Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Other

Silicon Graphics, Incorporated

International Business Machines Corporation

Howard H Cheng

Robert J Moore

Genyo Takeda

Timothy J Van Hook

Vimal S Parikh

Peter Anthony Sandon

Yu-Chung C Liao

Anthony P DeLaurier

Carroll Philip Gossett

Shuhei Kato

Nathan F Pooley

Harold S Anderson

Stephen J Shepard

Jeffrey C Doughty

Byron Sheppard

John Princen

Farhad Fouladi

Mark M Leather

William C Newman, Jr

Junji Takamoto

Peter Y Hsu

Winnie W Yeung

Shinji Yamamoto

Patrick Y Law

Daisuke Kumazaki

Noboru Wakitani

Robert A Drebin

Masahiko Nishimura

Dan Shimizu

Cid Newman

Yamamoto Shinji

Nishimura Masahiko

Kumazaki Daisuke

Takamoto Junji

A human-machine interface involves plural spatially-coherent visual presentation surfaces at least some of which are movable by a person. Plural windows or portholes into a virtual space, at least some of which are handheld and movable, are provided by using handheld and other display devices. Aspects of multi-dimensional spatiality of the moveable window (e.g., relative to another window) are determined and used to generate images. As one example, the moveable window can present a first person perspective 'porthole' view into the virtual space, this porthole view changing based on aspects of the moveable window's spatiality in multi-dimensional space relative to a stationary window. A display can present an image of a virtual space, and an additional, moveable display can present an additional image of the same virtual space.

Spatially-correlated human-machine interface

Spatially-correlated multi-display human-machine interface

The exemplary illustrative non-limiting technology herein enables 3D viewing on conventional 2D displays such as home television sets by tracking a person's viewpoint. Detecting a player's viewpoint movement to change the viewing of the displayed object gives the illusion that the object is physically present in three-dimensional space. Viewpoint movement detection can provide collision-related game logic benefits such as allowing a player to dodge projectiles, giving a game character an ability to 'see' the player when not behind line-of-sight obstacles, and other advantages.

Eye tracking enabling 3D viewing

Eye tracking enabling 3D viewing on conventional 2D display

A human-machine interface involves plural spatially-coherent visual presentation surfaces at least some of which are movable by a person. Plural windows or portholes into a virtual space, at least some of which are handheld and movable, are provided by using handheld and other display devices. Aspects of multi-dimensional spatiality of the moveable window (e.g., relative to another window) are determined and used to generate images. As one example, the moveable window can present a first person perspective 'porthole' view into the virtual space, this porthole view changing based on aspects of the moveable window's spatiality in multi-dimensional space relative to a stationary window. A display can present an image of a virtual space, and an additional, moveable display can present an additional image of the same virtual space. Technology is used to determine aspects of the spatiality of the display devices in the physical world, and use the determined spatiality to affect the images displayed on the displays. For example, determined spatiality of the movable display relative to another display can be used to provide relative spatiality of images the two displays present to enhance the user's immersive perception. The movable display can context-switch between pointer functionality and spatial functionality depending on whether it is pointing toward a stationary display.

An inflatable air cushion or other type seat a person can sit on is instrumented with electronic input devices that can sense motion of the cushion and/or motion of the person's body. Such input devices provide inputs to a computer graphics system that dynamically generates a responsive scene on a real time display. The sensed motion can be used to generate a graphics simulation of horseback riding.

Horseback riding simulation

A sports video game having a new and improved user interface that substantially increases the potential realism of the game uses a handheld controller that is able to sense its own position, orientation and/or motion and is affixed to a ball. The ball can be a model of a football that is provided with a depression that snugly accepts and retains the handheld controller. The handheld controller may sense motion, position and/or orientation of the ball and provide wireless inputs to a video game system. The video game system may process such inputs to provide a simulated sports action game play on a video display.

Method and apparatus for simulating games involving a ball

A graphics system including a custom graphics and audio processor produces exciting 2D and 3D graphics and surround sound. The system includes a graphics and audio processor including a 3D graphics pipeline and an audio digital signal processor. A memory controller performs a wide range of memory control related functions including arbitrating between various competing resources seeking access to main memory, handling memory latency and bandwidth requirements of the resources requesting memory access, buffering writes to reduce bus turn around, refreshing main memory, and protecting main memory using programmable registers. The memory controller minimizes memory read/write switching using a 'global' write queue which queues write requests from various diverse competing resources. In this fashion, multiple competing resources for memory writes are combined into one resource from which write requests are obtained. Memory coherency issues are addressed both within a single resource that has both read and write capabilities and among different resources by efficiently flushing write buffers associated with a resource.

Graphics processing system with enhanced memory controller

A method and apparatus for obtaining a scalar value from a vector register for use in a mixed vector and scalar instruction, including providing a vector in a vector register file, and embedding a location identifier of the scalar value within the vector in the bits defining the mixed vector and scalar instruction. The scalar value can be used directly from the vector register without the need to load the scalar to a scalar register prior to executing the instruction. The scalar location identifier may be embedded in the secondary op code of the instruction, or the instruction may have dedicated bits for providing the location of the scalar within the vector.

Method and apparatus for obtaining a scalar value directly from a vector register

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Howard H Cheng