Enhancement of collective experience

Abstract

The phenomenon of collective human experience in crowds and audiences is rooted in the thrill of sharing the experience with others in person. This invention enhances collective experience by providing a new kind of communal activity, overcoming the chief difficulty of prior communal activities that attempt to enable a crowd to collectively pursue a unified goal: namely the inability of the participants to sense or believe in their own contribution to the combined results. In this invention, the credibility gap is overcome by periodically limiting control to a selected group small enough to allow the audience to assess the contribution to gameplay. These gameplay focus changes can be made in immediate response to the live crowd behavior, endorsing the validity of the linkage between gameplay and audience movements. Identifying and switching between the smaller groups and the larger groups during continuous gameplay demonstrates and confirms the impression of active control by the group members.

Description

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for interactive audience participation at a live spectator event and also relates to an apparatus that is used at a live spectator event in connection with interactive audience participation.

2. Description of Prior Art

Modern public entertainment facilities for arena games represent substantial capital investments that include municipal, state and federal support and are therefore often dependant on the approval of the citizenry from which the attending audiences are drawn.

The provision of compelling and satisfying diversions for a constituent audience is at the root of the enterprise of arena games and has a long history with prehistorical underpinnings.

Revenue generated by ticket sales can be very large for some events and multiple events compete for a paying audience requiring close attention to the value of the experience offered by fee charging providers.

Audience approval of their experience at arena games and other spectator events can be increased by providing experiences with additional audience interaction such as can, in one example, be elicited by cheerleading.

Another popular audience interaction is called the “audience wave,” a phenomenon that commonly occurs at sporting events, and sometimes in other large crowds. This “wave” is a coordinated sequence of physical actions taken by the audience in which a group of spectators lying along a radial line extending outward from the sport field all stand up and raise their arms and then return again to a normal seated posture as the neighboring group of spectators takes their turn to stand up. This phenomenon is described in the publication Nature of September 2002.

The interactions present in both of the preceding examples tap into an existing crowd energy and demonstrate an appetite and demand for organized group activities at audience events. However these are spontaneously or loosely organized activities that do not include the more engaging attributes of a compelling ongoing goal directed effort and furthermore these activities are not readily receptive to paid sponsorship.

The properties of ongoing goal directed interactive experience are well known elements of computer video games. A computer video game format with a prominent display can also allow associated branding and sponsorship materials to be included along with the game content being shown.

Modern audience assembly venues are often equipped with large, high output displays that are well suited for computer game playing. Consequently several inventors have attempted to enable the inclusion of video game methods using these large displays as an integral part of audience interaction at spectator events.

These inventors have set forth methods that acquire interaction signals from assembled audiences and that incorporate these signals with large displays through the intervention of computer games sequenced according to the audience interaction.

The following existing inventions have been advanced in the pursuit of a common purpose which is to enable game playing by assembled audiences so that the enjoyment value of the game is heightened by sharing the collective efforts and reactions of a large number of members playing games together.

In this first example of prior art please consider the patent of Rider, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,982 that teaches a way for seated members of an audience in a motion picture theatre to interactively participate in a single video game projected onto the theater screen, each seated user station having a manual input device connected to a game server by game controlling communication links. According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,982 these links can be made using installed wiring which may have a cost advantage over wireless links.

Kagan et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,618,045) disclose a system of multiple hand held playing devices that communicate over a wireless local area network to allow multiple players to play the same game. The several individual wireless playing devices communicate with a single wireless controller to enable the game scenario to unfold on a large display.

Another method (Inselberg, U.S. Pat. No. 6,650,903) discloses a system of multiple hand held playing devices that communicate over a wireless local area network to allow multiple players to play the same game, which further includes a promotional message on the hand held playing device.

The use of a wireless controller device has the advantage that no wires need be run; however this method can have the disadvantage of cost with transmitters and receivers generally costing more than wiring and also suffers from the attendant potential loss of transmitters handed out to members of an audience.

