Positional device element may be used to determine the position of the sword and the attitude of the sword in the X, Y and Z axes. Because of the high torque available in this game it may be desirable to have a kill switch connected to the sword apparatus requiring that the user keep the switch depressed in order for power to be imparted to the torque propulsion unit. The circular devices depicted at , and may be either infrared receivers or infrared blasters or transmitters. It is understood that motors 20 and 22 may be high velocity motors capable of spinning the main propulsion flywheel 10 up to a sufficient velocity to impart the necessary torque to the player.
The energy stored in the propulsion gyrostat is a factor of rotational velocity and the mass of the flywheel Spoke 15 shows one of the spokes connecting the main body of propulsion flywheel 10 , along axis 60 to motor 20 and As known to those skilled in the mechanical arts, motors 20 and 22 may have mechanical assistance, e.
In as much as flywheel 10 and motors 20 and 22 are the main inertial drives of the apparatus, it is understood that a suitable high speed motor may be obtained from the disk drive technology arts wherein a very flat motor is available to spin a disk at a very high rotational speed.
The main flywheel 10 is shown mounted in a double gimballed configuration. The first gimbal is along an axis between motors 30 and The second gimballed axis is between motors 40 and Other mechanical configurations of double gimballed gyroscopic apparatus are known to those skilled in the art and are within the scope of the present invention.
Two propulsion gyrostats in a single gimballed configuration may be utilized by coordinating the toppling force on the two gyrostats to create the necessary torque action on the player desired by the present invention.
Such a dual gyrostatic propulsion configuration may be used to impart additional torque on the sword housing to provide a more realistic simulation of the sword battle. These positional sensors may be necessary to obtain the position of the flywheel 10 , e. Contacts and 95 are shown as a means for transferring power and signals from the outer gimbal to the inner gimbal. Such power transfer may be accomplished by utilizing conductive metal ring fixated to disk and disk 90 and pressure contacts at and 95 keeping in contact with the conductive metal rings.
The main propulsion gyrostat is shown at Spokes 15 hold the propulsion gyrostat to the axis 60 of the main drive motor It is understood that an additional drive motor 22 may also be used. Housing 70 shows the housing of the first gimbal securing motor 20 and 22 and flywheel 10 to the first gimbal housing The first housing 70 extends around to the mounting axles 31 and 32 , connected to toppling motors 35 and 30 respectively.
Drive motors 35 and 30 may impart the toppling torque in the first gimballed axis. It is understood that motors 30 and 35 may be replaced with a single motor and that configuration is within the scope of the present invention.
Configurations that give the toppling motors 30 and 35 a mechanical advantage, such as with a mechanical gear arrangement, are also within the scope of the present invention. Circular ring 80 depicts the second gimbal housing holding motors 30 and 35 to a second gimbal arrangement.
The second gimbal housing 80 connects the inner gimbal and motor drives 30 and 35 to the outer gimbal 80 through axles 81 and Axles 81 and 82 are connected to the second gimbal drive motors 40 and Once again, a two motor configuration is shown as a means for imparting the maximum torque available from small electric motors such as those available from the hobby and toy arts. It is understood that these toppling motors may work in tandem to impart a toppling torque in the same direction; likewise motors 35 and 30 may also work in tandem to impart the maximum toppling effect on the drive gyrostat, the drive flywheel It is understood that motors 50 and 40 may be replaced by a single suitably high torque motor.
It is also within the scope of the present invention to use configurations that give motor 40 and 50 a mechanical advantage for toppling the drive flywheel 10 via the inner gimbal. Function circuit board is shown as providing the analog drive voltages for the motors described above.
The real coordinates may be determined by a timed burst from infrared blasters , and and the time delay of the burst received at any one of the sensors , or which may then be used to triangulate the position of the sword in real coordinates.
Although shown in an infrared embodiment, other remote triangulation techniques are known to those in the navigational arts, such as through the use of radio frequency and ultra-violet frequencies.
Infrared blasters, shown at , and may be reversed, that is they may be infrared receivers and the infrared blaster may be located at , and It is understood that the game has a suitable calibration mode for configuring the sensor array. Block may depict the drive circuitry for toppling motors 30 and Block may depict the drive circuitry for toppling motors 40 and Blocks and are representative of the circuits necessary to determine the position of the propulsion drive 10 from sensors 37 and 38 respectively.
