System and method for managing audio and video channels for video game players and spectators

• US 9,937,425 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2017
• Issued: 04/10/2018
• 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: Sullivan, David R., McCool, Robert, Perlman, Stephen G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Suhol, Dmitry
• Assistant Examiner(s): DOSHI, ANKIT B
• Application Number:
  US15/615,068
• Publication Number:
  US 20170266569A1
• Time in Patent Office: 308 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/352 involving special game server arrangements, e.g. regional servers connected to a national server or a plurality of servers managing partitions of the game world
• 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 13/358 Adapting the game course according to the network or server load, e.g. for reducing latency due to different connection speeds between clients
• 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 13/537 using indicators, e.g. showing the condition of a game character on screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/87 Communicating with other players during game play, e.g. by e-mail or chat
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/407 Data transfer via internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/513 server hierarchy, e.g. local, regional, national or dedicated for different tasks, e.g. authenticating, billing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/534 for network load management, e.g. bandwidth optimization, latency reduction
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering
• 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 2300/6072 of an input signal, e.g. pitch and rhythm extraction, voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A computer-implemented system and method are described for managing audio chat for an online video game or application. For example, a system according to one embodiment comprises: an online video game or application execution engine to execute an online video game or application in response to input from one or more users of the video game or application and to responsively generate audio and video of the video game or application; and a chat subsystem to establish audio chat sessions with the one or more users and one or more spectators to the video game or application, the chat subsystem establishing a plurality of audio chat channels including a spectator channel over which the spectators participate in audio chat and a user channel over which the users participate in audio chat.

Claims

1. A system for managing chat sessions for online video games comprising:

an online video game execution engine on a hosting service configured to,

execute an online video game, in response to selection of the online video game for game play received from one or more players over a network;

responsively generate audio and video data of the online video game, the audio and video data being generated based on input received from the one or more players interacting with the online video game, wherein the input for the online video game is received from remote client devices associated with the one or more players;

transmit the generated audio and video data of the online video game to the remote client devices of the one or more players;

a chat subsystem of the hosting service configured to establish chat sessions with the one or more players playing the online video game and between a coach and a specific one of the players playing the online video game, the chat subsystem configured to,

establish a plurality of chat channels including,

a player channel over which the players participate in chat, wherein the player channel is associated with specific one of the players and a client device of the specific one of the players through a corresponding player node, and

a coach channel over which the specific one of the players and a coach of the online video game participate in chat, wherein the coach channel is associated with the coach and a client device of the coach through a corresponding coach node and the specific one of the players is associated with the coach channel through corresponding player node of the specific one of the players; and

manage the plurality of chat channels that includes the player channel and the coach channel, concurrently.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the chat subsystem further includes,

a spectator channel over which spectators participate in chat, wherein the spectator channel is associated with a particular spectator and a client device of the particular spectator through a corresponding spectator node,

wherein the online video game execution engine is configured to transmit the generated audio and video data of the online video game to remote client devices of the spectators.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the coach and the client device of the coach are communicatively linked to the spectator channel through the coach node.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the coach is a computational entity driven by an artificial intelligence system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the coach is a spectator or another player.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the coach is provided with an option to control the online video game of the specific one of the players, during game play.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the coach channel is an audio chat channel or a video chat channel, and wherein the player channel is an audio chat channel or a video chat channel.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the chat subsystem is further configured to extract audio portion of select ones of the chat, process the audio portion and forward the audio portion to select ones of the players or the coach, wherein the select ones of the chat are from the player channel or the coach channel.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the chat subsystem includes filters, wherein the filters are used to disguise a voice detected in the audio portion.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the chat subsystem includes a voice-to-text conversion logic to convert the audio portion of the chat to text and wherein the voice-to-text conversion logic includes a translation logic that is configured to translate audio portion of the chat to text in another language than a language in which the audio is spoken.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the chat of a player or the coach includes a video of the player or the coach chatting, the video is provided as a video stream to the chat subsystem.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the chat associated with the player or the coach channel includes a video of a computer-generated character, the video capturing animation of the computer-generated character in whole or in part based on audio spoken by the respective player or the coach.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the chat subsystem is configured to forward a chat stream of the chat to the specific one of the players on a different client device than the client device used by the specific one of the players for playing the video game.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein when a new player or a new coach is admitted to a chat session, a player node or a coach node associated with the new player or the new coach is added to a corresponding player channel or coach channel for the chat session.

15. A method for managing chat sessions for online video games comprising:

executing an online video game using an online video game execution engine of a hosting service, in response to input from one or more players of the online video game, the executing includes responsively generating audio and video data of the online video game based on the input received from the one or more players interacting with the online video game using remote client devices and forwarding the audio and video data of the online video game to respective ones of the remote client devices of the one or more players for rendering; and

establishing, using a chat subsystem at the hosting service, chat sessions with the one or more players and between a coach and a specific player, wherein establishing comprises setting up a plurality of chat channels and managing the plurality of chat channels concurrently, wherein the plurality of chat channels includes a player channel over which the one or more players participate in chat, and a coach channel over which the specific player and the coach participate in chat,

wherein managing the plurality of chat channels includes assigning a priority level to each of the players, the specific player and the coach that have joined the corresponding chat sessions, the priority level used to set a priority for processing data packets received from each of the players, the specific player or the coach.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein managing the plurality of chat channels further includes providing options to allow the one or more players of the online video game to join and participate in the chat carried over the player channel.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein establishing the chat sessions further includes establishing a spectator channel over which one or more spectators of the online video game participate in chat.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein managing the plurality of chat channels further includes providing options to the coach to participate in the chat carried over the spectator channel.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein managing the plurality of chat channels further includes,

extracting audio portion of select ones of the chat, processing the audio portion and forwarding the audio portion to select ones of the players or the coach.

20. The method of claim 19, further includes filtering the audio portion of the select ones of the chat to disguise a voice captured in the audio portion, the filtered audio portion forwarded to the select ones of the players or the coach.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein managing the plurality of chat channels further includes,

presenting the chat of the one or more players to another player or a second coach that requests to join the chat sessions, wherein the player channel and the coach channel allow audio chat or video chat, wherein the chat presented may be the audio chat or the video chat.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein managing the plurality of chat channels further includes merging a chat of a selective player or the coach with game play data of the online video game, wherein the chat of the selective player or the coach may be an audio chat or a video chat.