Pictorial game system and method

• US 9,266,023 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2009
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Human Differential Intelligence, LLC
• Original Assignee: John Nicholas and Kristin Gross
• Inventors: Gross, John Nicholas
• Primary Examiner(s): McCulloch, Jr., William H
• Application Number:
  US12/494,013
• Publication Number:
  US 20090325696A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,430 Days
• Field of Search: 463/9, 463/31, 273/249
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/215 comprising means for detecting acoustic signals, e.g. using a microphone
• 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 13/332 using wireless networks, e.g. cellular phone networks
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/338 using television networks
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/424 involving acoustic input signals, e.g. by using the results of pitch or rhythm extraction or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/44 involving timing of operations, e.g. performing an action within a time slot
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/52 involving aspects of the displayed game scene
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/61 using advertising information
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/80 Special adaptations for executing a specific game genre or game mode
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/847 Cooperative playing, e.g. requiring coordinated actions from several players to achieve a common goal
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/0661 Making a drawing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/558 by assessing the players' skills or ranking
• 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: A63F 2300/638 according to the timing of operation or a time limit
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8094 Unusual game types, e.g. virtual cooking
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/0423 Word games, e.g. scrabble electric A63F3/0421; two-dimensional puzzles with rotating rings or discs A63F9/0811, A63F9/0819
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2133 : Verifying human interaction, e.g., Captcha
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3241 : Security aspects of a gaming system, e.g. detecting cheating, device integrity, surveillance computer security G06F21/00

Abstract

A pictorial game allows participants to both contribute and decode pictorial content. The participants'"'"' performance, as well as that of artists and their artwork, can be tabulated and presented for community entertainment. Different modes can be used for presenting the images in different platforms, including on standalone platforms, gaming sites, social networking profiles, etc. Supplemental features can be added according to a desired rule set. Speech recognition can be used in some applications of the invention as well. Advertising can be integrated into game play as part of the picture decoding process.

Claims

1. A method of conducting a pictorial based electronic game comprising the steps:

automatically constructing a library of candidate game images, which candidate game images include images of scenes captured by digital and/or photographic machines and embodied in digital and/or photographic form;

storing said candidate game images on a user associated device or on a server configured to communicate with said user associated device;

for each of said candidate game images, automatically generating different, progressively degraded versions of said candidate game images by performing processing on said candidate game images to alter at least one of a pixilation, noise, or resolution of said candidate game images to obscure content of said candidate game images;

selecting a first game image from among said candidate game images;

presenting a first, highly degraded one of said different, progressively degraded versions for said first game image and successively presenting progressively less degraded ones of said different, progressively degraded versions over a first time period until an entire content of said first game image is revealed;

associating said first game image with one or more concepts;

providing a rule set for a user to use to predict an identity of said one or more concepts; and

processing responses from the user in compliance with said rule set to determine if said user has accurately determined an identity of said one or more concepts associated with said first game image;

wherein said first game image is presented to the user during at least a portion of said first time period substantially without textual information describing said one or more respective concepts.

2. The method of claim 1 further including a step:

combining said digital and/or photographic form with other metadata for the scene into said first game image.

3. The method of claim 1 further including a step:

causing a computing system to automatically find digital and/or photographic form images in one or more Internet accessible image repositories.

4. The method of claim 1 further including a step:

generating and storing scene component and scene timing information for said scene as part of said first game image.