US008715088B2
(12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 8,715,088 B2 Kohlhoff (45) Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
(54) LEADERBOARD SYSTEMAND METHOD 20085. R. '58 ERAarShall et al...... 707/10 ESSENSE D 2003/0093.168 A1* 5/2003 Nagaoka ...... TOO.91 2003/0228908 A1* 12/2003 Caiafa et al...... 463/42 GEOCODING GPS CO-ORONATES 2004/0180713 A1* 9, 2004 Eklund ...... 463/17 2006/0089200 A1* 4/2006 Twerdahl ...... 463/42 (75) Inventor: Andrew Thomas Kohlhoff, London (Continued) (GB) (73) Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS Europe Limited (GB) WO O174037 A2 10/2001 (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this OTHER PUBLICATIONS patent is extended or adjusted under 35 “Inside Social Games: Turning Exercise Into Games with iPhone U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days. Title Skimble'. dated Jun. 9, 2010, online, retrieved on Jan. 26, 2013).
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US 8,715,088 B2 Page 2
(56) References Cited 2013/00 13094 A1 1/2013 Parks et al...... TOO.92 2013/0017872 A1 1/2013 Parks ...... 463.9 U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS OTHER PUBLICATIONS
2006/0217198 A1* 9, 2006 Johnson ...... 463/40 “Firi Games: Pheonix Patch Notes” via The Way Back Machine 2008.0113805 A1 5/2008 David et al...... 463/42 2009/0258710 A1* 10/2009 Quatrochi et al...... 463/43 (www.archive.org). Idated May 29, 2011), online), retrieved on Jan. 2010/0075732 A1* 3/2010 Haley et al...... 463/17 26, 2013). 2011/0072020 A1* 3/2011 Ngo et al...... 707/739 British Search Report GB 1110194.6 dated Oct. 14, 2011. 2012/0253.653 A1* 10/2012 Burroughs et al. 701,300 2012/0282995 A1* 11/2012 Allen et al...... 463,22 * cited by examiner U.S. Patent May 6, 2014 Sheet 1 of 6 US 8,715,088 B2 011000 011001 s Figure 1 Figure 2 U.S. Patent May 6, 2014 Sheet 3 of 6 US 8,715,088 B2 .. s . & E.E. 2. % E. Figure 4B U.S. Patent May 6, 2014 Sheet 4 of 6 US 8,715,088 B2 Figure 5A 200 31 Figure 5B 32O US 8,715,088 B2 1. 2 LEADERBOARD SYSTEMAND METHOD FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the London postal region FOR DISPLAYING LOCATION-BASED known as W1. LEATHERBOARDS WITH REVERSE FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a client and leaderboard GEOCODING GPS CO-ORONATES server according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram or a hierarchically organ CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED ised set of leaderboards according to an embodiment of the APPLICATIONS present invention. FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram or a non-hierarchically The present application claims the benefit of and priority to organised set of leaderboards according to an embodiment of GBApplication No. 1110194.6, filed Jun. 16, 2011, the entire 10 the present invention. disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. FIGS.5A and 5B are respective schematic diagrams of the front and rear of a portable electronic device according to an BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram a portable electronic device 1. Field of the Invention 15 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The present invention relates to a leaderboard system and FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a method of operation for a method. client and two types of leaderboard server, according to 2. Description of the Prior Art embodiments of the present invention. In conventional videogame systems, users can compare their game scores with other users in several ways. A common DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED means of providing a comparison is to generate a so-called EMBODIMENTS leaderboard, which shows the top N ranked players of a game according to some performance metric, Such as overall score, A leaderboard system and method are disclosed. In the shortest lap, achievements in a game level or the like. following description, a number of specific details are pre Typically the top N players are taken from a global list 25 sented in order to provide a thorough understanding of the managed by a network provider associated with the game or embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent, with the console upon which the game is run. To make the however, to a person skilled in the art that these specific leaderboard more relevant to the individual, this global list details need not be employed to practise the present invention. may first be filtered, for example to only select the top N Conversely, specific details known to the person skilled in the players from a list of friends of a user maintained by the 30 art are omitted for the purposes of clarity where appropriate. network provider. However, this assumes that a user has a In embodiments of the present invention, leaderboards are sufficient number of friends playing the relevant game. provided that relate to real-world geographical locations or Alternatively, the top N players may be taken from a list of regions that are meaningful to the user. In embodiments of the players sharing a particular game server or server cluster. present invention, these leaderboards form a hierarchy Consequently the leaderboard may then correspond to a 35 extending from very Small locations. Such as individual physical location, Such as Europe or the United States, or a streets, up through Suburbs