SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER WITH A GAME

Abstract

An educational picture game is played through responses to questions provided at points in the picture game and enhances factual assimilation and retention for the user. The user selects or generates responses to progress through the game and correct responses lead to the emergence of a picture or image, i.e. providing a visual, motivating indicator of progress towards completion. Various indications can be provided to inform the user about the correctness of responses and their extent of progress towards completing the learning activity. The indications may be completion of parts of an image, audio or visual cues, suggested reference materials or other information that tends to boost learning and assist the user in assimilating and applying facts in different knowledge domains. The user may receive a reward for providing correct responses or successfully completing the picture.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. .§. 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/102,742, filed on Jan. 13, 2015, the disclosure of which is incorporated here, in its entirety, by reference.

BACKGROUND

Games are important in education because they can make learning more fun and motivate students to focus better and put more effort into learning a subject. In school, and in many other situations in life, learning facts and acquiring knowledge/expertise can be difficult and demanding. Learning new knowledge domains can be particularly challenging, requiring much effort and good memorization ability. Indeed, people of all ages are frequently faced with learning new concepts, skills and factual domains on an ongoing basis, whether it be learning a new device, new medical findings or new rules and regulations. The pace at which new knowledge is appearing produces a particularly difficult challenge that can be frustrating and lead to information overload: people just start turning off. But cognitive science shows that increasing student motivation is a powerful means to overcome obstacles and accelerate learning.

SUMMARY

In general, an aspect of the subject matter described in this specification may involve a system and method for knowledge transfer with a game. The following is intended to be a brief summary and is not intended to limit the scope. The basic software/program and method of instruction/testing has four parts.

An image is selected for display and is broken into component pieces or picture elements.

Queries are provided to users (students, players or any individuals or groups seeking to play these games), along with an image (e.g. picture) display, and the user's response is collected.

If a correct response is given, the program will add an element to the picture display, and the user will receive another query, unless they have completed the picture/game.

Queries will continue to be given to the user until either the user has completed the picture puzzle or exhausted the allowed choices to be made, and thus failed the test and/or been sent to a remedial or other picture completion game (PCG), quiz or resource.

Criteria for both completing the game (e.g. percentage correct, extent of image completed in a given amount of time, etc.) and failing the game (e.g. threshold number of answers incorrect, error rate, number of repeat errors) can be tailored to specific needs or objectives.

Completion of single picture and/or collections of pictures may earn the user a grade, course credit or extra credit, a competition score, points in a game, certifications or badges, trophies, titles, monetary rewards (in e.g. a gambling game) or other kinds of benefits and rewards, such as access to higher game levels or the unlocking of occult or other games.

Variations of the game include its mechanism of operation, its modes of interaction with the user, and its content (queries, images, user help, other elements) and these can be based upon the intended uses of the game and/or its intended audience.

The image or “picture” to be completed could be any type of image including paintings, drawings, photographs, diagrams, maps, structures or any other kind of 1D, 2D or 3D representation that the user might grasp and attempt to complete, including tactile displays (e.g. Braille) and other modes of interaction.

In one implementation of the game, the emerging image could provide information (e.g. clues, tips, resources) to the user to help them complete the present game and/or help with future games, e.g. the next game in a class or course sequence.

Parcellation of the image can be varied to suit the needs of the particular game (e.g. number and shape of picture elements or tiles to be completed in the display).

Queries for the users can be provided in a variety of ways, including: visual, auditory, as multiple choice questions, short answer, fill in the blank, pictorial and/or other means in which users can be asked to make a meaningful reply in response to a query via the UI provided.

Both pictures and queries can be selected randomly, or via a custom procedure or in a preferred order from databases or other kinds of collections. Pictures might be topically matched to the subject area of the quizzes.

The queries and contents of each game (e.g. questions, answers, tips) can relate to an academic subject and grade or skill level or can relate to more general knowledge like healthcare or to popular subjects like movies and entertainment. Game collections can be similarly organized and also provide progression to higher difficulty levels or to advance academically, conceptually or in terms of skill level or enable preparation for exams.

