Vibration control system, vibration output apparatus, storage medium having stored therein vibration output program, and vibration output method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10496111-B2
Application number	US-201715446280-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 1, 2017
Priority date	Apr 13, 2016
Publication date	Dec 3, 2019
Grant date	Dec 3, 2019

Abstract

Vibration instruction data for vibrating a vibration apparatus is received from another apparatus, data related to the received vibration instruction data is stored in a memory, and the vibration apparatus is vibrated using the data stored in the memory. Then, as an example, a state of the data related to the vibration instruction data stored in the memory is detected, and when the state of the data satisfies a predetermined condition, predetermined data related to the vibration instruction data is additionally stored in the memory. As another example, when the vibration instruction data cannot be received from the other apparatus, predetermined data related to the vibration instruction data is additionally stored in the memory.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vibration control system, including at least a first apparatus and a second apparatus, for vibrating a vibrator, the first apparatus comprising a computer processor configured to:
receive from the second apparatus vibration instruction data for vibrating the vibrator;
store, in a memory, vibration data related to the received vibration instruction data;
vibrate the vibrator using the stored vibration data;
detect a state of the stored vibration data; and
in the storage of the vibration data in the memory, responsive to the state of the stored vibration data indicating a fault condition, store in the memory further vibration data related to the vibration instruction data, in addition to the vibration data, so that the vibrator is able to vibrate using the further vibration data in addition to using the vibration data.

2. The vibration control system according to claim 1 , wherein in the reception of the vibration instruction data, the vibration instruction data is received from the second apparatus through wireless communication.

3. The vibration control system according to claim 1 , wherein in the vibration of the vibrator, the vibrator is vibrated using the further vibration data stored in the memory.

4. The vibration control system according to claim 1 , wherein in the vibration of the vibrator, the vibration data stored in the memory is used to vibrate the vibrator and is also deleted from the memory,
a remaining amount of the vibration data stored in the memory is detected as the state of the stored vibration data, and
the fault condition corresponds to the remaining amount of the vibration data stored in the memory being below a predetermined threshold.

5. The vibration control system according to claim 1 , wherein the storage of the vibration data in the memory includes additionally storing, in the memory, vibration data related to the vibration instruction data previously received from the second apparatus.

6. The vibration control system according to claim 5 , wherein the vibration data related to the vibration instruction data previously received from the second apparatus that is additionally stored indicates that an amplitude of a vibration corresponding to the vibration instruction data previously received is to be made gradually smaller.

7. The vibration control system according to claim 6 , wherein:
the fault condition corresponds to vibration instruction data being not received from the second apparatus for a predetermined time, and
the vibration data indicating that the amplitude of the vibration corresponding to the vibration instruction data previously received is to be made gradually smaller is additionally stored in the memory as the further vibration data.

8. The vibration control system according to claim 5 , wherein:
the second apparatus includes a computer processor configured to transmit the vibration instruction data to the first apparatus at least at a first time interval,
the fault condition corresponds to vibration instruction data being not received from the second apparatus for a second time that is longer than the first time interval, and
the vibration data related to the vibration instruction data previously received from the second apparatus that is additionally stored indicates that an amplitude of a vibration corresponding to the vibration instruction data previously received from the second apparatus is to be made gradually smaller and is additionally stored in the memory as the further vibration data.

9. The vibration control system according to claim 1 , wherein the computer processor of the first apparatus is further configured to:
in response to the further vibration data being additionally stored in the memory, generate notification data indicating that the further vibration data is added; and
transmit the notification data to the second apparatus.

10. The vibration control system according to claim 9 , wherein the second apparatus includes a computer processor configured to:
receive the notification data transmitted from the first apparatus;
based on the received notification data, determine the vibration instruction data to be transmitted next to the first apparatus; and
in response to the determination of the vibration instruction data that is to be transmitted to the first apparatus, transmit the vibration instruction data to the first apparatus.

11. The vibration control system according to claim 1 , wherein the second apparatus includes a computer processor configured to, in response to a frequency and/or an amplitude of a vibration for instructing the first apparatus to vibrate the vibrator next being the same, stop a process of transmitting the vibration instruction data to the first apparatus.

12. The vibration control system according to claim 1 , wherein
the second apparatus includes a computer processor configured to generate the vibration instruction data by encoding modulation information indicating changes in an amplitude and/or a frequency in a vibration waveform for vibrating the vibrator, and is configured to transmit the vibration instruction data to the first apparatus, and
in the storage of the vibration data in the memory, every time the vibration instruction data is received, data obtained by decoding the vibration instruction data is stored in the memory.

13. The vibration control system according to claim 1 , wherein the fault condition relates to an amount data stored in the memory.

14. The vibration control system according to claim 1 , wherein the fault condition relates to an amount of time since vibration instruction data has been received.

15. The vibration control system according to claim 1 , wherein the further vibration data commands additional vibrations the vibrator is to generate once the vibrator finishes generating the vibrations specified by the received vibration instruction data.

16. A vibration output apparatus for vibrating a vibrator, the vibration output apparatus comprising a computer processor configured to:
receive from another apparatus vibration instruction data for vibrating the vibrator;
store vibration data related to the received vibration instruction data in a memory;
vibrate the vibrator using the stored vibration data;
detect a state of the stored vibration data; and
in the storage of the vibration data in the memory, responsive to the state of the stored vibration data indicating a fault condition, store in the memory further vibration data related to the vibration instruction data in the memory, in addition to the vibration data, so that the vibrator is able to vibrate using the further vibration data in addition to using the vibration data.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored therein a vibration output program executable by a computer included in a vibration output apparatus for vibrating a vibrator, the vibration output program causing the computer to perform functionality comprising:
receiving from another apparatus vibration instruction data for vibrating the vibrator;
storing, in a memory, vibration data related to the received vibration instruction data;
vibrating the vibrator using the stored vibration data;
detecting a state of the stored vibration data; and
in the storage of the vibration data in the memory, responsive to the state of the stored vibration data indicating a fault condition, storing in the memory further vibration data related to the vibration instruction data, in addition to the vibration data, so that the vibrator is able to vibrate using the further vibration d

Assignees

• Nintendo Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yamashita Kei
• Aoki Takafumi

Classifications

• H04W88/02

  Terminal devices · CPC title

• A63F13/285

  Generating tactile feedback signals via the game input device, e.g. force feedback · CPC title

• G06F9/00

  Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units (program control for peripheral devices G06F13/10) · CPC title

• G06F9/30032

  Movement instructions, e.g. MOVE, SHIFT, ROTATE, SHUFFLE · CPC title

• A63F13/28

  responding to control signals received from the game device for affecting ambient conditions, e.g. for vibrating players' seats, activating scent dispensers or affecting temperature or light · CPC title