Another disclosure (Carpenter, U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,266) seeks to reduce encumbrance by using an electronically passive handheld signaling device that is surveyed photographically. This does not require providing wiring and controls to individual seats, nor does it require distributing wireless controllers to audience members. It does however require distributing a signaling device to the audience members who must then learn how to operate the device. The operation of the device involves manually rotating it to cause one side or the other to be visible to the camera. While this is not overly difficult for most people to achieve, it has the disadvantage that it does not include a recognizable and intuitive analogous expression in the form of normal human body movement, such as, for instance, leaning left to indicate left does express as an analogous body movement. This method of signaling with handheld paddles has a further disadvantage of requiring the production and distribution, and in some cases, the retrieval of the signaling devices from the audience members.

Another disclosed invention (Dannenberg, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,993,314) eliminates individual encumbrances by using microphones to collect and aggregate audience feedback in the form of audible commands. One disadvantage of this method is that by eschewing a visual component as input control for audience interaction this method is not well suited to visually representing an audience as they are engaging in the playing of the game nor is it suited to generating marketable entertainment content depicting the game being played.

This preceding Dannenberg method allows audible control by groups or sections separated by general location. While each person has the ability to transmit parameters by voicing responses, the microphones have a limited ability to isolate these responses one from another. Therefore each person does not have the ability to estimate their individual contribution to the playing of the game.

Yet another disclosure (ICMI 2002 publication, authors Maynes-Aminzades, Pausch, Seitz) describes using a remote camera to acquire photographic templates of the audience configuration and comparing these to imagery of the ongoing audience configuration in motion to extract signals that actuate gameplay. In the previously mentioned article the authors state: “ . . . our technique does not uniquely identify each member of the audience” and “audience members have uneven degrees of control since people closer to the camera have a more pronounced effect on the game.” They further state: “ . . . but since the audience is unaware of the imbalance, in our experience it has little effect on the quality of each players experience.” This statement points to the primary disadvantage of this system, being that an audience member can not determine what contribution, if any, that audience member makes to the playing of the game.

These same shortcomings limit the invention set forth by Bejan, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,384. That method allows movie theaters to show films that sequence the story plot progression under the control of tabulated selections made by audience members using pistol gripped signaling devices. Interfilm in relation with SONY used this technology to present interactive films called I'm Your Man and Mr. Payback. The online magazine Salon in a Mar. 21, 1997 review of this technology reports that Interfilm's efforts were seen to be marred by production quality defects, and more irreparably this method of providing an interactive game for audiences suffers from inherent shortcomings in the method of interaction, namely that as in the previous example there is no way for an audience member to determine what part of the aggregated or tabulated interaction, if any, they are responsible for.

The background for the present invention just previously discussed shows in summary that the prior inventions have disadvantages that present impediments to the commercial acceptance and to the successful adoption of interactive audience games.

All prior proposals known to this inventor suffer from one or both of the following limiting factors: 1) the burden of expensive and logistically undesirable elements; 2) the inability of the playing audience to determine whether they are in actual fact controlling the game or whether they are being exposed to prerecorded game sequences with sham interaction.

OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES

Besides the objects and advantages of the present invention described elsewhere in this patent, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:

a) to provide an interactive game for audiences with no practical limit to the number of simultaneously contributing members;

b) to provide an interactive game for audiences requiring no special equipment for the participants;

c) to provide an interactive game for audiences enabling audience members to control the game with their body movement linked to an interactive game control;

d) to provide an interactive game for audiences that shows the operation of the interactive method by presenting both the body movement and the resulting gameplay of a subdivision of the audience so as to validate a perceived linkage of interactive control;

e) to provide an interactive game for audiences where playing members can be automatically graded and selected into subdivisions on the basis of the quality of their play during the ongoing game being played by the lager audience;

f) to provide an interactive game for audiences that can include tournament play featuring progressive selection of some and elimination of other game playing members;

g) to provide an interactive game for audiences that generates several forms of imagery, including imagery of participating audience movements and imagery of the resulting gameplay, that presented together can provide visual programming content for commercialized use as other forms of media;

g) to provide an interactive game for audiences in which the imagery provided with the game depicts both the controlling body movement and the resulting gameplay which can together provide programming content commercialized for use by other forms of media;

h) to provide an interactive game for audiences that includes branded and sponsored elements as a part of the displayed game materials;

i) to provide an interactive game for audiences with an enjoyment value that is protected from the perception of sham interaction.