Play of the game can take place in many forms, e.g. within a classroom or company or social setting by e.g. projecting the game on a screen or playing the game on devices either individually or as part of a team or group, including e.g. competitions amongst students or between competitors in a wagering situation.

Users/players might receive different kinds of help during the game, e.g. Tips or Clues that appear within the User Interface (UI) at different times or points during play. In e.g. educational applications the games might be deemed open book, open note and/or open internet, and help provided could include textbook page references and/or pointers towards educational or informational resources.

Users/players might be given options to select queries from different categories and/or to try and complete specific regions of the puzzle so as to improve success, obtain extra help or rewards, and/or better derive information from an emerging image.

Users/players might, upon completion of a, game be provided with a summary of queries and responses, % correct, time to complete and other measures of their performance including their standings relative to others and their progress through game collections and domains.

Teachers, professors and other trainers or educators might use PCGs in their training or course offerings and receive summaries and details on student/player performance. They might also be provided with tools to customize the content (e.g. questions, answers, help) within PCGs or tools to author their on PCGs.

Images revealed may be chosen or designed to reinforce learned material and/or ensure better consolidation and recall of informational content of the PCG. Images may be chosen for aesthetic and/or information value or may be constructed with such purpose in mind.

PCGs can be integrated into larger PCGs, where e.g. a picture resulting from an individual game could become part of a larger image/picture/map that can be filled in by completing multiple games in a collection. The larger picture could then e.g. provide a clue, code or other information to enable movement to a higher level or different domain, or it could unlock additional games or provide additional and perhaps higher-level rewards.

The UI can be modified or augmented in different ways to add excitement or convey progress beyond that provided by the emerging picture. For example, sounds and music, as well as color can be added to signal e.g. danger (red) or approaching success (green).

Tools for users and/or organizations to create PCGs might be offered digitally and implemented on web sites to allow crowd-sourcing of game generation and broad play of PCGs.

Many different kinds of PCGs are possible, ranging e.g. from games played on stand-alone devices such as an electronic board game, to PCG games played using a brain-machine interface (BMI), e.g. using a skull cap with EEG-sensitive electrodes, which could allow players to “mentally” make selections through the BMI and having the picture emerge in a display or other interactive device.

The details of one or more implementations of the subject matter described in this specification are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other potential features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter will become apparent from the description, the drawings, and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 schematically shows an example image (picture of a larval zebrafish), in illustrative terms, which is broken down or parceled into individual elements.

FIG. 2 schematically shows an example user interface (UI), where the user/player is given a multiple choice question.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates progress during a Picture Completion Game, wherein the user/player can see successive image elements appear as they correctly answer questions.

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart of an example process for knowledge transfer with a game.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Picture Completion Games (PCGs) can be created in many varieties and for many purposes ranging e.g. from core educational tools to purely recreational activities. In one embodiment, the PCG has 4 important features:

1. An image (picture, drawing or other 2D or 3D image or other visual representation),

2. Queries: questions, tasks or other requirements put to the user,

3. Software to parse the image or visual display into component elements,

4. A User Interface: to provide queries to the user and display results of the interaction in the form of a partially or fully completed image, and to provide further queries as well as help, tips and so on.

The term “user” in this application may include any individuals, groups or other entities that play Picture Completion Games. This includes students, players, trainees, customers, teams or other people involved with learning or acquiring skills or knowledge, or people playing recreationally or for other purposes, e.g. wagering. The terms user and player are generally interchangeable here.

One embodiment of the game will:

1. Take an image or picture and parse it into pieces that fit into a grid, e.g. into 6 pieces in the instance shown in FIG. 1,

2. provide a blank display along with a query to the user [see FIG. 2],

3. if the user answers correctly, add one piece of the picture to the display [see FIG. 3],

4. repeat this process until the user either completes the picture or runs out of questions (e.g. there might be a total of 8 questions, of which 6 would have to be answered correctly to complete the game, which might be a quiz for an online, K12 or college course), [see FIG. 4]

5. provide a message to the user e.g. congratulations and/or a link to the next game in the sequence (if picture was completed) or direct the user to an easier game and/or instructional material.

