ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM FOR PERFORMING HUMAN INTELLIGENCE TASKS

• US 20120330445A1
• Filed: 06/25/2012
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gary S. Shuster
• Original Assignee: Gary S. Shuster
• Inventors: Shuster, Gary Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 9,579,575 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/92
• 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 13/216 using geographical information, e.g. location of the game device or player using GPS
• 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 13/46 Computing the game score
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/63 by the player, e.g. authoring using a level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/655 by importing photos, e.g. of the player
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/822 Strategy games; Role-playing games A63F13/825, A63F13/828 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/837 Shooting of targets
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5526 Game data structure
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6009 for importing or creating game content, e.g. authoring tools during game development, adapting content to different platforms, use of a scripting language to create content
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/69 Involving elements of the real world in the game world, e.g. measurement in live races, real video

Abstract

A game engine is configured to accept human intelligence tasks as in-game content and present the in-game content to the game player. Human intelligence tasks, such as visual discrimination, are thus enabled in a video game context. The game engine may receive a definition of human intelligence tasks from one or more remote sources present the human intelligence tasks to multiple video game participants as in-game content. The game engine defines and enables game play rules for the in-game content. The game play rules set parameters for the multiple video game participants to perform the human intelligence tasks to achieve desired results. The game engine may award each of the multiple video game participants an improved game score upon successful performance of the human intelligence tasks in accordance with the game play rules. The game engine may measure success by consistency in responses between different participants or trials.

Claims

1-22. -22. (canceled)

23. A method comprising:

receiving digital image data comprising images of physical objects at a game client via a computer network;

outputting the digital image data as part of game output from a game application operating on the game client, in response to receiving the digital image data from the server;

contemporaneously outputting a game environment in coordination with the digital image data;

generating a game score responsive to user input received from a user interface device during game play, by increasing the game score in response to a first potion of the user input indicating consistency in human visual discrimination of images included in the digital image data for a user of the game engine, and reducing the game score in response to a second portion of the user input indicating inconsistency in human visual discrimination of the images; and

providing a record identifying a sequence of the images output during game play correlated to the user input to a server.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising processing the record using an inference algorithm to infer a probability that a predetermined attribute applies to the ones of the images.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising outputting a description of the predetermined attribute during game play.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising receiving a signal from the server indicating one or more attributes of the images, based at least in part on the record.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising outputting a description of the one or more attributes during game play.

28. A method comprising:

distributing digital image data comprising images of physical objects from a server to a game client via a computer network;

communicating with the game client operating a game engine, wherein the game engine is configured to (a) output the digital image data as part of game output in response to receiving the digital image data from the server, to (b) contemporaneously output a game environment in coordination with the digital image data, and to (c) generate a game score responsive to user input received by the game client from a user interface device during game play, by increasing the game score in response to a first portion of the user input indicating consistency in human visual discrimination of images included in the digital image data for a user of the game engine and reducing the game score in response to a second portion of the user input indicating inconsistency in human visual discrimination of the images;

receiving a record from the game client identifying a sequence of the images output during game play correlated to the user input; and

inferring a predetermined attribute of ones of the images based on the record.

29. The method of claim 28, further generating the digital image data from photographic images.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein inferring the predetermined attribute comprises processing the record using an inference algorithm to infer a probability that the predetermined attribute applies to the ones of the images.

31. The method of claim 28, further comprising dividing the digital image data into distinct sets, and distributing different ones of the distinct sets to different client machines.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising receiving game records from the different client machines.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein distributing the digital image data comprises transmitting the digital image date in a single batch to the game client.

34. The method of claim 28, wherein distributing the digital image data comprises transmitting the digital image date in a sequence of batches to the game client.

35. The method of claim 28, wherein the images in the digital image data include still photographic images.

36. The method of claim 28, wherein the images in the digital image data include video images.

37. The method of claim 28, further comprising operating a multiplayer game host on the server, in communication with the game engine on the game client.

38. The method of claim 28, further comprising one or more attributes that are to be determined for images in the digital image data, in response to user input.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising distributing task definition information to the game client, the task information defining the one or more attributes to be determined.

40. A method comprising:

distributing digital map data from a server to a game client via a computer network, wherein the digital image map represents a plurality of physical locations together with the possible routes and distances between each pair of physical locations within such plurality of physical locations;

communicating with a game engine operating on the game client, wherein the game engine is configured to (a) output the digital map data as part of game map structure in response to receiving the digital map data from the server, and (b) require a user to navigate through the game map structure between digital map points to fulfill a game objective in a minimal time,

receiving from the game client a path taken through, and speed with which, the user virtually traversed between the digital map points representing the plurality of physical locations by navigating through the game map structure during game play; and

tracking relative efficiency of various routing combinations tried by users interacting with the game client or with similar game clients, to identify a most efficient known route between a pair of the physical locations correlating to the digital map points.

41. The method of claim 40, further comprising storing the most efficient known route in a computer memory.

42. A method comprising:

receiving, at a client device, a digital image map representing a plurality of physical locations together with the possible routes and distances between each pair of physical locations within the plurality of physical locations;

operating a computer game incorporating the digital image map, using a game engine operating on the client device;

outputting the digital map data as part of a game map structure;

requiring a user to navigate through the game map structure between digital map points to fulfill a game objective in a minimal time;

recording a path taken through, and speed with which, the user virtually traverses between the digital map points representing the plurality of physical locations by navigating through the game map structure during game play.

43. The method of claim 42, further comprising reporting the path taken and speed to a computer server.