TWI383825B - Interactive game method with alarm function and system thereof - Google Patents

Description

Interactive game method and system with warning function

The invention relates to an interactive game method and system with warning function.

At present, there are various game systems for detecting the three-dimensional motion of the user end, such as baseball or billiard games, boxing, swordsman swords, and the like. In this kind of game, the user holds the remote pointing device (such as a racket, a bat, a fake sword) attached to the game unit, and reacts according to the screen on the screen (such as hitting and slashing); the game unit detects The remote control directs the three-dimensional movement of the device and accordingly produces a response on the screen. An example of such a game can be found in U.S. Patent No. 6,795,068.

However, due to the realistic presence of such games, game players often wave the remote pointing device, which inevitably poses a danger to surrounding objects or personnel. In this regard, in the publication of U.S. Patent No. 2006/0049579, a remote pointing device for an additional seat belt is disclosed, which can be placed on the wrist to prevent it from falling off. Although this method can prevent the remote pointing device from falling off the user's hand, it cannot be called ideal; because the safety problem of the above-mentioned damage and injury is not solved.

In view of this, the present invention is directed to the lack of prior art, and proposes an interactive game method and system with a warning function to solve the aforementioned security problem. Moreover, although the above security problems are more likely to occur when using a three-dimensional remote pointing device, the present invention is not limited to being used in a three-dimensional interactive game; any game using a remote pointing device can be applied to the present invention.

The object of the present invention is to provide an interactive game method with a warning function. When the remote pointing device is too close to the surrounding object, the safety mechanism can be activated (issuing a warning or starting a corresponding protective measure) to avoid the collision and solving the foregoing. safe question.

A second object of the present invention is to provide an interactive game system with a warning function.

In order to achieve the above object, in one embodiment of the present invention, an interactive game system with an alert function is provided, comprising: at least one remote pointing device; and a game console having a detectable remote pointing device position The component detects the position of the remote pointing device and generates game information according to the movement of the position; wherein the remote pointing device includes a distance detecting device to detect the distance between the remote pointing device and the surrounding object The interactive game system initiates a security mechanism when the distance is less than a predetermined safe distance.

In the above embodiment, the distance detecting device comprises a signal transmitter, a signal receiver, and a processing circuit, and the processing circuit calculates the distance according to the time when the signal is transmitted back to the receiver.

In the above embodiment, the signal transmitter does not transmit signals in all directions to avoid the user holding the remote pointing device.

In the above embodiment, the safety distance is [(the length of the remote pointing device itself plus the standard length of the adult arm) and multiplied by the safety factor].

In the above embodiment, the game host generates a change of the game screen on a screen according to the game information, and the security mechanism includes one or more of the following actions: displaying a warning pattern on the screen; displaying the warning text on the screen; Warning tone; issue a warning; close the screen; force the game to be interrupted; show the interactive game The way to entice gamers to move in a safe direction.

In the above embodiment, the interactive game method includes at least two remote pointing devices, and the interactive game system initiates a security mechanism when the distance between the two remote pointing devices is less than twice the safe distance.

Moreover, according to still another embodiment of the present invention, there is also provided an interactive game method with an alert function, comprising: providing at least one remote pointing device; detecting the remote control with a component capable of detecting a position of the remote pointing device and a surrounding object The distance between the pointing device and the surrounding object; and when the distance is less than a predetermined safe distance, the security mechanism is activated.

The purpose, technical content, features and effects achieved by the present invention will be more readily understood by the detailed description of the embodiments.

The present invention will be described below by taking a three-dimensional interactive game as an example, but as described above, the present invention can be applied regardless of a three-dimensional interactive game or other games. In addition, it should be noted that the three-dimensional interactive game has various hardware configuration methods and methods for calculating three-dimensional information. The following is an example to illustrate that the present invention has reached an implementable stage, but it does not mean that the present invention is limited to the following hardware configuration or practice.

Referring to FIG. 1A-1B, one of the three-dimensional interactive games is to set at least one illumination source and at least two sensors, and convert the three-dimensional information according to the sensing result of the sensor to the illumination source. . The light source and the sensor can be separately arranged on the game host and the remote pointing device, or other arrangement manners, for example, the light source can be set independently, separated from the game host and the remote pointing device, and then communicated by wire or wireless, etc. . Two of the examples are illustrated. In FIG. 1A, the illumination sources 11L, 11R are disposed on the remote pointing device 13, and the sensors 12L, 12R are disposed on the game console 14 (or an extended receiver, not shown). The game console 14 is placed above the screen 10. (The game console and the remote pointing device are shown schematically and the entities are not shown.) Figure 1B arranges the illumination sources 11L, 11R and the sensors 12L, 12R in the opposite manner. The three-dimensional position of the remote pointing device can be calculated according to the image generated by the light source, the relative distance between the two sensors, the focal length of the sensor, and the like. In detail, as shown in Fig. 2, it is assumed that the center position distance between the left and right sensors is T, and the focus distance of the sensor is f. The image generated by the light source contains an object, and the object is on the left side. The x coordinate in the 2D image obtained by the sensor is xl, and the x coordinate in the 2D image obtained by the right sensor is xr (assuming the center position of the sensor is the origin, then xr is sensed on the right side) The left position of the center of the device is negative, and the distance of the object from the sensor is Z, according to the similar triangle theorem, x _l /f = X/Z , and -x _r /f =( T - X ) /Z

Therefore, the three-dimensional information of the object can be obtained: X = ( T × x _l ) / ( x _l - x _r )

Y = ( T × y _l ) / ( x _l - x _r ) (where y _l is not shown in the figure)

Z = f ×[ T /( x _l - x _r )]

In this way, 卽 can generate three-dimensional information of the object.