Many embodiments of this game may be controlled by the user interface (UI) and associated software which will be written to be compatible with different digital devices such as smart phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and other kinds of displays, e.g. Google Glass. Because this learning method should be valuable for many uses and many years, the method may be implemented on new devices that will have new kinds of displays and user interfaces. Each UI has its own aesthetics and the games may be tailored to optimally display and interact with users within the context of different UIs and devices, including e.g. the size, appearance and display of the grid, the queries and the emerging image, as well as other elements of the game.

Based upon current software environments, internet protocols and available devices, one embodiment may be a computer program with many interfaces. The primary user-facing interface could use HTML/CSS/JavaScript technologies. The server side interfaces could use Java/J2EE and related technologies. The server side interfaces could be used by the user-facing interfaces and also by other third party software integrating with our system. A Relational Database can be used to store user information. The events that are generated for reporting purposes can utilize a NoSQL database. This is but one possible embodiment, and because devices and programs evolve quickly, the software implementing this invention may be frequently updated to reflect updated programming practices, user interfaces, data management and other items needed to implement the learning and testing methods described here.

Accordingly, in one implementation, a system may include a server and a client, where the server may host a web application that provides the game functionality and the client may access the web application on the server to display a user interface for the web application on a screen, receive user input through a mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, or some other user input device, and the client may then provide the user input to the server and the server may provide a response to the user input, e.g., instruct the client to indicate that user input selecting an answer is correct and fill in another tile or instruct the client to indicate that user input selecting an answer is incorrect. In other implementations, the software may execute on a computer without communication with a server where the game functionality is implemented entirely by the computer.

The difficulty of the game can be established or modified in many ways including e.g. the number of picture elements in the image grid, the difficulty of the queries/questions, the amount of help available, the criteria required to “pass” a given game/quiz and the algorithms used to select new questions for the user. As some examples, a PCG/grid with 100 tiles or picture elements, would nominally require more knowledge or effort to complete than a PCG with just 10 picture elements. However, in one example, if the user has 200 questions available (using the system shown in FIG. 4) for the 100-element game, they must only get 50% correct to complete the picture, while a 10-element game might be provided with only 10 questions, thus requiring 100% correct answers to win the game and/or progress in a course of study or competition. An additional variant is to offer recurring questions, where e.g. there might be 100 questions, and the player is given 2, 3 or more chances to answer each question before they go away, giving players the opportunity to correct errors and progress (repeat questions might recur randomly over time during play of the game, or be provided in some systematic or custom fashion). Moderating the time available to respond to queries is yet another means to regulate game difficulty.

The level of help provided is generally important in completing graphical educational games, and this is directly applicable to PCGs. Help can be provided in many forms e.g. visual clues that appear within the UI or auditory cues that provide specific information, e.g. “think fish” or that more generally provide either encouragement (happy music) or warn of danger e.g. that the player might be running out of questions (dramatic music). Clues or TIPS provided in the game could be factual in nature, playful, phonetic, semantic or take other forms that help the player to select or come up with the correct answer. When short answer responses are required, help could be provided by e.g. toggling ON a word- or phrase-completion algorithm. Help can appear at preset times or after a certain number or percentage of questions have been used and could be increased as the player approaches a failure point in a game.

One extension of the basic PCG is recursive or rPCG where the emerging picture itself can provide a form of help (as e.g. in FIG. 2). This is a recursive educational method in that the choices made by the user feed information back to the user and can therefore influence e.g. subsequent choices of the player and how quickly the picture is completed. Because the picture or image can be constructed in many ways, and can have any conceivable makeup, there are many ways to provide player help, both within individual tiles (e.g. a car number on a NASCAR image) or via the aggregate of some number of picture elements or tiles. One variation of rPCG is where players are given options to answer categories of questions or focus on specific regions or segments of the image, which could help them to derive information from that region that might provide specific help, bonus points or otherwise aid progress in the game. In game variations where questions are recycled, the emerging image can help with questions encountered earlier, and the picture itself could be adaptive (i.e. tweaked or modified during the course of a game) to help players with missed questions. There are many adaptive learning and testing algorithms, and they could be employed within our Picture Completion Game framework both to adjust difficulty and to direct players to specific topics, concepts and resources.

