Handheld device wireless music streaming for gameplay

• US 9,384,747 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2013
• Issued: 07/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Activision Publishing Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Oberg, Gregory Keith, Booth, Jesse Nathaniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Coburn, Corbett B
• Application Number:
  US13/791,489
• Publication Number:
  US 20130190088A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• Field of Search: 463/35
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 13/327 using wireless networks, e.g. Wi-Fi® or piconet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/355 Performing operations on behalf of clients with restricted processing capabilities, e.g. servers transform changing game scene into an encoded video stream for transmitting to a mobile phone or a thin client
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/814 Musical performances, e.g. by evaluating the player's ability to follow a notation
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/204 the platform being a handheld device
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/405 being a wireless ad hoc network, e.g. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Pico net
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/408 Peer to peer connection
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6081 generating an output signal, e.g. under timing constraints, for spatialization
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8047 Music games
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/12 the excitation function being a code excitation, e.g. in code excited linear prediction [CELP] vocoders

Abstract

Systems and methods for streaming of audio data of separate streams in at least two different formats. According to aspects of the invention handheld game devices are in wireless communication and a first of the handheld game devices streams audio data during game play to a second of the handheld game devices. The audio data includes audio data from a plurality of streams of audio data. The streams of audio data include streams of audio data in different formats, generally different compressed formats, some of which may be selected based on whether a device includes circuitry specifically configured to decompress audio data in a specific data format.

Claims

1. A method for use in communicating audio information from a first handheld device to a second handheld device, the method comprising:

providing a first audio stream in a first data format, the first audio stream including some portions of a song;

providing a second audio stream in a second data format, the second audio stream including other portions of the song, the second data format being different from the first data format;

combining the first audio stream and the second audio stream into an output stream in an interleaved manner, the output stream having data of the first audio stream in the first data format and data of the second audio stream in the second data format; and

transmitting the output stream from the first handheld device to the second handheld device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the first data format is Ogg; and

the second data format is ADPCM.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first handheld device and the second handheld device are each a handheld game device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the output stream from the first handheld device to the second handheld device is performed in accordance with an 802.11 standard.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the providing a first audio stream in a first data format comprises loading data of the first audio stream from a memory cartridge.

6. An audio stream transmitting system for transmitting information from a first handheld device to a second handheld device, the audio stream transmitting system comprising:

a first buffer configured to receive a first audio stream in a first format, the first audio stream including one portion of a song;

a second buffer configured to receive a second audio stream in a second format, the second audio stream including another portion of the song, the second data format being different from the first data format;

a processor configured to combine, in an interleaved manner, the first audio stream and the second audio stream into an output stream, the output stream including data of the first audio stream in the first format and data of the second audio stream in the second format; and

a transmitting system configured to transmit the output stream from the first handheld device to the second handheld device.

7. The audio stream transmitting system of claim 6, wherein:

the first data format is Ogg; and

the second data format is ADPCM.

8. The audio stream transmitting system of claim 6, further comprising a third buffer configured to receive data of the output stream.

9. The audio stream transmitting system of claim 6, the transmitting system is configured to transmit data in accordance with an 802.11 standard.

10. The audio stream transmitting system of claim 6, further comprising a memory cartridge configured to provide data of the first audio stream and data of the second audio stream.