Further objects and advantages of the invention are to provide a game which can be played by an assembled audience that controls the gameplay progress by changing their body positions and using a game controlling computer that selects subdivisions of the audience and assigns game control to an audience subdivision, while indicating to the larger audience those members of the subdivision that are actively controlling the game, while displaying the result of the gameplay controlled by the active subdivision.

Still further objects and advantages will become apparent from a consideration of the ensuing figures and descriptions.

DRAWING FIGURES

In the drawings closely related figures have the same number but with different alphabetical suffixes.

FIG. 1 shows in flowchart form the connection of component elements and the sequence of their operation in performing this invention.

FIGS. 2A through 2E show elements used to produce assembled audiences.

FIG. 2A shows one type of telephone used by prospective audience attendees as a communication link to contract for purchase from a ticket vendor a ticket for an event at a requested time and permitting occupation of seating in specified location.

FIG. 2B shows a television that receives communicated messages broadcast by transmit ions of audience assembly providers for the purpose of enticing prospective spectators to: a) purchase tickets in the case of ticketed events; or b) to simply attend in the case of non-ticketed events.

FIG. 2C shows a turnstile that is used to restrict admission only to those spectators that have been allowed on the basis of a paid fee or otherwise that have been granted permission to attend an audience assembly event.

FIG. 2D shows a ticket to an audience event at an audience assembly venue that indicates the time and place of the event (Ref. No. 10) and the position of the seat (Ref. No. 12) that has been assigned to the ticket holder.

FIG. 2E shows a high output display visible from a distance that communicates to prospective spectators in the general area of an audience assembly venue messages beckoning their attendance within the audience assembly venue.

FIG. 3A shows a video camera and lens that can be situated to acquire imagery of audience members.

FIG. 3B shows video digitalizing hardware

FIG. 3C shows a diagram of a CPU with video digitalizing hardware

FIG. 4 shows a software flowchart that illustrates the operation of software that extracts movement data in digital form.

FIG. 5A shows a sequence of software instructions that converts movement data into game play data to control the sequenced imagery of the game display.

FIG. 5B shows game display imagery using goal protection model.

FIG. 6A shows a four sided display, using LED signage display.

FIG. 6B shows an alternative display of the gameplay, using projected light and LED strips.

FIG. 6C shows an alternative way of displaying gameplay, using a remote controlled motorized vehicle.

FIG. 7 shows a software flowchart that illustrates the operation of software that generates audience subdivisions based of quality of gameplay.

FIG. 8 shows a seating arrangement with various subdivisions, and an array of cameras that capture audience imagery

FIGS. 9A, 9B, and 9C show an installation that has adjacent displays one of which highlights the selected audience members of a subdivision active in gameplay the other of which shows the content of gameplay.

FIG. 10 shows camera image data of an audience grouping and the partitions of the image that are used to calculate gameplay evaluations for each of those partitions, and also shows a grouping of four partitions that have been selected according to best fit ideal gameplay criteria and aggregated together to form a subdivision of audience members.

FIG. 11 shows an alternative indication that highlights those audience members that are currently selected as the components of a subdivision, using controlled illumination.

SUMMARY

In accordance with the present invention this method of gameplay comprises: 1) audience assembly 2) computer game playing that is controlled by the body movement of subdivisions of audience members 3) displays showing game progress 4) displays highlighting the selected subdivisions of audience members that actively control gameplay.

Description—FIGS. 1 to 8

A typical embodiment of the present invention is diagrammed in FIG. 1 which shows the linking and sequencing that connects the component elements of the invention.

The first step in the process of producing the gameplay according to the present invention is accomplished using one or more of the elements depicted in FIGS. 2A through 2E. These elements are for the purpose of assembling together an audience of attendees acting as both spectators at the event and participants in the playing of games at the event. These audience assembling elements shown in FIGS. 2A through 2E are integral to the invention as it is unlikely that the required game playing audience will spontaneously assemble.

