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Nintendo patents "voice-to-text chat conversion" and "virtual ranging"

A

argon

Member
Before you get your hopes up, virtual ranging has nothing to do with 3d.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-voice-gaming-patents-revealed-152510.php

Two new patent applications have shown up on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website. According to Kotakuite Psyclone, Both were filed by Nintendo of America in July 2004 but didn’t show up on the website until today.

The first application deals with a voice converting system for “remote video game play.” Think Nintendogs, but taken one step further by displaying the spoken words in actual text. Moreover, the text changes and is given distinct characteristics depending on how the words are uttered. For example, if you speak a word more loudly than others, it will appear in large font.

The other application is voice chat having “amplitude-based virtual ranging.” What does that mean? If your character is far away and I want to say something to you, I have to speak more loudly so my voice actually carries over to you.

Both applications sound interesting. Whether they see the light of day or be a part of the Revolution, who the heck knows? Not me. I’m just curious why both involve shouting.
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Here is the abstract from one of the patents:

A multi-player networked video game playing system including for example video game consoles analyzes speech to vary the font size and/or color of associated text displayed to other users. If the amplitude of the voice is high, the text displayed to other users is displayed in a larger than normal font. If the voice sounds stressed or is aggressive words are used, the text displayed to other users is displayed using a special font such as red color. Other analysis may be performed on the speech in context to vary the font size, color, font type and/or other display attributes.
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Aggressive words? :lol

Looks like some interesting ideas, especially the context-sensitive chat conversion. I hope this means Nintendo is seriously considering voice-over-ip gaming for their online service.
 
That would be a very interesting way of avoiding the stereotypes that frequent Xbox LIVE and PlayStation 2 online games is to convert voice to text.

Think about it: Nintendo could use a word filter to censor bad words and you wouldn't have to worry about muting a person who bursts into a room and starts singing a song or screaming high-pitched sound. You might have to worry about text flooding but I'm sure there would be a way to moderate the amount on screen by the developer.

I don't know if Nintendo is actually planning to use this for Revolution or DS online, but one could hope.
 
82876626839m27uv.jpg

"Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain. La de da de de, la de da de da."
 
Cold-Steel said:
Think about it: Nintendo could use a word filter to censor bad words and you wouldn't have to worry about muting a person who bursts into a room and starts singing a song or screaming high-pitched sound. You might have to worry about text flooding but I'm sure there would be a way to moderate the amount on screen by the developer.

I don't know if Nintendo is actually planning to use this for Revolution or DS online, but one could hope.
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Fuck that, last thing we need is even MORE restrictions in Nintendo's online network. I like the idea of voice to chat, but not if censorship is gonna be involved.
 
Amir0x said:
Fuck that, last thing we need is even MORE restrictions in Nintendo's online network. I like the idea of voice to chat, but not if censorship is gonna be involved.
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Well we don't want kids to go online playing Smash Bros. and then have:

SomeDouche|Uncut said:
MY BALLS ON YOUR HEAD TEABAG TEABAG FUCK YOUR MOTHER
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That kind of exposure just isn't healthy. Granted, I'd rather read it than hear it. Hearing it just makes it worse for wear, especially on kids who are easily influenced.

SomeDouche|Edited said:
MY **** ON YOUR HEAD TEA*** TEA*** **** YOUR MOTHER
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SOCOM had a system like that. Funny enough, the word "briefcase" was censored. Don't know why...
 
So.... Revolution with built in microphone and online chat via voice-to-text built into all games?

Is this the announcement they'll be making next?

That's actually cool - I've never liked the idea of listening to teenage boys with anger issues chucking pissy-fits on xbox live every time the game doesn't go their way. This would get around that nicely with the built in censorship.
 
Cold-Steel said:
Like I said above, "briefcase" was censored in SOCOM. Odd huh?
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Phantasy Star Online censored 'sophomore' and 'shoes', as well as 'Hell raygun' which was the name of a weapon in the game. Apple consider 'Nigel' an obscene word if you want it engraved on your iPod. The Jacksonville Jaguars message board censored 'pass' at one point.
 
I like the idea of speech-to-text. PSO for instance was always a far better experience with text.

Just replace swear words with bright red !#?$! type swear graphics. As with bleeping swear words, it can sometimes be funnier than actually hearing them.
 
Nash said:
I like the idea of speech-to-text. PSO for instance was always a far better experience with text.

