System and method for capturing text for an online application

• US 9,352,222 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2010
• Issued: 05/31/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Perlman, Stephen G.
• Primary Examiner(s): DAgostino, Paul A
• Assistant Examiner(s): DOSHI, ANKIT B
• Application Number:
  US12/916,179
• Publication Number:
  US 20110105226A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,041 Days
• Field of Search: 463/30
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• 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 13/31 Communication aspects specific to video games, e.g. between several handheld game devices at close range
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/32 using local area network [LAN] connections
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/209 characterized by low level software layer, relating to hardware management, e.g. Operating System, Application Programming Interface
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/402 Communication between platforms, i.e. physical link to protocol
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/534 for network load management, e.g. bandwidth optimization, latency reduction
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/552 for downloading to client devices, e.g. using OS version, hardware or software profile of the client device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/554 by saving game or status data
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/556 Player lists, e.g. online players, buddy list, black list
• 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 2300/577 for watching a game played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/636 involving process of starting or resuming a game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/69 Involving elements of the real world in the game world, e.g. measurement in live races, real video
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 : Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/401 : wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 : where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 : Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 : for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 : adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 : adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 : intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 : Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 : for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 : Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/107 : between spatial and temporal predictive coding, e.g. picture refresh
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 : Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/146 : Data rate or code amount at the encoder output
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/166 : concerning the amount of transmission errors, e.g. bit error rate [BER]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 : the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 : the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/188 : the unit being a video data packet, e.g. a network abstraction layer [NAL] unit
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/436 : using parallelised computational arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 : in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/233 : Processing of audio elementary streams monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 : involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2381 : Adapting the multiplex stream to a specific network, e.g. an Internet Protocol [IP] network transmission of MPEG streams over ATM H04L12/5601
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 : Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 : involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6377 : directed to server one-way streaming services wherein the source is controlled by the destination H04L65/613
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 : Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/658 : Transmission by the client directed to the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 : Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/106 : for domestic distribution

Abstract

A system and method for entering text within a video game application are described. For example, a system according to one embodiment of the invention comprises: a video game hosting service to execute a video game in response to user input; a client device to communicate with the video game hosting service over a first communication channel, wherein the client device has a first user input device communicatively coupled thereto, and wherein control signals for the video game are generated in response to input from the first user input device and transmitted from the client device to the video game hosting service over the first communication channel, the video game hosting service controlling a video game in response to receipt of the control signals; a display device communicatively coupled to the client device, the display device to display video of the video game; wherein the video game hosting service further includes program code to open a second communication channel to receive text input, the second communication channel being separate and independent from the first communication channel and usable by a data processing device capable of generating text input, wherein in response to receipt of text input over the second communication channel, the video game hosting service causes the text input to be displayed on the display device communicatively coupled to the client device.

Claims

1. A system for entering text within a video game comprising:

a video game hosting service to execute the video game in response to user input; and

a client device to communicate with the video game hosting service over a first communication channel, wherein the client device has a first user input device communicatively coupled thereto, and wherein control signals for the video game are generated in response to input from the first user input device and transmitted from the client device to the video game hosting service over the first communication channel, the video game hosting service controlling the video game in response to receipt of the control signals;

wherein the video game hosting service further includes program code to activate a second communication channel for communicating with the video game hosting service, the second communication channel configured to receive text input from a data processing device capable of generating text input for the video game hosting service, the second communication channel being separate and independent from the first communication channel and usable by the data processing device to communicate with the video game hosted by the video game hosting service, wherein the data processing device is configured to capture keystrokes used to provide text input and transmit the keystrokes over the second communication channel to a text capture application programming interface (API) at the video game hosting service, the text capture API processing the keystrokes and forwarding the text input to the video game without use of the first communication channel, wherein in response to receipt of text input over the second communication channel, the video game executing on the video game hosting service causes the text input to be displayed on a display device communicatively coupled to the client device, the data processing device being separate from the first user input device.

2. The system as in claim 1 wherein the second communication channel comprises an Internet communication channel.

3. The system as in claim 2 wherein the second communication channel comprises a connection between the video game hosting service and a Web server, wherein the Web server receives text input from the data processing device and forwards the text input to the video game executing on the video game hosting service on behalf of a user.

4. The system as in claim 1 wherein the first user input device is integrated on the client device.

5. The system as in claim 1 wherein the text capture API automatically opens the second communication channel upon detecting a text entry event occurring within the video game and leaves the second communication channel open to receive text for a period of time.

6. The system as in claim 5 wherein the period of time is the period of time during which text entry program code within the video game is active.

7. A method implemented within a video game hosting service comprising:

executing a video game in response to user input;

receiving input commands from a client device over a first communication channel, wherein the client device has a first user input device communicatively coupled thereto, and wherein control signals for the video game are generated in response to input from the first user input device and transmitted from the client device to the video game hosting service over the first communication channel, the video game hosting service controlling the video game in response to receipt of the control signals; and

activating a second communication channel to receive text input from a data processing device capable of generating text input for the video game hosting service, the second communication channel being separate and independent from the first communication channel and usable by the data processing device to communicate with the video game hosted by the video game hosting service, the data processing device capturing keystrokes used to provide text input and transmitting the keystrokes over the second communication channel to a text capture Application Programming Interface (API) at the video game hosting service, the text capture API processing the keystrokes and forwarding the text input to the video game without use of the first communication channel, wherein in response to receipt of text input over the second communication channel, the video game executing on the video game hosting service causes the text input to be displayed on a display device communicatively coupled to the client device, the data processing device being separate from the first user input device.

