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Game controller with tactile feedback

Game controller with tactile feedback description/claims

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus in which a video game provides tactile feedback to the game player while playing a video game.

The video game industry has undergone rapid expansion in both software and console technology improvements. This recent expansion and wider selection of video game consoles has differences between various features between the different console manufacturers. Some video game controllers have a rotating motor inside that causes the controller to physically vibrate and thus create what is called “force feedback” or “haptic feedback” that gives the game player the added sensation of immersion in the game. Newly released console systems have much larger processing abilities that are used to generate complex video games. This in turn has created a need for a more varied tactile feedback system that can better provide various sensations to enhance the video game player experiences. Handheld controllers are used to interface between the video game and the video game player. Current video game controllers for the Sony Playstation 2™ and XBOX™, and xBox 360™ video game console systems have two small electric motors with a counterweight on the motor shaft inside the controller. The Sony Playstation 3™ controller does not have these motors inside their current controller.

Visual changes in a television screen alert the game player that they have pressed a pre-programmed action. Movements by the game player on his controller are translated by the video game to the display screen. This creates a bi-directional communication via electronic signals that are relayed between the action in the video game and the video game player's movements that are produced by pressing the controller buttons. The small motors with counterweights inside the controller create tactile feedback enhancing the visual immersion in the game. These small motors turn on and off and cause a bell curve vibration to the video game player's hands.

A video game can be programmed in such a way that when a collision occurs between two objects displayed on the screen, the small motors inside the controller are turned on and cause a minor shaking of controller by the offset weight on the shaft of the motors. This is well known in the art and generally described as tactile feedback by a rotating mass.

Generally, prior art methods of producing tactile feedback lack the ability to adjust the intensity, pulses or variety of positions for a force feedback that is desired by the video game player.

To date, the Sony Playstation™ has been in existence since the Sony Playstation 1™ and has been replaced with the Sony Playstation 2™. The xBOX™ has been in existence since 2001 and more recently this has been replaced with the xBox 360™. Nintendo has a video game console called the Game Cube™ and more recently has been replaced with the Nintendo Wii™.

All of these leading video game console controllers are similar in design thus having the same limitations with respect of their controller's tactile feedback methods.

A need exists for a method and apparatus that enhances interaction between a game player and a video game console system in which the video game player experiences force feed back of different intensities, a variety of pulses and can experience these factors on a variety of different physical positions.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus that increases interaction between a game player and a video game console system in which the video game player receives a wider range of tactile feedback from the video game.

In one aspect, the invention may comprise a video game tactile feedback system comprising an electronic circuit for receiving tactile feedback signals from a video game, and generating electronic pulses to a conductive pad forming part of or attached to a video game controller, which conductive pad is grasped by a video game player.

In another aspect, the invention comprises a method of providing video game tactile feedback to a video game user, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving a tactile feedback signal from a video game; (b) converting the tactile feedback signal to an electronic pulse output; and (c) transmitting the output to a conductive pad grasped by the video game user.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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