Just replace swear words with bright red !#?$! type swear graphics. As with bleeping swear words, it can sometimes be funnier than actually hearing them.
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Ya like South Park - way funnier when the swear words are bleeped.
 
Has there ever been any good speech -> text software written?

From my experience, most of the time they just tend to string together random combinations of words which sound vaguely similar to what you speak. Either way, when i'm gaming my speech is far from eloquently spoken queens english.

It is a nice idea though... if it works.
 
HowardMoon said:
Has there ever been any good speech -> text software written?

From my experience, most of the time they just tend to string together random combinations of words which sound vaguely similar to what you speak. Either way, when i'm gaming my speech is far from eloquently spoken queens english.

It is a nice idea though... if it works.
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Even if it doesn't work, it could throw up some wonderful Babelfish style broken-English!

"NO! COME THIS WEIGH! YOU MESSED THE LAST ENEMA!"
 
HowardMoon said:
Has there ever been any good speech -> text software written?

From my experience, most of the time they just tend to string together random combinations of words which sound vaguely similar to what you speak. Either way, when i'm gaming my speech is far from eloquently spoken queens english.

It is a nice idea though... if it works.
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Ibm personal dictation system was quite good (I could get > 95% precision), although it needed training before you could use it. You could even fire up programs and macros by voice.

Ibm ViaVoice was supposed to be as great as the PDS, minus the training part, but I never got to use it.
 
I'm pretty sure Via Voice is what I had used, although it was around 4-5 years ago so the technology may have progressed just a little since then. I do remember it translating "baa baa black sheep" into "barber iraq" though.

Having to train people to use voice recognition to talk to their own friends seems a bit much though. I doubt Nintendo would even use such a method if it wasn't simple enough that a child couldn't use it.
 
HowardMoon said:
I'm pretty sure Via Voice is what I had used, although it was around 4-5 years ago so the technology may have progressed just a little since then. I do remember it translating "baa baa black sheep" into "barber iraq" though.

Having to train people to use voice recognition to talk to their own friends seems a bit much though. I doubt Nintendo would even use such a method if it wasn't simple enough that a child couldn't use it.
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It should be noted that in my recording sessions I never tried to feed the system sentences like "baa baa black sheep", therefore PDS could have been at a loss in that case, too.
 
From what you used, could you speak just as freely as normal? Or did you have to slow down your speach and pronounce every word properly?
 
HowardMoon said:
From what you used, could you speak just as freely as normal? Or did you have to slow down your speach and pronounce every word properly?
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If I wanted 100% recognition I had to pronounce every word properly, although the system (which was created circa '93) was smart enough to split words when you spoke too quickly.

E.g. "severalpictures" was correctly recognized as "several pictures", you didn't need to speak robot like.

Only a predefined (expandable) vocabulary was allowed, therefore the system had to know in advance each word you spoke, although there was a way to input acronyms, numbers and stuff. This way less RAM and CPU was needed, and recognition was better.

It was far from ideal, but it would probably be a good deterrent to trash talk.
 
Yeah, I think they'll use it for censorship.

But. Think about this: It could be used in combination with translation and text-to-speech software.

French kid sayss: "Mon dieu!" Mario on screen says: "Mama mia!"...

Well... something like that.
All people from over the world could chat and recieve the answers in their language. That requires a good translationsystem tho. :/ And if the Text is already converted on your DS/Rev, it takes less Bandwith to be transmitted.
 
Didn't Nintendo invest/partner in/with a voice recognition company a few years back? That deal lead to the microphone use in Mario Party 6 and 7 (and other things, I'd imagine).

Mario Party 7 is interesting in that it seems to accept a wide variety of words without needing to be trained to your voice. It isn't perfect, mind you, but I was a bit surprised at how well it word with no training period.
 
Well atleast this means if the unannounced controller feature is just a microphone it won't be a total anticlimax.
 
Xrenity said:
Sounds brilliant for a MMORPG. And what if Nintendo wíll release a visor? It would be like virtual reality o_0
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I hope not. I stopped using TrackIR because I looked a complete dork when playing wwii sims in front of my children with that enabled. I don't want them to use it as an excuse later in their life for their failures. :D
 
Noooo! I got ViaVoice last Christmas and I couldn't use it at all.

I can't believe people are thinking that cutting out voice-to-voice in favor of voice-to-text would be a good idea! Why can't they find a way to beep swearwords if they are going to be doing voice analysis anyway?


This is going to make communication slower and less efficient. Soon people will just barely talk at all.
 
As I said before in a previous thread....

