POSITION CALCULATION SYSTEM, POSITION CALCULATION DEVICE, STORAGE MEDIUM STORING POSITION CALCULATION PROGRAM, AND POSITION CALCULATION METHOD

• US 20120044177A1
• Filed: 08/15/2011
• Published: 02/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/20/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: OHTA, Keizo, Ito, Jun
• Granted Patent: US 10,150,033 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/173
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/2145 the surface being also a display device, e.g. touch screens
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/22 Setup operations, e.g. calibration, key configuration or button assignment
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/26 having at least one additional display device, e.g. on the game controller or outside a game booth
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/323 between game devices with different hardware characteristics, e.g. hand-held game devices connectable to game consoles or arcade machines
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/428 involving motion or position input signals, e.g. signals representing the rotation of an input controller or a player's arm motions sensed by accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/5255 according to dedicated instructions from a player, e.g. using a secondary joystick to rotate the camera around a player's character
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/54 involving acoustic signals, e.g. for simulating revolutions per minute [RPM] dependent engine sounds in a driving game or reverberation against a virtual wall
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1075 using a touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/301 using an additional display connected to the game console, e.g. on the controller
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6669 using a plurality of virtual cameras concurrently or sequentially, e.g. automatically switching between fixed virtual cameras when a character change rooms
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6676 by dedicated player input
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• 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

Abstract

An example position calculation system calculates a position in a three-dimensional virtual space based on an operation on a controller device. In the position calculation system, the position in the virtual space is calculated based on an attitude of the controller device and an input position on a predetermined input surface of the controller device. More specifically, the position calculation system may calculate, as the position in the virtual space, a position on a surface which is determined in accordance with the attitude of the controller device in the virtual space, based on the input position.

Claims

1. A position calculation system for calculating a position in a three-dimensional virtual space based on an operation on a controller device,

wherein the position in the virtual space is calculated based on an attitude of the controller device and an input position on a predetermined input surface of the controller device.

2. The position calculation system according to claim 1, comprising the controller device and an information processing device, wherein:

the controller device comprises;

a position detection section for detecting an input position on the input surface;

a sensor section for outputting data for calculating the attitude; and

a data transmission section for transmitting data outputted from the position detection section and the sensor section to the information processing device; and

the information processing device comprises;

an attitude calculation section for calculating the attitude of the controller device based on data outputted from the sensor section; and

a position calculation section for calculating the position in the virtual space based on the attitude and the input position.

3. The position calculation system according to claim 2, wherein the sensor section includes an inertia sensor.

4. The position calculation system according to claim 1, wherein the controller device further comprises a display section for displaying an image representing the virtual space.

5. The position calculation system according to claim 4, wherein the position detection section is a touch panel provided on a screen of the display section.

6. The position calculation system according to claim 1, comprising a position calculation section for calculating, as the position in the virtual space, a position on a surface which is determined in accordance with the attitude of the controller device in the virtual space, based on the input position.

7. The position calculation system according to claim 6, further comprising a surface setting section for setting the surface so that an attitude of the surface changes in accordance with the attitude of the controller device.

8. The position calculation system according to claim 6, wherein:

the controller device comprises;

a display section for displaying an image representing a virtual space including an area of the surface; and

a touch panel provided on a screen of the display section; and

the position calculation section calculates the position on the surface which is calculated based on the input position so that the input position on the touch panel and the position on the surface coincide with each other on the screen.

9. The position calculation system according to claim 1, comprising a process performing section for performing a predetermined process using the position in the virtual space associated with the input position as an input.

10. The position calculation system according to claim 9, wherein the process performing section identifies one of a plurality of areas set in the virtual space that includes the position in the virtual space associated with the input position, and causes a predetermined sound output section to output a sound associated with the identified area.

11. The position calculation system according to claim 10, wherein:

the plurality of areas are arranged in a generally arc shape;

a surface is set in the virtual space so that the surface moves along the plurality of areas in accordance with a change in the attitude of the controller device; and

a position on the surface is calculated based on the input position.

12. The position calculation system according to claim 9, comprising:

an object setting section for setting the predetermined object in the virtual space; and

an image generation section for generating an image representing the virtual space including the predetermined object as an image to be displayed on a predetermined display device,

wherein the process performing section performs the predetermined process when the position in the virtual space associated with the input position is calculated to be a position of the predetermined object.

13. The position calculation system according to claim 12, the image generation section comprising:

a first generating section for generating, as an image to be displayed on a display device of the controller device, an image representing a partial region of the object so that the region changes in accordance with the attitude of the controller device; and

a second generating section for generating, as an image to be displayed on another display device separate from the display device of the controller device, an image representing a larger region of the object than the partial region.

14. The position calculation system according to claim 1, comprising:

an object placement section for placing, in the virtual space, an object whose attitude is controlled so as to correspond to the attitude of the controller device; and

an image generation section for generating, as an image to be displayed on a predetermined display device, an image representing the virtual space including the object.

