US 6,430,997 · Granted 2002-08-13
The Virtual Opponent Patent That Made Skill Training Interactive
Imagine a video game that watches your exact body movements in 3D space and creates a smart virtual opponent that reacts to everything you do in real time. This patent covers the tech that captures your position and movements, then uses that data to create realistic training challenges that adapt to how you're actually playing.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The patent covers a system that uses sensors to track a player's three-dimensional movements in real time, paired with computer software that generates sport-specific responses and challenges based on what the player is doing. What's protected here is the combination of motion-sensing electronics that measure positional changes in three or more degrees of freedom, plus the interactive virtual opponent software that reacts to the player's movements to create dynamic, responsive training scenarios.
Why it matters
This patent represents an early approach to interactive sports training technology that bridges the gap between video games and real athletic coaching. By creating a virtual opponent that responds intelligently to a player's actual movements, the system could theoretically personalize and adapt training in ways that static equipment or pre-recorded coaching couldn't. The real-time feedback loop—where the system measures the player and instantly adjusts the challenge—was relatively novel when filed in 2000 and established a framework for motion-responsive sports simulation.
Real-world use
When you step into a modern batting cage or tennis training simulator that adjusts ball speed and placement based on your stance and swing, you're using descendants of the motion-tracking and virtual-opponent logic 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 6,430,997
- Filing date
- 2000-09-05
- Grant date
- 2002-08-13
- Assignee
- Trazer Technologies, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- FRENCH BARRY J., FERGUSON KEVIN R.
- CPC class
- A63B24/0062
Want to file your own patent?
If you're designing the next generation of interactive sports training equipment, search our database to see what motion-tracking and virtual-coaching patents already exist in your sport.
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