FIG. 2B depicts a television that delivers broadcast content including information that signals viewers to attend an event at a specified time and place that coincides with the further purpose of performing the invention. This broadcast information in some cases includes a phone number that can be used with a telephone such as depicted in FIG. 2A to initiate purchase of a ticket such as depicted in FIG. 2D.

FIG. 2D shows a ticket that can be used to effect passage through a crowd control device that in one embodiment is comprised of a turnstile depicted in FIG. 2C.

The ticket of FIG. 2D is an instrument that often contains elements that indicate: location(21), time(22), and seat assignment(23). According to this invention the ticket may include an additional element (24) which consists of information that indicates to the ticket holder that the gameplay of this invention will be operative at the assigned seat (23). The present invention introduces another element(25) which indicates that the assigned seat is grouped together within a predefined subdivision that acts as a team against another audience subdivision using the gameplay that this invention provides.

Crowd control devices (FIG. 2C) can be used advantageously in performing the invention by concentrating the attending participants to increase the efficiency of the software controlled CPU process for identification of audience body positions (FIG. 4) used to control the gameplay.

FIG. 2E illustrates audience assembly elements that supplement or replace advance ticketing by using a display(26) proximate to the event assembly site to provide messages requesting of nearby people that they join an assembly of attendees.

The present invention can include ticketed seating assignments(23) for specific locations(81) within the active gameplay this invention provides(84). In the preferred embodiment the attraction shown in FIG. 2E includes a visible display(26). The present invention can also be performed with an audible display that requests attendance. The visible display shown in (26) is a large high output electronic display, in other embodiments it is a printed poster or banner.

In similar fashion the message communicated by the television in FIG. 2B may in other embodiments be communicated by a newspaper or magazine. In other anticipated embodiments this message is communicated by radio. In yet other anticipated embodiments this message is communicated via the internet.

FIG. 3A shows a video camera that is in the preferred embodiment a SONY model XC-711RR that is situated and positioned to acquire a video signal that photographs an assembled audience:. This video signal is converted to digital data using the frame grabber shown in FIG. 3B in the preferred embodiment it is a BlueFish444 model ENVY. This is inserted in the data bus of a computer shown in FIG. 3C in the preferred embodiment an HP model xw8200.

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment that includes an installed video camera(86) which is one of several in an array covering a section(85) of audience seating. In the multiple camera embodiment, image data from multiple cameras(FIG. 3A) is acquired by multiple frame grabbers(FIG. 3B) and CPUs(FIG. 3C), this partial data is communicated to a master control CPU that assembles the larger field of activity for the gameplay of the invention.

FIG. 4 shows a software flow chart that describes the actions of software executed on a CPU. In the preferred embodiment software is written in Microsoft Visual C++ Version 7, and functions to reduce the relatively large image data set acquired by the frame grabber to a much smaller data set that describes the changing body positions of audience members. This step can be performed by a number of CPUs acting separately on the image data acquired by the individual cameras used in the multiple camera embodiment.

FIG. 5A shows a software code listing that converts audience motion data to gameplay input data by testing for certain conditions in the sequence of motion data, such as an abrupt change from leaning full left to full right, which would result in accelerated response in the gameplay.

FIG. 5B shows a frame of graphic imagery from a sequence of gameplay content generated by the CPU. This frame shows a puck(52) that is depicted approaching a goal(51) defended by a goal-keeper(56). As the puck(52) approaches the goal(51) the audience body movement data resulting from the computation depicted in FIG. 4 proportionally actuates the side to side movement of the goal-keeper(56) which can be positioned to block the entry of the puck(52) into the goal(51).

FIG. 6A shows a large high output LED video display with four screens (61), (62), (63), and (64) facing in different directions suspended over the arena. Four groups play two separate games comprising two teams each playing at the same time independently. Opposite sides of the arena compete against each other as in north(61) vs. south(62) and east(64) vs. west(63). The game content displayed on the north side can show a different perspective viewpoint of a dimensionally rendered computer game that corresponds to an inverse viewpoint compared to what is displayed on the south side.