15. The position calculation system according to claim 1, wherein:

the controller device includes a display section for displaying keys arranged in the virtual space; and

when the position in the virtual space associated with the input position is calculated to be a position of one of the keys, a predetermined sound output section outputs a sound associated with the key corresponding to the position.

16. A position calculation method for calculating a position in a three-dimensional virtual space based on an operation on a controller device,

wherein the position in the virtual space is calculated based on an attitude of the controller device and an input position on a predetermined input surface of the controller device.

17. The position calculation method according to claim 16, wherein:

the position calculation method is carried out in a system including the controller device and an information processing device;

the controller device performs;

a position detection step of detecting the input position on the input surface; and

a data transmission step of transmitting data of the input position and data for calculating the attitude to the information processing device; and

the information processing device performs;

an attitude calculation step of calculating the attitude of the controller device based on the data for calculating the attitude; and

a position calculation step of calculating the position in the virtual space based on the attitude and the input position.

18. The position calculation method according to claim 16, further comprising a display step of displaying an image representing the virtual space on a display section of the controller device.

19. The position calculation method according to claim 16, comprising a position calculation step of calculating, as the position in the virtual space, a position on a surface which is determined in accordance with the attitude of the controller device in the virtual space, based on the input position.

20. The position calculation method according to claim 19, further comprising a surface setting step of setting the surface so that an attitude of the surface changes in accordance with the attitude of the controller device.

21. The position calculation method according to claim 19, wherein:

the controller device comprises;

a display section for displaying an image representing a virtual space including an area of the surface; and

a touch panel provided on a screen of the display section; and

the position calculation step calculates the position on the surface which is calculated based on the input position so that the input position on the touch panel and the position on the surface coincide with each other on the screen.

22. The position calculation method according to claim 16, comprising a process performing step of performing a predetermined process using the position in the virtual space associated with the input position as an input.

23. The position calculation method according to claim 22, wherein the process performing step identifies one of a plurality of areas set in the virtual space that includes the position in the virtual space associated with the input position, and outputs a sound associated with the identified area to a predetermined sound output section.

24. The position calculation method according to claim 23, wherein:

the plurality of areas are arranged in a generally arc shape;

a surface is set in the virtual space so that the surface moves along the plurality of areas in accordance with a change in the attitude of the controller device; and

a position on the surface is calculated based on the input position.

25. The position calculation method according to claim 22, comprising:

an object setting step of setting the predetermined object in the virtual space; and

an image generation step of generating, as an image to be displayed on a predetermined display device, an image representing the virtual space including the predetermined object,

wherein the process performing step performs the predetermined process when the position in the virtual space associated with the input position is calculated to be a position of the predetermined object.

26. The position calculation method according to claim 25, wherein

the image generation step comprises:

a first generating step of generating, as an image to be displayed on a display device of the controller device, an image representing a partial region of the object so that the region changes in accordance with the attitude of the controller device; and

a second generating step of generating, as an image to be displayed on another display device separate from the display device of the controller device, an image representing a larger region of the object than the partial region.

27. The position calculation method according to claim 16, comprising:

an object placing step of placing, in the virtual space, an object whose attitude is controlled so as to correspond to the attitude of the controller device; and

an image generation step of generating, as an image to be displayed on a predetermined display device, an image representing the virtual space including the object.

28. The position calculation method according to claim 16, wherein:

keys arranged in the virtual space are displayed on a display section of the controller device; and

when the position in the virtual space associated with the input position is calculated to be a position of one of the keys, a predetermined sound output section outputs a sound associated with the key corresponding to the position.

29. A position calculation device for calculating a position in a three-dimensional virtual space based on an operation on a controller device,

wherein the position in the virtual space is calculated based on an attitude of the controller device and an input position on a predetermined input surface of the controller device.

30. The position calculation device according to claim 29, wherein:

an image representing keys arranged in the virtual space is generated as an image to be displayed on a display section of the controller device; and

when the position in the virtual space associated with the input position is calculated to be a position of one of the keys, a sound associated with the position is generated as a sound to be outputted from a predetermined sound output section.

31. A computer-readable storage medium storing a position calculation program executable on a computer of a position calculation device for calculating a position in a three-dimensional virtual space based on an operation on a controller device,

wherein the position calculation program causes the computer to function as a position calculation section for calculating the position in the virtual space based on an attitude of the controller device and an input position on a predetermined input surface of the controller device.

32. The storage medium according to claim 31, wherein:

the position calculation program causes the computer to further function as;

an image generation section for generating, as an image to be displayed on a display section of the controller device, an image representing keys arranged in the virtual space; and

a sound generation section for generating, when the position in the virtual space associated with the input position is calculated to be a position of one of the keys, a sound associated with the key corresponding to the position as a sound to be outputted from a predetermined sound output section.