consistency parameter decreases; and

rendering in the processor to a display a simulated trajectory of the simulated object for the single instance, wherein the rendered simulated trajectory shows the determined desired outcome or the determined non-desired outcome occurring for the simulated object.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the predicted magnitude of the estimated force and the predicted direction of the force are within acceptable ranges for a valid body motion associated with the person pretending to hit or launch the object;

when the predicted magnitude of the estimated for and the predicted direction of the force are not within the acceptable ranges the valid body motion, determining the desired outcome is not possible and rendering in the processor to the display a non-desired outcome associated with an non-valid body motion.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the person is pretending to shoot a basketball and wherein the desired outcome is a made shot and the non-desired outcome is a missed shot in a video game generated by the video gaming system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the desired outcome is the simulated object stopping within a defined area and the non-desired outcome is the simulated object stopping outside of a defined area in a video game generated by the video gaming system.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the video game is a golf video game and the desired outcome is one of a simulated golf ball stopping in a fairway or on a green and the non-desired outcome is one of the simulated golf stopping off the fairway or off the green.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the desired outcome is the simulated object passing through a defined area and the non-desired outcome is the simulated object passing outside of the defined area in a video game generated by the video gaming system.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the video game is a soccer video game and wherein the defined area is a plane of the goal and wherein the desired outcome is the soccer ball passing through the plane of the goal and the non-desired outcome is the soccer ball passing outside the plane of the goal.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the object the person is pretending to hit or launch is a ball.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the ball is one of a basketball, tennis ball, volleyball, golf ball, baseball, soccer ball, bowling ball or a football.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the motion consistency parameter further includes determining a position of three points on the body during each of the plurality of different instances of the body motion, determining an angle from the three points and determining the standard deviation of the angle over the plurality of different instances of the body motion.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the person has initiated the body motion.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising after determining the body motion has been initiated, identifying a specific relationship between a first body location relative to a second body location wherein the specific relationship occurs at least once each time the body motion is made.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising when the specific relationship is identified, generating motion consistency data based upon an orientation of the person'"'"'s body approximate to the time the specific relationship is identified.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein during the plurality of different instances of the person attempting to repeat the body motion, the person is hitting or launching an actual object.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor system for capturing the body motion associated with a person includes one or more video capture devices and wherein the video gaming system is configured to identify the at least one point on the body in a video image captured from the video capture device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the sensor system for capturing the body motion is configured to receive data from an accelerometer coupled to the person pretending to hit or launch the object.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the probability of the desired outcome occurring includes a first component that is determined independently of the motion consistency parameter and a second component that is determined as a function of the motion consistency parameter.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving in the processor a motion consistency parameter for a second person wherein the motion consistency parameter is generated from data captured during a plurality of different instances of the second person attempting to repeat the body motion;

and generating a video game including the person and the second person.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a new motion consistency parameter using the data captured during the plurality of different instances and the data captured from the single instance, capturing, via the sensor system, data for a new single instance and determining whether the desired outcome or the non-desired outcome for the new single instance has occurred using the new motion consistency parameter.

20. The method of claim 19, when the magnitude of the estimated force and the direction of the force are determined not to be within the acceptable ranges, excluding the captured sensor system data for the single instance for use in determining a new motion consistency parameter.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a request to reset the motion consistency parameter, capturing data from a second plurality of different instances of the person attempting to repeat the motion via the sensor system and determining a new motion consistency parameter using the captured data from the second plurality of different instances.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising determining whether a number of the second plurality of different instances has reached a threshold value wherein the new motion consistency parameter is only used to determine whether the desired outcome or non-desired outcome has occurred after the threshold value is reached.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

managing the plurality of different instances of the body motion used to determine the motion consistency parameter including removing older instances from and adding new instances to the plurality of different instances.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the older instances are only removed after a number of the plurality of different instances exceeds a threshold value or a time determined from when the older instance was generated exceeds a threshold value.

25. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to the export the motion consistency parameter, in response to the request, exporting data associated with the motion consistency parameter and removing the data associated the plurality of different instances from the video gaming system such that it is no longer used to determine whether the desired outcome or the non-desired outcome has occurred.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a request to import the motion consistency parameter, in response to the request, importing data associated with the motion consistency parameter and using the imported data to determine a new motion consistency parameter.

27. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the simulated trajectory of the simulated object from a number of possible simulated trajectories that show the determined desired or non-desired outcome.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the selection is determined based upon the motion consistency parameter.

29. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored a computer program executed by a video gaming system, the non-transitory computer readable medium comprising:

computer code for receiving a motion consistency parameter wherein the motion consistency parameter is generated from data captured during a plurality of different instances of a person attempting to repeat a body motion while pretending to hit or launch an object and wherein a determining of the motion consistency parameter includes determining a position of at least one point on a body of the person during each of the plurality of different instances of the body motion and determining a standard deviation using the determined positions;

computer code for capturing, via a sensor system, data of a single instance of the person attempting to repeat the body motion while pretending to hit or launch the object;

computer code, based upon the data from the single instance, predicting a magnitude of a force and a direction of the force that would be imparted to the object if it was actually hit or launched wherein physical properties of the object including its size and mass are simulated;

computer code for, based upon the predicted magnitude of the force and the predicted direction of the force, determining in the processor whether a desired outcome for a simulated object having the mass and the size properties is possible;

computer code for, when the desired outcome is determined to be possible, determining whether the desired outcome or a non-desired outcome has occurred wherein a probability of the desired outcome occurring increases as the standard deviation associated with the motion consistency parameter decreases; and

computer code for rendering to a display a simulated trajectory of the simulated object for the single instance, wherein the rendered simulated trajectory shows the determined desired outcome or the determined non-desired outcome occurring for the simulated object.