WO1998034697A1

WO1998034697A1 - Method and apparatus for interactive audience participation by audio command

Info

Publication number: WO1998034697A1
Application number: PCT/US1998/002273
Authority: WO
Inventors: Roger B. Dannenberg; Robert N. Fisher; Andrew P. Witkin
Original assignee: Stadium Games, Ltd.
Priority date: 1997-02-10
Filing date: 1998-02-03
Publication date: 1998-08-13
Also published as: US5993314A; AU6650798A; EP1009502A1

Abstract

An interactive audience participation system (10) which utilizes audio command signals, such as loudness or sound intensity, transmitted by different audience groups.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTERACTIVE AUDIENCE

PARTICIPATION BY AUDIO COMMAND

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to the field of human-computer interface techniques for

a group (one or more) of people simultaneously interfacing to a computer.

In more recent years, a considerable amount of work has been accomplished to

facilitate one-on-one interaction of a human and a computer. This interaction is bi-directional,

human-to-computer and computer-to-human. The present invention relates to the human-to-

computer direction.

Devices which are commonly used for this purpose include the computer

keyboard, mouse, light pen, track-ball, microphone, retroflective device, and, through the

MIDI communication channel, a wide variety of musical instruments.

In the situation where the audience controls the course of action being sensed

or viewed by the audience, common techniques utilized are wired seats, radio transmitters and

retroflective devices. As a representative example of the latter mentioned device, see U.S.

Patent No. 5,210,604 for Method and Apparatus for Audience Participation by Electronic

Imaging. Electronic signaling devices used by a participating audience usually consists

of buttons, switches, dials, etc. which are hard wired to the audience seats for manipulation

by the people occupying the seats. Other methods for audience participation utilize

retroflective devices which are illuminated from a light source and viewed by a video camera,

as disclosed in the aforereferenced patent.

In yet other such audience participation system, radio transmitters are utilized,

however this procedure is relatively expensive.

It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a method and

apparatus for interactive audience participation which utilizes audio command signals

transmitted by the audience, thereby eliminating the requirement of expensive transmitters,

hard wiring to audience seats, or the necessary requirement of extra hand held devices, such

as retroflective signaling devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The system of the present invention provides interactive audience participation

wherein respective groups of an audience interactively control a communication medium

device in their presence for entertainment, educational or statistical purposes.

In the system of the present invention, each person of the audience has the

capability of transmitting predetermined parameters of audio command signals. For Example, the predetermined parameters which are regulated in the audio command signals transmitted

may be audio intensity or loudness, audio frequency or pitch, or audio sounds or phoneme

(voice or speech recognition). These audio command signals are preferably merely generated

by the respective voices of the audience, or secondarily by audio generating devices, either

mechanical or electronic audio generating devices.

The live audience is thus divided into groups for the purpose of competition or

cooperation in interactive audience participation and the audio command signals transmitted

respectively by these difference audience groups, each consisting of at least one person, are

respectively detected and the aggregate of the command signals for each determined.

Through the use of modern day computer techniques, the detected aggregate of

the command signals for each group are converted into data and respective group parameters

for an audience sensed interactive communication medium device are correspondingly

manipulated with the detected group data.

The interactive communication medium device which is being controlled by the

audience may be any one of a number or combination- of known devices, such as large or small

video displays, audio displays using loud speakers, audio visual displays of any size and

remotely controlled vehicles which can be controlled through the cooperation or competitive

command signals generated and transmitted by the respective audience groups. While the interactive audience participation system of the present invention may

be used for scientific or educational purposes, it will generally more readily be utilized as a

game that permits an audience, such as spectators of a sporting event, to participate in games.

In this scenario, the audience is divided into competing groups or cooperating interacting groups. Through the use of microphones, audio command signals generated and

transmitted by the respective groups are detected. Such command signals might technically

be shouting, such that the participants need no special equipment.

