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:
Oct. 16, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 13, 2000
Norman R. H. Black, Half Moon Bay, CA (US);
Jeffrey J. Rothschild, Los Gatos, CA (US);
HearMe, Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus to efficiently and effectively ensure that the quality of the data communications links are adequate for digital electronic game playing is provided. A number of servers are connected to the Internet. The servers periodically perform communications link quality measurements among themselves. At least one of the servers is designated as a matchmaker. When a game is requested by clients, the matchmaker acts as a game coordinator and compiles the results of the measurements. Based on the compilation and other information from its database, the matchmaker selects a few servers as candidate servers. These candidates perform data communications link quality measurements with the requesting clients. Based on these measurements, the matchmaker selects a server as the server for the requested game.