We all know that the revolution requires a small external sensor panel to be placed on or near the television, for the revolution controller to operate accurately and properly.

What if this sensor bar is more then just a sensor but also a camera?
 
WTF are you talking about?

The rev controller is not meant to be waved around like crazy, you control it with a slight flick of a wrist here and there.
 
doing what a nintendo promotions manager is telling him to do :lol

Do you really think revolution games are going to control like that?
 
Unless nintendo have some magical new voice recognition technique, this will be useless for anyone with a strong accent.

I like the idea but i dont see how its feasible for use worldwide.
 
The only thing I can imagine this working well for is using single words or phrases to cue pre-set ingame messages similar to the sounds in counter strike
 
I remember seeing a patent from Nintendo last year.

It showed a console and gamer and a character on screen.

The patent said the device could detect how far you where from the console and as such adjust the volume and focus of background objects and text to suit the gamer.
Could link in with this and with the revmote, the console could detect your distance!
 
This would be a step backwards imo.

How are you supposed to read text while in a racing game or a fighting game for example? Especially if the voice recognition doesn't work too well with accents and such. I would not want this on most games. It is a great idea for MMORPG's though I doubt Rev will get many of those.
 
This sounds pretty interesting, if implemented well I would enjoy it I think. I don't really care for hearing other people on the Internet. Xbox Live used to bother the shit out of me with all the stupid kids on there.

But I doubt we are going to see this in Rev, seems like it would have been patented earlier. But eh, you never know.
 
Jasper said:
WTF are you talking about?

The rev controller is not meant to be waved around like crazy, you control it with a slight flick of a wrist here and there.
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They'd have to beat me with a golfclub before I'd stop waving my arms around with a revmote. The stupidity is half the fun.
 
If this patent actually gets used then I don't see it as being implemented in ALL games. If the Rev WFC will be like the DS where the developer has some control over their online model then maybe we will still see games with actualy voice chat.

Though personally I like the voice to text idea because sometimes you just don't want to hear other people's voices... it can get scary... very scary.
 
AzureRonin said:
Though personally I like the voice to text idea because sometimes you just don't want to hear other people's voices... it can get scary... very scary.
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Also: I don't always want to let my voice be heard -- when I am tired I tend to sound very boring, I know it, and it annoys me to think that others are hearing me that way (paranoid, eh?).
 
iapetus said:
Phantasy Star Online censored 'sophomore' and 'shoes'
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sophomore, shoes

That's probably why. Many censor programs just look for censored letter combos, regardless of if they're part of a regular word or not.
 
vitaflo said:
sophomore, shoes

That's probably why. Many censor programs just look for censored letter combos, regardless of if they're part of a regular word or not.
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And 'Nigel'? :)

Either way, these primitive swear filters only cause the innocent to suffer. People who want to swear will always find a way round it - it's not like it's difficult.
 
iapetus said:
And 'Nigel'? :)

Either way, these primitive swear filters only cause the innocent to suffer. People who want to swear will always find a way round it - it's not like it's difficult.
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my guess would be the first 3 letters of nigel might be a problem with some filters. :p
 
Does the patent office only let you patent stuff now if it's patently been done before?

I swear to christ, they must have lost the instructions for prior art.

I'm going to try and patent the internal combustion engine and say, "Ooh, but I'M using it to make toast."
 
DavidDayton said:
Didn't Nintendo invest/partner in/with a voice recognition company a few years back? That deal lead to the microphone use in Mario Party 6 and 7 (and other things, I'd imagine).
Click to expand...


That's true. Come to think of it, I remember some weird Rev rumor regarding very sophisticated voice recognition as a big deal for the console, maybe that was just a shot in the dark by someone making up another fake rumor, or maybe they were really on to something. Something like dedicated hardware and a persistent dictionary... I can only vaguely recall it.

A speech-to-text system that's handled (accelerated?) by the console means only training it once, or training it gradually over the course of several games. That could be decent, but I can't imagine using a mic on the Revmote while playing a game, so are we talking about headsets, or...?
 
I hope they do a better job with the voice recognition than that company that did the game Lifeline for Sony. It was well thought out, but, it was obvious it had flaws.

Also, if we have games with pre-thought out messages, I'm smacking the people that gave the Outbreaks less points because they had them.

Edit: also....how is nintendo able to patent stuff that has been done before?
 
Sean said:
This would be a step backwards imo.How are you supposed to read text while in a racing game or a fighting game for example?
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... how would you not be able to read text in a racing or fighting game?
 
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