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US 11,110,355 B2Granted
Videogame peripheral security system and method
AssigneeActivision Publishing, Inc.
InventorsLee M. Guinchard, Timothy S. Clark, Michael Andrew Guy Nimmo, Philip Hindle
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Abstract
A system and method relating to a videogame system comprising videogame software and a videogame peripheral is presented. The presented system and method prevents against the use of certain videogame peripherals with unauthorized videogame software through the use of “protected” and “unprotected” inputs.
Claims8
A system for providing a music videogame, the system comprising:
- a peripheral coupled to a videogame console, the peripheral comprising one or more protected inputs, one or more unprotected inputs, and a countdown timer;
- videogame software executing on the videogame console, the videogame console comprising one or more physical processors programmed with one or more computer program instructions which, when executed, programs the console to transmit an unlocking message to the peripheral;
- wherein the peripheral's one or more protected inputs are disabled until the peripheral receives the unlocking message sent by the console and are enabled in response to receiving the unlocking message;
- wherein the protected inputs are combinations of inputs of the peripheral;
- wherein the one or more unprotected inputs are not disabled;
- and
- wherein the unlocking message comprises a countdown value to be programmed into the countdown timer of the peripheral.
4 more elements
A method of processing videogame peripheral inputs, comprising:
- locking at least one protected input of the videogame peripheral, the videogame peripheral including the at least one protected input and unprotected inputs which are not locked, the protected input being a combination of inputs of the videogame peripheral;
- receiving, in the videogame peripheral, an unlocking message for the at least one protected input, the unlocking message including a value indicative of a countdown time;
- unlocking the at least one protected input based upon receipt of the unlocking message;
- starting a timer of the videogame peripheral;
- and
- locking the at least one protected input upon the timer reaching a time reflective of the countdown time.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.