The PCG provides a simple but effective measure of student or player progress as they seek to complete an educational or recreational challenge. As they progress, the emergence of the image or picture is innately rewarding, in both its aesthetic quality and in the indication of progress. This intrinsic reward can be boosted by complementary aesthetic and rewarding elements provided within the User Interface (UI), which can include tones, sounds, visuals and other sensory items that are frequently used as rewarding effects in a wide range of game environments. The UI and picture-progression rewards are intrinsic to the operation of the PCG and they can be amplified by external rewards, e.g. by teachers who might provide course credit or extra credit to students for completing one or more games. Summed together, these rewarding effects can provide major impetus for students and other PCG players both to think deeply about the queries posed and to acquire and apply knowledge to correctly answer questions, especially e.g. in the presence of danger signals indicating that the player might soon fail the game. Similarly, competitions trigger innate motivational systems, as is easily observed between siblings, and this also amplifies the motivational and intrinsic reward qualities of the PCG. Receiving help, clues and bonuses for making extra effort is yet another means of boosting motivation and all of this is contingent upon the basic PCG algorithm. There are thus at least 4 levels of mutually reinforcing reward components as one builds these systems and from the synaptic learning theory perspective, as one skilled in the art would know, this results in powerful summation within neuronal circuits which enables conceptual advancement and the integration and consolidation of new knowledge.

The Picture Completion Game comes at an opportune time when there is suitable connectivity bandwidth and personal computing power to effectively implement this method of learning and testing. Moreover, this comes at a time of rapidly increasing online resources, including digital textbooks, online courses (including MOOCs) and study materials for high-stakes testing. Since any topic or level of material can be easily integrated into PCGs, our games should prove complementary and valuable in virtually every kind of educational venue. PCG games can be projected in classrooms for individual and group competitions, and can augment all manner of instruction including corporate and military training. They could also be crafted into electronic board games, where the queries, picture display and UI are incorporated into a central piece on a board which players navigate. They can also be used in social situations, as was the case for trivia games where they were played as competitions in bars and taverns. But of perhaps greatest and most immediate value is that PCGs can be used for review (if student has previously taken courses in an area), for de novo learning (if done e.g. open book, open internet) or for testing (e.g. informal, self-test or high stakes).

At the outset of a PCG, players might not know anything about the picture being completed. This will spark curiosity and interest, and the images can be selected with this in mind and in specific regard to the interests of the target audience of the game. Many kinds of images can be used in or constructed for our PCG games. They include simple line drawings, diagrams and figures, and could extend to e.g. use of famous paintings, photographs, iconic representations, 3D images or dynamic images (with appropriate permissions in all cases). In the case of dynamic images, the displayed portions of the image could change over time and/or in response to user responses, and this could provide both rewards and information, such as further clues needed to solve the picture puzzle. Another way to increase interest is the use of danger and warning signs to provoke alarm or urgency on the part of the player, which is well known to boost adrenalin. By conjoining such emotional/biochemical excitement with informational items and in-game progress, this can spark cognitive advancement and the retention of in-game learned items, since stronger synaptic activation leads to more enduring memories. Allowing players to choose/focus upon a quadrant of the image or diagram, so as to complete a subset of the image or reveal specific picture features, is yet another way to more strongly engage players and their reward systems, while hidden or occult clues can further the game's intrigue.

Different PCG game options offer distinct educational and reward values to help users complete individual games, as well as game collections within e.g. a topical area of interest (such as sports, journalism or business) or that cover a semester-long course or prepare students for high-stakes exams such as the SAT, GRE, MCAT and LSAT exams. The more help that is embedded within the games, in e.g. the pictures proper or elsewhere within the UI, the more intriguing and fun the games may be. This immediate reward will be bolstered by the longer term satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment that users experience as they complete a body of knowledge. This will be especially true if it allows users to progress in their studies, or receive certifications, badges or competitive titles. Importantly, this is a form of active learning, which as those skilled in the art have noted, can greatly improve conceptual advancement and knowledge integration, and thereby boost the games intrinsic rewards and user satisfaction. Based on the specific educational or recreational venue, PCG games can be organized into thematic or recreational collections, including linear progressions within a topic or academic discipline or as clusters within a particular field or domain. For example, collections can also be created based upon cultural interests (TV series, books, movies, musical, sports) or for advocacy groups (environmental, professional, societal). PCG games do not necessarily have to be thematic, but could include knowledge trivia as exemplified by Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, and the new game sensation Trivia Crack. In such cases, the knowledge base would be a collection of trivia, which are often clustered in categories.

