WO2010033032A1

WO2010033032A1 - Game device and method of assessing skill of a user

Info

Publication number: WO2010033032A1
Application number: PCT/NL2009/050569
Authority: WO
Inventors: Wilhelmus Johannes Franciscus Fontijn; Janneke Verhaegh
Original assignee: SERIOUS TOYS BV
Current assignee: SERIOUS TOYS BV
Priority date: 2008-09-22
Filing date: 2009-09-22
Publication date: 2010-03-25
Anticipated expiration: 2011-03-22

Abstract

The invention relates to a game device arranged for detecting the state of a player in order to ensure that the game presented by or on the game device provides an adequate challenge, so that boredom and frustration may be prevented or reduced. The game device comprises processor means for tracing user moves made by a player in relation to a game on the game device, deriving a pattern of the user moves; comparing the pattern of the user moves with a specific pattern, wherein said specific pattern defines a relation between a state of a specific skill of a user and a difficulty level of the game device; and for providing an assessment of the current state of the specific skill of the user based on said comparison. The invention also relates to a method of assessing skills of a user of a game device and a computer program product.

Description

Game device and method of assessing skill of a user

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a game device and more particularly to a game device arranged for assessing a specific skill of a user utilizing the game device. The present invention moreover relates to a method of assessing a specific skill of a user utilizing a game device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

To ensure that a game offers a challenge to the user or player it needs to offer a task that is difficult enough to prevent boredom and easy enough to prevent frustration. As the skills of the player increase, the difficulty level should also increase.

Typically, the completion of a level within a game is taken as the right moment to increase the difficulty level. However, the completion of a level within a game is a very coarse indicator of the skill level of the player. Moreover, the completion of a level might even be quite a poor indicator of the skill level, since sometimes completion of a level is due to luck or external factors like incidental help. As a result the difficulty level cannot be increased optimally. Often the increase in difficulty is too limited or too large and/or too late or too early. When the increase in difficulty is too limited or too late, the player is presented with a too easy level, in which case the player may easily be bored with the game. When the increase in difficulty is too large or too early, the game will provide enough challenge, but the level may be too difficult, in which case the player may be frustrated. Both instances are related to an unsatisfactory user experience of the game device.

Moreover, a game should be easy to understand but difficult to master in the sense that the game device should present a game that was effortless to start playing, e.g. the player should not be required to read thick manuals, but complex enough to stay interesting to the player.

Hence, an improved game device would be advantageous, and in particular a game device with a more precise assessment of the skills of a player would be advantageous. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the invention preferably seeks to mitigate, alleviate or eliminate one or more of the above mentioned disadvantages singly or in any combination. In particular, it may be seen as an object of the present invention to provide a game device that solves the above mentioned problems of the prior art with regard to presenting a user of the game device with an appropriate game difficulty.

This object and several other objects are obtained in a first aspect of the invention by providing a game device arranged for detecting user moves made by a player in relation to a game, said game device comprising processor means for tracing user moves; deriving a pattern of the user moves; comparing the pattern of the user moves with a specific pattern, wherein said specific pattern defines a relation between a state of a specific skill of a user and a difficulty level of the game device, and for providing an assessment of the current state of the specific skill of the user based on said comparison.

A predetermined, specific pattern defining relations between states of specific skills of users and difficulty levels of the game provides a basis for assessing the state of one or more specific skills of a user. Such a predetermined, specific pattern may be based on knowledge external to the play device, e.g. on knowledge on higher psychological processes. The game device may be used to assess separate, specific cognitive skills of a player, where the term "skill" is meant to denote one skill out of a complete set of orthogonal or independent skills that may be identified for an individual.

To enable accurate assessment of the skills of a player, the moves of that player are traced. A specific pattern is derived for each possible state of the skills of the player compared to the difficulty level. Mapping the pattern of the user moves with a recorded specific pattern for a state renders it possible to assess the current state of the specific skill of the player.

