Abstract:
A game controller for a tablet computing device is disclosed. The controller includes a control console. A groove on a top portion of the control console configured and arranged to capture an edge of a tablet computing device in an upright orientation. A number of controls are included on the control console for transmitting game control inputs to the tablet computing device.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    The present patent document claims priority to earlier filed U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/448,266, filed on Mar. 2, 2011, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    The present patent document relates generally to input devices for personal computing devices and more particularly to an arcade-style game controller for a tablet computing device. 
         [0004]    2. Background of the Related Art 
         [0005]    Tablet computing devices with touch screen interfaces, such as Apple®&#39;s iPad brand tablet computing device, have become popular platforms for video games. However, the touch screen input is not ideal for many types of games that might require joystick, buttons with tactile feedback, track balls, and other types of arcade-style game controllers. Accordingly there is a perceived need in the industry for an improved input device for playing video games on tablet computing devices with touch screen interfaces. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    The present invention provides a solution to the problems of the prior art by providing a way to have traditional arcade-style game controls for tablet computing devices. 
         [0007]    Accordingly, an object of the present invention is the provision for a game controller for tablet computing devices that includes arcade-style game controls. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]    These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where: 
           [0009]      FIG. 1   a  is a left side perspective view of a first embodiment of the arcade-style game controller for a tablet computing device of the present invention; 
           [0010]      FIG. 1   b  is a right side perspective view of a first embodiment of the arcade-style game controller for a tablet computing device of the present invention; 
           [0011]      FIG. 2  is a diagram of a first variation of the operation of a first embodiment of an arcade-style game controller for a tablet computing device of the present invention using direct serial port communication of game control inputs to the tablet computing device; 
           [0012]      FIG. 3  is a diagram of a second variation of the operation of a first embodiment of an arcade-style game controller for a tablet computing device of the present invention using universal serial bus (“USB”) communication of game control inputs to the tablet computing device; 
           [0013]      FIG. 4  is a perspective view of a second embodiment of an arcade-style game controller for a tablet computing device of the present invention; 
           [0014]      FIG. 5  is a diagram of the operation of a second embodiment of an arcade-style game controller for a tablet computing device of the present invention using wireless communication of game control inputs to the tablet computing device; 
           [0015]      FIG. 6  is a left side perspective view of a third embodiment of an arcade-style game controller for a tablet computing device of the present invention showing the control surface with a track-ball control and buttons; and 
           [0016]      FIG. 7  is a diagram of the operation of a third embodiment of an arcade-style game controller for a tablet computing device of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0017]    Referring now to  FIG. 1 , a first embodiment of the game controller of the present invention is shown generally at  10 . The first embodiment of the game controller  10  of the present invention includes an aesthetic cabinet with arcade-style game controls. The cabinet generally includes a left side  12 , right side  14 , rear, top, bottom, and front portion  16  and is sized and dimensioned to fit on top of a typical desktop. The front portion  16  further includes a control console  18  extending from the front portion  16 . 
         [0018]    The control console  18  further includes a number of game controls  20 . The game controls primarily include mechanical on/off switches, which may be further configured as buttons  20   a  and joysticks  20   b . For instance, a joystick  20   b  can be implemented with four switches, one for each direction (i.e., up, down, left right). An “eight” position joystick  20   b  may be achieved by sensing two switches “on” at the same time. 
         [0019]    The front portion  16  of the cabinet is further configured to receive and support a tablet computing device  22 . Specifically, extending forward from the left and right sides  12 ,  14  is a pair of spaced apart wings  12   a ,  14   a . The wings  12   a ,  14   a , top  24  of the control console  18  and forward portion  16  of the cabinet form a cavity sized and dimensioned to receive and hold a tablet computing device  22 . Extending inwardly from the wings  12   a ,  14   a  and spaced forward from the front portion  16  is a pair of support pins  25 . The support pins  25  prevent the tablet computing device  22  rom tipping forward and out of the cabinet. As seen in  FIG. 1 , the user may slide the tablet computing device  22  from the top of the cabinet and into the cavity. 
         [0020]    Extending upwardly from the control console  18  is a dock connector  26  configured to connect to the tablet computing device  22 . Control inputs from the game controls  20  are transmitted to the tablet computing device  22  through the dock connector  26 . 
         [0021]    In the case of an iPad brand tablet computing device  22 , a direct connection from the game controller  10  to the iPad brand tablet computing device  22  is made through the dock connector  26  to the 30-pin connector of the bottom of the iPad brand tablet computing device  22 . There are two variations to implement this embodiment. In the first variation, shown in  FIG. 2 , slow-speed serial port communication is used to do authentication and data communication of game control inputs. In the second variation, shown in  FIG. 3 , universal serial bus (“USB”) communication is used for authentication and communication of game control inputs. 
