Storage medium storing virtual position determining program

• US 7,690,994 B2
• Filed: 05/08/2006
• Issued: 04/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Nintendo Company Limited
• Inventors: Dohta, Takuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): McClellan; James S
• Assistant Examiner(s): GALKA, LAWRENCE STEFAN
• Application Number:
  US11/429,263
• Publication Number:
  US 20070060385A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,429 Days
• Field of Search: 345/156, 345/157, 345/158, 345/161, 345/162, 345/179, 463/31, 463 36- 39
• US Class Current: 463/37
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/211 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers or gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/213 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells A63F13/219, A63F13/655 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/42 by mapping the input signals into game commands, e.g. mapping the displacement of a stylus on a touch screen to the steering angle of a virtual vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1006 having additional degrees of freedom
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/105 using inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/1087 comprising photodetecting means, e.g. a camera
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6045 for mapping control signals received from the input arrangement into game commands
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0325 using a plurality of light emitters or reflectors or a plurality of detectors forming a reference frame from which to derive the orientation of the object, e.g. by triangulation or on the basis of reference deformation in the picked up image
• 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

Abstract

A game controller includes an image-capturing section, and outputs, as control data, a captured image itself or a result of performing a predetermined operation on the captured image. Using the control data obtained from the game controller, distance data regarding the distance between the game controller and the imaging target is calculated. A predetermined game process is performed on a virtual game world based on the calculated distance data. Then, the virtual game world after the game process is displayed as an image on a display device.

Claims

1. A storage medium storing a virtual position determining program for instructing a computer to perform a process on a virtual space based on input information obtained from an input device operated by a user, the input information including target data that changes according to a change in a position of a predetermined target in a real space, the program instructing the computer to perform:

actual position data calculation for calculating actual position data representing a position of the target in the real space by using the target data;

effective range defining for defining an effective range as a range extending from a first boundary to a second boundary, wherein the first boundary is represented by first position data and the second boundary is represented by second position data;

effective range position data calculation for calculating effective range position data representing a position of a value of the actual position data in the effective range;

position determining for determining a position of a controlled object in the virtual space through an operation based on a value of the effective range position data; and

a display process for displaying the virtual space on a display device, wherein

said input device is a controller which is held in a hand of the user and receives instructions from the user and outputs control signals so that the computer performs the process on the virtual space, wherein the virtual position determining program instructs the computer to further perform effective range updating for, when the value of the actual position data is outside the effective range, updating the effective range by moving the first boundary and the second boundary so that the value of the actual position data is included in the effective range.

2. The storage medium storing a virtual position determining program according to claim 1, wherein the virtual position determining program instructs the computer to further perform effective range updating for, when the value of the actual position data is outside the effective range, updating the effective range by moving the first boundary and the second boundary so that one of the first boundary and the second boundary that is closer to the value of the actual position data becomes equal to the value of the actual position data.

3. The storage medium storing a virtual position determining program according to claim 1, wherein the virtual position determining program instructs the computer to further perform second effective range updating for, when the value of the actual position data is outside the effective range, updating the effective range by moving the first boundary and the second boundary so that one of the first boundary and the second boundary that is closer to the value of the actual position data approaches the value of the actual position data at a predetermined rate.

4. The storage medium storing a virtual position determining program according to claim 1, wherein the effective range position data calculation calculates the effective range position data so that the effective range position data takes a maximum value when the value of the actual position data is equal to the first boundary and the effective range position data takes a minimum value when the value of the actual position data is equal to the second boundary.

5. The storage medium storing a virtual position determining program according to claim 1, wherein:

the effective range defining includes further defining a play range having a predetermined length at a front end of the effective range and a rear end thereof and

the virtual position determining program instructs the computer to further perform effective range updating for, when the actual position data takes a value outside a combined range including the effective range and the play ranges, updating the effective range by moving the values of the first boundary and the second boundary so that one of the first boundary and the second boundary that is closer to the value of the actual position data becomes equal to the value of the actual position data.

6. The storage medium storing a virtual position determining program according to claim 5, wherein the effective range position data calculation includes calculating the effective range position data so that the effective range position data takes a maximum value when the value of the actual position data is equal to the first position data or exceeds the effective range in a direction of the first position data, and the effective range position data takes a minimum value when the value of the actual position data is equal to the second position data or exceeds the effective range in a direction of the second position data.

7. The storage medium storing a virtual position determining program according to claim 1, wherein:

the effective range defining defines the second position data on a first side of the first position data, third position data on a second side of the first position data, and fourth position data on the first side of the second position data; and

the effective range defining defines an upper limit boundary as position data variable from the first position data to the third position data and a lower limit boundary as position data variable from the second position data to the fourth position data, and defining the effective range as a range between the variable upper limit boundary and the variable lower limit boundary; and

the virtual position determining program instructs the computer to further perform;

when the value of the actual position data is within the variable range of the upper limit boundary/lower limit boundary, updating the upper limit boundary/lower limit boundary so that the upper limit boundary/lower limit boundary approaches the value of the actual position data at a predetermined rate, and updating the lower limit boundary/upper limit boundary so that the lower limit boundary/upper limit boundary approaches the second position data/first position data at a predetermined rate;

when the value of the actual position data is within a range between the first position data and the second position data, updating the upper limit boundary/lower limit boundary so that the upper limit boundary/lower limit boundary approaches the first position data/second position data at a predetermined rate;

when the value of the actual position data is further on the second side of the third position data, moving the first position data, the second position data, the third position data, the fourth position data and the lower limit boundary so that a value of the third position data approaches the value of the actual position data at a predetermined rate and updating the upper limit boundary to the new second position data; and

when the value of the actual position data is further on the first side of the fourth position data, moving the first position data, the second position data, the third position data, the fourth position data and the upper limit boundary so that a value of the fourth position data approaches the value of the actual position data at a predetermined rate and updating the lower limit boundary to the new fourth position data.

8. The storage medium storing a virtual position determining program according to claim 7, wherein the effective range position data calculation includes calculating the effective range position data so that the effective range position data takes a minimum value when the value of the actual position data is equal to the first position data or exceeds the effective range in a direction forward of the first position data, and the effective range position data takes a maximum value when the value of the actual position data is equal to the second position data or exceeds the effective range in a direction backward of the second position data.

9. A storage medium storing a virtual position determining program for, based on data from an input device operated by a user including position information of a target in a real space, calculating a position of the target obtained when representing the real space in a predetermined coordinate system, and calculating a virtual position of a virtual object in a virtual space based on the calculated position, the virtual position determining program instructs a computer to function as:

effective range defining programmed logic circuitry for defining an effective range, which is defined by at least a first position and a second position in a predetermined coordinate system of the real space;

normalization programmed logic circuitry for, when the position of the target is included in the effective range, normalizing the position of the target and calculating a value corresponding to the position of the target obtained when the normalization is performed; and

calculation programmed logic circuitry for calculating the virtual position based on the value calculated by the normalization programmed logic circuitry, wherein

said input device is a controller which is held in a hand of the user and receives instructions from the user and outputs control signals so that the computer performs a process on the virtual space, wherein the virtual position determining program instructs the computer to further function as effective range moving programmed logic circuitry for, when the position of the target is not included in the effective range, updating the first position and the second position to move the effective range to a position that includes the position of the target.