U.S. Patent No. 8,858,328: Storage medium having game program stored therein, hand-held game apparatus, game system, and game method

Issued October 14, 2014, to Nintendo Co., Ltd.

Priority Date June 2, 2010

U.S. Patent No. 8,858,328 (the '328 Patent) describes a game that uses real pictures as the basis for the puzzle. Using the Nintendo DSi, the player takes a picture that the system converts into the puzzle. The system divides the image into sections assigning each section a number. The numbers corresponded to the sections' original location. Once the system determines the starting points, it shuffles the sections. The player must rearrange the picture sections to their original position to complete the puzzle. Players can adjust the difficulty by increasing the number of sections.

An information processing section of a game apparatus executes a program including: a step of setting a puzzle area to be cut from an image taken by an outer camera; a step of setting the division number representing the number of portions into which the puzzle area is divided in accordance with a stage; a step of generating one-dimensional arrangement data representing a state in which puzzle pieces are positioned at random: a step of executing a game process by updating the one-dimensional arrangement data of the puzzle pieces which are selected based on a tilt of the game apparatus; and a step of switching, in accordance with the one-dimensional arrangement data, texture coordinate data of the puzzle pieces calculated based on a tilt of a virtual camera, and displaying an obtained image.

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a game program executed by a computer of a hand-held game apparatus including an imaging device and a display device, the game program causing the computer to perform at least: sequentially acquiring taken-image data representing a plurality of taken-images which are taken by the imaging device; image dividing, into a plurality of small areas, an image of a predetermined area in a taken-image which is one of said plurality of taken-images represented by the acquired taken-image data; positioning, in the predetermined area, the plurality of small areas into which the image of the predetermined area is divided, so as to form an image different from the taken-image which is taken by the imaging device and is one of said plurality of taken-images; retaining a positioning state in which the plurality of small areas are positioned, by using, as an initial value, an obtained positioning state; image changing for sequentially changing, by using the taken-image data having been sequentially acquired, images to be displayed on the plurality of small areas, respectively, of which the positioning state is retained; display control for causing the display device to display images changed by the image changing; changing the positioning state of the plurality of small areas, which is retained, in accordance with an operation performed by a user viewing the images displayed by the display device; determining whether or not the positioning state of the plurality of small areas, which is changed, satisfies a predetermined condition; and a game process for performing a predetermined game process in accordance with a result of a determination of whether or not the positioning state of the plurality of small areas, which is changed, satisfies a predetermined condition.

U.S. Patent No. 8,764,563: Video Game superimposing virtual characters on user supplied phot used as game screen background

Issued July 1, 2014, to Bandai Namco Entertainment, Inc.

Priority Date: March 24, 2009

 

 

Summary:

 

Abstract:

A feature image area that has a similar feature (e.g., quadrangular outline) is extracted from an original two-dimensional image photographed by a player. When a game has started, the original two-dimensional image is displayed as the background of a game stage, and a target character 4 is caused to appear or disappear from the extracted feature image area at a random appearance frequency and a random appearance speed. When the player has touched the target character 4, points are added to the score of the player.

 

Illustrative Claim:

1. A method comprising: detecting an image area that satisfies a feature image area condition from a photographed image, the feature image area condition being a condition to detect an image area that has an outline of a given shape and satisfies a proper size condition; displaying the photographed image on a touch panel; selecting character type based on at least one of a color of the image area and a size of the image area; displaying a character of the selected character type on the photographed image in a manner such that the character appears to emerge from the image area; and incrementing a score linked to the character that has appeared from the image area when a user inputs a touch operation on the character, wherein the detecting, the selecting, the displaying the character, and the incrementing are performed by a hardware processor.