Virtual environment mapping system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10369472-B1
Application number	US-201715474975-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Mar 30, 2017
Priority date	Mar 30, 2017
Publication date	Aug 6, 2019
Grant date	Aug 6, 2019

Abstract

The present disclosure provides embodiments of a virtual mapping system for using real world geographical locations to generate virtual environments within game applications. The virtual mapping system allows a game application to identify geographical information associated with real world locations. The geographical information can be used by the game application to recreate the selected geographical location using virtual assets from the game application.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
under control of one or more hardware computing devices configured with specific computer-executable instructions, the specific computer-executable instructions stored in an electronic hardware memory,
receiving, over a network from a user computing system executing a game application, a location identifier data packet comprising an indication of a geographic location;
receiving, over the network, geographic information data packets from at least one mapping service, the geographic information data packets comprising geographic data associated with the geographic location;
determining a geographic region based at least in part on the location identifier data packet and the geographic information data packets;
identifying a plurality of geographic entities within the geographic region based at least in part on an analysis of at least a portion of the geographic information data packets;
for at least a subset of the plurality of geographic entities within the geographic region, determining attributes defining the geographic entity, resulting in a plurality of defined geographic entities;
accessing virtual asset data in a physical data store, wherein the physical data store is configured to store virtual asset data structures storing virtual asset data defining a plurality of virtual assets used within the game application;
for each defined geographic entity of the plurality of defined geographic entities, matching, using a machine learning based model, the defined geographic entity to a virtual asset based at least in part on the determined attributes of the defined geographic entity, resulting in a plurality of matched virtual assets;
generating a virtual environment map comprising matched virtual assets of the plurality of matched virtual assets positioned at defined locations within the virtual environment map, wherein the defined locations of the matched virtual assets within the virtual environment map correspond to locations of the geographic entities within the geographic region;
transmitting a map output data packet to the user computing system, the map output data packet comprising instructions for display of the virtual environment map within the game application;
receiving a feedback data packet from the game application associated with the matching of the defined geographic entity to the virtual asset, wherein the feedback data packet identifies a change of the matched virtual asset to a different virtual asset within the virtual environment map; and
updating the machine learning based model based, at least in part, on the feedback data packet.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the attributes of the geographic entity define visual characteristics of the geographic entity.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each geographic entity of the plurality of geographic entities is at least one of vegetation, a structure, infrastructure, or terrain.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
identifying a user account associated with the game application;
identifying virtual assets associated with the user account;
identifying matched virtual assets in the virtual environment map that are not associated with the user account; and
determining a recommendation associated with the matched virtual assets that are not associated with the user account.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the recommendation comprises an identification of one or more actions required within the game application to acquire the one or more of the matched virtual assets that are not associated with the user account.

6. A system comprising:
an electronic data store configured to store virtual asset data storing virtual asset data defining a plurality of virtual assets used within a game application;
a hardware processor in communication with the electronic data store, the hardware processor configured to execute specific computer-executable instructions to at least:
receive, over a network from a user computing system executing the game application, a location identifier data packet comprising an indication of a geographic location;
determine a geographic region based at least in part on the location identifier data packet and geographic information associated with the geographic location, wherein the geographic region comprises a plurality of geographic entities;
for at least a subset of the plurality of geographic entities within the geographic region, determine attributes defining the geographic entity, resulting in a plurality of defined geographic entities;
access virtual asset data in the electronic data store;
for each defined geographic entity of the plurality of defined geographic entities, match, using a machine learning based model, the defined geographic entity to a virtual asset based at least in part on the determined attributes of the defined geographic entity, resulting in a plurality of matched virtual assets;
generate a virtual environment map comprising matched virtual assets of the plurality of matched virtual assets positioned at defined locations within the virtual environment map, wherein the defined locations of the matched virtual assets within the virtual environment map correspond to locations of the geographic entities within the geographic region;
transmit a map output data packet to the user computing system, the map output data packet comprising instructions for display of the virtual environment map within the game application;
receive a feedback data packet from the game application associated with the matching of the defined geographic entity to the virtual asset, wherein the feedback data packet identifies a change of a matched virtual asset to a different virtual asset within the virtual environment map; and
update the machine learning based model based, at least in part, on the feedback data packet.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the geographic information comprises at least one of visual data, supplemental data, or categorical data.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the geographic information comprises topographical information of the geographic region.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the hardware processor is further configured to execute instructions to:
identify a user account associated with the game application;
identify virtual assets associated with the user account;
identify matched virtual assets in the virtual environment map that are not associated with the user account; and
determine a recommendation associated with the matched virtual assets that are not associated with the user account.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the recommendation comprises an identification of one or more actions required within the game application to acquire one or more of the matched virtual assets that are not associated with the user account.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more computing devices, configure the one or more computing devices to perform operations comprising:
under control of one or more hardware computing devices configured with specific computer-executable instructions, the specific computer-executable instructions stored in an electronic hardware memory,
receiving, over a network from a user computing system executing a game application, a location identifier data packet comprising an indication of a geographic location;
determining a geographic region based at least in part on the location identifier data packet and geographic information associated with the geographic location, wherein the geographic region comprises a plurality of geographic entities;
for at least a s

Assignees

• Electronic Arts Inc

Inventors

• Mattar Mohamed Marwan
• Wu Meng
• Kolen John
• Aghdaie Navid
• Zaman Kazi Atif-Uz

Classifications

• A63F13/79

  involving player-related data, e.g. identities, accounts, preferences or play histories · CPC title

• A63F13/65

  automatically by game devices or servers from real world data, e.g. measurement in live racing competition · CPC title

• H04N21/8153

  comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image · CPC title

• G06N20/00 Primary

  Machine learning · CPC title

• A63F13/35

  Details of game servers · CPC title