Patent No. 6447396 Method and apparatus for coordinating an interactive computer game with a broadcast television program

 

Patent No. 6447396

Method and apparatus for coordinating an interactive computer game with a broadcast television program (Galyean, III, et al., Sep 10, 2002)

Abstract

In order to coordinate an interactive computer game with a television broadcast, a central control establishes a large virtual environment in which viewers participate with characters either controlled or designed by them. Each user can directly control or influence characters within a "active region" which encompasses part of the virtual environment that is much less than the total environment. The broadcast portion of the system also has an active region, at least a portion of which is shown on a broadcast television show. The locations of the active regions are controlled by the central control. In accordance with one embodiment, the central control moves the active regions of selected users so that these active regions coincide or overlap the broadcast active region. The selected users are then allowed to control characters that appear on the broadcast television show. In accordance with another embodiment, the central control may transport characters created by a user from the user's active region to the broadcast active region by means of a virtual "portal."

Notes:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to multi-player interactive computer games, methods, and apparatus for using these games to interact with broadcast television programs.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Computer games are a very popular form of contemporary entertainment. Many of these computer games display an animated character in a virtual, on-screen environment. Movement and actions performed by the animated character can be controlled by the user and often the character interacts with other characters that are generated by the computer in the virtual environment.

More recently, multi-player games have become popular. In this type of game, a player runs a computer game version on his local computer. This game version acts as a client that can connect to a central server; generally, this connection is made over the Internet. In general, both the client and server computers maintain a shared representation of the state of a virtual environment in which the game is played. Consequently, these games are typically called networked virtual environment, or net-VE, games. Changes made by a player to his local client representation are sent to the server, and then the server propagates those changes to each of the other clients. Similarly, changes made by the server to the server-side simulation are also propagated to all connected clients. This multi-player arrangement allows a player not only to interact with the virtual environment, but also to interact with the virtual characters controlled by other players.

The problem with this system is that only those players who have purchased the client portion of the computer game can participate in the game. Further, it is not possible for others, such as a player's friends, to even view the game in progress unless they are can view the game on a player's monitor. Thus, these games tend to be limited to a plurality of single players sifting in front of their computers.

Television broadcasts that can be viewed simultaneously by a large audience and television programs, including programs that use live actors, as well as animated shows are extremely popular. When compared to computer games, television shows have the added advantage that many more people own television sets than own computers. Thus, the potential audience for television shows in much larger then that for computer games, even multi-player games.

However, attempts to allow audience participation in broadcast television shows have, to date, been limited. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,143 discloses a live television game show in which viewers of the television broadcast of the game show could interact with the game show by entering answers: via telephones. This arrangement allowed viewers to have the perception that they were interacting with the show. Although this system allows viewers to interact with a televised show, it has many limits. In the first place, the viewers could only interact with the show when the show was actually being broadcast; there was no possibility of playing the game when the show was not being broadcast. Secondly, all viewers always saw the same televised show. In addition, the viewers were unable to change or modify either what they saw or how events progressed.

Another arrangement allowed many viewers to influence a broadcast television show by "voting." In such an arrangement, viewers used entry devices, such as telephones, to enter a vote, selecting one of a plurality of predetermined choices. After a certain time period allowed for voting, the votes entered were tallied and the majority of votes was used to influence the television broadcast. This scheme has many of the same shortcomings as the arrangement discussed above.

Other attempts were made to address these shortcomings. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,881 discloses an interactive display in which a viewer could receive personalized video, audio and graphics during a television broadcast. While this system allowed viewers to see different displays, the personalization was limited to backgrounds and peripheral events. The viewer still had no direct control over, or participation in, the broadcast portion of the system.

Still other computer games were developed that allowed participants to have different views, yet interact on at least some level. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,598 discloses a computer game system in which different participants viewing different scenes are allowed to interact by means of objects that pass from one scene to another. A user can interact with an object when the object comes into "viewing" distance of the user's characters. However, this system has no broadcast component Therefore, there is a need for an interactive game in which the user can have a rich interaction with a television broadcast to an extent greater than previously possible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a central control establishes a large virtual environment in which viewers participate with characters either controlled and/or designed by them. Each user can directly control or influence characters within a "active region," a region with defined boundaries that encompass part of the virtual environment that is much less than the total environment. The broadcast portion of the system also has an active region, at least a portion of which is shown on a broadcast television show. The locations of the active regions are controlled by the central control although users may request that the central control move their active region.

In accordance with one embodiment, the central control moves the active regions of selected users so that these active regions coincide with, or overlap, the broadcast active region. The selected users are then allowed to control characters that appear on the broadcast television show. The control may be actual real-time control or may be "pre-programmed" control in which the users create characters with preselected characteristics or parameters and then the characters act autonomously or are controlled by broadcast portion of the system when the characters are present in the broadcast active region.

In accordance with another embodiment, the central control may transport characters created by a user from the user's active region to the broadcast active region by means of a virtual "portal." Once the characters arrive at the broadcast active region, they may be under real-time control by the user or may operate with preprogrammed characteristics as previously described.

In another embodiment, the virtual environment in the broadcast active region may constitute the entire show so that the television broadcast is an animated show with computer controlled characters. Alternatively, the television show may feature a section with live actors and a section comprising a totally animated portion. In still another embodiment, the animated portion of the television show consists of a display screen that appears with the live actors so that the actors can interact with the animated characters during the broadcast. Alternatively, the live actors can interact with the animated characters by means of conventional "blue screen" techniques.

In accordance with another embodiment, the central control is a central server with a central database. Each user and the broadcast portion of the system have its own computer. All of the computers and the server maintain shared representations of a common simulation. The server maintains a simulation of the entire virtual environment and each computer maintains a simulation of its active region portion of the environment. The simulations are coordinated by passing messages between the users computer and the server. The messages may be passed over the Internet.

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Although an exemplary embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made which will achieve some of the advantages of the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, it will be obvious to those reasonably skilled in the art that, although the description was directed to a particular hardware system and operating system, other hardware and operating system software could be used in the same manner as that described. Other aspects, such as the specific instructions utilized to achieve a particular function, as well as other modifications to the inventive concept are intended to be covered by the appended claims.