Input device and method for shooting games

[0001] The present invention relates to an input device and method for a shooting game, and more particularly, to an input device and method capable of utilizing gesture signals detected by inertial sensing modules for controlling the aiming and shooting of a target displayed on any type of displaying device of a shooting game.

[0002] The “light gun” is so named because it uses light as its method of detecting where on screen you are targeting, which is is typically modeled on a ballistic weapon (usually a pistol) and is used for targeting objects on a shooting video game. With force feedback, the light gun can also simulate the recoil of the weapon. The name leads one to believe that the gun itself emits a beam of light, but in fact all light guns actually receive light through a photoreceptor diode in the gun barrel. The diode uses light reception to do its targeting, in conjunction with a timed mechanism between the trigger of the gun and some rather smart graphics programming.

[0003] The trick to the implimation of a light gun upon a shooting game lies in the nature of the cathode ray tube (CRT) inside the video monitor, that each frame of a conventional CRT TV is composed of a plurality scan lines. Generally, one frame of a common CRT TV is composed of 512 scan line whereas the CRT TV is capable of displaying 30 frames per second, that is, the transmission frequency adpoted by television stations is 512×30/sec. As seen in FIG. 1, the screen S is drawn by a scanning electron beam that travels across the screen S starting at the top until it hits the end, and then moves down to update the next line. This is done repeatedly until the entire screen S is drawn, and appears instantaneous to the human eye as it is done very quickly. As the light gun G of FIG. 1 is equipped with a photosensor D and a timer T and when the player pulls the trigger of the light gun G while aiming at the point A, the game brightens the entire screen S for a split second, and the timer T times how long it takes the electron beam to excite the phosphor at the point A the gun G is pointed at as the excitation is detected by the photosensor D. The computer controlling the light gun G then calculates the targeted position based on the monitor's horizontal refresh rate (the fixed amount of time it takes the beam to get from the left to right side of the screen).

[0004] Comparing with other patents relating to light gun, most R.O.C. patents emphosize on the improvement over the light gun's outlook and circuit design as those shown in TW Pat. No. 90106273, TW Pat. No. 86120085, and TW Pat. No. 85302961, etc. As to light gun related patents of other countries, most of those are related to the application of light gun in trapshooting video games or shooting simulation. For instance, a pointing device for controlling the position of a cursor on the display of a computer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,421, entitled “Gyroscope Pointer and Method”, which adopts a gyroscope to detect the rotation movement of a hand holding the device in free space and then converts the angular speed detected by the gyroscope into the moving of the cursor on the display of the computer. However, the aforesaid patent is short in competitiveness since the cost of gyroscope can be very expensive. Moreover, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,545,661, entitled “Video Game System Having a Control Unit with an Accelerometer for Controlling a Video Game”, a control unit with an accelerometer is provided, whereas the accelerometer is used for sensing the tilt of the control unit with respect to an axis so as to control the movement of a game character on the video display accordingly. However, since the tilt sensed by the accelerometer is not quite match to the actual aiming position of a user, the accuracy of aiming is not as expected.

[0005] From the above description, it is noted that conventional light gun can only be used in video monitor using cathode ray tube. There are no patents relating to light gun can enable light guns to be implemented on other types of video monitors. However, as the advance of technology, CRT monitors are gradually being replaced by LCDs, plasma displays or rear projectors that are not applicable to conventional light guns as the image formation principle adopted by those new generation monitors are not the same as that of CRT monitor. Not to mention that it is not a easy job to play a shooting game on CRT monitor using a light gun since additional peripheral devices are required to be installed before the light gun can be integrated to function with the CRt monitor. Furthermore, as the conventional light gun will enable the game to brighten the entire screen for a split second, i.e. to display a all whit frame, it is prone to cause eye fatigue and eventually damage the eyesight of a user.

[0006] In view of the disadvantages of prior art, the primary object of the present invention is to provide an input device and method for a shooting game capable of utilizing an inertial sensing modules to control the movement of a front sight displayed on all types of displaying devices.

[0007] It is another object of the invention to provide an input device and method for a shooting game, which employs accelerations and gestures of hand movements of a user obtained by a means of acceleration detection and a calculation algorithm to control the movement of a front sight displayed on a displaying device so that the user can effortlessly and directly aim at a target of the shooting game by controlling the front sight to focus thereon.

[0008] Yet, another object of the invention to provide an input device and method for a shooting game, that is inexpensive and pleasing to the eye since it can be integrated with a computer mouse with no need of other additional peripheral devices.

