IP Library Granted Patent US 9,061,212
Granted Patent B2
US 9,061,212 · App. 13/540,815 · Granted Jun 23, 2015

Game device, game control method and game control program for controlling a golf game

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,061,212
App. No.
13/540,815
Granted
Jun 23, 2015
Kind
B2
Abstract

A game device includes an input receiving unit for receiving the input of user's operations, a control unit for controlling a game where a player's character plays golf, according to the input of the user's operation, and a screen generating unit for displaying a game screen. The control unit includes an impact determining unit for acquiring the position of an input device at the start of a shot and the position of the input device at the time of an impact, when the user swings the input device while holding it and then comparing the respective positions with each other so as to determine the impact position, and a ball path calculating unit for calculating the path of a ball hit in the impact.

Claims (45)

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embedding a game control program, the program comprising:

an input receiving module operative to receive an input of a user's operation;

a control module operative to control a game where a player's character plays golf, according to the input of the user's operation; and

a screen generating module operative to display a screen of the game,

the control module including:

an impact determining module operative to acquire a first position of an input device at a start of a shot which sets a center position of a ball and a second position of the input device at a time of an impact, when a user swings the input device while holding the input device, and operative to compare the respective first and second positions with each other so as to determine an impact position representing a position at which the ball is hit by a club head; and

a ball path calculating module operative to calculate a path of the ball in accordance with the impact position determined by the impact determining module such that the larger a displacement between the impact position and the center position of the ball, the larger another displacement between a calculated landing spot of the ball and a targeted landing spot of the ball.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1 , wherein the impact determining module acquires the respective first and second positions by analyzing an image of the input device picked up by an image pickup apparatus for taking an image of the input device.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 2 , wherein the impact determining module acquires a distance between the input device and the image pickup apparatus and positional coordinates of the input device in the image by analyzing the image, and

the impact determining module determines the impact position in such a manner that first positional coordinates of the input device in a first image at the time when the input device returns to a same distance as that between the input device and the image pickup apparatus at the start of the shot are compared with second positional coordinates of the input device in a second image at the start time of the shot.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1 , wherein the impact determining module corrects the impact position according to an attribute of the player's character or the user.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1 , wherein the ball path calculating module calculates the path of the ball, by using a sensor value acquired from a sensor module, provided in the input device, operative to detect velocity, acceleration, angular velocity or orientation of the input device.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 1 , the control module further including a power determining module operative to determine a power of the shot in response to a degree of swing-back,

wherein, when the user swings back while holding the input device, the power determining module determines the degree of swing-back by acquiring a third position of the input device, and

the power determining module displays an indicator indicating an estimated level of the power, when the ball is hit as a result of downswing from a swing-back position, in response to the determined degree of swing-back.

7. A game device comprising:

an input receiving unit configured to receive an input of a user's operation;

a control unit configured to control a game where a player's character plays golf, according to the input of the user's operation; and

a screen generating unit configured to display a screen of the game,

the control unit including:

an impact determining unit configured to acquire a first position of an input device at a start of a shot which sets a center position of a ball and a second position of the input device at a time of an impact, when a user swings the input device while holding the input device, and configured to compare the respective first and second positions with each other so as to determine an impact position representing a position at which the ball is hit by a club head; and

a ball path calculating unit configured to calculate a path of the ball in accordance with the impact position determined by the impact determining unit such that the larger a displacement between the impact position and the center position of the ball, the larger another displacement between a calculated landing spot of the ball and a targeted landing spot of the ball.

8. A game control method comprising:

receiving an input of a user's operation, via an input device;

controlling a game where a player's character plays golf, according to the input of the user's operation, via a computer processor; and

displaying a screen of the game,

the controlling including:

determining an impact position representing a first position at which a ball is hit by a club head in such a manner that a second position of an input device at a start of a shot sets a center position of a ball and a second position of the input device at the time of an impact, when a user swings the input device while holding the input device, are acquired and the first and second respective first and second positions compared with each other; and

calculating a path of the ball in accordance with the impact position determined by the determining such that the larger a displacement between the impact position and the center position of the ball, the larger another displacement between a calculated landing spot of the ball and a targeted landing spot of the ball.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 2 , wherein the impact determining module corrects the impact position according to an attribute of the player's character or the user.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 3 , wherein the impact determining module corrects the impact position according to an attribute of the player's character or the user.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 2 , wherein the ball path calculating module calculates the path of the ball, by using a sensor value acquired from a sensor module, provided in the input device, operative to detect velocity, acceleration, angular velocity or orientation of the input device.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 3 , wherein the ball path calculating module calculates the path of the ball, by using a sensor value acquired from a sensor module, provided in the input device, operative to detect velocity, acceleration, angular velocity or orientation of the input device.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 4 , wherein the ball path calculating module calculates the path of the ball, by using a sensor value acquired from a sensor module, provided in the input device, operative to detect velocity, acceleration, angular velocity or orientation of the input device.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 2 , the control module further including a power determining module operative to determine a power of the shot in response to a degree of swing-back,

wherein, when the user swings back while holding the input device, the power determining module determines the degree of swing-back by acquiring a third position of the input the power determining module displays an indicator indicating an estimated level of the power, when the ball is hit as a result of downswing from a swing-back position, in response to the determined degree of swing-back.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 3 , the control module further including a power determining module operative to determine the power of the shot in response to a degree of swing-back,

wherein, when the user swings back while holding the input device, the power determining module determines the degree of swing-back by acquiring a third position of the input device during swing-back, and

the power determining module displays an indicator indicating an estimated level of the power, when the ball is hit as a result of downswing from a swing-back position, in response to the determined degree of swing-back.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 4 , the control module further including a power determining module operative to determine a power of the shot in response to a degree of swing-back,

wherein, when the user swings back while holding the input device, the power determining module determines the degree of swing-back by acquiring a third position of the input device during swing-back, and

the power determining module displays an indicator indicating an estimated level of the power, when the ball is hit as a result of downswing from a swing-back position, in response to the determined degree of swing-back.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 5 , the control module further including a power determining module operative to determine a power of the shot in response to a degree of swing-back,

wherein, when the user swings back while holding the input device, the power determining module determines the degree of swing-back by acquiring a third position of the input device during swing-back, and

the power determining module displays an indicator indicating an estimated level of the power, when the ball is hit as a result of downswing from a swing-back position, in response to the determined degree of swing-back.

Assignments (4)
CHANGE OF NAME Recorded Sep 6, 2017
From: SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT INC.
To: SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT INC.
Reel/Frame 043761/0577 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 6, 2017
From: SONY CORPORATION
To: SONY INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT INC.
Reel/Frame 043761/0975 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 29, 2015
From: SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT INC.
To: SONY CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 035529/0269 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Sep 14, 2012
From: KIKUCHI, TAKANORI; KISHIDA, HISASHI; MURAMORI, MASASHI; KUWABARA, TOSHIYUKI; HASHIMOTO, HIROFUMI; KOTSUGAI, YOSHINORI; SUZUKI, KENTARO
To: SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT INC.
Reel/Frame 028961/0167 →