         [0022]    Referring now to  FIG. 2 , a microprocessor  28  communicates with the tablet computing device  22  through a serial connector on the bottom of the tablet computing device  22 , and with an authentication chip  30 . The microprocessor receives authentication from the authentication chip  30  and transmits the authorization to the tablet computing device  22 , which enables game control inputs to be sent and received by the iPad brand tablet computing device  22 . 
         [0023]    The game controls  20  are wired to the microprocessor  28  through the microprocessor&#39;s serial port pins. The switches of the game controls  20  can be wired in many possible arrangements of rows and columns electrically to the microprocessor  28 . One possible format for sending the game control inputs is Core MIDI, where the game controls  20  would be mapped to note numbers. However, this is only one possibility. A completely custom messaging format could be used as well as described further below. 
         [0024]    There are several ways to handle the messaging between the game controls  20  and the tablet computing device  22 . 
         [0025]    If the tablet computing device  22  is capable of interpreting the state transitions of individual keys on a keyboard, the microprocessor  28  may be configured to send key down and key up commands to the tablet computing device  22 . For example, if the joystick  20   b  is pushed up, the microprocessor  28  generates and sends a message to the tablet computing device  22  that the switch placed in the up position on the joystick  20   b  was pressed (i.e., a key down command). When the joystick  20   b  is returned to center, the microprocessor  28  generates a message telling the tablet computing device  22  that the switch in the up position on the joystick  20   b  was released (i.e., a key up command). 
         [0026]    Some tablet computing devices  22  might not be able to interpret key press transitions in this manner, or as is often the case, a particular device may not be able to interpret key up commands. Thus, another way to accomplish the messaging would be to continuously send the key press message until the game control  20  is released. In the example above with the joystick  20   b  deflected to the up position, the microprocessor  28  would continuously send the key press message until the joystick  20   b  was released. The tablet computing device  22  would continuously poll the game controller  10  to determine the state of the game controls  20 . 
         [0027]    A third way to implement the game control messaging is to send a separate key message when an event happens and another message when the event stops happening. For example, if the joystick  20   b  is pushed up, the microprocessor  28  would send a message informing the tablet computing devices  22  that a particular keyboard key was pressed (i.e., a key down message for a particular keyboard key). When the joystick  20   b  is returned to center, the microprocessor  28  would send a message informing the tablet computing device  22  that a different keyboard key was pressed (i.e., a key down message for a different keyboard key). In this manner, the tablet computing device  22  would not need to interpret when keys are released (key up messages). The tablet computing device  22  only needs to be configured to recognize key down messages. 
         [0028]    A fourth method is to continuously send a status message which has the entire state of the all the game controls  20  of the game controller  10  encoded into it. For example, the four joystick directions and 8 buttons could be encoded into 12 bits of data, 1 meaning the joystick  20   b  or button  20   a  is activated, and 0 meaning the joystick  20   b  or button  20   a  is not activated. This message could be encoded into less than two bytes of Bluetooth data. 
         [0029]    Any of the above methods work well for controls which can be reduced to switches (i.e., switch-type joysticks  20   b  and buttons  20   a ). However, analog type controls, such as analog joysticks, track balls, and control wheels, cannot be reduced to binary values without losing their fidelity. There are several methods to encode analog signals from these types of controls. One method is to encode the analog value to a number of keyboard keys. For example, a control wheel with 16 positions could be encoded to 16 different keyboard key press messages or even Bluetooth keyboard key press messages, as described further below, to retain the fidelity of the control wheel. 
         [0030]    Regardless of which method is used, the video game software operating on the tablet computing device  22  must be configured to receive the messages and translate the content of the message into an input useable by the video game software. 
         [0031]    The microprocessor  28  can be any one of many microprocessors available that include 12C serial interfaces, such as the 8051 manufactured by Intel, Inc. 
         [0032]    Referring now to  FIG. 3 , as noted above earlier, a variation of the embodiment shown in  FIG. 1  uses USB communication for authentication and communication of game control inputs to the tablet computing device  22 . The microprocessor  28  can be any one of a variety of microprocessors with USB capability. One example is the STM32 microprocessor manufactured by STMicroelectronics N.V. 
         [0033]    The microprocessor  28  communicates with the tablet computing device  22  through the universal serial bus interface on the tablet computing device  22  and an authentication chip  30 . The microprocessor  28  receives authentication from the authentication chip  30  and communicates the authorization to the tablet computing device  22 , which enables game control inputs to be sent and received by the tablet computing device  22 . 
         [0034]    As mentioned earlier, one possible format for sending the game control inputs is Core MIDI, in which case the game controls  20  would be mapped to note numbers. The note numbers are transmitted over USB protocol to the tablet computing device  22 . 
         [0035]    In both variations shown in  FIGS. 1-3  which use a dock connector  26  to directly connect to the tablet computing device  22 , electric power may be supplied to the tablet computing device  22  through the dock connector  26  to the serial connector on the tablet computing device  22  to charge a battery on the tablet computing device  22 , where support for charging is provided. In addition, line out audio can be taken from the tablet computing device  22  and amplified for playback through optional onboard speakers placed in the cabinet of the game controller  10  of the present invention. These features may be authenticated by the microprocessor  28  as described above. 
