Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe Limited

Other

Hugh Alexander Dinsdale Spencer

Nicholas Anthony Edward Ryan

Andrew Swann

Pritpal Singh Panesar

Simon Andrew St John Brislin

Andrew John Nicholas Jones

Warren M Benedetto

Landon Noss

Adil Ahmed Sherwani

Nitin Y Mohan

Paul Edridge

Mohammed Mansoor Nusrat

Derek Andrew Parker

Charles Wayne Denison, Ii

Matthew Stewart Bloom-Carlin

Xifan Chen

Matthew Ito

Steven Patrick Trombetta

Nobukazu Koyama

Maria Chiara Monti

Benedikt Neuenfeldt

Maurizio Cerrato

Yohei Nishikawa

Sashikanth Reddy Dareddy

Paul Terence Mulligan

Oleksii Kyrych

Methods and apparatus provide for: receiving video game data generated during the playing of a video game, the video game including at least a video and corresponding audio signal; and inputting each signal in the received video game data into a respective machine learning model and determining based on the output of each model, whether a highlight event has occurred during the playing of the video game. At least some of the frames in the video and or audio signal are then selected for inclusion in a recording of the video game gameplay, based on a determination that a highlight event has occurred and a recording is generated that includes the selected video and or audio frames. A method for training the models is also provided, along with systems for training and executing the trained models.

Method and system for generating a recording of video game gameplay

A method of recording a seamless customised video recording of a video game, the method comprising the steps of: video recording a first run-through of at least a part of the video game; saving a saved-game state of a first game state of the video game, the saved-game state enabling a game state of the video game to be reset to the saved-game state that is at least visually identical to the first game state; detecting, in response to the saving of the saved-game state, a time within the video recording of the first run-through corresponding to the time the saved-game state is saved; video recording, when the game state is reset to the saved-game state, another run-through from the saved-game state; and editing the video recording of the first run-through by replacing some or all the video recording of the first run-through recorded from the detected time with the video recording of the other run-through when the other run-through meets a predetermined preference criterion.

Video recording system and method

A method of estimating a time to complete a task for a user of a computer comprises: identifying a target task for which a time is to be estimated for completing the task, determining as a start point the completion of the last task completed by the user on the computer, obtaining, from data relating to a corpus of users, data for at least a subset of those users who completed the last task completed by the user before also completing the target task wherein the obtained data comprises timing data, calculating a representative time from the start point to the completion of the target task, based upon the obtained data, and implementing a predetermined action responsive to the calculated representative time.

Apparatus and method of user analysis and content selection

Computer-implemented systems and methods for providing contextual game guidance are described herein. An example method includes determining based on contextual information regarding an application an objective of the user; automatically deriving based on the contextual information and the objective contextual guidance to assist the user; generating a user interface having the contextual guidance; and transmitting the user interface to a client device.

Remote networked services for providing contextual game guidance based on a user objective

A method of video playback includes obtaining a 3D reconstruction of at least part of an environment, obtaining video footage of an activity within that at least part of the environment, obtaining data indicating a position and orientation of a first camera within the at least part of the environment that recorded the obtained video footage, and rendering a view of the video footage in alignment with a corresponding view of at least part of the 3D reconstruction, responsive to the position and orientation of the first camera within the at least part of the environment.

Apparatus and method of video playback

A method of generating a representation of a virtual environment includes obtaining a mesh of at least part of the virtual environment; detecting the continuous and non-overlapping portions of that mesh, hereafter 'patches'; populating a texture map with representations of the patches by, for successive patches in order of large to small, identifying a position on the texture map where a current patch meets a non-overwrite criterion, wherein the a non-overwrite criterion requires that texels corresponding to the current patch do not overwrite texels of any previously positioned patch, and successive positions for each current patch are tested at intervals starting from a common origin position; and associating the current patch with the identified position; setting colour values for the texels of the texture map responsive to colour information corresponding to the obtained mesh; and outputting the obtained mesh and texture map for use by a third party.

Apparatus and method of generating a representation of a virtual environment

A method of predicting a game objective completion time for a particular game objective for a particular user includes, for the particular user, determining a game objective completion time decile for a preceding predetermined number of other game objectives completed by the particular user, deriving a representative completion time decile from a plurality of game objective completion time deciles for the particular user, and identifying a time band classification of the particular user using the representative completion time decile for the particular user as input to a generated time band classification; and outputting predicted game objective completion time data for the particular game objective for the particular user based upon the identified time band classification.

Remote networked services for providing contextual game guidance

A method of mapping a virtual environment comprises obtaining a first sequence of video images output by a videogame title; obtaining a corresponding sequence of in-game virtual camera positions at which the video images were created; obtaining a corresponding sequence of depth buffer values for a depth buffer used by the videogame whilst creating the video images; and for each of a plurality of video images and corresponding depth buffer values of the obtained sequences, obtain mapping points corresponding to a sampling distribution of points over the area of a respective video image and their associated depth values; wherein respective mapping points are obtained by projecting co-ordinated derived from the sample points from the video image and associated depth values back into a 3D game world co-ordinate system of the videogame title; thereby obtaining a point cloud dataset of mapping points corresponding to the first sequence of video images.