FIG. 6B animates the progress of gameplay using a computer controlled movable lighting unit(61) that projects a moving spot of light(62) in conjunction with installed animated signage elements (63) to display the graphic depiction of the gameplay content. The moving spotlight(62) on the field displays a graphic element like the moving dot in the familiar video game “pong.” Installed signage elements(63) such as strips of LED displays around the perimeter of the field display the goaltending paddles of the “pong” game. These two visual display systems, (62) and (63), are operated using separate control subsystems sequenced according to the visual animation of gameplay generated by the CPU(FIG. 3C).

These different technologies act in concert and are aligned together so that spectators perceive these two elements as having physical interactions including interfering with or bouncing off of each other.

FIG. 6C shows game progress as displayed using a remotely controlled motorized vehicle. Several vehicles can be independently controlled contemporaneously by several separate audience subdivisions to compete and play together as part of the game. The vehicle body can be shaped in the configuration of sports equipment including trademarked team logos.

FIG. 7 shows a software flowchart illustrating the process of evaluating the quality and ability of gameplay as executed and performed by audience subdivisions and calculated dynamically during ongoing gameplay. This includes a functional software module that simulates the part of an audience subdivision performing ideal gameplay according to a predictive software model integral to the gameplay control software executed on the CPU.

FIG. 8 Shows the arrangement of seating blocks at a basketball arena. An individual seat FIG. 8 ref. no. (81) is situated according to the location assigned on the ticket FIG. 2D ref. no. (23). In FIG. 8, (84) shows a section of the audience for which the gameplay of this invention has been made available, as indicated(24) on the ticket. FIG. 8 (83) shows a subdivision of (24) that can be selected for gameplay control. An inscribed subdivision (82) is a subset of (83) and can be selected during ongoing gameplay to be the active subdivision controlling gameplay. An individual seating location (81) can be further selected during ongoing gameplay as the active control of gameplay. The extent of the currently active subdivision is indicated to the larger audience by displays.

FIGS. 9A, 9B, and 9C each show adjacent displays one of which highlights the selected audience members of a subdivision active in gameplay while the other of which shows the content of gameplay. The display of the active gameplay members can be intermittent or sustained throughout the entire display of gameplay content. Graphic and iconographic elements that characterize the gameplay of the depicted subdivision can be included as elements in the display in the form of scorekeeping and performance rating graphics that are similar to those used in some computer games. FIG. 9A has a left and right display, the display on the left depicts gameplay elements including a puck(91) and a goal-keeper(92), and FIG. 9A also has a display on the right that shows a windowed subdivision of the audience gameplay with audience members(93) whose body positions are leaning to one side. The goal-keeper(91) depicted in gameplay content takes a position to one side of the screen. FIG. 9B shows the change in gameplay that occurs when the audience members(95) adopt a centered body position which causes the goal-keeper(94) to take a central position in the gameplay content. FIG. 9C likewise shows the goal-keeper(96) positioned according to the body positions of audience members(97). In the preferred embodiment the puck can depict a trajectory that if extrapolated will carry it past the goal-keeper. The gameplay control of the present invention changes the goal-keeper position according to the body positions of the audience members.

FIG. 10 shows camera image data of an audience grouping bounded by a quadrilateral subdivision with corner points (100), (101), (102), and (103) that consist of four digital data items that mark the respective corners of a quadrilateral circumscribing a section of image data. This audience image data window is divided into nine segments, (108) through (116). In the preferred embodiment motion data and gameplay input data are calculated separately for each of these nine segments. A quadrilateraly shaped partial area(108) is one of nine such partial areas that taken together cover the operative image area rectangularly circumscribed according to points (100) through (103).

These nine partial areas taken together provide tiled coverage of image data acquired from audience members using a video camera illustrated in FIG. 3A and converted to digital form by the elements illustrated in FIG. 3B and FIG. 3C. These nine partial areas are labeled with ref. no.s (108) through (116). Movement data is determined separately for each of these nine blocks using the method illustrated in FIG. 4. In the preferred embodiment the gameplay program includes a software module(FIG. 7) for the generation of ideal gameplay data that is in the same data format as computer generated movement data of the type the audience is capable of generating using the method of FIG. 4.

