US 6,765,726 · Granted 2004-07-20
The Patent That Turned Your Living Room Into a Virtual Sports Arena
Imagine a video game that watches your exact body movements in 3D space and responds to you like a real opponent would—adjusting difficulty, throwing challenges at you in real time. This patent covers the tech that makes that possible: motion sensors that track where you are, plus smart software that creates an interactive virtual opponent that reacts to what you do.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a system that combines 3D motion-sensing electronics (tracking a player's position and movement in three or more dimensions) with interactive sport-specific coaching software that responds in real time. What's protected here is the combination of real-time positional tracking plus a responsive virtual opponent that adapts to the player's movements—not just a static video game, but one that creates dynamic, personalized movement challenges based on what the player actually does.
Why it matters
This patent sits at the intersection of sports training and interactive entertainment. By capturing body movement in 3D and feeding that data into an adaptive virtual opponent, it created a new category of training tools that could measure athletic performance objectively while keeping the player engaged. Rather than a coach watching from the sideline, the system itself becomes the coach, adjusting in real time to push players harder or easier based on their actual performance.
Real-world use
When you stand in front of a motion-capture fitness system or sports training app that responds to your actual movements and adjusts the difficulty based on how well you're performing, you're using the core idea this patent protects.
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 6,765,726
- Filing date
- 2002-07-17
- Grant date
- 2004-07-20
- Assignee
- Impluse Technology Ltd.
- Inventor(s)
- FRENCH BARRY J., FERGUSON KEVIN R.
- CPC class
- G06F3/011
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