Of course, the above calculation method is only one of the feasible methods. In addition to the above methods, other methods can be used to calculate the three-dimensional information. For example, only one optical sensor can be used to capture the image, and the gyroscope can be used in combination with the gyroscope. Positioning, calculating 3D information based on image information and positioning information, and so on. How to calculate 3D information is not the focus of this case, so all possible practices and details will not be described.

Please refer to FIG. 3 (for convenience, in the figure, the remote pointing device is shown as a remote controller, in fact, its shape may be a bat, a long sword, etc.), according to the present invention, the possible reasons for the collision of the remote pointing device include The following three:

1. The remote pointing device collides with the equipment furniture (such as TV screen, TV cabinet) at the location of the game console (or the extended receiver) (arrow 1 in the figure)

Second, the remote pointing device collides with surrounding people (such as people, furniture, walls) (arrow 2 in the figure)

3. Two or more remote pointing devices collide with each other (arrow 3 in the figure)

The solution of the present invention is described below for the possible possible causes of collision. It is to be understood that the following are only examples of the invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention;

1. The remote pointing device collides with the location of the game console

In the calculation of the aforementioned three-dimensional information of the object, the distance Z between the remote pointing device and the game host (or the extended receiver) has been obtained. According to the present invention, a security mechanism can be set, and if the distance is less than a certain safe distance, warning information can be generated, or security protection can be provided in other ways. The "safe distance" may be, for example, [(the length of the remote pointing device itself l plus the standard length L of the adult arm) and multiplied by the safety factor R ], where R is for example 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, ...; When Z≦( l + L )* R , the security mechanism is started. If necessary, the R value can be opened to the game player to set it up. The means of providing security protection or warning information can be, for example, displaying a warning pattern or warning text on the screen; issuing a warning tone or warning; turning off the screen; forcing the game to be interrupted; and inducing the game player to be safe in an interactive game presentation manner. Move in direction (such as zooming in on the screen, or moving the protagonist position in the game forward to lure the game player back); and so on.

In addition to setting the safety mechanism according to the distance Z , the remote pointing device can be prevented from colliding with the game host according to the following manner to prevent the remote pointing device from colliding with the surrounding person.

Second, the remote pointing device collides with the surrounding people

Referring to FIG. 4, the remote pointing device is prevented from colliding with the surrounding person. For example, the distance detecting device 30 can be installed on the remote pointing device 13 itself to detect the distance between the remote pointing device and other objects. The distance detecting device is currently a mature technology, for example, an infrared ray transmitter (IR TX) 31 and a receiver (IR RX) 32 can be used, and the distance is calculated by the processing circuit 33 according to the time when the light is returned to the receiver after the light is emitted. In the present invention, if both the game itself and the distance detecting device use infrared rays, it should be noted that the infrared frequency used by the distance detecting device should be separated from the infrared frequency used by the game to avoid crosstalk. In addition, as shown in the figure, the emission angle of the infrared rays should be appropriately designed so that the emission angle does not cover the game player 20 itself to avoid misjudgment. When the distance detected by the distance detecting device is less than the safe distance, the safety mechanism is activated. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the remote pointing device can simply determine the distance and transmit the distance data to the game console. As for whether or not to activate the security mechanism, the determining function is performed by the host. But of course, it is also feasible to design the control function in the remote pointing device if the judgment function of the safety mechanism is activated.

It should be noted that the above practice is only one of the preferred embodiments of the present invention. In addition to the above practices, there are other ways to do so. For example, if the game is played in a fixed environment (for example, providing a dedicated game section), the position of the fixed object in the environment can be set first, and the position of the remote pointing device is compared with the position of the fixed object according to the three-dimensional information obtained by the game. Although this is computationally complicated, the distance detecting device can be eliminated from the remote pointing device. For another example, the distance detecting device can be installed on the screen end, for example, can be installed on the game host or its extended receiver, and the game host can determine whether to start the security mechanism according to the distance detection result of the plurality of objects. In this method, the object entering the game interval preferably has a light source. Or a good reflector.

Three or more remote pointing devices collide with each other

If more than two remote pointing devices are allowed in the game, you can use any of the above methods to calculate the distance between the two remote pointing devices; or calculate the distance between the two remote coordinates based on the game itself, or calculate the distance between them. A distance detecting device is provided to calculate the distance therebetween. It should be noted that since the two remote pointing devices may move relative to each other at the same time, in this case, the safety distance between the two should be set to be twice as large as when moving unilaterally.