This ideal gameplay data is equivalent to the audience movement data that would result in the most advantageous gameplay results if performed as input to gameplay by game playing audience members. This data is called GQFREF. This data is compared to the audience movement data belonging separately to each of the partial areas labeled with ref. no.s (108) through (116), thereby generating nine ideal gameplay quality ratings called accordingly GQF1 through GQF9.

It should be noted here that the shape of these partial areas, which are in this one example of quadrilateral shape and of equal area, can also be advantageously both irregular or unequal. Shape irregularity can have the advantage of eliminating low value image data from the movement data calculations; area inequality can have the advantage of correcting for imbalances in the camera perspective.

The preferred embodiment includes a software module that builds a selected audience subdivision by examining and grouping together similar motions and positions according to the values of GQF1 through GQF9. In the illustration of FIG. 10 the variables GQF2, GQF3, GQF5, GQF6 derived respectively from sectors (109), (110), (112), and (113) have similar values due to similar underlying audience body positions and movements and are thereby grouped together into a rectangular subdivision that isolates similar gameplay performance by a subdivision of audience members. This newly derived rectangular subdivision has as corners the points shown in Ref. No.s (104), (105), (106), and (107).

The present invention provides a correspondence between sets of points bounding the image data and sets of points bounding audience seating. In FIG. 8 the seating area with boundary(83) corresponds in FIG. 10 to the area bounded by (100), (101), (102), and (103). Likewise the subdivision in FIG. 10 bounded by (104), (105), (106), and (107) corresponds in FIG. 8 to seating boundary (82).

It is important to an understanding of the present invention that the rectangularly shaped selected subdivision shown in this preferred embodiment can advantageously take an irregular form, including holes, gaps, and fragments. In the case of an irregular subdivision it should not be so irregular nor so dispersed as to forbid the demarcation or indication of those audience members constituting the active subdivision shown in (93) of FIG. 9A.

The irregularly shaped highlighting of selected audience members can be achieved in a way that displays the matching shape of an irregular subdivision. For example, the light projection used to highlight the selected audience subdivision shown in FIG. 11 can be performed with laser light under computer control which can highlight very detailed irregular groupings of audience members.

The display(93) of FIG. 9A has a fixed rectangular format. However, an irregularly shaped active subdivision can still be represented on such a rectangular screen by allowing some members of the subdivision to remain undisplayed. It is in the spirit of this invention that a substantial number of the active members controlling the gameplay should in fact be present in a display that purports to represent these active members. If the active members as displayed are not substantially representative of the controlling audience members then the audience is not being protected from sham interaction, which is an objective of the present invention.

An irregular subdivision can be displayed on a rectangular screen at times according to this invention if it is properly fit to the rectangular format by performing centering and cropping actions using applicable and well known statistical and mathematical tools. Familiar centering techniques include finding: center of mass; center of moment; center of bounding box. Familiar cropping techniques include: percent onscreen; minimum density per unit of screen space; and largest screen filling selection.

It is fully anticipated in the preferred embodiment of this invention that the subdivisions and sections shown in FIG. 10 that demark active gameplay control can coincide with boundaries that are aligned with seating locations assigned to audience members using the ticketing method illustrated in FIG. 2D. where ticket holders are seated in a familiar sectional array illustrated in FIG. 8. The linkage and alignment of windowed subdivisions belonging to different data models is within the scope of the present invention, especially because coordinating and linking the windowing of the source of gameplay control and the results of gameplay content illustrates real-time interactivity.

The inventor is aware that the differences in spatial location between the camera of FIG. 3A and the projector of FIG. 11 will complicate a true alignment or registration between these two extracted or projected boundaries, especially in further concordance with audience member seating locations.

This invention provides reconciliation and alignment of three geometrical conditions, namely: 1) seating locations, 2) audience camera perspectives, and 3) audience highlighting devices. These linked cross format mappings are an important component of the preferred embodiment, and are achieved by executing familiar camera viewpoint and 3D data-set alignment techniques. These familiar techniques also include performing calibrations in advance of the gameplay execution.