or districts, boroughs, towns, virtual location such as Server 56. However, this still does counties, states, countries, continents and, finally, globally. not provide a very personal experience for any particular user. Such leaderboards typically comprise a list of user IDs and With the advent of GPS positioning within videogame their score or other performance metric relating to a game or consoles, a further alternative is to rank users who are cur 40 Some aspect of a game. Typically a Subset of this list. Such as rently within a certain distance of each other, to create an the top N ranking users by score, is provided for display. ad-hoc local ranking. However, as the point of a leaderboard In principle it is possible to generate such a hierarchical set is to commemorate a good performance, the ephemeral nature of leaderboards by generating ever narrower geographical of Such ad-hoc rankings is unsatisfactory. divisions of the planet, in a process known as Geohashing. Consequently there is scope to improve over the present 45 An example of such a scheme is illustrated in FIG.1. In this state of the art. scheme, a two-bit code divides the world into four sections. Within each section, a second two-bit code quarters the sec SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION tion again into four Subsections each addressable by a four bit code obtained by concatenating the two two-bit codes. Within In a first aspect, there is provided a method of accessing a 50 each Subsection, a third two-bit code generates four Sub leaderboard by an entertainment device. Subsections, and so on. In this way, regions of the world can In another aspect, there is provided a method of providing be subdivided to arbitrary levels of granularity, where each a leaderboard to a client by a server. square region or tile is uniquely addressable by a binary In another aspect, there is provided an entertainment code which embodies the relevant hierarchy of regions within device. 55 it. In another aspect, there is provided a leaderboard server. Notably, different regions can be subdivided to different Further respective aspects and features of the invention are extents, so that, for example, large cities can be Subdivided defined in the appended claims. into Small tiles, for example in the order of one square kilo metre or even less, whilst sparsely populated territory can be BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 60 represented by much larger tiles. Typically, the geographical divisions can be extended until they contain roughly similar The above and other objects, features and advantages of the populations of game users of a desired amount. invention will be apparent from the following detailed However, this scheme has disadvantages. The main disad description of illustrative embodiments which is to be read in Vantage is that the tiles generated by this division process connection with the accompanying drawings, in which: 65 have no physical meaning, and have no direct correspondence FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a scheme to geographi with real-world locations. As a result it would be difficult to cally divide the globe. construct a leaderboard for a particular suburb or town; it US 8,715,088 B2 3 4 would require associating together a set of tiles approximat TABLE 1-continued ing the geographical coverage of each of those real-world locations separately. This would be laborious and, unless a Top-Level Postcodes for the West London region very high level of division is used, would also only be Location Postcode Administrative Area approximate. 5 Soho (south east); Chinatown, W1D Westminster In principle it would be possible instead to tessellate the Soho Square world using more generally shaped polygons, thereby creat Soho (northwest) W1F Westminster ing regions that approximate specific geographical areas. Harley Street W1G Westminster However, disadvantageously this would make the addressing Marylebone W1H Westminster 10 Mayfair (south), Piccadilly, W1J Westminster process much more complex over Successive geographical Royal Academy divisions, and would also require a very large number of Mayfair (north), Grosvenor Square W1K Westminster polygon definitions to be maintained. Hanover Square, Savile Row W1S Westminster Consequently, in an embodiment of the present invention, Fitzrovia, Tottenham Court Road W1T Camden a leaderboard system is proposed that uses a reverse geocod Marylebone W1U Westminster 15 Great Portland Street, Fitzrovia W1W Westminster ing method to provide a hierarchy of meaningful location Paddington head district: W2 Westminster, based leaderboards. Paddington, Bayswater, Hyde Park, Royal Borough Westbourne Green, Little Venice of Kensington The reverse geocoding method uses a database of GPS (part), Westbourne Green, Notting and Chelsea co-ordinates, each having associated metadata. The nature of Hill the metadata or tags is discussed later. Firstly, the system Acton district: Acton, East Acton, W3 Ealing, Brent receives as a query an input GPS co-ordinate indicating for Park Royal, West Acton Hammersmith and Fulham, example the location of a portable entertainment device. The Hounslow system then finds the GPS co-ordinate in the database that is Chiswick district: Chiswick, W4 Hounslow, Ealing closest to the query co-ordinate using a Euclidean distance Gunnersbury, Turnham