US20080220865A1 - Interactive playstation controller - Google Patents

Abstract

An interactive playstation controller includes a housing; a linear button set, a mode-switching digital button set, a battery pack, a cable connector and a physiological reaction sensing button set disposed on an exterior of the housing; and an integrated circuit embedded in the housing. The physiological reaction sensing button set includes a heartbeat signal sensor, a humidity sensor, a grip strength sensor and a voice sensor so as to momentarily sense body and physiological condition variations of a player when he or she is playing a game, and the sensed variations are fed back to a game host. Then, a program in the host properly responds with the sensed variations so as to achieve the object and the effect of man-machine interaction.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
• (1) Field of the Invention
• The invention relates to an improvement of a playstation controller, and more particularly to an interactive playstation controller.
• (2) Description of the Prior Art
• In either the mainstream playstation or the non-mainstream playstation available in the market, the wonderful story line development and the body movement of the protagonist in the game or even various man-machine interaction procedures of exchanges of the properties are progressed through a controller connected to the playstation. A player may use his/her hand to control each function key so that the intention of the player is transferred to a host program, which generates different results after judgement and comparison. Thus, the playstation without the controller is like a vehicle, which only has an engine but has no wheel and steering wheel and cannot go anywhere. So, the controller is very important.
• As for the playstation, which is often available in the market, the controller therefor is connected to the playstation through the wired connection, for many years. Thus, the function of the controller is not advanced, and the exterior of the controller is not modified. Even if some manufacturers try to improve the controller, only the original wired transmission between the playstation and the controller is changed to the wireless transmission. In particular, the design of the controller is changed from the simple exterior to the colorful exterior, from the simple function to the complicated function, and from the unidirectional message transfer to the bidirectional message transfer. However, these changes are made according to the story line of the game program, wherein the more difficult story line has to match with the more precise playstation and controller. However, the controller seldom considers the mood or the body condition of the player who is playing the game. According to the conclusion of the experience, the game software may automatically consider the physiological reaction of the player and properly correct the program according to the physiological reaction in the future. So, some mechanism for dealing with the compromise between the game software and the player may be generated. The design concept of this feedback between the software and the physiological condition will become a trend.
• In view of this, the present inventor has successfully designed an interactive playstation controller according to the technology and the professional experience in the field of the joy stick for many years, and this controller has been experimented so that the utility thereof may be further enhanced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
• It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an interactive playstation controller having an embedded integrated circuit and a physiological reaction sensing button set, such as a heartbeat sensor, a humidity sensor, a grip strength sensor and a voice sensor, disposed on a surface of the controller. Thus, the information of the player who is playing the game may be fed back to a game host and the game host responds with the information using a program so that the interactive effect during the game playing process may be enhanced, wherein the information includes the condition of the excitement of emotion, such as the heartbeat speed, the palm perspiring extent, the hand grip strength, and the voice.
• To achieve the above-identified object, a controller is configured to include: a housing; a linear button set, which includes function keys, a mini steering wheel and two mini joy sticks, a mode-switching digital button set, a battery pack, a cable connector and a physiological reaction sensing button set disposed on an exterior of the housing; and an integrated circuit embedded in the housing. The physiological reaction sensing button set includes a heartbeat signal sensor, a humidity sensor, a grip strength sensor and a voice sensor so as to sense physiological condition variations of a player momentarily when the player is playing a game using the controller, and to feed the sensed variations back to a game host so that a program of the host properly responds with the sensed variations to achieve an object and an effect of man-machine interaction.
• Further aspects, objects, and desirable features of the invention will be better understood from the detailed description and drawings that follow in which various embodiments of the disclosed invention are illustrated by way of examples.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
• FIG. 1 shows a circuit structure of an interactive playstation controller according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.
• FIG. 2 shows an exterior structure of the interactive playstation controller according to the preferred embodiment of the invention.
• FIG. 3 shows an exterior structure of the interactive playstation controller according to another preferred embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
• FIG. 1 shows a circuit structure of an interactive playstation controller according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. Referring toFIG. 1, the interactive playstation controller includes: acentral processing unit10; a first input/output port11 connected to an external mode-switchingdigital button set21 and the internalcentral processing unit10; aprogram storage12, which is connected to thecentral processing unit10 and is for storing application programs and procedures associated with this system; apower circuit13, which is connected to anexternal battery pack22, acable connector23 and the internalcentral processing unit10, and provides the sufficient power; acommunication protocol generator14 for providing a specific communication mechanism between thecentral processing unit10 and a game host through thecable connector23; a linear/digital converter15, which is connected to a second input/output port16 and thecentral processing unit10 and sequentially converts the information into digital signals, which are transferred to the host in a wired or wireless manner, according to the procedures previously stored in theprogram storage12; and the second input/output port16, which is connected to the internalcentral processing unit10, the linear/digital converter15 and an externallinear button set200. The interactive playstation controller further includes aheartbeat signal sensor241, ahumidity sensor242, agrip strength sensor243 and avoice sensor244. Thus, when the player is using acontroller1 to play a game, theheartbeat signal sensor241, thehumidity sensor242, thegrip strength sensor243 and thevoice sensor244 can momentarily sense the physiological condition variations of the player, and feed the sensed variations back to the game host. Then, the program of the host system properly responds with the sensed variations to achieve the object and effect of man-machine interaction.