Successful completion of segments of the puzzle can provide more help, where e.g. completing one quadrant reveals TIPS for other quadrants, or provides bonus help for earlier missed questions (in mazes where missed questions can appear again). A maze like quality could be added by offering players choices to go into different quadrants or regions of larger or more complex images which may cover different topics, and could be graphically or topologically organized like the GI system of the human body or a geopolitical map that covers e.g. medieval European history. New image domains could pose increasing difficulty levels and/or provide particular kinds of rewards that may be helpful in competitions or moving to higher level PCGs. Both individuals and teams could compete to complete puzzles most quickly (these could be classroom or online competitions) and performance could lead to rankings or badges, or involve wagering (where legal). Different player performance parameters could be measured, e.g. speed of completion or percent correct, and used to provide bonus credit or opportunities such as honors, awards, unlocking new games or levels, or providing tools to progress faster through a collection or game domain (an assembly of collections). Streaks of correct answers or success with difficult materials could also provide bonus rewards, such as adding multiple pieces at a time to the picture. In another variant, the player could move picture elements around within the grid and use that to derive information, complete formulae or otherwise benefit from participating in composition of the images.

One option regarding the computer display (and more generally, the user interface and user experience) is to represent the user as being located within the image. This could be done using computer graphical tools and with a user-centered perspective, e.g. looking outwards from a present location in the image and seeing other locations of the image, with the view changed by users controls as are commonly used in online and console games. More sophisticated versions of this option would include a player avatar that could gain features and capabilities that increased over time, e.g. by completing more games or faring well in competitions. Such capabilities could include increased ability to select locations of the picture or image to reveal (by correctly answering queries) or improved abilities to unlock tips or clues to complete the present or future games. Such features could boost the game's interest and excitement and increase motivation to complete a game or a course of games. As 3D and virtual reality tools (e.g. Oculus Rift) advance, PCG games could be implemented in more complex and realistic picture environments.

The foregoing variations are in contrast to a simpler embodiment where the image is initially represented as a blank slate or a set of e.g. white tiles with nothing in them (but indicating the number of image elements to be completed). A quite simple representation of user location in the game would be simply to color one of the blank tiles, or add a simple player icon to that tile. Upon correctly answering a query, the player representation would move to a new tile, either randomly or at the choice of the user in games where this option is available. Movement could be controlled by arrow keys on a keyboard or key pad, by swiping a touch-sensitive surface or both other modes of user-device interaction.

A second embodiment includes the four elements of the PCG and adds a fifth element, to wit, feedback from the emerging image to the user. This feedback is intended to assist the user in completion of the game and/or boost reward to the user. This second embodiment, referred to above as a recursive PCG (rPCG), can be implemented as

1. An image,

2. queries to the user,

3. software to parse the image and display it,

4. a User Interface to enable communication with the user and progress of the game and,

5. Feedback from image to user.

In one embodiment, a basic purpose of the picture or image (and its gradual completion) was to convey progress towards completing a specific body of e.g. knowledge or facts. There the picture served mainly to motivate the player and to signal degree of progress and proximity to game completion. The nature of the emerging image (picture, diagram, plot, etc.) would naturally be intriguing to the player, and they will likely try to think of what it is, but the ACTUAL task required in the above basic PCG game was merely to answer some number of questions correctly, per the variants described above. The second invention, i.e. the one described here and labeled as recursive PCG, builds upon the first invention by adding a recursive element, wherein the partial image formed by the user's efforts (or specific elements therein) provide directly or indirectly some useful information back to the user/player.

