Apple patent to usher in new generation of augmented reality shooters

Soon, you will be able to use your iPhone to hunt the most dangerous prey of all. Man. Apple has submitted an application for apatentthat could usher in a new generation of augmented reality games. Titled %26lsquo;Interactive Gaming with Co-Located, Networked Direction and Location Awareness,%26rsquo; the application describes a system that will allow you and other players to track and each other in a 3D space with networked iPhones. The iPhone will display a real-time video with overlapped visuals that could direct you to the location of other players.

The patent abstract:

An interactive game environment includes two or more co-located, networked, direction and location aware interactive game devices. The game devices share a common reference coordinate frame (e.g., a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate frame). Each game device maintains its own device state (e.g., position, orientation, time) in the reference coordinate frame. Each interactive game device shares its device state with the other interactive game devices using communication technology (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular). Each interactive game device can use the device states of the other interactive game devices to project the relative positions and orientations of the other interactive game devices into a local, fixed coordinate frame of the interactive game device. These projections allow each interactive gaming device to know the position and orientation of the other interactive game devices in an interactive game environment defined by the reference coordinate frame.

Above: Here we see how Device A has line of sight to Device B. It%26rsquo;s like a live action Warhammer tabletop game!

Here%26rsquo;s another excerpt from the patent application:

For example, a "gun" can be attached to a game device and used by a player to target other players in the real world game environment. In this case, the orientation of the "gun" relative to the game device can be determined. This could be achieved with additional sensors in the gun, for example, and by applying the mathematical techniques described herein.

We%26rsquo;re interested in seeing the applications and games that will be born from this new system. Interestingly enough, the 3D tracking system has been in the works for a while already. The patent was first applied for in April 2009 %26ndash; and wasn%26rsquo;t made public until just this week. You can read through therest of thepatent application at theUS Patent %26amp; Trademark Office.

Nov 4, 2010

Source:Apple Insider

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