Through the use of present day electronic computer equipment, the commands

are processed and controlled to yield input signals for an appropriate video game, remotely

controlled vehicle, or other interactive communication medium device which is being viewed

by the audience for thereby providing feedback to the participants. For example, the use of

video games, remotely controlled vehicles, computer simulations, and other interactive systems

are utilized to provide an element of play.

In a sports stadium, such interactive communication medium devices might

consist of or include a large outdoor stadium video display, or a remotely controlled vehicle

on the playing field which is competitively or cooperatively controlled for movement on the

field. For example, in a football game the vehicle could in fact be a motorized vehicle which

has a body shaped in the configuration of a football and the vehicle is thus competitively

moved towards opposite goals by their respective audience groups, depending upon their ability to shout or otherwise provide another appropriate required audio parameter, such as

voice pitch or frequency.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects and advantages appear hereinafter in the following description and

claims.

The accompanying drawings show, for the purpose of exemplification, without

limiting the invention or claims thereto, certain practical embodiments illustrating the

principals of this invention wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the interactive audience

participation system of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the contents of the audio

detectors utilizing the system of the present invention for detecting audio command signals

transmitted by different audience groups;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic flow chart for computer software implementation of

a tug of war game which may be implemented as an example by the system of the present

invention; and FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the interactive

audience participation system of the present invention illustrating the implementation of a

remotely controlled vehicle in accordance with the principals of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 1 , the interactive audience participation system 10 of the

present invention is schematically illustrated.

The microphones 11 receive or capture sound from the audience 12, which are

players, for example the crowd in a sports stadium. The players 12 are divided into two

groups A and B, and each group is sensed by separate directional microphones 11 or sets (not

shown) of separate microphones 11. Two such microphones are shown in FIG. 1, but any

number of microphones for each group may be utilized.

Several different approaches may be utilized to isolate the sounds from the

different groups A and B. The microphones 11 may be directional, for example standard

cardio id-pattern directional microphones, microphones with reflecting dishes, or "shot-gun"

directional microphones. Alternatively, microphones 11 may be placed close to the

participants or players 12 of the audience, using the fact that sounds from nearby participants

will be stronger than sounds from far away participants in another group. The audio command signals from each microphone 11 is sent to two

corresponding respective audio detectors or analyzers 13. The audio command signals being sensed or detected from microphones 11 may travel through standard microphone cables as

indicated, or, in a large system, the signals may be transmitted conventionally via radio or

light transmission to a central receiver.

The two audio detectors 13 are adapted for detecting the audio command signals

transmitted by the different audience groups A and B, which groups will consist of at least one

person, and the signals are there aggregated for each group. In other words, the microphone

signals are analyzed and aggregated in the detectors 13 to produce one or more control signals.

In the simplest form, the predetermined parameter of the audio command signal

which is being measured or detected is loudness or intensity. For example, in detectors 13,

the average power of the signal can be computed at frequent intervals of time to yield

aggregated time-varying control information.

As other examples of the predetermined parameter of the audio command

signals which can be measured or detected, audio ^■ frequency or pitch, or audio sounds or

phonemes can be detected or measured instead of sound intensity or loudness.

For example, if pitch or frequency is the audio parameter being detected, some

measure of group A and B's average pitch can be determined as an aggregate by computing

the centroid of the amplitude spectrum, since it is unlikely that a group could produce a well defined single pitch. A typical aggregating procedure would be to digitize the input signal

using a standard analog-to-digital converter, capture a predetermined number of samples, multiply the vector of samples by a predetermined windowing vector (such as a Hamming

window) compute the discrete Fourier transform of the samples, convert the magnitude of the discrete Fourier transform, and finally compute the centroid of this magnitude.

The third example of sound parameters which might be detected are speech

sounds using speech-recognition techniques, various phonemes or even words may be

recognized. These may be used by the group to issue specific predetermined commands.

Alternatively, the degree to which the group sound matches one speech sound versus another,

can provide a continuous control parameter.

