Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Haiyan Zhang

Nicolas Villar

James William Scott

Alexandra Keeley Bunting

Greg Saul

Lee Jason Schuneman

Philip Robert Harrison

Simon Jay Carter

Daniel Cletheroe

Jonathan Leslie Venables

Christian Holz

Jonathan Steven Robinson

Alma Coyolxauhqui Salinas Lopez

Sabina Lopez-Moreno

Thomas James Mejias Stott

Simone Rita Thomas

Patrizio Spadoni

Alex Hall

Tariq Adaci

Levi Naess

Oscar Salandin

Sebastien Vandenberghe

Stephen Edward Hodges

Andrew William Fitzgibbon

Struan Andrew Robertson

Michael Paul Rouse

Sandeep Bhara

Navtej Sunner

Simon Terence Prodger

Sébastien Vandenberghe

An extender object for use with a multi-modal sensing surface comprises at least two antenna coils. A first antenna coil in the object is electrically connected to a second antenna coil in the object and the two antenna coils may be spatially separated. At least one of the first and second antenna coils comprises a plurality of radial elements extending in and/or out from the coil.

Extender object for multi-modal sensing

A data store for a modular assembly system is described. The data store comprises a number of records, each record relating to a physical module in the modular assembly system and comprising a module ID, an owner ID for the module and one or more properties fields. The properties field(s) define any property of the module and different records may define different properties. At least one of the fields in each data record (e.g. the module ID or owner ID) is verified by an authentication service. A user assembles two or more modules into a coherent physical whole object to act as a user input device to an interactive software experience. The data store communicates with the interactive software experience and causes a change in behavior of the interactive software experience in response to a check of the data records for each of the modules in the object.

Data store for a modular assembly system

A multi-modal sensing surface comprises two overlaid arrays: a capacitive sensing electrode array and an array of RF antennas. A first sensing module is coupled to the capacitive sensing electrode array and is configured to detect both an increase and a decrease of capacitance between electrodes in the array. A second sensing module is coupled to the array of RF antennas and is configured to selectively tune and detune one or more of the RF antennas in the array of RF antennas.

Multi-modal sensing surface

An interactive computer game is described which works in conjunction with a number of physical modules that a user can connect together in different ways to form a coherent physical whole object. The game receives data from the object via a wireless link, the data identifying at least which modules form part of the object and updates game play based on the data received. At some point within the game play, the game presents an objective or goal to the user which the user can only achieve by interacting with the physical object formed from the modules. In an embodiment, this interaction comprises re-arranging the modules or swapping modules to form an object with a different visual appearance, moving all or part of the object and/or interacting with a sensor on a module in the object. The game may receive further data from the object during the user interaction.

Gaming system for modular toys

An interactive play set is described which comprises one or more active physical play pieces. In an embodiment, each active physical play piece receives data from one or more other play pieces in the play set and uses this data to generate proximity data. The proximity data describes distances between two or more play pieces from which it receives data to three or more proximity levels. The proximity data is then transmitted to an interactive entertainment experience (such as a game) which reflects changes in proximity level. For example, the changes may be visible in a graphical user interface or another play piece or audible to a user.

Interactive play sets

Methods and systems for controlling physical toys using a physics engine are described. In an embodiment, a physics engine within an interactive software experience is used to model the motion of a virtual object in a virtual environment. The output of this modelling is then imposed on a physical toy which corresponds to the virtual object such that the motion of the physical toy in the real world more closely matches the motion of the virtual object in the virtual environment. In various examples, the modelling is imposed through control signals which are generated based on output of the physics engine and used to control actuators within the physical toy to change the motion of at least a part of the toy.

Controlling physical toys using a physics engine

A system in which attributes are transferred between generations of characters in an interactive software experience is described. In an embodiment, data identifying one or more hardware attributes for a virtual entity are determined based on a physical user device associated with that virtual entity. One or more virtual attributes for the virtual entity are accessed and one or more behaviors of the virtual entity within the interactive software experience are modified based on a combination of the hardware and virtual attributes.

