US 6,308,565 · Granted 2001-10-30
The 3D Motion-Tracking Patent That Invented Virtual Sports Training
Imagine a video game that watches your real body move in three dimensions and creates a virtual opponent that responds to exactly what you do — speeding up when you speed up, changing strategy based on your position. This patent locks down the core technology for tracking your movement in space and having a computer react to it in real time, creating a realistic training experience.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a system that uses sensors to track a player's body position and movement in three-dimensional space in real time, combined with computer software that generates a virtual opponent. That virtual opponent is programmed to respond to the player's movements — it reacts, adapts, and delivers challenges based on what the player is actually doing. What's protected here is the integrated method of measuring three-dimensional movement data and using it to drive interactive, sport-specific responses from a simulated adversary.
Why it matters
This patent represents an early foundational claim on motion-capture-driven virtual training, filed in 1998 and granted in 2001. At that time, most sports training was either one-on-one coaching or passive video playback. The ability to track a person's movement in real time and have a computer react intelligently to it was genuinely novel. This concept eventually influenced motion-sensing fitness products, esports training systems, and mixed-reality sports coaching — industries that grew substantially in the following two decades.
Real-world use
When you stand in front of a motion-sensing sports simulator and it adjusts the difficulty or direction of a virtual ball based on where you're standing and how you're moving, you're interacting with the core mechanics this patent describes.
Original USPTO abstract
Accurate simulation of sport to quantify and train performance constructs by employing sensing electronics for determining, in essentially real time, the player's three dimensional positional changes in three or more degrees of freedom (three dimensions); and computer controlled sport specific cuing that evokes or prompts sport specific responses from the player that are measured to provide meaningful indicia of performance. The sport specific cuing is characterized as a virtual opponent that is responsive to, and interactive with, the player in real time. The virtual opponent continually delivers and/or responds to stimuli to create realistic movement challenges for the player.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,308,565
- Filing date
- 1998-10-15
- Grant date
- 2001-10-30
- Assignee
- Impulse Technology Ltd.
- Inventor(s)
- FRENCH BARRY J., FERGUSON KEVIN R.
- CPC class
- A63B69/0053
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