Recursion may be used to forward progress, by e.g. completing a quadrant or different portions or extents of an image, so as to reveal educational or otherwise pertinent clues (or alternatively release such clues via the user interface) and/or provide other kinds of help. For example, one specific instance of help would be where the information was distributed throughout much of the image, as e.g. in FIG. 2, where one might need to see some number of tiles to get the sense that the image is a small fish. A variation on this idea would be where different help elements might appear within different portions of the picture or image as those image elements are revealed. For example, if the image is an insect with a number of features such as antennae, compound eyes and some number of legs, individual picture elements or tiles could help players with different questions within the query database. While in the recursive PCG, learning the identity or nature of the image or some elements therein might not be an overt goal of the game per se, it would at least serve to facilitate progress within the game. But in addition, the recursive PCG might also offer educational value in its own right by adding to the player's knowledge base or furthering competency in the specific knowledge domain of the game. Such recursive elements can thus contribute to the larger goal of completing the picture/body of knowledge being learned or tested. It is because the player's actions trigger the feeding of information and help back to the player that this is a recursive system. This becomes part of the UI in terms of communicating information back and is integrated into the learning mechanism, serving in effect as an automated embodiment of the learning system. Additional variants of rCPG are possible where identification of the image (photo, picture, diagram, chemical structure, etc.) can be made an explicit component of the game and might be required of the player before proceeding to the next game in a series, next level in a recreational game, and so on. In either the basic rCPG or the variant just described, the player/user must still understand, acquire and/or apply knowledge in order to make progress and the picture provides a motivational and, in some implementations, an informational vehicle for informing the players, while also yielding a test result, e.g. number correct or percent of image completed or time to completion, and so on.

FIG. 1 schematically shows an example image (picture of a larval zebrafish), in illustrative terms, which is broken down or parceled into individual elements. Images may be parceled, i.e. broken into individual elements or locations, using a variety of means. For example digital images can be loaded into a MatLab matrix and then submatrices selected and presented as picture or image elements. Other computer programs, e.g. ImageMagick, Rasterbator and Zoomifyer, can automate aspects of this process including options to enhance the parcellation process and/or the resulting image elements. These image elements can then be individually added back to a user display, such as the blank grid shown, during the play of this game. As shown in FIG. 1, an image of a larval zebrafish may be broken down into six rectangular pieces of equal size.

In some implementations, the parcellation may include the actions of receiving an indication that a user desires to play a game, in response, obtaining an image and identifying a difficulty of a game instance for a user, e.g., based on accessing a skill level of a user, determining a number of pieces to parcel the image into based on the identified difficulty, and determining a location of each parcel in the image.

FIG. 2 schematically shows an example user interface (UI), where the user/player is given a multiple choice question. In the example, upon selecting an answer, the program will determine if the answer is correct, and if so, part of the picture can be filled in and the user given a new question. The bottom panel shows the UI late in the game where ⅔rds of the picture has been completed. This also illustrates a variation of the game where the emerging image might provide useful information to the user/player. In this instance, the player is asked about predatory skills of animals, and the player might think the answer is C. zebrafish, based upon the information present in the partially completed image.

Regarding FIG. 2, In one embodiment there can be a one-to-one mapping of query with a picture location, and here incorrect answers could lead to portions of an image not being revealed. Such embodiments could, however, include variations where e.g. the user needs to reveal just enough of the image to be able to convey what the image is, in order to be awarded credit for completing the game. In a different variation, game locations (with associated questions) could be revisited but awarded fewer points (in point-scoring variations of the game) and there could be time limits on the game. In general terms, each game might be associated with just one image or picture to be filled in, but other variations are possible, for example where smaller pictures are completed, and these can be collected into larger pictures, which might reap larger rewards, credits, badges or certifications.

Further regarding FIG. 2, a more general embodiment might have a substantial excess of queries relative to the number of game locations, and so there would not be a one-to-one mapping of location and query. For example, a game could have 100 image elements (locations) and 120 questions. In embodiments where each question can only be answered once, this would mean that once the player reached 21 questions wrong, they could not complete the entire 100-element image, and this could be designated as failing the game.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates the course of a Picture Completion Game, wherein the user/player can see successive image elements appear as they correctly answer questions. As the game progresses more of the picture emerges, i.e. is filled in, providing a rewarding sensation, and when the picture is completed, the player has completed this part of the study program or game which can provide additional rewards including internal neural or synaptic reward, as well as rewards delivered by the game provider, e.g. course credit, credits towards a badge or certification, or points used in rankings or competitions. Details of the game process are elaborated upon in the context of FIG. 4.

