Systems and methods for unlocking user interface elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10380826-B2
Application number	US-201615331720-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 21, 2016
Priority date	Oct 21, 2016
Publication date	Aug 13, 2019
Grant date	Aug 13, 2019

Abstract

There is provided a system comprising a touch screen display, a non-transitory memory storing a user interface, one or more software applications, and a game application, and a hardware processor executing the game application to launch a game for playing by the user using the touch screen display, receive a game play input from the user, while playing the game using the touch screen display, unlock a locked game element of a plurality of locked game elements of the game, in response to the game play input by the user, and add one of a plurality of user interface elements corresponding to the unlocked game element for display by the user interface, in response to the unlocking, wherein each of the plurality of locked game elements corresponds to one of the plurality of user interface elements, and wherein the user interface is used by the one or more software applications.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a display;
a non-transitory memory storing a user interface keyboard, one or more software applications, and a game application; and
a hardware processor executing the game application to:
launch a game for playing by a user using the display;
receive a game play input from the user, while playing the game using the display;
unlock a locked game element of a plurality of locked game elements of the game, in response to the game play input by the user, wherein each of the plurality of locked game elements corresponds to one of a plurality of user interface elements; and
modify the user interface keyboard to add one of the plurality of user interface elements corresponding to the unlocked game element to the user interface keyboard, in response to the unlocking;
wherein the user interface keyboard, including the one of the plurality of user interface elements corresponding to the unlocked game element, is used by the one or more software applications, and wherein the hardware processor when executing the one or more software applications displays, on the display, the user interface keyboard including the one of the plurality of user interface elements added to the user interface.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the game play input includes one of an action during game play and a selection from a game menu.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein, after adding the one of the plurality of user interface elements to the user interface keyboard for display by the user interface keyboard, the user interface keyboard displays an icon indicating a recently added user interface element.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the locked game element is one of a character emoji and an object emoji.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user further provides an in-game purchase.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the in-game purchase is a game-currency purchase.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user interface keyboard is one of a native keyboard and an extension keyboard.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of user interface elements is added to the user interface keyboard for a period of time.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the temporary adding of the user interface element may be extended based on further game play input by the user.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one of the plurality of user interface elements is added to the user interface keyboard for a number of uses.

11. A method for use with a system including a display, a non-transitory memory, and a hardware processor, the method comprising:
launching, using the hardware processor, a game for playing by a user using the display;
receiving, using the hardware processor, a game play input from the user, while playing the game using the display;
unlocking, using the hardware processor, a locked game element of a plurality of locked game elements of the game, in response to the game play input by the user, wherein each of the plurality of locked game elements corresponds to one of a plurality of user interface elements; and
modify the user interface keyboard to add, using the hardware processor, one of the plurality of user interface elements corresponding to the unlocked game element to the user interface keyboard, in response to the unlocking;
wherein the user interface keyboard, including the one of the plurality of user interface elements corresponding to the unlocked game element, is used by one or more software applications, and the method further comprises executing the one or more software applications, using the hardware processor, to display, on the display, the user interface keyboard including the one of the plurality of user interface elements added to the user interface.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the game play input includes one of an action during game play and a selection from a game menu.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein, after adding the one of the plurality of user interface elements to the user interface keyboard for display by the user interface keyboard, the user interface keyboard displays an icon indicating a recently added user interface element.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the locked game element is one of a character emoji and an object emoji.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the user further provides an in-game purchase.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the in-game purchase is a game-currency purchase.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the user interface keyboard is one of a native keyboard and an extension keyboard.

18. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one of the plurality of user interface elements is added to the user interface keyboard for a period of time.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the temporary adding of the user interface element may be extended based on further game play input by the user.

20. The method of claim 11 , wherein the one of the plurality of user interface elements is added to the user interface keyboard for a number of uses.

Assignees

• Disney Entpr Inc

Inventors

• Cho Joseph
• Heatherly Christopher
• Danner Matthew
• Sager Patrick
• Khalfan Alif
• Jovanovic Bojan

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• A63F13/87

  Communicating with other players during game play, e.g. by e-mail or chat · CPC title

• A63F13/2145

  the surface being also a display device, e.g. touch screens · CPC title

• A63F13/42

  by mapping the input signals into game commands, e.g. mapping the displacement of a stylus on a touch screen to the steering angle of a virtual vehicle · CPC title

• G07F17/32

  for games, toys, sports, or amusements · CPC title