It should be noted that the term "trace user moves" is meant to denote "determine and store user moves" or "determine and process user moves followed by storing of the processed user moves". Moreover, a "user move" is meant to denote an action performed by a player of a user of the game device, where the action is related to the playing of a game on the game device. Furthermore, the terms "person", "user" and "player" are used interchangeably. Finally, the term "game" is meant to denote an educational task, a dynamic test or an entertainment game.

In an embodiment of the game device, the processor means is arranged for adjusting a difficulty level of the game device on the basis of said assessment of the current state of the specific skill of the user. Hereby, the precise assessment of the current state of the specific skill of the user may be used for presenting the user with an optimum or customized difficulty of a game of the game device. Hereby, the difficulty of the game may be adjusted or tuned to exactly match the skill level of the player in order to optimize challenge, fun and learning of the user.

In another embodiment of the game device, the processor means is arranged for embedding a specific task in the game, where the specific task is arranged for addressing a specific cognitive skill of a user. Hereby, different cognitive skills of a user of player may be assessed separately and/or the challenge of the game device may be adjusted one skill at a time.

In another embodiment, the processor means of the game device is arranged for adjusting the difficulty level at any time. Thus, whenever the difficulty level is determined as more than a certain distance or threshold from an optimum difficulty level based on the skills of the player, the difficulty level may be adjusted. This is in contrast to traditional computer games, wherein the level of the game is only adjusted after the player having finalized a certain task and/or wherein the ability of the player is evaluated at the end of a game or a predetermined part of a game. The term "any time" is meant to denote that the adjustment may be at any appropriate time, which may be almost continuously, at small time intervals, or whenever the difficulty of the game is too far from what the current player is able to complete.

In another embodiment, the difficulty of the game device is increased or decreased incrementally in order to match the current state of the specific skill of the user. This incremental change of the difficulty may be performed within each game level recognizable by the user. The term "game level" is meant to denote the traditional use of levels, where a game starts up at a certain difficulty level and the difficulty of the game increases with increasing levels. Thus, the game of the game device may provide traditional game levels, wherein the difficulty or challenge of the game is gradually and steadily changed within a game level. The difficulty of the game at the end of game level n thus becomes very close to the difficulty of the game at the beginning of game level n+1, making the transition between game levels n and n+1 very smooth.

In yet another embodiment of the game device, the pattern of the user moves comprises one or more of the following elements: occurrence of certain errors, frequency of certain errors, succession of user moves, and the strategy followed by the user. These constituents of the pattern of user moves may provide information on specific cognitive skills of a user.

The game device may be a computer device. However, the game device may be comprise a physical game, such as a game comprising a gaming board and one or more physical pieces to be moved by a user, each piece having a tag and/or the gaming board having one or more sensors in order to facilitate sensing of the position of the piece in relation to the gaming board. The gaming board may moreover comprise processor means, where the processor means may be a computer device, such as a personal computer, and the gaming board may function as a peripheral to the computer device. According to a second aspect, the invention also relates to a method of assessing skills of a user of a game device, said method comprising the steps of: tracing user moves; deriving a pattern of the user moves; comparing the pattern of the user moves with a specific pattern, wherein said specific pattern defines a relation between a state of a specific skill of a user and a difficulty level of the game device, and providing an assessment of the current state of the specific skill of the user based on said comparison. This aspect provides similar advantages as the first aspect of the invention.

In a third aspect, the invention relates to a computer program product being adapted to enable a computer system comprising at least one computer having data storage means associated therewith to control a game device apparatus according to the second aspect of the invention. This aspect of the invention is particularly, but not exclusively, advantageous in that the present invention may be implemented by a computer program product enabling a computer system to perform the operations of the second aspect of the invention. Thus, it is contemplated that some known game device may be changed to operate according to the present invention by installing a computer program product on a computer system controlling the said optical recording apparatus. Such a computer program product may be provided on any kind of computer readable medium, e.g. magnetically or optically based medium, or through a computer based network, e.g. the Internet.