Green, measure from the query co-ordinate, which for most applica Bedford Park 25 Ealing district: Ealing, Park Royal W5 Ealing tions is a Sufficiently good approximation of the non-Euclid Hammersmith district: Hammersmith, W6 Hammersmith ean elliptical geometry used by GPS co-ordinates. Other suit Ravenscourt Park and Fulham able distance measures may be known to the skilled person. Hanwell district: Hanwell, W7 Ealing, Hounslow The metadata associated with the found GPS co-ordinate Boston Manor Kensington district: Kensington, W8 Royal Borough then indicates the most geographically narrow location in a 30 Holland Park (part) of Kensington hierarchy of real-world locations for the query GPS co-ordi and Chelsea nate. Maida Vale district: Maida Vale, W9 Westminster, In an embodiment of the present invention, the metadata Little Venice (part) Camden, Brent, Kensington and comprises an ordinary address, such as "10 Great Marlbor Chelsea ough Street, W1F 7LP, London, Great Britain'. In this case 35 North Kensington district: North W10 Kensington and the address implicitly contains a set of hierarchies, which may Kensington, Queens Park Chelsea, Brent, be listed as follows: Westminster, Hammersmith Great Marlborough Street and Fulham Great Marlborough Street Notting Hill district: Notting W11 Royal Borough W1F 7LP (a post code in the British format that covers Hill, Holland Park (part) of Kensington some or all of one street) 40 and Chelsea Shepherds Bush district: Shepherds W12 Hammersmith W1F 7L (a partial postcode defining a broader area that Bush, White City and Fulham may have a unique name) West Ealing district: West Ealing, W13 Ealing W1F 7 (a partial postcode defining a yet broader area that Northfields may have a unique name) West Kensington district: West W14 Royal Borough 45 Kensington, Kensington Olympia, of Kensington W1F (a post code encompassing a one or more Suburbs) Holland Park (part) and Chelsea, W1 (a post code defining a region of London) Hammersmith W (West London) London Great Britain The leaderboard system can thus parse any address found Advantageously, post codes in particular tend to already 50 in the metadata with reference to such atable in order to create encode a hierarchy of real-world boundaries and regions. For a series of possible hierarchical locations. Given the example example, W1F is part of the region known as Soho, whilst address above, this may generate the following hierarchy: W1 is part of the region known as Westminster. The region Great Marlbourough Street covered by W1 is shown in FIG. 2, and comprises identifiable Soho suburbs such as Marylebone, Mayfair and Soho. 55 Westminster Tables or databases of postcodes and corresponding geo West London graphical locations may thus be constructed, as in Table 1 London below: Great Britain 60 Additional information may also be used by the system to TABLE 1. augment the address and generate intermediate levels in the Top-Level Postcodes for the West London region hierarchy; for example an additional level of South East England may be added for any address from which it can be Location Postcode Administrative Area inferred that the user is in a town Such as London, Southamp Portland Street, Regent Street W1B Westminster 65 ton, Brighton, Maidstone and so on. Oxford Street (west) W1C Westminster Alternatively or in addition, in an embodiment of the present invention, the metadata associated with GPS co-ordi US 8,715,088 B2 7 8 given those names and added to the search list. Again some qualifies for, enabling the user to see their ranking at each leaderboards can be pre-defined and can have a hierarchical geographical level leading up to their current position. structure; for example country-level leaderboards could be Similarly, instead of providing leaderboard details that also pre-defined and have a hierarchy for continent and global lists list the scores and IDs of other players on a leaderboard, the (which may not be specified in the hierarchy of geographical leaderboard server can return the ranking number of the user locations obtained from reverse geocoding the user's posi for each leaderboard they are included on, so that they can get tion). In this case, the country leaderboard can pass the user's a concise overview of their performance at different geo data up the chain in a similar manner to that described previ graphical scales. ously. It will be appreciated that in principle such leaderboards Notably, the above schemes simplify the submission of 10 for games can be requested by the portable entertainment user performance metrics to a plurality of geographically device at any time, so that for example the current best rank meaningful leaderboards. In particular, it avoids the need for ing for a player can be displayed prior to starting a game, in example to perform Euclidean distance measuring between order to motivate the user to improve their performance. user GPS positions and notional positions of leaderboards, It will also be appreciated that due to the use of geographi with different leaderboards having different threshold inclu 15 cally meaningful names for leaderboards, it is comparatively sion radii, or alternatively (and referring to the initial example simple to enable a user to request to view a geographically of a binary addressable division of the globe), associating distant leaderboard, or to post a