• FIG. 2 shows an exterior structure of the interactive playstation controller according to the preferred embodiment of the invention. As shown inFIG. 2, the exterior of the interactive playstation controller of the invention has been disclosed and the interactive playstation controller may be connected to the game host in a wired or wireless manner in order to facilitate the proceeding of the game. Thecontroller1 has ahousing20. A linear button set200, similar to the prior art, including afunction key201, amini steering wheel202 and twomini joy sticks203 is disposed on the exterior surface of thehousing20. A mode-switching digital button set21, abattery pack22, acable connector23 and a physiological reactionsensing button set24 including aheartbeat signal sensor241, ahumidity sensor242, agrip strength sensor243 and avoice sensor244 are also disposed on the exterior surface of thehousing20. Theheartbeat signal sensor241, thehumidity sensor242, thegrip strength sensor243 and thevoice sensor244 may be thin metal sheets attached to the exterior surface of thehousing20 and electrically connected to the second input/output port16. Also, thecontroller1 has the exterior, which satisfies the human engineering design and can be conveniently and conformably held by the hands of the player. The hand holding portions of thecontroller1 are properly distributed with theheartbeat signal sensor241, thehumidity sensor242, thegrip strength sensor243 and thevoice sensor244. Thus, when the player is playing the game, the body and physiological reactions of the player can be precisely transferred and inputted to thecentral processing unit10 of thecontroller1 through the effective and complete contacts between the thin metal sheets and the hands holding the physiological reaction sensing button set24 of thecontroller1. Then, the body and physiological reactions of the player are converted, according to various signal combining procedures, into signals to be transferred to the host in the wired or wireless manner. Thus, the feedback of the host can provide the interactive and interesting properties in the game.
• When the above-mentioned interactive playstation controller is being operated in practice and the player is controlling the program of the game host, the player controls various reactions of the targets on the screen through the mode-switching digital button set21 and the linear button set200 on thecontroller1. When the player holds the physiological reaction sensing button set24 with his/her two hands, theheartbeat signal sensor241, thehumidity sensor242, thegrip strength sensor243 and thevoice sensor244 immediately sense the above-mentioned variations of the player, such as the information of the speeding up of the heartbeat, the change of the palm perspiring extent, the change of the hand grip strength and the change of the voice, and feed the variations back to the game host through the second input/output port16. The linear/digital converter15 converts the variations into digital signals according to the programs stored in theprogram storage12, and transfers the digital signals to the specificcommunication protocol generator14, which generates the signal mode enabling the communication between the game host and thecontroller1 so as to facilitate the information exchange to feed the signals back to the game host.
• FIG. 3 shows an exterior structure of the interactive playstation controller according to another preferred embodiment of the invention. As shown inFIG. 3, the connection between thecontroller1 and the game host may also be achieved in a wireless manner. In practice, awireless transceiver module17 is disposed in the housing and a wireless transceiver adapter that can be connected to a port of the game host is disposed on the exterior of the housing. Thus, when the player is using thecontroller1, he or she can achieve the objects of sensing the body and physiological condition variations of the player momentarily and feeding the sensed variations back to the game host through thecontroller1 with the wireless communication and transmission function. Then, the program of the host properly responds with the sensed variations to achieve the object and the effect of man-machine interaction.
• As for the power supply, if the game host performs the transmission through thecable connector23 in the wired manner, the power of thecontroller1 is supplied from the game host. On the contrary, if thewireless transceiver module17 is utilized for connection and transmission, thebattery pack22 in thecontroller1 supplies the power.
• In summary, the interactive playstation controller of the invention can indeed achieve the predetermined object to have the improved utility function, and is a great break in the technology of the controller.
• New characteristics and advantages of the invention covered by this document have been set forth in the foregoing description. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. Changes in methods, shapes, structures or devices may be made in details without exceeding the scope of the invention by those who are skilled in the art. The scope of the invention is, of course, defined in the language in which the appended claims are expressed.

Claims (3)

1. An interactive playstation controller, comprising:

a housing;

a linear button set comprising function keys, a mini steering wheel and two mini joy sticks, a mode-switching digital button set, a battery pack, a cable connector and a physiological reaction sensing button set disposed on an exterior of the housing; and

an integrated circuit embedded in the housing, wherein the physiological reaction sensing button set comprises a heartbeat signal sensor, a humidity sensor, a grip strength sensor and a voice sensor so as to sense physiological condition variations of a player momentarily when the player is playing a game using the controller, and to feed the sensed variations back to a game host so that a program of the host properly responds with the sensed variations to achieve an object and an effect of man-machine interaction.

2. The interactive playstation controller according toclaim 1, wherein the integrated circuit comprises a central processing unit, a first input/output port, a program storage, a power circuit, a communication protocol generator, a linear/digital converter and a second input/output port.

3. The interactive playstation controller according toclaim 1, wherein the integrated circuit comprises a wireless transceiver module for transferring a message in conjunction with a wireless transceiver adapter on the game host.

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