Apparatus and method of mapping a virtual environment

Computer implemented methods and systems for providing a uniform data platform for at least one application of a plurality of applications are disclosed. Exemplary methods include receiving application data from at least one of a device and a server, a device executing a portion of an application of a plurality of applications, storing the application data in a data platform, the data model including at least one metadata and at least one event, the one metadata corresponding to at least one object indicated in the data model, and the one event corresponding to a trigger condition associated with the one metadata entry, wherein values of the one metadata and one event are associated with a user profile and accessing via a plurality of remote networked services, the application data stored in the data platform, the plurality of remote network services accessing the application data using the data model.

Data model for uniform data platform

A video recording method includes recording a sequence of video images output by a videogame, recording a sequence of depth buffer values for a depth buffer used by the videogame, recording a sequence of in-game virtual camera positions used to generate the video images, recording one or more in-game events and their respective in-game positions, associating the depth buffer value sequence, the in-game virtual camera position sequence, and an identifier for the videogame, with the video image sequence, and associating the one or more in-game events and their respective in-game positions with the identifier for the videogame. A video playback method includes obtaining a video recording of a videogame playing session, comprising a sequence of video images, obtaining a depth buffer value sequence, an in-game virtual camera position sequence, and an identifier for the videogame that are associated with the video recording, obtaining data indicative of a statistically significant in-game event and an in-game event position, calculating a position within the current video image corresponding to the in-game event position, in dependence upon the associated in-game virtual camera position and depth buffer values, and augmenting the current video image with a graphical representation of the statistically significant in-game event, responsive to the calculated position.

Video recording and playback systems and methods

A user analysis method of assisting a current user within the videogame, includes: obtaining an indication that a hint is required for a scenario within the videogame; and if so, providing a hint to the current user relating to successful behaviour in the scenario; where providing a hint comprises: obtaining one or more indicators of behaviour for the scenario within the videogame, a difference detecting step comprising detecting a respective difference between the one or more obtained indicators of behaviour and corresponding data derived from a corpus of measured indicators of behaviour previously generated from a subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario, and the providing step comprising providing a hint to the current user indicating a change in one or more behaviours that reduces a respective difference in the one or more measured indicators of behaviour between the current user and the subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario.

User analysis system and method

A method of detecting significant footage for recording from a videogame includes obtaining position information for a target object within a virtual environment of the videogame, obtaining depth buffer information for a current position of a virtual camera used to generate a current image of the virtual environment for display by the videogame, calculating a first distance along a line between the current position of the virtual camera and the obtained position of the target object, detecting whether a depth buffer value along the line corresponds to at least a threshold distance from the virtual camera, the threshold distance being based upon the calculated first distance, and if so, associating the current image with an indicator that the image is significant for the purposes of recording footage from the videogame.

A user analysis method for assisting a current user within the videogame includes: measuring one or more indicators of success for a scenario within the videogame as played by the current user, detecting if the one or more measured indicators of success are below an evaluation threshold, and if so then providing a hint to the current user relating to successful behaviour in the scenario, wherein providing a hint has a measuring step including measuring one or more indicators of behaviour for the scenario within the videogame as played by the current user, an evaluating step including evaluating the one or more measured indicators of behaviour with respect to data derived from a corpus of measured indicators of behaviour previously generated for other users for the scenario, a difference detecting step including detecting a respective difference in the one or more measured indicators of behaviour between the current user and a subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario, and the providing step including providing a hint to the current user indicating a change in one or more behaviours that reduces a respective difference in the one or more measured indicators of behaviour between the current user and the subset of other users detected to have a predetermined level of success in the scenario.

Methods and apparatus provide for: recording a first sequence of video images output by a videogame, recording a sequence of depth buffer values for a depth buffer used by the videogame, recording a sequence of in-game virtual camera positions used to generate the video images, recording one or more in-game events and their respective in-game positions, generating a second sequence of video images encoding the depth buffer value sequence, and associating the in-game virtual camera position sequence, with at least one of the first and second sequence of video images. Methods and apparatus also provide for: obtaining a first video recording of a videogame playing session comprising a sequence of video images, obtaining a second video recording generated by encoding a depth buffer value sequence, obtaining data indicative of an in-game virtual camera position sequence that is associated with at least one of the obtained video recordings, obtaining data indicative of a statistically significant in-game event and an in-game event position, calculating a position within a current video image of the first video recording corresponding to the in-game event position, in dependence upon the associated in-game virtual camera position and decoded depth buffer values, and augmenting the current video image with a graphical representation of the statistically significant in-game event, responsive to the calculated position.

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London, United Kingdom

Hugh Alexander Dinsdale Spencer