Transfer of attributes between generations of characters

Track based play systems are described which comprise a set of physical play pieces and an associated computer game. In an embodiment, a user may arrange some or all of the play pieces in the set to form a path. The computer game is arranged to infer a virtual model of the path defined by the user-created arrangement of the play pieces. The inference may be based on data communicated by one or more the play pieces to the game or based on data from a local sensing device such as a camera which views the relative positions of the play pieces. Having inferred the path, the game constrains a virtual or physical object to the path within the game play and renders a graphical user interface showing at least a portion of the path.

Track based play systems

A system for generating custom modular objects is described. The custom modules form part of a modular construction set from which an object can be created by a user. The object acts as a user input device for an interactive software experience. To generate a custom (i.e. non-standard) module, a virtual 3D shape is received by a module generation service. The service converts this shape into a derived 3D shape for the module, for example, ensuring that the module is shaped such that it is compatible with other modules from the modular construction set to which it will be connected for form an object and/or by adding an aperture for receiving a connector and/or electronics core. Once generated, the derived 3D shape is sent to the user in physical form or virtual form and a virtual representation of the module is provided to the interactive software experience.

Generation of custom modular objects

Methods of managing virtual resources within a virtual world are described which use a device comprising a connecting element to which one or more smart beads can be attached. A smart bead represents either a virtual resource in the virtual world or an action on a virtual resource in the virtual world. The device is arranged to detect and identify which smart beads are attached to the connecting element and to autonomously update quantities of one or more virtual resources based on combinations of virtual resources and/or actions on virtual resources, where at least one of the virtual resources or actions in any combination is represented by a detected smart bead. In an embodiment, the device is a fashion item such as a wearable device.

Management of resources within a virtual world

A flexible multi-layer sensing surface comprises a first flexible layer and a second flexible layer. The first flexible layer is a sensing layer and the second sensing layer is another sensing layer or an output layer. The sensing surface also comprises a calibration module which is configured to use the first flexible sensing layer to detect the relative position of the first and second flexible layers and this detected relative position is then used to update one or more stored operating parameters.

Flexible multi-layer sensing surface

A modular assembly system is described which enables interaction with an interactive software experience such as a game. The system enables a coherent physical whole object to be assembled from a core module and one or more peripheral modules. The core module includes a battery, processor and a wireless module which is able to communicate with the interactive software experience which runs on a separate computing device such as a smartphone, tablet or games console. Each of the peripheral modules stores a module ID and these IDs are collected by the core module and communicated to the interactive software experience. The user experience within the interactive software experience changes dependent upon the set of modules which are connected to form the coherent physical whole object and may also be altered as a result of manipulation of the coherent physical whole object or individual modules.

Modular construction for interacting with software

Interactive smart beads are described. The beads are attached to a connecting element and form a fashion item such as a necklace or bracelet. The connecting element detects the presence of beads which are part of the fashion item and also beads which are part of nearby fashion items. The connecting element also autonomously generates interactions between two or more detected beads and transmits data about the interactions to a software experience so that a user can view a graphical representation of the interactions. In various examples each bead represents a character, environment, object, etc. and the software experience displays an animated story based on the characters, environments, objects, etc. represented by the beads involved in an interaction.

Interactive smart beads

A reader device for short-range wireless tags comprises a sensing module coupled to one or more RF antennas. The sensing module is arranged to selectively activate and deactivate individual RF antennas and to read data from a plurality of objects comprising short-range wireless tags which are proximate to an active RF antenna. A scheduler module within the reader device is arranged to obtain device characteristics for the plurality of objects based at least in part on data read by the sensing module and then to generate a powering schedule for the plurality of objects based on the device characteristics. The generated powering schedule is then implemented by the sensing module.

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London, United Kingdom

Haiyan Zhang