In the prior applications of these familiar alignment and calibration procedures, no usage known to this inventor has conceived of using these techniques to perform an alignment between selected audience subdivisions active in gameplay with visible displays showing or highlighting those audience members currently active in gameplay, and further including the possibility of achieving a spatial concordance with assigned audience member seating locations.

When the side-by-side gameplay content and active audience subdivision display illustrated in FIGS. 9A, 9B, and 9C takes the form of an electronic video scoreboard, that video scoreboard can display the active subdivision members as shown in FIG. 10 bounded by (104), (105), (106), and (107), the active subdivision that is displayed could also be restricted to the area in section (110). This changing display of audience members will be familiar to audiences attending baseball games where the scoreboard video often zooms in on audience groups and members.

In the preferred embodiment of this invention a modification is made to the previously described familiar procedure of showing the audience to itself on video. Here the video content can be flipped left to right on the screen as it is displayed in front of the audience, in this way an impression is created more akin to a mirror that can be seen as presenting a reversed image. This enables natural audience interaction where leaning left results in a display that moves left.

Camera output data acquired from the audience is used as input for gameplay control and this acquired image data may at times also be suitable for contributing visual content that displays the active subdivision of audience members to themselves and others, showing the active selected subdivision currently controlling gameplay.

However, the cameras acquiring audience image data are, in the preferred embodiment, set at fixed locations to facilitate advance calibration. In the most economic implementation of audience-driven gameplay control acquisition the cameras are of a resolution just suitable for acquiring the required motion data.

A large stadium may need many cameras to provide coverage for a great multitude of members, and the many cameras and associated processing hardware required are under economic constraints. For these fixed cameras to be capable of a resolution that exceeds that required for crowd position and motion detection in order to provide a cropped video subsection with an image quality acceptable by contemporary broadcast standards will expense to the camera elements.

A built-in distributed array of economical audience cameras as shown within the bounds of (85) in FIG. 8 can be used in concordance with a higher resolution broadcast quality television camera under computer control. The process of setting the frame corners of the broadcast camera perspective to match the corners of the installed camera frames taken from different positions will be a familiar use of the part of the present invention, discussed previously, that provides for aligning the camera of FIG. 3A and the projector of FIG. 11. In this sense the zoom lens equipped camera sweeping the crowd to acquire imagery of the active subdivision behaves much the same as the computer controlled light projection that sweeps the crowd to display the source of game control input.

In the present invention we create a three way concordance of a) the audience member subdivisions active in gameplay, b) that are aligned to displays indicating the currently active audience members, and c) that are further aligned to audience seating locations.

The imaging and display systems used to perform the steps of this invention shown in FIG. 3a, FIG. 6A, FIG. 9A at ref. no. (93), and FIG. 11 can be pre-calibrated and aligned by geometrical registration operations performed by software executed by the CPU shown in FIG. 3C. This alignment causes the data in each case to be concordant with the seating locations shown in FIG. 8.

The dynamic change of focus that the present invention brings to audience gameplay, which represents a significant advancement of the field, is made possible by the linkage of several different windowing contexts as described above. The efficiency of the preferred embodiment is such that, using currently available technology, dynamic real-time subdivisions of gameplay are practical. The present invention allows interactive audience gameplay that can switch context, zoom in, and jump around an assembled audience.

FIG. 11 shows an alternative way of signaling the identity of those audience members that are selected as the member components of an active game-controlling subdivision, this alternative way is achieved using a variably masked light source that projects a brighter illumination on a subdivision of audience members present in the arena within boundaries that coincide with the boundaries of the audience subdivision active in gameplay.