[0009] To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides an input device for a shooting game, comprising:

• [0010] an inertial sensing module, for detecting a gesture movement of a user while generating a gesture signal accordingly;
• [0011] a switch unit, for generating an on/off signal;
• [0012] a control unit, connected to the inertial sensing module and the switch for receiving and processing the gesture signal of the inertial sensing module and the on/off signal of the switch while processing those received signals into an aiming signal; and
• [0013] a wireless transmission module, connected to the control unit, for transmitting the aiming signal.

[0014] Preferably, the inertial sensing module further comprises an accelerometer for sensing rotation in free space.

[0015] Preferably, the accelerometer, capable of executing a differential method to compute angular accelerations while integrating the same to obtain angular velocities, is used to detect the gesture of the user.

[0016] Preferably, the control unit further comprises a signal processing unit, capable of converting and encoding a control signal generated by the control unit into the aiming signal while transmitting the aiming signal back to the control unit.

[0017] Preferably, the control unit and the signal processing unit can be integrated into a chip.

[0018] Preferably, the input device further comprises a casing for the switch unit to be fitted thereon while exposing the switch unit outside the casing to be operable externally.

[0019] Preferably, the outlook of the casing can be formed into a shape similar to a gun, a computer mouse or a remote control.

[0020] To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides an input method for a shooting game, comprising steps of:

• [0021] (a) detecting a gesture movement of an user and thus issuing a gesture signal according to the detection;
• [0022] (b) enabling a switch unit to issue an on/off signal;
• [0023] (c) fetching the gesture signal and the on/off signal for processing those received signals into an aiming signal; and
• [0024] (d) transmitting the aiming signal to an interactive device.

[0025] Preferably, the gesture signal is comprised of: a first-axis acceleration signal measured with respect to a first axis of a space; a second-axis acceleration signal measured with respect to a second axis of the space; a first-axis rotation signal measured with respect to the first axis of the space; a second-axis rotation signal measured with respect to the second axis of the space; and a third-axis rotation signal measured with respect to a third axis of the space. Moreover, the first-axis acceleration signal further comprises a first acceleration signal and a second acceleration signal, whereas the third-axis rotation signal can be obtained by performing a differential operation upon the first acceleration signal and the second acceleration signal.

[0026] Preferably, the transmission of step (d) is performed by a wireless transmission means.

[0027] Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the present invention.

[0028] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the operation principle of a conventional light gun.

[0029] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an input device for a shooting game according to the present invention.

[0030] FIG. 2A is a schematic view of an inertial sensing module according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

[0031] FIG. 2B is a 3-D Cartesian coordinates defining three angular velocities respectively for each coordinate, i.e. Wx, Wy, and Wz, for an inertial sensing module of the invention.

[0032] FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating an input method for shooting game according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

[0033] FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating an input method for shooting game according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

[0034] FIG. 5A shows an input device according to a first preferred embodiment of the invention.

[0035] FIG. 5B shows an input device according to a second preferred embodiment of the invention.

[0036] FIG. 5C shows an input device according to a third preferred embodiment of the invention.

[0037] For your esteemed members of reviewing committee to further understand and recognize the fulfilled functions and structural characteristics of the invention, several preferable embodiments cooperating with detailed description are presented as the follows.

[0038] For clarification, the input device for shooting game revealed in the present invention is designed to operate with an interactive device, which can be a television set, a computer or a video game platform. In addition, the displaying device adopted by the interactive device can be a computer monitor, a television monitor or a projector, etc. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the input device of the invention is housed in a gun-shaped casing and is configured to operate corresponding to a shooting game of an interactive device. When the player pulls the trigger, a target displayed on the displaying device of the interactive device was aimed and shot. Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a block diagram of an input device for a shooting game according to the present invention. In FIG. 2, the input device 10 of the invention is comprised of an inertial sensing module 11, a switch unit 12, a control unit 13, a signal processing unit 131, and a wireless transmission module 14.

[0039] For enabling the inertial sensing module 11 to detect a gesture of a user to generate a gesture signal accordingly and as the gesture of the user operating the input device 10 can be represented as a three-dimensional movement defined by a 3-D Cartesian coordinates, i.e. X axis, Y axis and Z axis coordinates, as shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, the inertial sensing module 11 is comprised of two X-axis accelerometers X1, X2 for detecting horizontal movements and a Y-axis accelerometer Y for detecting vertical movements. Thereby, the accelerations α_x1, α_x2 detected respectively by the two accelerometers X1, X2 are differentiated and then integrated to calculate and obtain an angular velocity ω_z, which can be utilized cooperating with the accelerations α_y and the angular velocity ω_x, detected by the accelerometer Y, and accelerations α_x and the angular velocity ω_y, detected by the accelerometer X1, or X2, for simulating the shooting gestures of the user in free space.