Such sensors may include, as previously noted, sensors 37 and 38 as optical sensors that reflect off disks and disk 90 respectively to determine the pitch and yaw position of propulsion drive The circuits of blocks and may work in conjunction with controller to determine the propulsion drive 10 position. Block may represent the circuitry necessary to work in conjunction with sensor 21 to determine the rotational velocity of propulsion drive The rotational velocity of the propulsion drive motor 10 may vary as game play ensues.
Sensors , and may be incorporated into functional block This routine may make the initial calculation for the torque force to be applied to the pitch and yaw motor drives at outputs and The calculate blow routine routine may receive an impact point in the x, y, and z coordinates of the virtual space and when applicable the attacking sword velocity.
The retrieved hilt point may be used to determine the distance from the sword hilt that a sword impact occurred. This distance may, in turn, be used to determine the amount of leverage, e.
The next block may calculate the sword's idealized mass. It is understood that more than one type of sword apparatus may be utilized, e.
Since a real broadsword may be a very heavy instrument, it's virtual mass may also have a certain amount of momentum because of its idealized weight and velocity. The resultant of procedural blocks and is a vector providing the player's virtual sword direction and force at the impact point. Again, for example only, the virtual attacking sword may also have a virtual mass idealized from a fictionalized attacking broad sword. The results of procedural blocks , and is a vector providing the direction and force at the impact point of both the attacking virtual sword and the virtual sword projected from the player's sword apparatus By taking the cross product of these vectors, the factors such as angle of the sword attack, how far from the hilt the strike may be taken into account when calculating the resultant vectors.
That is, there is no cushion or elasticity loss in the impact of the two idealized swords. However, elasticity factors as well as other means for calculating the resultant torque from a sword blow are within the scope of the present invention and may be accommodated by the insertion of loss constants in the energy conservative equations. This calculation may be important for the torque calculation because the gyrostatic force acts at a right angle to which the toppling force is applied.
Thus, given that the desired torque effect for the sword apparatus is known from the calculation above, in general terms, the toppling torque applied to the propulsion gyrostat may be applied at a right angle to the propulsion gyrostat to achieve the desired torque effect. For example, as discussed above, a sword apparatus with two or more propulsion gyrostats is within the scope of the present invention.
Also the mass of the propulsion gyrostat may be different for different sizes and models of the sword apparatus. Thus, block may be utilized to retrieve the particular calibration factors for the particular sword apparatus for which the torque calculations are being calculated.
The next procedural block may calculate the value of the torque for output to controllers and This calculation may use the instantaneous inertial mass available, the desired torque amount and a compensating factor to resolve any non-linearities in the toppling motor response, as determined by conventional control systems principals, to calculate the output value.
The sum of these torques may provide a toppling force at a right angle to the desired torque for the sword apparatus In the preferred embodiment, these torque values are output to a predetermined memory location in controller that, as will be discussed further below, are accessed by the gyrostat position control routine detailed in FIG.
This may be used to initially provision software variables in the game controller Block may be a wait state that may be used to pause the procedural loop. The tracking voltage may be used to topple the propulsion gyrostat in such a way as to track the position of the sword apparatus so as to minimize the torque felt at the sword apparatus in response to movement of the apparatus, e.
In this instance, the mechanical linkage, generally denoted in FIG. The tracking voltage calculation may only be an approximate calculation and yet be a mitigating factor for undesirable torque effect, e. Block outputs torque voltages 1 and torque voltages 2 to torque motor controllers and These torque voltages are used to topple the propulsion gyrostat 10 of the present invention to provide the gyrostatic effect of the sword apparatus Thus, for example, when the virtual sword is not impacting on a virtual object the output at block may merely be the tracking torques from block that attempts to topple the propulsion gyrostat so as to track the player's movement of sword apparatus Thus, for example, when a sword blow torque is generated from the procedure described in FIG.
Procedural block checks whether the controller has issued a shut down command, if yes, the gyrostat position control loop exits at , if no, the procedure is passed to sword position routine and the control loop goes on continuously that is, until a shut down command is received.