link to their own leaderboard different leaderboards with configuration lists of tiles or poly to someone in a different part of the world. In this case, the gons that cover the actual location that a leaderboard is portable electronic device could send a query to the leader intended to represent. board server including the named location, and a name search In operation, the leaderboard server calculates the ranking is performed to return the relevant leaderboard. Similarly, a of a user on each leaderboard to which a user's performance user could select or input one or more user IDs (for example metric is added. In addition, the updated ranking of that user from a friends list) and request one or more leaderboards can be recalculated upon a Subsequent query to the leader relevant to those users. In this case the system may return a board server by the portable electronic device or by another 25 leaderboard for each identified user of a similar type to that game server (not shown). In an embodiment of the present described above (e.g. the largest leaderboard on which an invention, the names or other unique IDs of the leaderboards identified user is ranked in the top Musers), but alternatively upon which the user has results recorded are stored with a or in addition may return a leaderboard that contains some or profile of the user based on their unique user ID, so that the all of the identified users together. Selection of this leader leaderboard server can easily query the relevant leaderboards 30 board may be subject one or more criteria, Such as being the upon request. first leaderboard in a geographical hierarchy to contain a In an embodiment of the present invention, the portable predetermined proportion of the identified users, or the small entertainment device can request that the leaderboard server est leaderboard to contain a predetermined proportion of the sends the status of a particular leaderboard back to the por identified users above a certain ranking. Other selection strat table entertainment device, so that the top N rankings can be 35 egies will be apparent to the skilled person. displayed. For example, the portable entertainment device In an embodiment of the present invention, the user can could request the New York City level leaderboard for display. also define a set of GPS co-ordinates as home, so that However, it will be appreciated that for the average user, optionally they can continue compete on leaderboards related their position within the leaderboard rankings are likely to be to their home location regardless of where they happen to be low for many of the largest leaderboards. 40 at the time. In this case, the portable entertainment device Therefore, the portable entertainment device can request a submits the home GPS co-ordinates instead of the current relevant leaderboard from the leaderboard server. The lead GPS co-ordinates, and the rest of the system operates trans erboard server then selects (in the case of the arrangement of parently as described herein. FIG. 4A) the highest leaderboard in the hierarchy, or (in the For security, GPS co-ordinates can be stored and transmit case of the arrangement of FIG. 4B) the most populated 45 ted in encrypted form. In addition, in an embodiment of the leaderboard, in which the user is ranked #M or higher, where present invention a user can elect to use a different user name Missome predetermined minimum ranking such as #10, #20, for leaderboard rankings to their normal user name. This #50 or #100, and may be selected either by the leaderboard helps the user to protect their privacy if they have divulged server, the portable entertainment device, the game designer personal details about themselves to other users that, in con or the user via a user interface, depending on design prefer 50 junction with a reasonably detailed knowledge of their loca ences. It will be appreciated that M may alternatively be a tion, could be used to identify them. The additional user name proportional qualifying value. Such as the top 5% of users, would be associated with the user through their profile. and that this absolute or relative value may be different for Optionally the user can nominate other users (e.g. trusted different leaderboards. friends) to receive leaderboards that display their normal user Either way, the user will then see the largest geographically 55 aC. relevant leaderboard (either in terms of geographical size or In an embodiment of the present invention, a suitable por user population) within which they are performing well. As table electronic device is the Sony(R) next generation portable, their performance improves, by this method they will also known as the PlayStation(R) Vita R or PSV. automatically move up through the geographical hierarchy. FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate an embodiment of a PSV 10. So for example, a new player may initially be ranked #12 in 60 FIG. 5A shows a notional front or top side of the PSV, whilst Williamsburg, but over time improvements in his perfor FIG.SB shows a notional rear or bottom side of the PSV. The mance may result in him being ranked #16 in Kings, or front and rear sides are substantially parallel to each other. eventually #43 in New York. On the front side, the PSV comprises a display 200 and By the time the user is #43 in New York, they may also be optionally one or more