Rendering unobstructed views in a gaming environment

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RENDERING UNOBSTRUCTED VIEWS IN A

GAMING ENVIRONMENT

Inventor: Gavin Michael James, Santa Monica,
CA (US)

Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment
America LLC, Foster City, CA (US)

Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this
patent is extended or adjusted under 35
U.S.C. 154(b) by 802 days.

Appl. No.: 12/237,274

Filed: Sep. 24, 2008

Prior Publication Data US 2009/0189895 A1 Jul. 30, 2009

Related U.S. Application Data

Division of application No. 11/222,883, filed on Sep. 8, 2005, now Pat. No. 7,679,642, which is a continuation of application No. 10/268,495, filed on Oct. 9, 2002, now Pat. No. 6,995,788.

Provisional application No. 60/328,488, filed on Oct. 10, 2001.

(58) Field of Classification Search ................ .. 348/169, 348/113,116,143,157,158,159,135; 345/419, 345/418

See application file for complete search history.

(56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
4,969,036 A 11/1990 Bhanu et al.
5,526,041 A 6/1996 Glatt
5,798,519 A * 8/1998 Vock et al. ............... .. 250/206.1
6,034,692 A 3/2000 Gallery et al.
6,181,988 B1 1/2001 Schneider et al.
6,489,955 B1 12/2002 Newhall, Jr.
6,680,746 B2 1/2004 Kawai et al.
6,714,236 B1 * 3/2004 Wada et al. ................. .. 348/152
6,995,788 B2 2/2006 James

* cited by examiner

Primary Examiner 4 Shawn An
(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm 4 Lewis and Roca LLP

(57) ABSTRACT

A system and method for rendering unobstructed views in a gaming environment are provided. The system includes a memory for storing a camera navigation/ control model, a central processing unit for executing the camera navigation/ control model to provide unobstructed and non-disorienting target character views, and a graphics processing unit configured to render the unobstructed views of the target in an image for display. In addition, the camera navigation/ control model includes an object detection model, line-of-sight restoration

Int_ CL models to restore a line-of-sight view of an obstructed target, H04N 5/225 (200601) and a camera navigation path model. A line-of-sight restoraU S Cl 348/169_ 348/113_ 348/116_ 348/143_ tion method is used to move the camera to provide an unob348/157; 348/158; 348/159; 348/135; 345/419; structed Vlew ofthe target‘ 345/418 17 Claims, 11 Drawing Sheets 1 18 110 = > IOP Memory /\) ‘ _ Controller 1 0 Main Memory T 7 Interface M 144 it 122 142 \/\ 5 = = Memory Card /\) 11 112 CPU ‘ > USB 1 4 ‘OP T Interface M g _ g _ IEEE 1394 126 113 T V T ' Interface N 136 \/‘ VPU = = (J 128 M OS ROM HDD 140 \_/\ I I 11 2 Q; ‘ ' ' 1 5 S 2z:::,'.11:1 ‘\ B 132 134

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