System and method for capturing text for an online application

• US 9,669,306 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2016
• Issued: 06/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• 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): Suhol, Dmitry
• Assistant Examiner(s): DOSHI, ANKIT B
• Application Number:
  US15/169,664
• Publication Number:
  US 20160271493A1
• Time in Patent Office: 371 Days
• 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 video game hosting service, comprising:

a server that is configured to execute an instance of a video game application, the server is configured to exchange game play data of the video game application with a first client device over a network using a first communication channel established between the server and the first client device by the video game hosting service;

a module for automatically establishing a second communication channel between a second client device and the server of the video game hosting service when a text entry event is detected during execution of the video game application, wherein the module is configured to query a user account associated with a user operating the first client device to identify the second client device; and

a text capturing application programming interface (API) that interfaces with the video game application, the text capturing API is configured to process textual data generated at the second client device and received through the second communication channel, and transmit the textual data to the video game application executing on the server,

wherein a text entry program code within the video game application is configured to generate a text entry graphical user interface (GUI) for receiving the textual data,

wherein the second communication channel is separate and independent from the first communication channel and enables the second client device to be independently connected to the server executing the video game application on the video game hosting service without connecting through the first client device that is used for providing user input for the video game application.

2. The video game hosting service of claim 1, the text entry GUI is forwarded to the second client device for rendering, the text entry GUI includes an interactive virtual keyboard that is operable using the second client device.

3. The video game hosting service of claim 1, wherein a trigger signal is generated and transmitted by the video game application to the second client device in response to detecting a trigger of the text entry event at the video game application.

4. The video game hosting service of claim 3, wherein the trigger signal causes a text entry application to be automatically opened at the second client device for receiving textual data.

5. The video game hosting service of claim 3, wherein the trigger signal is used to present a notification at the second client device, user interaction at the notification causes a text entry application to be opened at the second client device for receiving textual data.

6. The video game hosting service of claim 3, wherein the trigger signal is generated in response to a game state of the video game application.

7. The video game hosting service of claim 1, wherein the textual data is used to provide control input to the video game application.

8. The video game hosting service of claim 1, wherein the textual data provided using the second client device includes user authentication data, the user authentication data is used to authenticate the user in order to provide access to the video game application and is not rendered on a display screen of the first client device.

9. The video game hosting service of claim 1, wherein the second communication channel is established between the second client device and a webserver hosting a website, over the network and the text capturing API interfaces between the webserver and the server of the video game hosting service.

10. The video game hosting service of claim 9, wherein the website is configured to execute a text capture program code, the text capture program code is designed to receive textual data through the second communication channel, verify the textual data, and transmit the textual data to the text capturing API.

11. The video game hosting service of claim 10, wherein the text capture program code is configured to present a data entry field on a web page rendered at the website, for receiving the textual data.

12. The video game hosting service of claim 9, wherein the webserver hosting the website is part of the video game hosting service.

13. The video game hosting service of claim 9, wherein the webserver hosting the website is external to the video game hosting service.

14. The video game hosting service of claim 1, wherein the textual data is forwarded along with game play data for rendering at a display screen of the first client device.

15. The video game hosting service of claim 1, wherein the second client device is a wearable computing device.

16. The video game hosting service of claim 1, wherein the second client device is communicatively connected to a network that is different from the network of the first client device.

17. A video game hosting service, comprising:

a server configured to execute an instance of a video game application, the server is configured to exchange game play data of the video game application with a first client device over a network using a first communication channel established between the server and the first client device by the video game hosting service; and

a module for establishing a second communication channel between a second client device and the server of the video game hosting service during execution of the video game application, wherein the module is configured to access a user account associated with a user operating the first client device to identify the second client device,

wherein a text entry program code within the video game application is configured to generate a graphical user interface (GUI) for receiving the textual data, and

wherein the second communication channel is separate and independent from the first communication channel and enables the second client device to be independently connected to the server executing the video game application on the video game hosting service without connecting through the first client device that is used for providing user input for the video game application.

18. The video game hosting service of claim 17, further includes a text capturing application programming interface (API) that is configured to provide an interface between the second client device and the video game application, the text capturing API is designed to receive textual data from the second client device through the second communication channel, process the textual data, and transmit the textual data to the video game application executing on the server.

19. The video game hosting service of claim 17, wherein the module is configured to keep the second communication channel open for a pre-defined period of time to receive text input, and wherein the second client device is any typing capable input device that is connected to the network.

20. The video game hosting service of claim 17, wherein the module is part of the video game application.