Game console communication with a device

• US 20060068910A1
• Filed: 09/30/2004
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Maciesowicz, Maciej, Smith, Derek H., Whitten, Jon Marcus Randall, Maston, Michael Cory, Pirich, Christopher M., Schmidt, Brian Lloyd, Martinez, Gregory A., Poley, Joshua G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,991,890 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/235 using a wireless connection, e.g. infrared or piconet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/92 Video game devices specially adapted to be hand-held while playing
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1025 details of the interface with the game device, e.g. USB version detection
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/206 Game information storage, e.g. cartridges, CD ROM's, DVD's, smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204

Abstract

Communication between a game console having a communication port and a portable device is facilitated by determining that a portable device has been directly connected to the communication port, determining the protocol associated with the portable device, and communicating with the portable device using a driver associated with the determined protocol. An ancillary application may handle the communication between the game console and the portable device while a game or entertainment application executes concurrently on the game console. The game application may execute in a reserved predetermined amount of hardware resources of the game console while the ancillary application may execute concurrently using the remaining hardware resources.

Claims

1. A method for communication between a game console having a communication port and a portable device, the method comprising:

determining that a portable device has been directly connected to a communication port of a game console;

determining the protocol associated with the portable device; and

communicating with the portable device in accordance with the determined protocol.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein communicating with the portable device comprises communicating with the portable device via a driver associated with the determined protocol.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the communication port is a Universal Serial Bus port.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining the protocol associated with the portable device comprises determining that the protocol is a Media Transfer Protocol and wherein communicating with the portable device comprises communicating with the portable device via a Media Transfer Protocol compatible driver.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the Media Transfer Protocol compatible driver supports only a subset of the Media Transfer Protocol features.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining the protocol associated with the portable device comprises determining that the protocol is a Universal Serial Bus protocol and wherein communicating with the portable device comprises communicating with the portable device via a Universal Serial Bus Mass Storage Specification driver compatible.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the Universal Serial Bus Mass Storage Specification compatible driver supports only a subset of the Universal Serial Bus Mass Storage Specification features.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein communicating with the portable device comprises one of writing a game controller configuration setting to the portable device and receiving a game controller configuration setting from the portable device.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein communicating with the portable device comprises one of writing a game application configuration setting to the portable device and receiving a game application configuration setting from the portable device.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining a media file stored on the portable device;

writing an indication of the media file to an audio/visual port for display on a display device;

receiving a user selection of the media file; and

playing the selected media file.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein playing the selected media file comprises playing a slide show of digital photographs.

12. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising copying the selected media file to the game console prior to playing the selected media file.

13. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising streaming the selected media file to the game console.

14. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the selected media file comprises a digital photograph and playing the selected media file comprises:

converting the selected media file to a format compatible with display via an audio/visual port; and

writing the converted media file to the audio/visual port for display on a display device.

15. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the selected media file comprises an audio file and playing the selected media file comprises:

converting the selected media file to a format compatible with rendering via an audio/visual port; and

writing the converted media file to the audio/visual port for an audio device.

16. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining that a portable device has been directly connected to the communication port comprises determining that a digital camera has been directly connected to the communication port.

17. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining that a portable device has been directly connected to the communication port comprises determining that a Universal Serial Bus compatible memory device has been directly connected to the communication port.

18. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining that a portable device has been directly connected to the communication port comprises determining that a Universal Serial Bus flash configuration device has been directly connected to the communication port.

19. The method as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

writing wireless network configuration prompts to an audio/visual port for display on a display device;

receiving wireless network configuration information from an input device of the game console; and

storing the received wireless network configuration information to the Universal Serial Bus flash configuration device.

20. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining that a portable device has been directly connected to the communication port comprises determining that a portable networking device has been directly connected to the communication port.

21. The method as recited in claim 20, further comprising providing network communication to the game console via the portable networking device.

