Pose-triggered interactive gameplay.
Systems, methods and articles of manufacture for controlling electronic devices in an interactive gaming environment. Embodiments detect a first interactive game is playing within the physical environment using one or more electronic devices. User movement is monitored using at least one sensor device within the physical environment and user speech is monitored using one or more microphone sensor devices within the physical environment. Upon determining that the user movement matches a predefined series of user actions and that the user speech matches a corresponding predefined speech pattern, embodiments determine a gameplay action corresponding to both the predefined series of user actions and the predefined speech pattern and transmit an instruction, to at least one of the one or more electronic devices within the physical environment, instructing the electronic device to perform the determined gameplay action.
BACKGROUND(1) Field of the Invention(2) The present invention generally relates to entertainment systems, and more specifically to techniques for automating control of electronic devices within an augmented reality environment based on detected user poses and speech.(3) Description of the Related Art(4) Computer graphics technology has come a long way since video games were first developed. Relatively inexpensive 3D graphics engines now provide nearly photo-realistic interactive game play on hand-held video game, home video game and personal computer hardware platforms costing only a few hundred dollars. These video game systems typically include a hand-held controller, game controller, or, in the case of a hand-held video game platform, an integrated controller. A user interacts with the controller to send commands or other instructions to the video game system to control a video game or other simulation. For example, the controller may include a joystick and buttons operated by the user.(5) While video games allow the user to interact directly with the video game system, such interactions primarily influence the graphical depiction shown on the video game device (or on a connected display), and rarely influence any other objects outside of the virtual world. That is, a user may specify an input to the video game system, indicating that the user's avatar should perform a jump action, and in response the video game system could display the user's avatar jumping. However, such
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: detecting a first interactive game is playing within a physical environment using one or more electronic devices; monitoring user movement using at least one sensor device within the physical environment; monitoring user speech using one or more microphone sensor devices within the physical environment; upon determining that the user movement matches a predefined series of user actions and that the user speech matches a corresponding predefined speech pattern: determining a gameplay action corresponding to both the predefined series of user actions and the predefined speech pattern and based on a current context of a story being played in the first interactive game, and wherein the first interactive game includes a plurality of distinct contexts; determining an in-game ability to perform within the first interactive game based on the current context of the story, wherein the predefined series of user actions and the predefined speech pattern correspond to a respective distinct in-game ability in each of the plurality of distinct contexts; performing the determined in-game ability within the first interactive game and by operation of one or more computer processors; and transmitting an instruction, to at least one of the one or more electronic devices within the physical environment, instructing the at least one electronic device to perform the determined gameplay action.
13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, containing computer program code that, when executed, performs an operation comprising: detecting a first interactive game is playing within a physical environment using one or more electronic devices; monitoring user movement using at least one sensor device within the physical environment; monitoring user speech using one or more microphone sensor devices within the physical environment; upon determining that the user movement matches a predefined series of user actions and that the user speech matches a corresponding predefined speech pattern: determining a gameplay action corresponding to both the predefined series of user actions and the predefined speech pattern and based on a current context of a story being played in the first interactive game, and wherein the first interactive game includes a plurality of distinct contexts; determining an in-game ability to perform within the first interactive game based on the current context of the story, wherein the predefined series of user actions and the predefined speech pattern correspond to a respective distinct in-game ability in each of the plurality of distinct contexts; performing the determined in-game ability within the first interactive game and by operation of one or more computer processors when executing the computer program code; and transmitting an instruction, to at least one of the one or more electronic devices within the physical environment, instructing the at least one electronic device to perform the determined gameplay action.
18. A system, comprising: one or more computer processors; and a memory containing computer program code that, when executed by operation of the one or more computer processors, performs an operation comprising: detecting a first interactive game is playing within a physical environment using one or more electronic devices; monitoring user movement using at least one sensor device within the physical environment; monitoring user speech using one or more microphone sensor devices within the physical environment; upon determining that the user movement matches a predefined series of user actions and that the user speech matches a corresponding predefined speech pattern: determining a gameplay action corresponding to both the predefined series of user actions and the predefined speech pattern and based on a current context of a story being played in the first interactive game, and wherein the first interactive game includes a plurality of distinct contexts; determining an in-game ability to perform within the first interactive game based on the current context of the story, wherein the predefined series of user actions and the predefined speech pattern correspond to a respective distinct in-game ability in each of the plurality of distinct contexts; performing the determined in-game ability within the first interactive game; and transmitting an instruction, to at least one of the one or more electronic devices within the physical environment, instructing the at least one electronic device to perform the determined gameplay action.