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart that represents an example process for information transfer with a game. The process may occur after an image is parcellated as described in FIG. 1 and shown in a user interface. Each of the parcel pieces may be considered a location in the image. The flowchart shows that, initially, a process chooses a random question from a question bank and displays the question to a user. The question bank can be comprised of different kinds and topics of questions, including sets of questions on a particular topic, a broader range of questions including e.g. trivia questions, or questions aimed at different levels of difficulty or experience. The sets of questions can be multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, or other kinds of queries to elicit a user response or choice. While questions from the bank can be chosen randomly, using e.g. a random number generator algorithm, the process may instead provide sequences of questions including sequences of ascending difficulty, sequences that traverse a topic or sequences that depend upon earlier responses made by the user. In one embodiment, a defined number of questions is available that exceeds the number of locations and if all of the questions are used up before the picture is completed, the user is deemed to have lost the game, which could lead to remedial training, additional resources, a repeat chance to complete the game or provision of other games, depending upon the preferences of the game provider.

The process in FIG. 4 illustrates a series of steps, the first being, for example, the system may select a question “Behaviors that an animal knows how to do from birth are called: a. primitive; b. innate; c. infantile; d. auto-learned” and display the question in a user interface displayed on a screen of a computer. The question may also be referred to as a query with a plurality of responses. The responses may include multi-choice answers where one answer is more correct than the other answers. The process receives user input indicating a response from the user and determines whether the response is correct. For example, the process receives user input that indicates that answer “a. primitive” was selected, by e.g., a touchscreen touch, mouse click on “a. primitive” as shown in the user interface, or keyboard press of “a,” and determines the answer is incorrect. The response may be referred to as a response selection. If the answer is incorrect, the process returns to choose another random question from the question bank. For example, the system may choose another question “An animal that has innate hunting skills when it is 5 days old is: a lion cub; a seal pup; a young zebrafish; a young hawk.” Choosing another question, without revealing a portion of the image, may be referred to as a lack of progress during a game. As discussed above, in some implementations, a user may be permitted to provide multiple answers before another question is chosen and instead of choosing another question in some instances a game may end if a user has provided too many incorrect answers. If the answer is correct, the process may proceed to the next question and select a new location. In some embodiments, the user may be able to select the next location e.g. in an effort to reveal a certain region of the larger image.

The example process shown in FIG. 4 can operate based on several parameters including the number of locations or picture elements in the image, the number of questions available, and different additional contingencies can be selected by the game provider, e.g. whether users can select locations and whether or not questions are provided multiple times, if e.g. answered incorrectly the first time. The example process shown has several decision points, with the first being to determine if the question was answered correctly. If YES, the process fills in one picture element and then proceeds to the next decision point to determine if the picture is complete. If NO, then the user receives a new query. If, however, the user had answered the query incorrectly, the process would determine if there are more questions available (each time a query is answered, it is removed from the bank for this game). If YES, the user is given another query, but if NO, the game is ended and a failure message is displayed, which might also for example direct the user to remedial resources.

In regards to different educational systems and programs, PCGs can be integrated into other software, games and recreational/educational venues via APIs (application program interfaces) and can also be integrated conceptually into educational programs. In addition to direct software integration, games can be played as add-ons, where other educational venues and systems will provide links into the software environment of a game provider, with an option to track user/player progress and performance and provide feedback and suggestions to players, as well as reports back to the education partners which could e.g. be teachers, professors, schools, test-prep companies and publishers. Game collections and domains can also be made available as Apps and Downloads so that they can be played on devices not connected to a server or online repository.

Various embodiments of the invention may be implemented at least in part in any conventional computer programming language. For example, some embodiments may be implemented in a procedural programming language (e.g., “C”), or in an object oriented programming language (e.g., “C++”). Other embodiments of the invention may be implemented as a pre-configured, stand-along hardware element and/or as preprogrammed hardware elements (e.g., application specific integrated circuits, FPGAs, and digital signal processors), or other related components.