22. A method for communication between a game console having a communication port and a portable device, the method comprising:

reserving a predetermined amount of hardware resources of a game console for executing a game application;

executing the game application substantially using the predetermined amount of reserved hardware resources; and

concurrently executing an ancillary application substantially using the remaining hardware resources to communicate between the game console and a portable device directly connected to the game console.

23. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein reserving the predetermined amount of hardware resources comprises reserving a predetermined amount of memory for the game application.

24. The method as recited in claim 22, wherein reserving the predetermined amount of hardware resources comprises reserving a portion of central processing unit time for the game application.

25. The method as recited in claim 22, further comprising:

determining that a portable device has been directly connected to a communication port of the game console;

determining the protocol associated with the portable device; and

communicating with the portable device in accordance with the determined protocol.

26. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein the communication port is a Universal Serial Bus port.

27. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein determining the protocol associated with the portable device comprises determining that the protocol is a Media Transfer Protocol.

28. The method as recited in claim 27, wherein communicating with the portable device comprises communicating via a Media Transfer Protocol compatible driver supports only a subset of the Media Transfer Protocol features.

29. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein determining the protocol associated with the portable device comprises determining that the protocol is a Universal Serial Bus protocol.

30. The method as recited in claim 29, wherein communicating with the portable device comprises communicating with the portable device via a Universal Serial Bus Mass Storage Specification compatible driver supports only a subset of the Universal Serial Bus Mass Storage Specification features.

31. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein communicating with the portable device comprises one of writing a game controller configuration setting to the portable device and receiving a game controller configuration setting from the portable device.

32. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein communicating with the portable device comprises one of writing a game application configuration setting to the portable device and receiving a game application configuration setting from the portable device.

33. The method as recited in claim 25, further comprising:

determining a media file stored on the portable device;

writing an indication of the media file to an audio/visual port for display on a display device;

receiving a user selection of the media file; and

playing the selected media file.

34. The method as recited in claim 33, wherein playing the selected media file comprises playing a slide show of digital photographs.

35. The method as recited in claim 25, further comprising:

writing wireless network configuration prompts to an audio/visual port for display on a display device;

receiving wireless network configuration information from an input device of the game console; and

storing the received wireless network configuration information to a Universal Serial Bus flash configuration device connected to the communication port.

36. The method as recited in claim 25, wherein determining that a portable device has been directly connected to the communication port comprises determining that a portable networking device has been directly connected to the communication port and further comprising providing network communication to the game console via the portable networking device.

37. The method as recited in claim 22, further comprising reserving a second predetermined amount of memory for facilitating communication between the game application and the ancillary application.

38. The method as recited in claim 22, further comprising sharing an input device between the game application and the ancillary application.

39. A game console, comprising:

a central processing unit having a portion of its resources reserved for executing a game application;

a communication controller having an associated port, the communication controller in communication with the central processing unit;

a memory in communication with the central processing unit, the memory having a first portion of resources reserved for executing the game application and a second portion of resources reserved for executing an ancillary application to communicate with a portable device directly connected to the communication controller port.

40. The game console as recited in claim 39, wherein the memory further has a third portion of resources reserved for communication between the game application and the ancillary application.

41. The game console as recited in claim 39, wherein the communication controller is a Universal Serial Bus compatible controller.

42. The game console as recited in claim 39, wherein the ancillary application performs determining that a portable device has been directly connected to the communication controller port, determining the protocol associated with the portable device, and communicating with the portable device in accordance with the determined protocol.

43. The game console as recited in claim 39, wherein the ancillary application performs determining a protocol associated with the portable device and communicating with the portable device via a driver compatible with the determined protocol, wherein the driver supports only a subset of the determined protocol features.

44. The game console as recited in claim 39, wherein the ancillary application performs determining a media file stored on the portable device, writing an indication of the media file to an audio/visual port for display on a display device, receiving a user selection of the media file, and playing the selected media file.

45. The game console as recited in claim 39, wherein the ancillary application performs writing wireless network configuration prompts to an audio/visual port for display on a display device, receiving wireless network configuration information from an input device of the game console, and storing the received wireless network configuration information to the portable device.