Conclusion, Ramifications, and Scope

Accordingly, the reader will see that the gameplay with illustrated active subdivision during hands free interaction of an assembled audience, that constitutes this invention, can be used to provide entertainment to audiences of any size, and can be used without distributed signaling devices or manually operated controls. In addition, when the gameplay is performed according to this invention the attendees have confidence in the veracity of the interactive linkage between the players and the game which is an essential component of true game play. Furthermore, this invention has the additional advantages that:

• • it is a natural extension of activities familiar to a typical attendee, such as cheering, and requires no special equipment to be supplied for the participating attendee;
  • it provides intuitive control using steering and veering body motion that does not require extensive explicit orientation to master;
  • it provides dynamic activity among the game playing attendees that gives additional entertainment value for both playing and nonplaying spectators observing the activity as well as for those viewing the event remotely;
  • it permits ancillary commercially sponsored content to be displayed alongside or integrated with compelling gameplay content;

Although the above description contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention but rather as providing illustrations of some of its presently preferred embodiments.

For example requesting attendance by means of a broadcast by television (FIG. 2B) could also be achieved using print media or using the internet; the audience position motion detected using template matching could be achieved using vector tracking with computed spatial correlation; special audience features such as the possesion and display of a provided cup or toy could amplify vector tracking; the goal-tending game can be replaced with an obstacle course driving game; the gameplay displays as described can be replaced by any of the following: motorized architectural features; sculptural mechanized devices; sequential illumination of architectural parts; live cued performers; theatrical show effects such as smoke and pyrotechnics. The display of gameplay content in association with the a subdivision of audience members actively controlling the gameplay content need not by constant throughout the event presentation, and may be intermittent throughout gameplay as long as it is of a duration sufficient to allow viewers to recognize the changing body positions of the playing members and the gameplay that results.

The scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the examples given.

Claims

1. A way of producing gameplay is introduced such that an audience is assembled and controls computer games according to audience body movement and the audience members view the resulting gameplay on displays, wherein the improvement consists of selecting a subdivision of audience members and assigning gameplay control to the selected subdivision while displaying indications depicting which members have been selected through subdivision to control gameplay, comprising:

a) means for assembling an audience whereby such means are selected from the group consisting of 1) means for providing tickets for assigned seating 2) means for providing admittance to an enclosed area 3) means for promoting attendance at a place and time 4) means for attracting an audience with enticing displays

b) means for acquiring photographic sequential audience image data from the assembled audience

c) means for processing said audience image data into audience movement data

d) means for executing gameplay according to said movement data

e) means for displaying said gameplay

f) means for selecting for gameplay control a subdivision of said audience

g) means for indicating the members of the selected audience subdivision that are operational in controlling gameplay

whereby an audience operates gameplay by changing body position, and the operation of the interactive linkage is validated.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the audience assembly step includes coincident sports events selected from the group consisting of football, basketball, hockey, soccer, gymnastics, baseball, tennis.

3. The method of claim 1 with gameplay coaching provided to the audience.

4. The method of claim 1 with template comparison for deriving audience motion data.

5. The method of claim 1 with spatially correlated vector tracking for deriving audience motion data.

6. The method of claim 1 where the gameplay display includes paid sponsorship elements.

7. The method of claim 1 where selection is by graded quality of gameplay.

8. A method of game playing such that an assembled audience operates computer games according to audience body movement and the audience members are shown the progress of the game on displays, wherein the improvement consists of selecting a subdivision of audience members and assigning game control to the subdivision while displays indicate the members of the subdivision controlling the game, comprising:

a) assembling an audience

b) providing a computer processor

c) providing means for camera imaging of the assembled audience that generates data in digital form

d) processing by computer processor said audience image data into movement data

e) executing gameplay according to said movement data

f) displaying said gameplay

g) selecting a subdivision of said movement data

h) indicating which audience members are operational in the selected subdivision of movement data

whereby an audience operates games by changing body position, and the operation of the interactive linkage is validated.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the audience assembly step includes coincident sports events selected from the group consisting of football, basketball, hockey, soccer, gymnastics, baseball, tennis.

10. The method of claim 8 with gameplay coaching provided to the audience.

11. The method of claim 8 with template comparison for deriving audience motion data.

12. The method of claim 8 with spatially correlated vector tracking for deriving audience motion data.

13. The method of claim 8 where the gameplay display includes paid sponsorship elements.

14. The method of claim 8 where selection is by graded quality of gameplay.