In an alternative embodiment, the disclosed apparatus and methods (e.g., see the various flow charts described above) may be implemented as a computer program product for use with a computer system. Such implementation may include a series of computer instructions fixed either on a tangible, non-transitory medium, such as a computer readable medium (e.g., a diskette, CD-ROM, ROM, or fixed disk). The series of computer instructions can embody all or part of the functionality previously described herein with respect to the system.

Those skilled in the art should appreciate that such computer instructions can be written in a number of programming languages for use with many computer architectures or operating systems. Furthermore, such instructions may be stored in any memory device, such as semiconductor, magnetic, optical or other memory devices, and may be transmitted using any communications technology, such as optical, infrared, microwave, or other transmission technologies.

Among other ways, such a computer program product may be distributed as a removable medium with accompanying printed or electronic documentation (e.g., shrink wrapped software), preloaded with a computer system (e.g., on system ROM or fixed disk), or distributed from a server or electronic bulletin board over the network (e.g., the Internet or World Wide Web). In fact, some embodiments may be implemented in a software-as-a-service model (“SAAS”) or cloud computing model. Of course, some embodiments of the invention may be implemented as a combination of both software (e.g., a computer program product) and hardware. Still other embodiments of the invention are implemented as entirely hardware, or entirely software.

Although the above discussion discloses various exemplary embodiments of the invention, it should be apparent that those skilled in the art can make various modifications that will achieve some of the advantages of the invention without departing from the true scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A method for transferring knowledge to or testing knowledge of a user with a picture game, the method comprising:

providing a user interface showing a plurality of locations that correspond to an image;

presenting a query and a plurality of response choices associated with at least one of the locations, one of the responses being a more correct response to the query than the other responses in the plurality;

receiving a response selection from the user; and

providing to the user an outcome of the response in the form of either progress towards completion of the image, or completion of the game or a lack of progress by not adding to the completion of the image.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein an architecture of the game represents a picture-completion game.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the knowledge constitutes a topic or subject or other body of related factual items.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising providing suggestive information to the user related to subject matter of the query or game location or the user's response.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the suggestive information is reference material or other resources related to the subject matter of the query.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the suggestive information is related to another location previously encountered or not yet encountered.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the picture or image is three dimensional or changes over time or both.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising representing the user as being located at a location within the image via an icon, shade of color, avatar or other visual indicator who experiences his or her location in the image using a computer interface such as virtual reality, augmented reality, brain-machine interface or other experiential technologies including wireless.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the emerging picture or image provides suggestive information pertaining to the subject matter of the query or the game location or the user's response or otherwise facilitates completion of the game.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the emerging picture maps onto a knowledge domain, topic or schedule in such fashion as to aid the users learning or progress.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sequence of queries or locations presented is predetermined or random or governed by other rules including user actions.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the user can select locations within the image and the user responses can modify the presentation of the image at one or more locations.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein one or more locations are suggested to the user or the user can revisit locations previously queried and receive a repeat query or a new query and thereby influence the picture at that location and progress in the game.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein providing the game architecture further comprises setting a game difficulty level.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein providing a game architecture further comprises: providing a game architecture template free of queries and responses associated with the locations; and permitting entry of queries and responses associated with the locations.

16. A system for transferring knowledge to or testing knowledge of a user with a game through a computer user interface, the system comprising:

a storage media for storing a game having a plurality of locations within an image;

a data structure in the storage media for storing a query and associated responses;

a processor for presenting the query and associated responses to the computer user interface in accordance with a representative location within the game;

the processor being further operable to represent a user at at least one location and accept user input through the computer user interface to indicate a response selection and select another representative location in accordance with the response selection and the game mechanism; and

the processor being further operable to display an emerging image to indicate progress towards completion of the game.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the game is a picture completion game.

18. The system according to claim 16, further comprising suggestive information stored on the storage media related to the subject matter of the query or game location, the processor being operable to provide the suggestive information to the user after selection of another representative location.

19. The system according to claim 16, wherein the suggestive information is reference material related to the subject matter of the query or to the subject matter of the query at another location including a previously encountered location.

20. The system according to claim 16, wherein the processor is further operable to present a dynamic representation of the game to the computer user interface corresponding to the game architecture.