The first, second and third aspect of the present invention may each be combined with any of the other aspects. These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The present invention will now be explained, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying Figures, where Fig. 1 is a schematic drawing of an example of an embodiment of a game according to the invention;

Figs. 2, 3 and 4 show diagrams of the ability of a person versus the difficulty of a task, and Fig. 5 is a flow-chart of a method according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT

Fig. 1 is a schematic drawing of an example of an embodiment of a game device 100 according to the invention. Figure 1 shows a game device 100 with a gaming board 101 and a number of game pieces 103, 104. For the sake of clarity, only two game pieces 103, 104 are shown in figure 1; however, any appropriate number could be used with the game. The gaming board 101 has a pattern 102 on the surface facing upwards, so that the game pieces 103, 104 may be placed within the pattern. The game device 100 moreover comprises sensors (not shown) embedded or integrated within the gaming board 101. The sensors of the game device may be arranged for receiving any appropriate input, such as motion sensing, hot-spot detection, 2D localization or detecting the presence of a tag within game pieces 103, 104. Moreover, the board may be arranged for initiating outputs, such as LED light, audio output, etc. The game device 100 moreover comprises processor means (not shown) arranged for receiving sensor inputs in the detection of user moves made by a player in relation to a game, tracing user moves, deriving a pattern of user moves and comparing the pattern with a specific pattern in order to assess the skills of the player. In the above, it is understood that the moves of the player or user may be recognized by detecting where and when each game piece is placed on the gaming board 101.

Figure 2, 3 and 4, respectively, shows diagram 10, 11 and 12, respectively, of the ability of a person versus the difficulty of a task. Identical references are meant to denote similar elements. The abscissa denotes the ability of a person and the ordinate denotes the difficulty of a task, e.g. a particular challenge in a game. The diagrams of figures 2 to 4 comprise a number of lines delimiting different areas or zones within the diagrams. The line 20 defines the limit between the areas (1) and (5), the line 30 defines the limit between the areas (5) and (6), the line 40 defines the limit between the areas (6) and (4), the line 50 defines the limit between the areas (4) and (2). Each of the areas (1) to (6) are related to a specific relationship or correlation between the ability of a person and the difficulty of a task presented to the person. These relationships may be described as in the following. In the area (1), the difficulty of the task is too large for the person to master or grasp, even if the person gets help. In the area (2), the difficulty is too small for the person to be challenging; thus the task would typically not be interesting to the person. The line 40 denotes the zone or area (3), which forms a perfect match between the difficulty of the task and the ability of the person, in that the task constitutes a proper challenge and person is able to complete the task without help. In the area (4), which may be denoted the flow area, the person is in a zone where he/she will optimize his/her performance on completing the task. In the area (5), also denoted the zone of proximal development (ZPD), the person needs help to complete the task, and in the area (6), the person is able to solve the task on its own but by stretching, e.g. by trial and error. The actual location of the line (50) is determined by the tendency of the user to optimize and/or the tolerance for repetition; the actual location of the line (30) is determined by the creativity of the user and/or his/her meta problem solving skills, and the actual location of the line (20) is determined by the susceptibility of the person to guidance, e.g. provided by the game device. Now referring also to figure 3, a strategy for tuning the difficulty of a task to the ability of a person is described. Figure 3 shows a number of points (a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f), (g) and (h) in the diagram 11, each of the points (a)-(h) corresponding to a particular combination between the ability of a user/person and the difficulty of a task. At point (a), the challenge of the task is too great for the person at the present ability of the skill challenged; he/she will need substantial help to solve the task. Point (b) is a point on line 30 and may be reached from point (a), if the person solving the task gets help, in that getting help may be seen as reducing the difficulty level. Help may be continued until point (b) is reached and the person can solve the task on his/her own, with stretching. . At point (c), the task is still too difficult for the person, but the person has learned or gained ability compared with the point (a), so that less help is needed compared to point (a), even though points (a) and (c) correspond to the same level of difficulty. At point (d), the person is solving a task that is more difficult than at point (b), but at a higher ability level. At point (e), the difficulty level is the same as points (a) and (c); however, the ability level of the person is increased compared to points (a) and (c), and point (e) lies at the line 30, viz. at the boundary to the zone (6) wherein the person is able to solve the task presented on its own, but by stretching. Point (f) is a point wherein the actual or current skill of the person has reached the difficulty level of the task, so that the person knows how to solve the task. At this point (f), the difficulty level of the task should be increased if the task should stay challenging to the person. At point (g), the person is comfortable with the task, which may be regarded as easy. The person may be able to solve the task flawlessly, but with increased speed. The difficulty of the challenge or task should be increased if the person should stay interested in the task. The point (h) is a point corresponding to an increase in the difficulty level compared to point (g). The vertical arrows in figure 3 corresponds to possible changes in the difficulty level in a game device, where the changes in difficulty may be made in the game device in order to adjust or tune the difficulty of the game or task to a specific person or user and/or to a specific skill of a specific person.