The analysis carried out by detectors 13 can be performed by special purpose

hardware, by digital signal processors, or by using one or more general purpose computers.

FIG. 1 shows a separate detector for analyzing each signal, but multiple analyses may also be

performed by a single piece of equipment with multiple inputs and outputs.

Referring to FIG. 2, the analysis process carried out by detectors 13 for

aggregating audio command signals is shown in greater detail. The command signal or signals

being detected are introduced in input 20 in digital form. The input, consisting of a fixed

number of amplitude samples, is used by three independent processing sequences. On the left

of FIG. 2, a root-mean-square (RMS) value 21 is computed for the samples, and the result is

passed into a smoothing filter 22 to yield a measure of loudness as indicated. In the middle of the figure, the pitch analysis described earlier is implemented. On the right side of the

figure, speech processing is used to recognize speech sounds, such as "yes" and "no" . Other

analyses are also possible.

Accordingly, audio detectors 13 detect the audio command signals transmitted

by different audience groups and thereby determine the aggregate of the signals for each group

and then convert the detected aggregate of the signals for each group into data. The results

of this analysis are then sent to a control system 14 for correspondingly manipulating

respective group parameters for an audience sensed interactive communication medium device

with the group data.

Control system 14 uses the analysis to control in this instance an electronic

game as the audience sensed interactive communication medium device. For example,

loudness may control the speed of a runner or a direction of movement of a vehicle. Two

examples of such games are described hereinafter. In FIG. 1, the output of the audience

sensed interactive communication medium device which is manipulated by the audience group

is illustrated in the form of video display 15 and loud speaker 16.

The control system 14 can be a special-purpose computer as in a video game,

or a general purpose computer, possibly the same machine which is used for analysis in

detector 13. Included in the control system 14 is a simulation of various objects, such as

runners, obstacles, balls, and terrain. At least some of the objects have parameters that change

dynamically in response to control signals. The control system also generates images and sounds that correspond to the configuration of simulated objects and to event conditions within the simulation, which are ultimately displayed on stadium video display 15 and loud speaker

system 16 in the presence of the audience.

The output of control system 14 is a depiction of the elements of the game using

some combination of video, audio, mechanical devices, fireworks, lights, vehicles, robots, or

other audience sensed interactive communication medium devices. The system output is

watched and/or heard by the players of the audience. In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, a

large outdoor video stadium display 15 and a stadium PA loud speaker system 16 are utilized.

The total configuration of the system of the present invention creates an

interactive system in which players can control and respond to the progress of the game, as

depicted by video images and sound.

Next, example games which can be carried out by the interactive audience

participation system of the present invention are described.

In a first example, a tug-o'-war game is played. In this game, the participants

are divided into two groups A and B: Group A being on the left side of the screen and Group

B on the right side of the screen. A computer generated video display shows two groups of

people pulling in opposite directions. When the left group of participants yell, animated

characters pull to the left. Similarly, when the right group yells, animated characters pull to the right. A group "wins" when their characters pull the other characters over a center line

in the video display 15.

The computer driven implementation of the tug-o'-war game is carried out as

indicated by the software flow chart of FIG. 3.

Computation is performed at regularly spaced time steps. At each step, the

aggregate of the control signals are computed from the amplitude of each input signal. The

difference between right and left amplitude is then computed. The difference is scaled by a

predetermined factor and added to a position accumulator to provide group control data. An

image is drawn at a position based on the position accumulator and displayed. When the

position accumulator exceeds a predetermined positive or negative threshold, the game ends,

all as depicted on the software flow chart of FIG. 3.

A second game example which can be played with the interactive audience

participation system of the present invention is one that incorporates vehicle navigation.

In this game, the participants must drive a remotely controlled vehicle in the

shape of a football to the end zone of a football field. Spectators are divided again into two

groups A and B. One group controls the speed of the vehicle, and the other group steers. In

order to go straight, the steering group must make a sound that is medium loud. Softer sounds

will turn the vehicle left and louder sounds will turn it right. Alternatively, the left group

might control the left wheel and the right group might control the right wheel. Overall volume makes the vehicle move forward, and relative volume makes the vehicle steer. The vehicle

stops when it enters the end zone.