loudspeakers 205L, 205R. A transpar for example #3 in Kings and #1 in Brooklyn and Williams 65 ent front touch sensitive surface 310 (indicated by the dotted burg. Consequently, optionally the leaderboard server may lines) is also provided coincident with the display 200. On the return results for all depending leaderboards that the user also rear side, the PSV comprises a rear touch sensitive surface US 8,715,088 B2 10 320 (indicated by the dotted lines) having similar dimensions c) A magnetometer 410 for determining compass direction, to the display 200. The rear touch sensitive surface is posi mounted integral to the PSV either on the bus 130 or as part tioned so as to be substantially aligned with the display along of the motion input unit 400. a central axis normal to the display. The front and rear touch d) A third generation (3G) or other mobile telephony module sensitive Surfaces and the display thus have similar dimen 5 150. In an embodiment, the module and aerial are integral sions and placements on their respective sides of the device. to the PSV, and optionally the aerial is shared with or The touch sensitive surfaces also have a similar resolution of otherwise coupled electromagnetically with other wireless touch localisation and are multi-touch. units in the device for the purpose of transmission and Referring now to FIG. 6, an embodiment of the PSV com reception. Alternatively the module may be removably 10 connectable to the PSV, for example via USB port or a prises a central processor (CPU) 100 coupled to random personal computer memory card international association access memory (RAM) 110, and optionally to a read only (PCMCIA) slot. memory (not shown). In addition the CPU communicates e) A hard disk drive (HDD) 180 integral to the PSV, providing with a graphics processing unit (GPU) 220. The GPU has bulk storage for audio/video media, downloaded games, access to video RAM (VRAM) 250. The GPU outputs audio 15 and the like. to loudspeakers 205 and/or to a headphone jack (not shown). f) A GPS receiver 420. Again the GPS receiver may share an The GPU also outputs video information to the display 200. aerial with one or more other wireless units (such as WiFi) The display is typically a liquid crystal display (LCD) but within the PSV. Map information, where used, may be may be an organic light emitting diode display (OLED) or stored locally at the receiver, or in flash RAM of the PSV, similar Suitable display technology. or on an HDD of the PSV. In addition, the CPU communicates with an input/output g) A video camera 240, typically comprising a charge coupled bridge (I/O bridge) 120 that co-ordinates communication device (CCD) optical sensor and Suitable optics for imag with peripheral components both integral to and linkable with ing onto the CCD. The resolution of the CCD may for the PSV. In an embodiment of the PSV the I/O bridge com example be 640x480 pixels, but may be any suitable reso municates with a surface input controller 330, which parses 25 lution, such as for example 1920x1080 pixels (full HD). In inputs from the rear touch sensitive Surface and the transpar an embodiment the video camera is integral to the PSV, but ent front touch sensitive surface. The I/O bridge also commu alternatively may be removably connectable to the bus 130 nicates with a motion input unit 400 comprising one or more via a USB or proprietary connection. An embodiment of micro electromechanical (MEMs) accelerometers and/or the PSV comprises two such video cameras 240, forming a 30 Stereoscopic pair. gyroscopes, to provide up to six axes of motion input (x,y and In operation, the CPU accesses an operating system that is Z axis lateral movement and roll, pitch and yaw rotational resident for example on a ROM, flash RAM or a hard disk. movement). Finally, the I/O bridge communicates with a bus The operating system co-ordinates operation of the various 130, upon which various peripheral devices may be linked, functions of the PSV and presents a user interface to a user of including one or more wireless communication units 140, 35 the device. The user interface will typically comprise graphi such as for example WiFi and/or Bluetooth R. cal outputs via the display and touch based inputs, but may The CPU 100 is typically a multi core processor. Mean also include audio outputs and/or motion-based inputs. while, the RAM may be dynamic RAM or may comprise both The touch based inputs to the PSV are peculiar to the dynamic RAM and static (flash) RAM units. Likewise, whilst arrangement of a display on the front of the PSV and a the GPU typically uses dedicated VRAM, alternatively or in 40 correspondingly positioned touch sensitive Surface (or addition it may share common RAM with the CPU. Finally, it panel) on the rear of the PSV. This allows the user to treat the will be appreciated that the function of the surface input unit rear panel as a proxy for the display (in other words, address may be performed by the CPU itself. actions and inputs to the rear touch panel as if to the display, It will be appreciated that whilst not shown in the figures and/or point to the panel in order to point to the display). Thus for the purposes of clarity, the PSV comprises power distri 45 for example, the user can point to icons or other displayed bution lines to various components and one or more sources features from apparently underneath