The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 09, 1997
Filed:
Jan. 30, 1996
W Temple Fennell, Jr, Charlottesville, VA (US);
Todd Hodes, Berkeley, CA (US);
Scott Witherell, Woodbridge, VA (US);
Chris J Goebel, Charlottesville, VA (US);
Rajesh P Thakkar, Charlottesville, VA (US);
Thomas Schwenk, Charlottesville, VA (US);
Boxer Jam Productions, Charlottesville, VA (US);
Abstract
A method of managing user inputs and displaying outputs in a multi-player game that is played on a plurality of terminals on a network in a manner that compensates for differences in network latency among different terminals. The method includes: (a) transmitting a representation of a game challenge such as a trivia question to the terminals via the network; (b) receiving a game response signal such as a 'buzz-in' from two or more of the terminals; (c) assigning each responding terminal a priority rank according to a characteristic of their respective game response signal, e.g., elapsed time since receipt of the game challenge; (d) determining which responding terminal has the highest rank; and (e) sending signals to the responding terminals assigning them respective degrees of control of the game, e.g., the right to take a turn, in accordance with their respective ranks.