Patent ID: 8222037

Claim:
A multi-participant controller system configured to allow a plurality of input controllers to interface to a computing system running multi-participant interactive software, the controller system, comprising: a controller module comprising: a first interface, configured to be coupled to a controller input feature and configured to receive from the controller input feature a control input for the multi-participant interactive software, the control input generated in response to an action by a participant of the multi-participant interactive software; a second interface configured to be coupled to the computing system; and a processor coupled to the first interface and configured to: receive via the first interface a sequence of control inputs from the controller input feature; assign an input timestamp to a control input within the sequence of control inputs, wherein the input timestamp corresponds to a time of entry for the control input by the participant; generate a dataset comprising a set of control inputs received at the controller module and their respective timestamps assigned by the controller module; and transmit the generated dataset to the computing system by way of the second interface; wherein the computing system is configured to: communicate with the controller module, run the multi-participant interactive software, and receive generated datasets from the controller module.