Patents Examined by Michael D Brothers
  • Patent number: 8118653
    Abstract: An approach is described for instructing a player character to automatically take cover in a region of a simulated environment without receiving express commands from a user. The approach determines whether the player character should take cover based on one or more factors. Such factors may include: the presence of an enemy-type character in the region; the presence of a nearby object in the region that can be used to seek cover; and a determination whether the player character's behavior is consistent with a decision to seek cover.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Adam J. Langridge
  • Patent number: 8066571
    Abstract: A system and method for providing virtual spaces, where a character associated with a user can be manifested within instances of a plurality of the different virtual spaces. Since a single character can be manifested within instances of different virtual spaces, the character can be transferred by the corresponding user between instances of different virtual spaces and controlled by the user to interact with the different virtual spaces. When the user transfers the character between instances of different virtual spaces (and/or different types of virtual spaces), various aspects of the character may persist between the different virtual spaces (and/or the different types of virtual spaces). This may provide an enhanced continuity to the character between the different virtual spaces.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2011
    Assignee: Metaplace, Inc.
    Inventors: Raph Koster, John Donham, Sean Riley