the display by touching of power, Such as an input socket (for example a conventional the rear touch panel at the corresponding position. DC power socket, or alternatively or in addition a USB It will be appreciated that unlike a laptop touch panel, the Socket). Such an input socket may also be used to charge one rear touchpanel has a substantially 1:1 scale relationship with or more batteries (also not shown). Such batteries may be user 50 the screen, thereby not just enabling motion of a mouse removable or may be sealed in the device. Other components pointer on screen that corresponds to motion of touch on the not shown include, for example, an optional microphone. panel (for example), but furthermore also enabling direct Additionally, an embodiment of the PSV may comprise placement of Such a mouse on the screen at the position one or more additional components, either integrated within corresponding to the touch on the panel, because as noted the device or connectable to it. The additional components 55 above the panel can be understood to represent the screen (i.e. include, but are not limited to, the following. act as a proxy). Use of the rear touch panel as a proxy for the a) A card reader 160 suitable for reading from and optionally display advantageously allows interaction with the graphical writing to memory cards, such as the Sony R Memory output of the device without the user's hand or fingers obscur Stick(R), or alternatively legacy memory cards Such as those ing the display or marking the display window. used by the Sony(R) PlayStation 2(R) entertainment device. 60 In operation, the operating system or a game application Such a reader may be integral to the PSV or connect to the running on the operating system implements those parts of bus 130 via a USB connection. the method described above that relate to the portable elec b) A universal media disk (UMD) reader 170 or other optical tronic device, such as obtaining a set of GPS co-ordinates, disk reader (such as DVD or Blu-Ray(R), for accessing obtaining a hierarchy of geographical locations either by media and/or game content stored thereon. Such a reader 65 internal lookup or via a communication link to a server, and may be removably connectable to the bus 130 via a USB or requesting and Subsequently displaying a geographically rel proprietary connection. evant leaderboard to the user. US 8,715,088 B2 11 12 Referring now to FIG. 7, the operation of a portable elec either in the client, the leaderboard server or a third party tronic device acting as a client and the operation of two server; leaderboard servers (server A and server B) having either a the server receiving a user ID and a performance metric hierarchical leaderboard structure or a non-hierarchical lead associated with the user ID, and adding the user ID and erboard structure respectively, is described. performance metric to the or each identified leader In a first client step s10, the portable electronic device board; obtains a set of GPS co-ordinates describing the location of the server receiving a userID, and providing the data of the the entertainment device, for example from the in-built GPS largest leaderboard on which the user ID exceeds a pre receiver, or from a nearby Wi-Fi hotspot with GPS informa determined minimum ranking; and tion. 10 the server receiving a plurality of userIDs, and providing Meanwhile, in a first server step s20A, server A hosts a plurality of leaderboards linked to each other according to a the data of a leaderboard on which at least a predeter geographical hierarchy, and in a corresponding first server mined proportion of these users are ranked. step 20B, server B hosts a plurality of non-hierarchical lead Finally, it will be appreciated that the methods disclosed erboards each associated with a geographical name. 15 herein may be carried out on conventional hardware suitably In a second client step s12, the portable electronic device adapted as applicable by software instruction or by the inclu initiates a reverse geocoding operation responsive to the GPS sion or substitution of dedicated hardware. In particular the co-ordinates to obtain a hierarchy of geographical names. As client side steps may be carried out by one or more processors noted previously, this could be done internally by the portable on a portable entertainment device such as the PSV, or to an electronic device or by request to server A or server B, or to a installable entertainment device such as the Sony(R) Playsta third party server (not shown). Such possible communication tion 3(R) (PS3), whilst the server side steps may be carried out with the servers is shown by dotted arrows. by one or more Suitable servers equipped with one or more In a second server step 22A.B., if requested by the client, respective processors and Suitable communications means then either server A or server B as applicable obtains a hier such as an Ethernet link to the internet. archy of geographical names generated by reverse geocoding 25 Thus the required adaptation to existing parts of a conven in response to a set of GPS co-ordinates. As noted previously, tional equivalent device may be implemented in the form of a this could be done internally by the server, the server could computer program product or similar tangible object of request the operation from a third party server (not shown), or manufacture comprising processor implementable instruc the names could be received from the client. tions stored on a data carrier Such as a floppy disk, optical In a third client step s14, the portable electronic device 30 requests from either server A or server B data of at least one disk, hard disk, PROM, RAM, flash memory or any combi leaderboard corresponding to one of the hierarchy of geo nation of these or other storage media, or transmitted via data graphical names. It will be appreciated that client steps S12 signals on a network Such as an Ethernet, a wireless network, and S14 could be combined into one request. the Internet, or any combination of these of other networks, or In a third server step s24A, server A identifies one or more 35 realised in hardware as an ASIC (application specific inte leaderboards in a hierarchical sequence corresponding to one grated circuit) oran FPGA (field programmable gate array) or or more of the geographical names in the obtained hierarchy other configurable circuit Suitable to use in adapting the con of geographical names. In a corresponding third server step ventional equivalent device. 24B, server B identifies one or more leaderboards whose Although illustrative embodiments of the invention have associated geographical name matches one or more of the 40 been described in detail herein with reference to the accom geographical names in the obtained hierarchy of geographical panying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is aCS. not limited to those precise embodiments, and that various In a fourth server step s26A.B., either server A or server B changes and modifications can be effected therein by one as applicable provides to the client data of one or more iden skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of tified leaderboards. 45 the invention as defined by the appended claims. In a fourth client steps 16, the client then displays some or all of the or each leaderboard on a display. The display may be I claim: integral to the device (as in the PSV) or separate (as with a 1. A method of accessing a leaderboard by an entertain PS3). ment device having a global positioning system (GPS) It will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that varia 50 device, the method comprising the steps of: tions in the above methods corresponding to operation of the obtaining, via the GPS device, a set of GPS co-ordinates various embodiments of the apparatus as described and defining a real-world location of the entertainment claimed herein are considered within the scope of the present device; invention, including but not limited to: initiating a reverse geocoding operation responsive to the a client uploading a user ID and performance metric to the 55 set of GPS co-ordinates to obtain a hierarchy of geo leaderboard server for inclusion on respective leader graphical names, the hierarchy of geographical names boards corresponding to the hierarchy of geographical comprising a set of at least three tiers of real-world names, identifiable geographical locations; when requesting a leaderboard, the client uploading a user requesting, from a leaderboard server, data of at least one ID and requesting the data of the largest leaderboard on 60 leaderboard corresponding to at least one of the geo which the user ID exceeds a predetermined minimum graphical names associated with the obtained hierarchy ranking; of geographical names based on the GPS co-ordinates; implementing reverse geocoding by detecting the closest and location as stored in a database of locations on the enter displaying the at least one leaderboard on a display device tainment device to the set of query GPS co-ordinates, 65 of the entertainment device. and generating a hierarchy of geographical names based 2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the upon that closest location, step of: US 8,715,088 B2 13 14 uploading a user ID and performance metric to the leader nates; and wherein, the set of GPS co-ordinates defines board server for inclusion on respective leaderboards a real-world location of the client device; corresponding to the obtained hierarchy of geographical the server identifying one or more leaderboards of the aCS. plurality of leaderboards whose associated geographical 3. A method according to claim 1, in which the step of 5 name matches one or more of the geographical names in requesting the data of the at least one leaderboard from the the obtained hierarchy of geographical names; and leaderboard server comprises the steps of: the server providing to the client device data of the one or uploading a user ID; and more identified leaderboards. requesting the data of a largest leaderboard on which the 10. An entertainment device comprising: 10 means operable to obtain a set of global positioning system user ID exceeds a predetermined minimum ranking. (GPS) co-ordinates defining a real-world location of the 4. A method according to claim 1, in which the step of entertainment device; initiating the reverse geocoding operation comprises the steps means operable to initiate a reverse geocoding operation of: responsive to the GPS co-ordinates to obtain a hierarchy detecting a closest location, stored in a database of loca 15 of geographical names, the obtained hierarchy of geo tions on the entertainment device, to the set of GPS graphical names comprising a set of at least