The check shutdown routine may check the dead-man switch shown as FIG. The mysterious force calculation may be performed at procedural block by first getting a desired virtual x, y, and z point for the virtual sword. Procedural block may get the sword position or attitude, e. Procedural block may calculate the smallest change in position of the virtual sword location to the game provided X, Y and Z coordinates, e.
Block is the mysterious force factor parameter which may be a constant that is multiplied by the torque from block to provide a mysterious force that is either strong, if the mysterious force factor is a large number, or subtle if the mysterious force factor is a small constant.
The next procedural block may output a torque for controllers and to the gyro position control procedure depicted in FIG.
It is understood that this torque calculation may take into account the position of the propulsion gyrostat from sensor circuits and as well as the angular momentum of the propulsion gyrostat from sensor circuit and as well as taking into account the mass factors from the controller for the particular propulsion gyrostat used by the particular sword apparatus Procedural block may output the mysterious force torque via a memory location or other suitable buffer structure back to FIG.
Turning back to FIG. This may be accomplished by reducing the sword blow intensity factor to provide an impulse from an object, e. That is, the conservation of momentum equations may allow the virtual sword to follow through an object when the object struck has a small mass relative to the virtual sword mass. Through the interactions of the procedures outlined in FIGS. A comprehensive controller output is disclosed and allows sword apparatus to be completely controlled by the game controller at FIG.
More specifically, the present invention provides an apparatus in which a participant may input velocity and position information into an electronic game and receive physical feedback through the apparatus from the electronic game. The electronic game industry has seen a dramatic evolution from the first electronic ping-pong game "pong" to the state of modern games and consumer home electronics.
In general, hardware advances that have increased processing power and reduced cost has fueled this evolution. The increased availability of low cost processing power, as well as consumer expectation for improved game content, demands that new games be developed to take advantage of this processing power. These new hardware platforms are so powerful that a whole new genre of games has to be developed in order to fully utilize the hardware. Electronic game input, traditionally, has been limited to joy sticks, button paddles, multi-button inputs, trackballs and even a gyro mouse that has a gyroscope means for determining the orientation of the mouse.
Recently Nintendo has deployed a "rumble" device to provide vibratory feedback to game console users. Traditional computer input means are well know to those in the arts and require no further discussion. The gyro-mouse, in the context of the present invention, however, deserves some further discussion. The gyro-mouse, provided in U.
The gyro-mouse provides a gyroscope contained within a ball so that ball may be rotated. This rotation translates into two dimensional or three dimensional motion for software receiving the gyro-mouse input to display on a computer screen. Thus, the gyro-mouse is somewhat an extension of the track ball paradigm for a computer input device. The gyroscopic effect has also been harnessed for practical commercial applications.
One of the more interesting gyroscopic effects is brought about through the principal of conservation of angular momentum. As witnessed in gyroscopic phenomena, a gyroscope creates a force at right angles to a force that attempts to "topple" the gyroscope.
Gyroscopes are also known to have precession due to the earth's effect on the gyroscope. Gyroscope procession is not especially pertinent to the present invention, however, its principals and mathematical proofs and formula are herein incorporated by reference. The navigational arts also provide a means for harnessing gyroscopic phenomena to determine the inertial position of a vehicle such as an aircraft. In an inertial navigation system, the gyroscope is mounted in a double gimballed arrangement and allowed to rotate without resistance in all directions.
High precision means are used to determine how much the gyrostat has rotated, in actuality the aircraft rotating around the gyroscope, and this measurement in combination with high precision accelerometers provides a means for tracking the change in an aircraft direction. This instrumentality in conjunction with precision timing and velocity measurements provides a means for continuously determining an aircraft navigational position.
In another application of the gyroscopic effect, a large gyroscope can be used to create an effect that in some aspects is the reverse that of an inertial navigation system.
Here, a large gyrostat mass the flywheel can be use to stabilize or position certain objects such as spacecraft. In the spacecraft application, such as in U.
The spacecraft then feels a moment of thrust at right angles to the torque that is applied to the gyrostat. This way, and in others such as the "pure" inertia of rotation of causing a flywheel mass to accelerate or decelerate rotation, spacecraft attitude may be changed through gyrostatic means.
In other stabilization applications, gyrostats are used to stabilize platforms such as cameras and other precision instruments, in general by attaching a gyrostat to the instrument platform. Gyrostats have been used in conjunction with wheels to provide linear propulsion. Through a systems of gears and linkages, U.
