A chat system includes a chat server and a chat terminal device. The chat server acquires input information of at least one subject among participants of a game and spectators of the game, generates situation chat data, stores, in a storage unit, the generated situation chat data in association with a time, generates, upon storing the situation chat data, excitement information based on the input information acquired at a time corresponding to a time at which the situation chat data is stored in the storage unit, stores, in the storage unit, the excitement information in association with the situation chat data, and transmits, to a chat terminal device, the situation chat data and the excitement information. The chat terminal device acquires the chat data and the excitement information from the chat server and causes a display to display the acquired chat data and excitement information in an associated manner.

In a first aspect, a system for playing a video game is provided that includes (1) one or more sensors adapted to monitor one or more biometric parameters of a user and communicate the one or more monitored biometric parameters (MBPs); (2) a computing device adapted to communicate with the one or more sensors and to receive the one or more communicated MBPs; and (3) a video game having an avatar adapted to move an object on an incline, the video game adapted to execute on the computing device. The video game is adapted to control the avatar to perform an action in the video game based in part on the received one or more communicated MBPs. Numerous other aspects are provided.

A method to identify positions of fingers of a hand is described. The method includes capturing images of a first hand using a plurality of cameras that are part of a wearable device. The wearable device is attached to a wrist of a second hand and the plurality of cameras of the wearable device is disposed around the wearable device. The method includes repeating capturing of additional images of the first hand, the images and the additional images captured to produce a stream of captured image data during a session of presenting the virtual environment in a head mounted display (HMD). The method includes sending the stream of captured image data to a computing device that is interfaced with the HMD. The computing device is configured to process the captured image data to identify changes in positions of the fingers of the first hand.

A system and method for motion capture to efficiently render in-game objects, including characters, and controlling animation of characters and non-player characters. In some embodiments, the motion capture includes a machine learning model that can take as inputs information about the hand pose of a person from multiple sensors over a period of time and generates a highly probable hand pose prediction from that information, based on what it learns from a previously captured dataset of high quality sample motion captures. The systems and methods described herein overcome the imprecision conventional optical marker pipelines for the case of finger movement, where the slightest imprecision yields results that are not good enough for production.

Embodiments include a footwear device for controlling an electronic device, the footwear device including a toe portion, a heel portion, and a sole portion defined along a bottom portion of the footwear device between the toe and heel portion. The device further including one or more sensors incorporated with the sole portion and configured to detect a movement of the footwear device. The device further includes a controller configured to store a footwear action database comprising footwear actions respectively assigned to input control actions of the electronic device. receive the output signal of the sensors, identify a corresponding input control action using the footwear action database, and generate a control signal based on the input control action. The device further includes a communication module to transmit a control signal to a game controller such that the movement of the footwear device causes the input control action of the electronic device.

There is provided an information processing apparatus including: an acquisition unit that obtains first sensor information, which is output by a first sensor and is to be used to calculate positional information of an operator, and second sensor information, which is output by a second sensor and is to be used to calculate the positional information of the operator; and a calculation unit that calculates the positional information of the operator using the second sensor information in a case where the positional information of the operator calculated using the first sensor information is included in a set range set in advance.

Apparatus and method for personalising participation in an activity comprising a plurality of user nodes, each user node including a sensor array serving to generate data in relation to a user at the node and a data processing device for receiving the generated data from the sensor array as to the user, the apparatus further comprising a computer system in communication with the sensor array in each node. This ensures a fluent and immediate personalised experience across the different user nodes.

A system and method that counteracts foot motion relative to a surface, wherein the foot carries footwear. There are a plurality of magnetic units, each unit comprising a magnet located proximate an underside of the surface. There are sensors for determining one or more of the position, orientation, acceleration, and force of the foot on the surface. A controller is in communication with the sensors and the magnetic units. The controller is configured to control the magnets to develop a time-varying magnetic field that induces currents in a conductor of the footwear such that a magnetic field created by the induced currents opposes the time-varying magnetic field, creating a repulsive force that reduces frictional forces between the footwear and the surface.

A non-limiting example information processing system includes a first input apparatus including a strain sensor, a second input apparatus including a motion sensor, and an information processing apparatus. The strain sensor provides an output corresponding to a force applied to at least a portion of the first input apparatus. The motion sensor provides an output corresponding to a motion of the second input apparatus. The information processing apparatus includes a computer that executes obtaining strain data corresponding to the output of the strain sensor and motion data corresponding to the output of the motion sensor, and executing first control on an object disposed in a virtual space based on the strain data, and second control on the object based on the motion data, the second control being different from the first control.

A tracker data acquisition section acquires a plurality of pieces of first tracker data. The first tracker data indicates the position of a first tracker that is expressed in a first coordinate system. The tracker data acquisition section acquires a plurality of pieces of second tracker data. The second tracker data indicates the position of a second tracker that is expressed in a second coordinate system. Based on the plurality of pieces of the first tracker data and the plurality of pieces of the second tracker data, a parameter estimation section estimates parameter values for converting the positions expressed in the second coordinate system into expressions in the first coordinate system and the relative position of the second tracker relative to the first tracker.