A game device may be a physical game device with sensors that detect the precise actions or moves of the player or user completing the task, as shown in figure 1, or a computer device arranged for gaming. The tasks or challenges of the game device may be designed in order to measure the abilities of the user or player in real time during play or gaming. In theory, the difficulty of the task or challenge may be matched exactly to the ability of the person. In practice the granularity of the difficulty levels might create plateaus. There may be educational reasons to create plateaus of difficulty, in that the speed of learning decreases going from zone (3) through (4) to (2). It could be argued, that in area (4) the focus is not on learning new things but on learning to perform a task better. In area (6), a person does learn new things, but needs new strategies or abilities to solve the task. The distance between actual and required ability is such that the person can bridge the gap on its own. In area (5) the task becomes too difficult for the person to come up with these strategies himself/herself, but he/she will still be able to complete the task with help. In area (1) the task is too difficult for the current level of understanding of the person. He/she first has to learn new skills to be able to reach that level, even if help is provided. It is suggested that the person learns fastest in (5). Scaffolding denotes the adjustment (reduction) of the difficulty level to bring the difficulty level in reach of the person. If there is a proper match between difficulty level and ability, the game device provides a proper challenge that will enable the person to learn optimally and which will be most satisfactory to the person.

The game device of the invention can continuously measure the ability of the user or player, and may be programmed with a proper set of tasks with difficulties that may be tuned to match the ability of the user. The measurement is automatic and objective, making it more consistent across different persons, which makes comparison between persons easy. Because the measurement takes place during an actual learning process, this learning process may be followed meticulously. The game device may be arranged for automatically increasing the level of guidance (or reducing the level of difficulty) until the user understands how to solve the task (or until the ability level of the player is reached). Figure 4 corresponds to a diagram, wherein the scaffolding is left out. The cycle then reduces to what the user can solve on his/her own. In the area between (a) and (b), the task may require problem solving skills enabling the user to come up with new strategies; in the area from (b) to (c), the solution of the task may be clear, but the execution or speed of the solving the task improves; and in the area from (c) to (d) the difficulty level of the game is increased in order to provide a proper challenge to the user.

Figure 5 is a flow-chart of a method 200 according to the invention. The method 200 may be performed by a game device (not shown) arranged for providing a game to a player or user. The player or user may perform moves, which may be physical moves of physical game pieces or moves of virtual game pieces shown on a display. The method 200 starts at S and continues to step 210, wherein the user moves are traced, i.e. determined and stored. In the subsequent step, step 220, a pattern of the user moves is determined. This pattern of user moves may relate to occurrence of certain errors, frequency of certain errors, succession of user moves, and which strategy of gaming is followed by the user/player. In the subsequent step 230, the pattern of the user moves is compared with a specific pattern, wherein the specific pattern defines a relation between a state of a specific skill of a user and a difficulty level of the game device.

Subsequently, in step 240, an assessment of the current state of the specific skill of the user is provided based on said comparison. Optionally, subsequent to step 240, the method may comprise a step 250 of adjusting the difficulty level of the game device on the basis of said assessment of the current state of the specific skill of the user.