8. The method as in claim 7 wherein the second communication channel comprises an Internet communication channel.

9. The method as in claim 8 wherein the second communication channel comprises a connection between the video game hosting service and a Web server, wherein the Web server receives text input from the data processing device and forwards the text input to the video game executing on the video game hosting service on behalf of a user.

10. The method as in claim 7 wherein the first user input device is integrated on the client device.

11. The method as in claim 7 wherein activating the second communication channel comprises automatically initiating a signal to the text capture API to open the second communication channel, upon detecting a text entry event occurring within the video game and leaving the second communication channel open to receive text for a period of time.

12. The method as in claim 11 wherein the period of time is the period of time during which text entry program code within the video game is active.

13. A machine-readable medium having program code stored thereon which, when executed on a video game hosting service, cause the video game hosting service to perform the operations of:

executing a video game in response to user input;

receiving input commands from a client device over a first communication channel, wherein the client device has a first user input device communicatively coupled thereto, and wherein control signals for the video game are generated in response to input from the first user input device and transmitted from the client device to the video game hosting service over the first communication channel, the video game hosting service controlling the video game in response to receipt of the control signals; and

activating a second communication channel to receive text input from a data processing device capable of generating text input for the video game hosting service, the second communication channel being separate and independent from the first communication channel and usable by the data processing device to communicate with the video game hosted by the video game hosting service, the data processing device used to provide keystrokes for defining text input and to transmit the keystrokes over the second communication channel to a text capture Application Programming Interface (API) at the video game hosting service, the text capture API receiving and processing the keystrokes and forwarding the text input to the video game without use of the first communication channel, wherein in response to receipt of text input over the second communication channel, the video game executing on the video game hosting service causes the text input to be displayed on a display device communicatively coupled to the client device, the data processing device being separate from the first user input device.

14. The machine-readable medium as in claim 13 wherein the second communication channel comprises an Internet communication channel.

15. The machine-readable medium as in claim 14 wherein the second communication channel comprises a connection between the video game hosting service and a Web server, wherein the Web server receives text input from the data processing device and forwards the text input to the video game executing on the video game hosting service on behalf of a user.

16. The machine-readable medium as in claim 13 wherein the first user input device is integrated on the client device.

17. The machine-readable medium as in claim 13 wherein activating the second communication channel comprises automatically initiating a signal to the text capture API to open the second communication channel, upon detecting a text entry event occurring within the video game and leaving the second communication channel open to receive text for a period of time.

18. The machine-readable medium as in claim 17 wherein the period of time is the period of time during which text entry program code within the video game is active.

19. A system for entering text within an application comprising:

an application hosting service to execute the application in response to user input; and

a client device to communicate with the application hosting service over a first communication channel, wherein the client device has a first user input device communicatively coupled thereto, and wherein control signals for the application are generated in response to input from the first user input device and transmitted from the client device to the application hosting service over the first communication channel, the application hosting service controlling the application in response to receipt of the control signals;

wherein the application hosting service further includes program code to activate a second communication channel for communicating with the application hosting service, the second communication channel configured to receive text input from a data processing device capable of generating text input for the application hosting service, the second communication channel being separate and independent from the first communication channel and usable by the data processing device to communicate with the application hosted by the application hosting service, the data processing device configured to capture keystrokes used to provide text input and transmit the keystrokes over the second communication channel to a text capture application programming interface (API) at the application hosting service, the text capture API processing the keystrokes and forwarding the text input to the application without use of the first communication channel, wherein in response to receipt of text input over the second communication channel, the application executing on the application hosting service causes the text input to be displayed on a display device communicatively coupled to the client device, the data processing device being separate from the first user input device.

20. A system for entering text within an application comprising:

the application executed on a first data processing device in response to user input, the first data processing device being local to an end user; and

an input device to transmit control signals to the application over a first communication channel, wherein control signals for the application are generated in response to user input via the input device and transmitted to the first data processing device on which the application is executed over the first communication channel, the first data processing device controlling the application in response to receipt of the control signals;

wherein the first data processing device further includes program code to activate a second communication channel for communicating with the first data processing device, the second communication channel configured to receive text input from a second data processing device capable of generating text input for the first data processing device, the second communication channel being separate and independent from the first communication channel and usable by the second data processing device to communicate with the application hosted by the first data processing device, the second data processing device is configured to capture keystrokes used to provide text input and transmit the keystrokes over the second communication channel to the text capture application programming interface (API) at the first data processing device, the text capture API processing the keystrokes and forwarding the text input to the application without use of the first communication channel, wherein in response to receipt of text input over the second communication channel, the application executing on the first data processing device causes the text input to be displayed on a display device communicatively coupled to the first data processing device, the second data processing device being separate from the input device.

21. The method as in claim 20 wherein the second communication channel comprises a communication channel over a local area network and/or the Internet.

22. The method as in claim 20 wherein the second data processing device comprises a wireless data processing device having a keyboard to be used for text entry.