         [0036]    Referring now to  FIGS. 4 and 5 , a second embodiment of the game controller of the present invention is shown generally at  100 . The second embodiment  100  of the game controller of the present invention includes a cabinet with an arcade-style appearance. The cabinet generally includes a left side  114 , right side  112 , rear, top  117 , bottom, and front portion  116  and is sized and dimensioned to fit on top of a typical desktop. The front portion  116  further includes a control console  118  extending from the front portion  116 . 
         [0037]    The control console  118  further includes a number of game controls  120 . The game controls  120  primarily include mechanical on/off switches, which may be further configured as buttons  120   a  and joysticks  120   b . For instance, a joystick  120   b  can be implemented with four switches, one for each direction (i.e., up, down, left right). An “eight” position joystick may be achieved by sensing two switches “on” at the same time. As mentioned above, the game controls  120  may be encoded into any number of keyboard key press message formats by a microprocessor  128 , which transmits the encoded message to the tablet computing device  22 . 
         [0038]    The front portion  116  of the cabinet is further configured to receive and support a tablet computing device  22 . The top  124  of the control console  118  and forward portion  116  of the cabinet form a cavity sized and dimensioned to receive and hold a tablet computing device  22 . The top  126  of the control console  118  further includes a groove  102  to receive the bottom edge of the tablet computing device  22 . The forward portion  116  of the cabinet is pitched slightly rearward. When place in the cabinet, the tablet computing device  22  is stable and will not slide out because the bottom edge of the tablet computing device  22  is captured in the groove  102  on the top  126  of the control console  118  and the tablet computing device  22  is supported by the forward portion  116  of the cabinet. 
         [0039]    The cabinet may further include right and left wings  112   a ,  114   a  extending from the right and left sides  112 ,  114 , respectively, and connected to a portion of the top  117  extending forward from the forward portion  116  of the cabinet. The wings  112   a ,  114   a  and top  117  together form a shade to prevent excess light from causing glare on the screen of the tablet computing device  22 . Furthermore, the wings  112   a ,  114   a  and top  117  are further sculpted to accentuate the arcade-style appearance of the cabinet. 
         [0040]    The second embodiment  100  utilizes a microprocessor  128  with a Bluetooth keyboard integrated circuit to send the game control inputs wirelessly to the tablet computing device  22 . Of course, this embodiment requires that the tablet computing device  22  support wireless communications and more specifically, Bluetooth wireless communication. In one variation, the switches from the game controls  120  on the control console  118  are wired into a Bluetooth keyboard switch matrix, as alluded to above in the description of the first embodiment. 
         [0041]    All communication between the game controls  120  on the control console  118  and the tablet computing device  22  occur wirelessly without a need for a direct connection through the dock  26 . One example of a microprocessor  128  with an Bluetooth integrated circuit is the BCM2042 manufactured by Broadcom, Inc. 
         [0042]    Only two buttons  120   b  are shown, in  FIG. 5 , but more may be added as not in  FIG. 5  and as shown in the embodiment in  FIG. 4 . As noted above, there are many ways to wire up the switch matrix. The above is shown with the joystick  120   b  switches on a separate column from the buttons  120   a . The rows and columns can be wired up arbitrarily, as long as there are enough rows and columns to accommodate the game controls  120  (this is generally the case, since these Bluetooth enabled microprocessor chips can accommodate full-sized QWERTY keyboard layouts with many more switches). The second embodiment  100  may be powered either by battery or AC adapter. 
         [0043]    Referring now to  FIGS. 6 and 7 , show a third embodiment  200  of the game controller of the present invention that implements a trackball control  220   c . The third embodiment  200  also include an arcade-style cabinet that includes left  214  and right  212  sides, top  217 , bottom and forward portions  216 , a control console  218  with a top  224  for game controls  220 , and a groove  202  to capture the tablet computing device  22 , like the earlier embodiments described above. 
         [0044]    As mentioned earlier, encoding an analog input device such as a trackball  220   c  must be converted into a digital format suitable for transmission to a tablet computing device  22 . One method of converting the trackball  220   c  movements is using a microprocessor  228  with a Bluetooth integrated circuit, such as a Broadcom BCM2042. The Broadcom BCM2042, like many microprocessors  228  with Bluetooth integrated circuits, also includes quadrature inputs  204  to accommodate a ball encoder, which is usually for use in a mechanical mouse. However, the quadrature inputs  204  can be inverted and re-sized to provide a track ball control surface. A track ball control  220   c  is used in arcade games like “Centipede”, “Millipede”, and “Missile Command” games created by Atari Inc. that are now considered arcade classics. 
         [0045]    Therefore, it can be seen that the present invention provides a unique solution to the problem of providing an improved input device for playing video games on tablet computing devices with touch screen interfaces. 
         [0046]    It would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made to the illustrated embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention. All such modifications and changes are intended to be within the scope of the present invention.