[0040] The switch unit 12 is used for generating an on/off signal to be recognized by the shooting game as a firing of a shot. In a preferred aspect as the input device 10 is housed in a gun-shaped casing, the switch unit 12 is the trigger part of the gun-shaped casing. However, the arrangement of the switch unit 12 is not limited thereby, it can be a press-button, or a joystick, that is selected depending of the shape of the casing. The control unit 13 is used for receiving and processing the gesture signal and the on/off signal and processing those received signal into a control signal. The signal processing unit 131 is enabled to converting and encoding the control signal generated by the control unit 13 into an aiming signal suitable for the interactive device to receive while transmitting the aiming signal back to the control unit 13. It is noted that the control unit 13 and the signal processing unit 131 can be integrated into a chip, so that the overall size of the input device 10 can be reduced. Moreover, the wireless transmission module 14 is used for transmitting the aiming signal to the interactive device.

[0041] Please refer to FIG. 3, which is a flow chart illustrating an input method for shooting game according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As seen in FIG. 3, by the input device disclosed above, an input method for shooting games 20 can be provided, which comprises steps of:

• [0042] step 21: utilizing an inertial sensing module 11 for detecting a gesture movement of an user and issuing a gesture signal according to the detection;
• [0043] step 22: enabling a switch unit 12 to issue an on/off signal;
• [0044] step 23: enabling a control unit 13 to fetch the gesture signal and the on/off signal and then transmit a control signal corresponding to those received signals to a signal processing unit 131;
• [0045] step 24: enabling the signal processing unit 131 to converting and encoding the control signal generated by the control unit 13 into an aiming signal while transmitting the aiming signal back to the control unit 13; and
• [0046] step 25: utilizing a wireless transmission module 14 to transmit the aiming signal to an interactive device.

[0047] In another preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 4 as the control unit 13 and the signal processing unit 131 is integrated into a chip, another input method for shooting game 200 is provided, which comprises steps of:

• [0048] step 210: utilizing an inertial sensing module 11 for detecting a gesture movement of an user and issuing a gesture signal according to the detection;
• [0049] step 220: enabling a switch unit 12 to issue an on/off signal;
• [0050] step 230: enabling a control unit 13 to fetch the gesture signal and the on/off signal and then processing those received signals into an aiming signal suitable for an interactive device to receive; and
• [0051] step 240: utilizing a wireless transmission module 14 to transmit the aiming signal to the interactive device.

[0052] Please refer to FIG. 5A˜FIG. 5C, which respectively shows input devices according to three different preferred embodiments of the invention. In FIG. 5A, the input device 100 is housed in a gun-shaped casing 150, which is comprised of an inertial sensing module 110, a switch unit 120, a control unit 130, a signal processing unit 131, and a wireless transmission module 140. In FIG. 5B, the input device 102 is housed in a computer mouse 152, which is comprised of an inertial sensing module 112, a switch unit of press-keys 122, a control unit 132 integrated with a signal processing unit, and a wireless transmission module 142. In FIG. 5C, the input device 104 is housed in a remote control 154, which is comprised of an inertial sensing module 114, a switch unit 124 of press-keys, a control unit 134 integrated with a signal processing unit, and a wireless transmission module 144. It is noted that all those switch units 120, 122, 124 are designed to be fitted on the corresponding casing while exposing the switch unit outside the casing to be operable externally. Moreover, except from the aforesaid embodiments, the casing can be formed as a bow, a hand-thrown weapon of the dart type, or a device of ball batting type, etc., which is further matched with audio/video unit for providing audio and video effects that are known to those skilled in the art and is not described further herein.

[0053] To sum up, the input device and method for shooting games of the invention is capable of utilizing an inertial sensing modules to control the movement of a front sight displayed on all types of displaying devices that it is not limited by CRT monitors as the conventional light gun does. In addition, it employs accelerations and gestures of hand movements of a user obtained by a means of acceleration detection and a calculation algorithm to control the movement of a front sight displayed on a displaying device so that the user can effortlessly and directly aim at a target of the shooting game by controlling the front sight to focus thereon. Moreover, it is inexpensive and pleasing to the eye since it can be integrated with a computer mouse with no need of other additional peripheral devices.

[0054] While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiment of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention.