Patent ID: 7435177

Claim:
A video game apparatus, comprising, in combination: (1) a hand-held game playing device comprising a) a memory storing an interactive video game application; b) a processing unit for executing the interactive video game application; c) a camera adapted to capture a sequence of images during the execution of the video game application; d) an image analysis module for processing the sequence of images to detect movement of the game playing device during the execution of the video game application; wherein information as the movement detected by the image analysis module is supplied to the processing unit and interpreted by the video game application as user input of movement commands to the video game application; and (2) a special optical target for placement in the field of view of the camera when the game playing device is held in the hands of the user during execution of the video game application; wherein the movement of the game playing device in 1 d) is detected by processing the position of the target in the sequence of images.