The present invention is an electronic game with interactive input and output through a new, novel and non-obvious player interface apparatus. The new player interface apparatus may be a hand held apparatus that may use sensors to determine the position of the apparatus and the gyrostatic effect to provide tactile feedback to the user.
More particularly, in one embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus may be used in conjunction with software to create an electronic interactive sword game. In overview, one or more gyrostat s inside the sword apparatus may be used as the "propulsion" gyrostat, hereinafter, the "propulsion gyrostat. The flywheel of the propulsion gyrostat may be configured in a double gimbal housing wherein each axis of freedom, for example, the pitch and yaw of the flywheel, may be controlled by high torque electric motors.
By applying the appropriate voltage to the high torque motors, the propulsion gyrostat may be "toppled" in such a way as to create a calibrated torque on the whole sword apparatus, e. This calibrated torque may be used to simulate, inter alia, a sword blow as felt at a sword's handle. Through the interaction of successive sword blows, e.
This conservation of energy may be rewarded in the game interaction by producing more "powerful" sword strikes when the propulsion gyrostat of the sword apparatus is at full power storage, e.
It is understood that the sword apparatus of the present invention may not need a blade but the blade may be represented in the virtual space in the game itself. Thus, in the virtual reality domain, the computer may generate a sword blade that appears to extend from the hand held sword apparatus of the present invention. In another embodiment of the present invention, other virtual representations of the virtual instrument that is representative of the object held by the player are within the scope of the present invention such as a gun, bazooka, knife, hammer, axe and the like and the gyrostat propulsion instrumentality of the present invention may be controlled accordingly to provide the appropriate feedback to simulate the virtual instrument.
Another feature of the present invention is to have a macro gyroscopically powered inertia navigational means on-board the hand held device. Such a small appparatus is available from Sony Corporation. Yet another feature of the present invention is to use sensors, e. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention the sword apparatus uses infrared blasters, e. An infrared output at both the top and the bottom of the sword apparatus may be used to determine the attitude of the sword apparatus and is within the scope of the present invention.
It is understood the that the game of the present invention may also use a "mysterious" force feature, discussed further below, to encourage the player to move the sword apparatus toward the center of the predetermined game field. Economical high torque motors are found in many common children's toys such as radio controlled cars and other devices.
In another example, the light saber metaphor may allow the light saber virtual blade to strike through objects and, thus, may require a relatively small tactile feedback amount, thus, creating the illusion of a powerful virtual sword that can strike through objects. In contrast to a virtual medieval sword, wherein the steel blade cannot strike through all objects and, therefore, the striking of an object, such as a virtual tree, may require a massive tactile feedback response in order to "stop" the sword blow cold.
Thus, the illusion of the medieval sword may be lost because of overloading, e. That is not to say, of course, that a medieval sword embodiment is not within the scope of the present invention, for indeed it is as well as swords and blades of all types and sizes.
The light saber metaphor may be most appropriate, here, because the light saber metaphor may allow a player to strike through walls, e. However, the player may still feel feedback as the sword passes through a virtual reality object, e. Allowing the object to pass through the virtual reality object without stopping it "cold", thus, allows the system to conserve its rotational energy for other interactions with the game. Another interesting aspect of the present invention is the ability of the software to lead the players movements as well as provide impact feedback.
In a two player mode, conventional modem means may be used to connect game stations in a back-to-back configuration. Telemetry between the game stations may be used to convey positional, attitudinal and inertial mass, explained further below, of the respective sword devices between game stations.
In another configuration, multiple players may network together with a server computer acting as the communication hub between multiple game stations. A low cost network such as the internet may be used as the network transport protocol.
Alternatively, one game station may be configured as a master station, acting as a communication master and other game stations may be networked to the master station. It is understood that the infrared detectors and blasters are interchangeable into different operable configurations. Turning now to FIG. The torque forces from the present invention may be able to approximate the feel of a real sword battle, therefore, the material for the housing, , should be of sufficient strength to safely handle the torque imparted by the torque propulsion system It is understood that the sword housing may be made of metal, cast aluminum, plastic or other materials known.