three tiers of co-ordinates; and real-world identifiable geographical locations, and generating the hierarchy of geographical names based being based on the GPS co-ordinates: upon that closest location. means operable to request, from a leaderboard server, data 5. A method of providing a leaderboard to a client device of at least one leaderboard corresponding to at least one having a global positioning system (GPS) device by a server, of the geographical names associated with the obtained comprising the steps of hierarchy of geographical names based on the GPS co the server hosting a plurality of leaderboards linked to each ordinates; and other according to a hierarchy of geographical names, means operable to display the at least one leaderboard on a the hierarchy of geographical names comprising a set of 25 display device of the entertainment device. at least three tiers of real-world identifiable geographical 11. An entertainment device according to claim 10 com locations; prising: the server obtaining the hierarchy of geographical names means operable to upload a userID and performance met generated by a process of reverse geocoding a set of GPS ric to the leaderboard server for inclusion on respective co-ordinates obtained from the GPS device, the set of 30 leaderboards corresponding to the obtained hierarchy of GPS co-ordinates defining a real-world location of the geographical names. client device, and the hierarchy of geographical names 12. A leaderboard server comprising: being based on the GPS co-ordinates: hosting means operable to host a plurality of leaderboards the server identifying one or more of the plurality of lead linked to each other according to a hierarchy of geo erboards in a hierarchical sequence corresponding to 35 graphical names: one or more of the geographical names in the obtained means to obtain a hierarchy of geographical names gener hierarchy of geographical names; and ated by a process of reverse geocoding a set of global the server providing to the client device data of the one or positioning system (GPS) co-ordinates obtained from a more identified leaderboards. GPS device associated with a client device, wherein, the 6. A method according to claim 5, in which the step of the 40 obtained hierarchy of geographical names comprises a server obtaining the hierarchy of geographical names via the set of at least three tiers of real-world identifiable geo reverse coding process, comprises: graphical locations, and is based on the GPS co-ordi detecting a closest location, stored in a database of loca nates, and wherein, the set of GPS co-ordinates defines a tions on the entertainment device, to the set of GPS real-world location of the client device; co-ordinates; and 45 identifying means operable to identify one or more of the generating the hierarchy of geographical names based plurality of leaderboards in a hierarchical sequence cor upon that closest location. responding to one or more of the geographical names in 7. A method according to claim 5, comprising the steps of the obtained hierarchy of geographical names; and receiving a user ID and a performance metric associated providing means operable to provide, to the client device, with the user ID; and 50 data of the one or more of the identified leaderboards. adding the user ID and performance metric to each identi 13. A leaderboard server according to claim 12, compris fied leaderboard. 1ng: 8. A method according to claim 5, comprising the steps of a receiver operable to receive a user ID from the client receiving a user ID; and device; and in which the providing means is operable to providing the data of a largest leaderboard on which the 55 provide the data of a largest identified leaderboard on user ID exceeds a predetermined minimum ranking. which the user ID exceeds a predetermined minimum 9. A method of providing a leaderboard to a client device ranking. having a global positioning system (GPS) device by a server, 14. A leaderboard server comprising: comprising the steps of hosting means operable to host a plurality of leaderboards the server hosting a plurality of leaderboards each associ 60 each associated with a geographical name; ated with a geographical name; means to obtain a hierarchy of geographical names gener the server obtaining a hierarchy of geographical names ated by a process of reverse geocoding to a set of global generated by a process of reverse geocoding a set of GPS positioning system (GPS) co-ordinates obtained from a co-ordinates obtained from the GPS device, wherein, the GPS device associated with a client device, wherein, the obtained hierarchy of geographical names comprises a 65 obtained hierarchy of geographical names comprises a set of at least three tiers of real-world identifiable geo set of at least three tiers of real-world identifiable geo graphical locations, and is based on the GPS co-ordi graphical locations, and is based on the GPS co-ordi US 8,715,088 B2 15 16 nates, and wherein, the set of GPS co-ordinates defines a real-world location of the client device; identifying means operable to identify one or more of the plurality of leaderboards whose associated geographical name matches one or more of the geographical names in 5 the obtained hierarchy of geographical names; and providing means operable to provide, to the client device, data of one or more identified leaderboards. k k k k k