Storage medium storing information processing program, and information processing apparatus

• US 9,050,525 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2009
• Issued: 06/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Dohta, Takuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Schechter, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): BETSCH, REGIS J
• Application Number:
  US12/510,422
• Publication Number:
  US 20100286940A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,142 Days
• Field of Search: 702/92, 463/7, 73/13.7
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• 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 2300/1006 having additional degrees of freedom
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry

Abstract

An information processing program is provided, which is executed by a computer of an information processing apparatus that executes predetermined processing based on acceleration data outputted from an input device including an acceleration sensor for detecting acceleration. The information processing program causes the computer to function as data obtaining means, change amount calculation means, and gravity direction calculation means. The data obtaining means repeatedly obtains the acceleration data. The change amount calculation means calculates, by using a history of acceleration indicated by the acceleration data, a change amount of acceleration generated in the input device. The gravity direction calculation means calculates a direction of gravity of the input device by using the acceleration indicated by the acceleration data, based on the change amount of the acceleration.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing an information processing program executed by a game processing system, which includes at least one processor, of an information processing apparatus that executes predetermined game processing based on acceleration data outputted from an input device that includes an acceleration sensor configured to detect acceleration, the information processing program comprising instructions that are configured to:

repeatedly obtain acceleration data from the acceleration sensor;

calculate a change amount of acceleration based upon an acceleration history of the repeatedly obtained acceleration data;

calculate an accurate estimate of a direction of gravity with respect to the input device as a function of the combination of an acceleration value indicated by the acceleration data and the calculated change amount of acceleration; and

execute game processing on the game processing system based on the accurate estimate of the direction of gravity.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to:

calculate a portion of the accurate estimate of the direction of gravity by modifying an estimated direction of gravity value previously calculated, the estimated direction of gravity value previously calculated having been based on previously obtained acceleration data,

wherein the accurate estimate of the direction of gravity with respect to the input device is further based on the calculated portion.

3. The medium of claim 2, wherein when the calculated change amount of the acceleration is smaller than another previously calculated change amount, a first difference is greater than a second difference,

the first difference being between the estimated direction of gravity value previously calculated and the portion of the accurate estimate of the direction of gravity, and

the second difference being between an estimated direction of gravity value associated with the another previously calculated change amount and a portion of another previously estimated gravity direction.

4. The medium of claim 2, wherein as calculated change amounts of the acceleration decrease, the modification from previously calculated gravity direction values to portions of calculated estimated directions of gravity increases.

5. The medium of claim 2, wherein modification of the estimated direction of gravity value previously calculated is done only when the change amount of the acceleration is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value.

6. The medium of claim 2, wherein the instructions are further configure to:

calculate, based on the change amount of the acceleration, a temporary credibility value that is indicative of a degree at which the acceleration value indicated by the acceleration data is credible as a gravitational acceleration; and

set, based on the temporary credibility value, a credibility value that is indicative of a degree to which the estimated direction of gravity previously calculated is to be modified,

wherein the calculated accurate estimate of a direction of gravity with respect to the input device is further based on the set credibility value.

7. The medium of claim 6, wherein:

when the calculated change amount of the acceleration is smaller than another change amount of acceleration, the temporary credibility value is larger than another temporary credibility value associated with the another change amount of acceleration; and

the credibility value is set to increase in proportion with the temporary credibility value such that the another temporary credibility value and associated another credibility value are respectively smaller.

8. The medium of claim 7, wherein:

the set credibility value is adjusted based on a first percentage from a previously calculated credibility value when the temporary credibility value is larger than the previously calculated credibility value, and

the set credibility value is adjusted at a second percentage from the previously calculated credibility value when the temporary credibility value is smaller than the previously calculated credibility value,

wherein the first percentage is lower than second percentage.

9. The medium of claim 7, wherein the instructions are further configured to:

determine whether or not the calculated temporary credibility value is higher than a previously calculated credibility value; and

set the credibility value to a value that is between the calculated temporary credibility value and the previously calculated credibility value when the temporary credibility value is larger than the previously calculated credibility value.