It should be noted that the housing may also serve as a safety enclosure if the propulsion gyrostat contained in block were to have catastrophic failure and become free of its bearings. However, in the preferred embodiment housing may be sufficiently strong so as to contain the propulsion gyrostat in the event of catastrophic failure while maintaining a means for low cost plastic injection molding manufacturing techniques. Housing may also be configured with. Block represents an external power supply.
The power supply may be used to rectify household voltage into usable voltages for the sword game of the present invention. The high current draw of the present invention may be due to the high torque motors of propulsion gyrostat necessary for the torque propulsion. However, it is understood to those skilled in the arts, that power supply line may be coupled into the data line to integrate power lines and into a single cord for data controls and power to the sword apparatus.
The sword housing may be adapted to receive a speaker to provide an audio output for game sounds. Speaker may be connected by line to control circuits Control circuits may contain a digital to analog converter to generate game sounds. Block may represent the circuit board for the control circuits of the present invention. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, circuits may contain a suitable protocol communications device or procedure to establish communications between the sword device and game controller Block may represent the control circuits necessary for the analog drive voltages for the propulsion gyrostat means Block diagram element may represent a gyrostat positioning system to determine the attitude of the sword apparatus of the present invention.
One such miniature device is commercially available from Sony Electronics and or functionally as the device employed in U. Positional device element may be used to determine the position of the sword and the attitude of the sword in the X, Y and Z axes. Switch and switch arm may be a safety switch, in the "deadman" circuit configuration, held in place by the player's grip on the apparatus. Because of the high torque available in this game it may be desirable to have a kill switch connected to the sword apparatus requiring that the user keep the switch depressed in order for power to be imparted to the torque propulsion unit.
The circular devices depicted at , and may be either infrared receivers or infrared blasters or transmitters. It is understood that motors 20 and 22 may be high velocity motors capable of spinning the main propulsion flywheel 10 up to a sufficient velocity to impart the necessary torque to the player.
The energy stored in the propulsion gyrostat is a factor of rotational velocity and the mass of the flywheel As known to those skilled in the mechanical arts, motor 20 and 22 may have mechanical assistance, e. In as much as flywheel 10 and motors 20 and 22 and are the main inertial drives of the apparatus it is understood that a suitable high speed motor may be obtained from the disk drive technology arts wherein a very flat motor is available to spin a disk at a very high rotational speed.
The main flywheel 10 is shown mounted in a double gimballed configuration. The first gimbal being along an axes between motors 30 and The second gimballed axes is between motors 40 and This is a two axes of freedom double gimballed apparatus meaning that both "pitch" and "yaw" of the main propulsion flywheel 10 may be controlled in two axes of freedom.
Other mechanical configurations of double gimballed gyroscopic apparatus are known to those skilled in the art and are within the scope of the present invention. Two propulsion gyrostats in a single gimballed configuration may be utilized by coordinating the toppling force on the two gyrostats to create the necessary torque action on the player desired by the present invention.
It is also within the scope of the present invention to utilize two double gimballed gyrostats, one at the top of the sword and one at the bottom of the sword not shown in a "bar bell" like configuration. Such a dual gyrostatic propulsion configuration may be used to impart additional torque on the sword housing to provide a more realistic simulation of the sword battle.
Disk 90 and disk may be reflectively "bar-coded" to indicate the position of the flywheel within the gimbals via the coding of the reflected light from sensors 37 and 38 off of the disks. These positional sensors may be necessary to obtain the position of the flywheel 10, e. Contacts and 95 are shown as a means for transferring power and signals from the outer gimbal to the inner gimbal.
Such power transfer may be accomplished by utilizing conductive metal ring fixated to disk and disk 90 and pressure contacts at and 95 keeping in contact with the conductive metal rings. The main propulsion gyrostat is shown at Spokes 15 hold the propulsion gyrostat to the axes 60 of the main drive motor It is understood that an additional drive motor 22 may also be used. Housing 70 shows the housing of the first gimbal securing motor 20 and 22 and flywheel 10 to the first gimbal housing The first housing 70 extends around to the mounting axles 31 and 32, connected to toppling motors 35 and 30 respectively.
They gather at sunrise, practicing for hours. Then, most of them take naps. Heck, one of the warriors has had a bad hip since the late 60s… s that is. Now you, yes you can join the Dojo.
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