By embedding tasks in the game device, designed to address specific cognitive skills of the user, a plurality of cognitive skills may be mapped and monitored separately during play. The challenge presented by the game device may be adjusted one skill at a time, so that detailed assessment of cognitive skills during play and a very fin grained adjustment during play may be performed based on a range of cognitive skills separately. The method ends in E.

In the above, a distinction is made between the general aptitude of a person, which is an average of all skills required for a game, and the specific or separate skills, which are comprised within a complete set of independent or orthogonal skills which may be identified for an individual. The game device and method of the invention are arranged for providing tasks designed to challenge the separate skills a player or user, and for monitoring these skills separately. It should be noted, that the game device of the invention may be designed for children, adults and/or elderly. For children, the game device may provide education together with gaming, whilst for adults the game device may be arranged for providing enjoyment and/or contributing to personal wellbeing. For elderly or for theraupistic uses, the game device could be arranged to monitoring and early detection of cognitive decline, or provide targeted training to boost cognitive skills. By targeting the decline in cognitive skills, the game device could also allow elderly people to remain independent in their own homes or with their families.

The invention can be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. The invention or some features of the invention can be implemented as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors. The elements and components of an embodiment of the invention may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed, the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. As such, the invention may be implemented in a single unit, or may be physically and functionally distributed between different units and processors.

Although the present invention has been described in connection with the specified embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein. Rather, the scope of the present invention is limited only by the accompanying claims. In the claims, the term "comprising" does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps. Additionally, although individual features may be included in different claims, these may possibly be advantageously combined, and the inclusion in different claims does not imply that a combination of features is not feasible and/or advantageous. In addition, singular references do not exclude a plurality. Thus, references to "a", "an", "first", "second" etc. do not preclude a plurality. Furthermore, reference signs in the claims shall not be construed as limiting the scope.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A game device (100) arranged for detecting user moves made by a player in relation to a game, said game device comprising processor means for:

- tracing user moves;

- deriving a pattern of the user moves; - comparing the pattern of the user moves with a specific pattern, wherein said specific pattern defines a relation between a state of a specific skill of a user and a difficulty level of the game device, and for providing an assessment of the current state of the specific skill of the user based on said comparison.

2. A game device (100) according to claim 1, wherein said processor means is arranged for adjusting a difficulty level of the game device on the basis of said assessment of the current state of the specific skill of the user.

3. A game device (100) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said processor means is arranged for embedding a specific task in the game, said specific task being arranged for addressing a specific cognitive skill of a user.

4. A game device (100) according to claim 3, wherein the processor means is arranged for adjusting the difficulty level at any time.

5. A game device (100) according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the difficulty of the game device is increased or decreased incrementally in order to match the current state of the specific skill of the user.

6. A game device (100) according to any of the claims 1 to 5, wherein the pattern of the user moves comprises one or more of the following elements: occurrence of certain errors, frequency of certain errors, succession of user moves, and the strategy followed by the user.

7. A game device (100) according to any of the claims 1 to 6, wherein the game device is a computer device.

8. A game device (100) according to any of the claims 1 to 7, wherein the game device further comprises a physical gaming board (101) and one or more physical pieces

(103; 104) to be moved by a user, each piece (103; 104) having a tag or a sensor in order to facilitate sensing of the position of the piece in relation to the gaming board (101).

9. A method (200) of assessing skills of a user of a game device, said method comprising the steps of:

- tracing (210) user moves;

- deriving (220) a pattern of the user moves;

- comparing (230) the pattern of the user moves with a specific pattern, wherein said specific pattern defines a relation between a state of a specific skill of a user and a difficulty level of the game device, and

- providing (240) an assessment of the current state of the specific skill of the user based on said comparison.

10. A computer program product being adapted to enable a computer system comprising at least one computer having data storage means associated therewith to control a game device according to claim 1.