10. The medium of claim 9, wherein the instructions are further configured to set the credibility value to the temporary credibility value when the temporary credibility value is equal or less than the previously calculated credibility value.

11. The medium of claim 6, wherein the portion of the calculated accurate estimate of the direction of gravity with respect to the input device is further based on the set credibility value.

12. The medium of claim 1, wherein when the change amount calculation calculates the amount of the acceleration as 0, the accurate estimate of the direction of gravity with respect to the input device is set as the acceleration value indicated by the acceleration data.

13. The medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to:

calculate an acceleration vector based on the acceleration data,

wherein the change amount of acceleration is a change amount of a magnitude of the acceleration vector and the acceleration history is a history of repeatedly calculated acceleration vectors,

wherein the accurate estimate of the direction of gravity with respect to the input device includes avector that is calculated based on the calculated acceleration vector.

14. The medium of claim 13, wherein

the vector is based on a combination of a first portion and a second portion,

the first portion is based on a previously calculated estimated gravity direction vector, and

the second portion is based on the calculated acceleration vector,

wherein the combination is based on a weight factor between the first portion and the second portion.

15. The medium of claim 14, wherein the weight factor is modified such that a weight associated with the second portion is decreased when the change amount of the magnitude of the acceleration vector increases in comparison with another change amount acceleration vector.

16. The medium of claim 15, wherein a weight of the weight factor is associated with the second portion and is linearly proportional to the change amount of the magnitude of the acceleration vector.

17. The medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further configured to execute a predetermined process by using the acceleration data and, as a reference, the calculated accurate estimate of the direction of gravity.

18. The medium of claim 1, wherein the repeatedly obtained acceleration data includes current acceleration data and the calculated change amount of acceleration is based upon the acceleration history and the current acceleration data.

19. The medium of claim 1, wherein the calculated change amount of acceleration is a non-zero calculated change amount.

20. A game processing apparatus that is configured to execute game processing based on acceleration data outputted from an input device including an acceleration sensor that is configured to detect acceleration, the information processing apparatus comprising:

a processing system that includes at least one processor, the processing system being configured to;

repeatedly obtain the acceleration data from the acceleration sensor of the input device;

calculate, by using a history of acceleration indicated by the acceleration data, a change amount of acceleration generated in the input device;

calculate an accurate estimate of a direction of gravity with respect to the input device as a function of a combination of an acceleration value indicated by the acceleration data and the change amount of the acceleration; and

execute the game processing based on the accurate estimate of the direction of gravity.

21. The information processing apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the calculated accurate estimate of the direction of gravity with respect to the input device is further based on modifying a previously calculated estimated direction of gravity.

22. A game processing system that is configured to execute game processing based on acceleration data outputted from an input device including an acceleration sensor that is configured to detect acceleration, the information processing apparatus comprising:

a processing system that includes at least one processor, the processing system being configured to;

repeatedly obtain the acceleration data from the acceleration sensor of the input device;

calculate, by using a history of acceleration indicated by the acceleration data, a change amount of acceleration generated in the input device;

calculate an accurate estimate of a direction of gravity with respect to the input device as a function of a combination of the acceleration data and the change amount of the acceleration; and

execute the game processing on the game processing system based on the accurate estimate of the direction of gravity.

23. A computer implemented method for executing game processing on a game processing system based on acceleration data outputted from an input device including an acceleration sensor that is configured to detect acceleration, the method comprising:

receiving, from the input device, acceleration data based on accelerations detected by the acceleration sensor;

calculating, by using a history of acceleration indicated by the acceleration data, a change amount of acceleration generated in the input device;

calculating, using a processing system of the game processing system that includes at least one processor, an accurate estimate of a direction of gravity with respect to the input device as a function of a combination of an acceleration value indicated by the acceleration data and the change amount of the acceleration;

executing the game processing on the game processing system based on the accurate estimate of the direction of gravity.