In this example, the audience participants are required to cooperate with each

other instead of competing.

The implementation of this vehicle navigation game is carried out as indicated

hereinafter with reference to the schematic diagram of FIG. 4.

Amplitude signals from the detectors 13 of FIG. 1 are input at 30 to control

logic circuit 31 where they are scaled and combined by predetermined factors to provide

aggregated data and transmitted by radio transmitter 32 to remotely controlled vehicle 33.

Vehicle 33 is battery powered as indicated by power/transmission system 34 and has a servo-

controlled speed adjustment 35 and a servo-powered steering system 36. The signals received

by radio receiver 37 are used to control servo actuators (not shown). When the vehicle enters

the end zone an operator manually overrides the speed control to stop the vehicle.

Any number of games are possible by changing the control system 14 in FIG.

1. Games may be competitive in which groups A and B participants compete, or games may

be cooperative or collaborative toward a single collective goal. Examples of competitive

games include football (one group controls a runner, while another group tries to tackle the

runner), baseball (one group controls the pitch, while another group controls a batter), hockey

(one group controls the puck, while another group controls the goalie), and other sports. Collaborative games include white water rafting (one group paddles to the left, another paddles to the right), navigating in a maze, flight simulation (one group controls the elevator, another

group controls the ailerons).

Claims

I Claim:

A method of Interactive audience participation, comprising the

steps of:

detecting predetermined parameters of audio command signals

transmitted respectively by different audience groups consisting of at least one person and

thereby determining the aggregate of said signals for each group;

converting the detected aggregate of said signals for each group into

data; and

correspondingly manipulating respective group parameters for an

audience sensed interactive communication medium device with said group data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of detecting comprises

using microphones.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of detecting comprises

detecting audio intensity parameters as the predetermined parameters of audio command

signals being detected.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of detecting comprises

detecting predetermined parameters of audio command signals selected from a group of

parameters consisting of audio intensity, audio frequency and audio sounds.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of manipulating

comprises manipulating group parameters of an audience sensed interactive communication

medium device selected from a group of devices consisting of video displays, audio displays,

audio-visual displays and remotely controlled vehicles.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of manipulating

comprises manipulating group parameters of a remotely controlled vehicle.

7. A system for interactive audience participation, each person of

an audience having the capability of transmitting predetermined parameters of audio command

signals, comprising:

at least two audio detectors adapted for detecting audio command signals

transmitted by different audience groups consisting of at least one person and for thereby

determining the aggregate of said signals for each group;

means for converting the detected aggregate of said signals for each

group into data; and

means for correspondingly manipulating respective group parameters for

an audience sensed interactive communication medium device with said group data.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said audio detectors include

microphones.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the predetermined parameters of audio command signals being detected are audio intensity parameters .

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the predetermined parameters of audio command signals being detected are selected from a group of parameters consisting

of audio intensity, audio frequency and audio sounds.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein said interactive communication

medium device is selected from a group of devices consisting of video displays, audio

displays, audio-visual displays and remotely controlled vehicles.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein said interactive communication

medium device is a remotely controlled vehicle.

13. A storage medium encoded with machine-readable computer

program code used in a computer controlled system for interactive audience participation,

comprising:

means for causing detection of predetermined parameters of audio

command signals transmitted respectively by different audience groups consisting of at least

one person and for thereby causing determination of an aggregate of said signals for each

group;

means for causing conversion of the detected aggregate of said signals

for each group into data; and means for causing corresponding manipulation of respective group

parameters for an audience sensed interactive communication medium device with said group

data.

14. The storage medium of claim 13, wherein the means for causing

detection includes means for causing detection of audio intensity parameters as the

predetermined parameters of audio command signals being detected.