US 6,890,262 B2Granted

Video game apparatus, method and recording medium storing program for controlling viewpoint movement of simulated camera in video game

AssigneeKonami Corporation

InventorsToshimitsu Oishi, Toru Okubo, Hideyuki Domitsu, Tomoya Yamano

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Abstract

A 3-dimensional video game apparatus comprises display 40 for displaying an image; image-processing means 16 for creating a 3-dimensional image from the viewpoint of a simulated camera and displaying that image on a display screen; and game controller 14 which conducts the game in response to reactions of the player, responsive to images displayed on display 40. The game apparatus further comprises camera unit 42 which can be arranged in such an orientation that its field of view is the play area in front of the display screen, and which periodically captures images of the play area in the state thus arranged; a position recognizing part which detects the player's head from the captured image, and detects the two-dimensional movement of the detected head position; and viewpoint change processor which moves the viewpoint of said simulated camera in conjunction with the change direction and change amount of the position of the detected marked region.

Claims16

Dependent claims

In a video game apparatus including a display having a screen for displaying images, display control means for creating game images as seen from a simulated camera viewpoint and displaying said images on the screen of said display;

and a game control part for conducting the game in response to reactions of a player responsive to the images displayed on said display;
said video game apparatus comprising:
image capture means which can be arranged in such an orientation that a field of view is a play area in front of the display screen, and said image capture means periodically capturing an image of the play area in a state arranged;
a main memory having a first buffer storing the captured images by the image capture means and a second buffer storing a position of a reference region of the player;
said image capture means including:
an averaging processor generating an average image based on a plurality of the captured images stored in the first buffer except a last captured image;
a first differentiator/binary converter generating a difference regarding color information between the last captured image and the averaged image;
an area determinator checking whether an area of a region corresponding to said difference is below a threshold value or not;
position detecting means for detecting from the captured images a position of a player's reference region in case said area is found to be greater than the threshold value and for storing the position of the detected reference region into the second buffer;
movement detecting means for detecting two-dimensional movement of said position of the reference region detected by said position detecting means;
and
viewpoint changing means for moving the simulated camera viewpoint to a new viewpoint in accordance with a change direction and change amount of the position of the detected reference region and displaying on the screen a view from said new viewpoint.

9 more elements

A method for controlling movement of a simulated camera viewpoint in a video game that is conducted by creating game images as seen from a simulated camera viewpoint, and displaying the images on said display while moving the simulated camera viewpoint in response to reactions of a player responsive to the images displayed on the display, said method comprising the steps of:

periodically capturing images of a play area by means of an image capturing means positioned in a desired position so that an orientation is such that a field of view is a play area in front of the display screen including the player;
storing the captured images;
generating an averaged image based on averaging a plurality of the captured images stored in an image buffer except a last captured image;
generating a difference regarding color information between the last captured image and the averaged image;
checking whether an area of a region corresponding to said difference is below a threshold value or not;
detecting a player's reference region from the last captured image;
detecting two-dimensional movement of a position of the reference region;
and
moving said simulated camera viewpoint to a new viewpoint in accordance with a direction of change and amount of change of the two-dimensional movement of the position of the detected reference region when said difference is greater than said threshold value and displaying on said screen a view from the new viewpoint.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/197,514Filed 17 Jul 2002
Priority: JP 2001-22031219 Jul 2001
Published: US 2003/0017872 A123 Jan 2003
Granted: 10 May 2005
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification11 codes

A63F 13/10
A63F 13/5258
Changing parameters of virtual cameras: by dynamically adapting the position of the virtual camera to keep a game object or game character in its…
A63F 13/213
Characterised by their sensors, purposes or types: comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells
A63F 13/45
Video games, i.e. games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions: controlling the progress of the video game