Sony Gaming Patents: Playstation, Virtual Gaming and More

Sony PlayStation4 is slightly edging Microsoft’s Xbox One this holiday season so far.

Another developer of consumer technologies that is expected to win big at retail stores during the holiday season is the Sony Corporation. Headquartered in the metropolis of Tokyo, Japan, this conglomerate of entertainment and technology companies is going toe-to-toe with Microsoft this season for control of the video gaming console market. Both have earned huge levels of sales this season, Microsoft with its new Xbox One console and Sony through the PlayStation 4. Although sales are have been fairly level, some indicators are coming out that Sony is edging Microsoft slightly through the middle part of December. Aside from the PlayStation 4, Sony has also unveiled a number of computing devices, like this micro USB flash drive for Android devices, that are sure to make a splash on the consumer market.

Last Friday we took a look at some Microsoft Xbox patents. This week’s holiday version of IPWatchdog’s Companies We Follow series continues by taking a look at some gaming related patents from the other major player in the Winter 2013 gaming market. As always, we’ve drummed up some very interesting patent applications and issued patents coming out of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Gamers who want to get the edge on the newest offerings from Sony will want to pay special attention to this column.

The featured patent application today discusses a system of associating handheld controllers with users when engaging in game play through a video game console. Although this is already done manually by players, the automatic system of identifying players through camera images takes a lot of the cumbersome nature out of loading player profiles and switching out players during game play. Other patent applications have been filed to protect a new style of video game controller as well as a few other patent applications for Sony’s virtual reality and augmented reality gaming systems.

Sony has also been the recent recipient of many patents, issued directly by the USPTO, that have recently protected the corporation’s advancements in video gaming. These include a patent protecting an illuminating controller, where the color illuminating the controller corresponds to a player color within a game. Other issued patents protect systems of enabling game developers to offer game samples for download more cheaply, as well as a system that can manipulate game avatars in response to real-life player actions.

[Companies-1]

 

Multi-Image Interactive Gaming Device
U.S. Patent Application No. 20130324243

Multiple players are allowed to interact with the same video gaming console through the use of separate handheld controllers that directs their avatar through game play. Every generation of Sony video gaming console, from the original PlayStation through PlayStation 3, has allowed this form of multiplayer interaction. In fact, at least two players have been able to play a game on the same console since the earliest days of gaming.

However, sometimes the process of getting multiple players on the same game can be cumbersome, especially as more players want to get involved. One player is usually responsible for ensuring that all other devices are properly connected and that players can allowed into game play. As games go on, a player may want to step out or switch with a non-playing participant, but then the issue of signing into a player profile and switching a player to a preferred playing position starts all over again.

This patent application, filed by Sony with the USPTO, would protect a system of managing handheld controllers that is much more intuitive to user actions. This system is aided by two cameras that are trained on players. Images recorded by the first camera are linked to a computer processor which is able to analyze biometric data, such as face shape and appearance, to identify a unique user. The second camera takes an image of the interactive area of play before players start the game, aiding the first camera in discovering unique individuals.

Once a player has been recognized by the system, the controller being held by that user is automatically associated with their profile. The system is also designed to be able to discern between players and non-playing spectators. If the first camera does not register the face of an individual close enough to a handheld controller that has not already been associated with another player, the individual is not linked to any controller, whether or not that person is in the camera’s field of vision.

Claim 1 of this Sony patent column would provide protections for:

“An image capture device for providing input to an interactive application, comprising: a housing: a first camera defined along a front surface of the housing; a first camera controller configured to control the first camera to capture images of an interactive environment during user interactivity at a first exposure setting; a second camera defined along the front surface of the housing; a second camera controller configured to control the second camera to capture images of the interactive environment during the user interactivity at a second exposure setting lower than the first exposure setting, the captured images from the second camera being analyzed to identify and track an illuminated object in the interactive environment.”

 

Other Patent Applications

This holiday season, it doesn’t take much searching to find plenty of gaming goodies on the way from Sony. A cursory glance at the last few weeks of published patent applications released by the USPTO shows plenty of interesting developments that will soon be used by video game players from all over the globe. One of the recent developments that is sure to change the playing experience for most PlayStation 4 owners is U.S. Patent Application No. 20130324254, entitled Flat Joystick Controller. This application would protect the design and manufacture of a new kind of controller that more closely resembles the stick controller utilized by the Nintendo Wii. Instead of a controller with a rotatable joystick, this controller uses an input section that can analyze a user’s finger movements on the input pad. U.S. Patent Application No. 20130311951, which is titled Method and Apparatus for Dynamically Adjusting Game or Other Simulation Difficulty, helps game players better adjust game difficulty for a more engaging gaming experience. Instead of players manually selecting a difficulty level, this system analyzes a player’s success and adjusts the difficulty automatically.

[Companies-2]

A few other patent applications that we’ve noticed this week are related to virtual reality games or virtual augmentations to physical reality that Sony computer systems are able to generate. Better user interactions with augmented reality systems are the focus of U.S. Patent Application No. 20130303285, filed under the title Apparatus and Method for Augmented Reality. This application would protect a system of user interaction with augmented reality that better scales a 2D camera image of a real world environment onto a 3D game playing system. U.S. Patent Application No. 20130328928, titled Obstacle Avoidance Apparatus and Obstacle Avoidance Method, improves safety for players engaged in full virtual reality game play. This system is capable of registering physical obstacles that a player, immersed in virtual reality, cannot see and works to direct players away from those obstacles.

From U.S. Patent Application No. 20130328928, titled “Obstacle Avoidance Apparatus and Obstacle Avoidance Method.”

 

Issued Patents of Note (Images: real time effects.png; illuminating controller.png;

Christmas is close approaching, and just like the season would indicate, Sony is the happy recipient of a large number of issued patents this holiday season. Over the past few weeks, IPWatchdog has noticed a number of issued patents from the USPTO related to Sony’s computer gaming systems. The Companies We Follow series is always interested in cataloguing these official patent holdings, the true indication of a corporation’s relative strength in their industry.

Better methods of controlling game play on a video game console are the main thrust of a few of the patent applications awarded to Sony recently by the USPTO. U.S. Patent No. 8602894, entitled Illuminating Controller for Interfacing with a Gaming System, protects a system of illuminating a player’s handheld controller with a tracking color. That color is reflected in the tracking color indicating a virtual avatar or other item that individual player controls on the playing field.

From U.S. Patent No. 8602894, entitled “Illuminating Controller for Interfacing with a Gaming System.”

 

U.S. Patent No. 8601379, issued under the title Methods for Interactive Communications with Real Time Effects and Avatar Environment Interaction, protects a system of using real world stimulus, such as player movement or sound, to trigger visual or audio effects within a video game. The portability of player’s game profiles is also enhanced by U.S. Patent No. 8591339, titled Method and Apparatus for Representing Computer Game Player Information in a Machine-Readable Image. This system enables player data involving statistics and performance to a scannable image so that online or offline systems can display information related to a gamer’s profile.

A few other innovations that have recently been protected through issued patents will make the game play experience better for owners of PlayStation 3 and 4 in more subtle ways. For example, U.S. Patent No. 8600897, entitled System and Method for Transacting Access to Media, makes it less costly for game developers to share gaming samples for download via the PlayStation Network, opening up the ability for gamers to try out even more game titles before buying. Finally, we took a look at U.S. Patent No. 8589905, issued under the title Game Device and Information Processing Apparatus. This patent protects a system of updating a user’s operating system on a gaming console so that playing time isn’t lost by the need to update the system through a downloadable patch when a new game is being loaded by the console.

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