BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present disclosure generally relates to streaming content over a network and, more specifically, to improved gameplay communications between users.

Description of the Related Art

Advances in modern technology, network connectivity, processing power, convenience, and the like, support a large community of consumers that access and interactively participate in online game play. Indeed, many consumers access online gameplay over a network (e.g., the Internet) using game consoles/systems which connect to multi-player network platforms. Typical, game consoles/systems include complex and specialized hardware/software that support and enable user interaction as well as provide immersive gameplay experiences. As technology continues to drive more realistic and immersive gameplay experiences, the entertainment and game industry has become inundated with a multitude of equipment options such as controllers, headsets, video-cameras, and the like.

While some advances have been made to improve user interactions related to online gameplay (e.g., improved graphics rendering/modeling, virtual reality (VR) headsets, and the like), other areas of user interaction have stagnated. For example, current gameplay communications or “chats”, which support traditional audio and/or text-based communications, fail to appreciate the dynamic and evolving nature of modern inter-personal communications. More specifically, consumers are increasingly using ideograms, smileys, pictographs, emoticons, and other graphic characters/representations in lieu of audible and/or text-based communications. Therefore, there is a need in the art for improved gameplay communications that reflect and support the dynamic and evolving nature of modern inter-personal communications.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Broadly speaking, the present invention provides improved gameplay communications amongst players associated with an online game platform to reflect and support the dynamic and evolving nature of modern inter-personal communications. For example, the improved gameplay communications particularly support emoji-based communications such as ideograms, smileys, pictographs, emoticons, and other graphic characters/representations.

In one exemplary embodiment, these techniques are described by a method for emoji-based communications derived from facial features during game play. The method includes steps for providing a communication channel accessible by players associated with gameplay hosted by a game platform, capturing an image of a user by a controller that includes a camera, determining facial features of the user based on the image, generating an emoji based on the facial features of the user, and transmitting the emoji to the players associated with the gameplay over the communication channel. With respect to capturing the image, the method further includes steps for capturing the image based on image capture commands (e.g., button presses, audio commands, gesture-based motions, etc.), a scheduled time, and a gameplay status. In addition, the captured image selected from a plurality of images based on changes in the facial features of the user.

In some embodiments, the steps for generating the emoji include adjusting or modifying portions of a model emoji based on the facial features. In other embodiments, the steps for generating the emoji include evaluating the facial features in context of a vector-space, where the dimensions correspond to features and the image is mapped to a query vector based on the extracted features. In this context, the vector-space includes position vectors assigned to an emotion or expression and the method includes steps to determine the expression or the emotion associated with the facial features of the user based on proximity between the query vector and one or more position vectors assigned the expression or the emotion. The method further includes steps to use the expression or emotion as a key to lookup an emoji from a table of emoji indexed according to the same.

In another embodiment, a system employs the above discussed techniques to provide improved gameplay communications. For example, the system includes a network interface to communicate over one or more communication networks, a processor coupled to the network interface and adapted to execute one or more processes, and a memory configured to store a process executable by the processor. The system (e.g., the processor) executes the process and is operable to capture an image of the user by the controller, determine facial features of the user based on the image, generate an emoji based on the facial features of the user, and transmit the emoji to the players associated with the gameplay over the communication channel.

In yet another embodiment, a tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media includes software with encoded instructions executable by a processor. The processor executes the instructions and is operable to capture an image of the user by the controller, determine facial features of the user based on the image, generate an emoji based on the facial features of the user, and transmit the emoji to the players associated with the gameplay over the communication channel.

