Patent ID: 7785201
Filing Date: 2010-08-31
Classification: A63F

Abstract:
1. A background image acquisition method for acquiring a background image that is required for calculating a background difference in a video game that uses an input image supplied by a camera, the method comprising the steps of: compositing a button item for responding to an operation of a player with a portion of a frame image captured by the camera which captured frame image includes a player image representing a posture of the player; displaying the composite image on a monitor screen; defining a first region and a second region of the captured frame image to be acquired as the background image; wherein the first region includes a first section and the second region includes a second section, guiding the player into position such that the player image is accommodated within said portion of the captured frame image; overlapping a section of one region with a section of the second region for making a determination as to whether the camera has moved or a moving object has been captured in the background image based on the extent of any image difference between the overlapping sections of the two regions with the determination of movement being made before acquiring an image of a region of the captured image as the background image other than said portion, wherein the method further comprises the steps of: determining if the camera has moved and/or if movement of an object captured in the region for the background image has occurred by determining whether a color difference above a predetermined level is detected between the overlapping sections of the two regions; and if it is determined that movement has resulted from either of the movement of the camera or the movement of an object captured in the region for the background image, displaying an error indicative of a detected movement on the monitor screen such that the background difference can be calculated without detected movement.