The hardware circuits of the various embodiments of the present invention described above are described below as an example. As shown in FIG. 5, the distance detecting device 30 can be installed in the remote pointing device 13, and the distance detecting device 30 includes an infrared transmitter (IR TX) 31, a receiver (IR RX) 32, and processing. Circuit 33. The remote pointing device 13 further includes a wireless transceiver circuit (TX&RX) 35 for communicating with a corresponding wireless transceiver circuit (TX&RX) 45 in the game console 14. The distance data calculated by the processing circuit 33 is supplied to the processing circuit 43 in the game host 14 through the wireless transceiver circuits 35 and 36 to determine whether to activate the security mechanism. The processing circuits 33 and 43 may be any circuit having a data computing function, such as a CPU, an MCU, a DSP, or even an ASIC.

The present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, and the present invention is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, various equivalent changes can be immediately considered within the spirit of the invention. For example, the interactive system of the present invention can be applied not only to various game platforms, but also to other occasions where collision avoidance is required. The remote pointing device and the game console are not limited to wireless communication, but can also communicate in other ways. The device for detecting the distance is not limited to the use of infrared rays. Each of the circuits shown does not necessarily need to be a separate integrated circuit, and other additional circuits that do not affect its main function can be added therein. All of these have the possibility of various equivalent changes. Equivalent changes or modifications of the concept and spirit of the invention are intended to be included within the scope of the invention.

1,2,3‧‧‧ arrows

10‧‧‧ screen

11L, 11R‧‧‧Light source

12L, 12R‧‧‧ sensor

13‧‧‧Remote pointing device

14‧‧‧ game console

20‧‧‧ Gamers

30‧‧‧Distance detection device

31‧‧‧Infrared emitter

32‧‧‧Infrared receiver

33‧‧‧Processing circuit

35‧‧‧Wireless transceiver circuit

43‧‧‧Processing Circuit

45‧‧‧Wireless transceiver circuit

Figure 1A-1B illustrates two examples of a three-dimensional interactive game system.

Figure 2 shows how to calculate 3D coordinate information.

Figure 3 illustrates the possible collisions.

Figure 4 is an embodiment of the invention.

Figure 5 further illustrates a hardware embodiment of the present invention.

1,2,3‧‧‧ arrows

Claims (11)

An interactive game method with a warning function, comprising: providing at least one remote pointing device; detecting a distance between the remote pointing device and a surrounding object by detecting an element of the remote pointing device and a surrounding object; and when the distance is less than The security mechanism is activated when a preset security distance is reached. The interactive game method of claim 1, wherein the detecting the distance comprises: transmitting a signal to the surrounding by the remote pointing device; receiving the reflected signal; and returning to the receiver according to the time after the signal is transmitted, Calculate the aforementioned distance. The interactive game method of claim 2, wherein the remote pointing device does not transmit the signal in all directions to avoid the user holding the remote pointing device. The interactive game method of claim 1, further comprising: generating a change of the game screen on a screen according to the position of the remote pointing device, and the security mechanism comprises one or more of the following actions: A warning pattern is displayed on the screen; a warning text is displayed on the screen; a warning tone is sounded; a warning is issued; the screen is closed; the game is interrupted; and the interactive game is used to induce the game player to move in a safe direction. The interactive game method of claim 1, comprising at least two remote pointing devices, and when the distance between the two remote pointing devices is less than twice the safe distance, the interactive game system starts safely. mechanism. An interactive game system with a warning function, comprising: at least one remote pointing device; a game host having an element capable of detecting a position of the remote control pointing device to detect the position of the remote control pointing device and generating game information according to the movement of the position; wherein the remote pointing device includes a distance detecting device, To detect the distance between the remote pointing device and the surrounding object, the interactive gaming system initiates a security mechanism when the distance is less than a predetermined safe distance. The interactive game system of claim 6, wherein the distance detecting device comprises a signal transmitter, a signal receiver, and a processing circuit, and the processing circuit calculates the foregoing according to a time when the signal is transmitted back to the receiver. distance. The interactive game system of claim 7, wherein the signal transmitter does not transmit signals in all directions to avoid the user holding the remote pointing device. For example, in the interactive game system described in claim 6, wherein the safety distance is [(the length of the remote pointing device itself plus the standard length of the adult arm) and multiplied by the safety factor]. The interactive game system of claim 6, wherein the game host generates a change of the game screen on a screen according to the game information, and the security mechanism comprises one or more of the following actions: displaying on the screen Warning pattern; display warning text on the screen; issue a warning tone; issue a warning; turn off the screen; force the game to be interrupted; and use the interactive game to induce the game player to move in a safe direction. The interactive game system of claim 6, comprising at least two remote pointing devices, and when the distance between the two remote pointing devices is less than twice the safe distance, the interactive game system starts safely. mechanism.