USOO8444486B2 (12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 8.444,486 B2 Kay et al. (45) Date of Patent: *May 21, 2013 (54) SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR INDICATING (56) References Cited INPUT ACTIONS IN A RHYTHM-ACTION GAME U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS D211,666 S 7/1968 MacGillavry (75) Inventors: Robert Kay, San Francisco, CA (US); 3.430,530 A 3, 1969 Grind et al. Greg LoPiccolo, Brookline, MA (US); (Continued) Daniel Schmidt, Somerville, MA (US); Alexander Rigopulos, Belmont, MA FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS (US) AT 468071 T 6, 2010 AU 200194329 10, 2001 (73) Assignee: Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US) (Continued) (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this OTHER PUBLICATIONS patent is extended or adjusted under 35 "Audio Graffiti. Guide to Drum & Percussion Notation.” (Aug. 1, U.S.C. 154(b) by 205 days. 2004) Retrieved from the Internet: <URL:http://web.mit.edu/merol This patent is Subject to a terminal dis ish/Public/drums.pdf>, 8 pages (retrieved on Nov. 9, 2009). claimer. (Continued) (21) Appl. No.: 12/582,525 Primary Examiner — Milap Shah (22) Filed: Oct. 20, 2009 (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm — Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP. (65) Prior Publication Data US 201O/OO41477 A1 Feb. 18, 2010 (57) ABSTRACT Related U.S. Application Data Systems and methods for displaying cues indicating input (63) Continuation of application No. 12/139,880, filed on actions in a rhythm-action game may include: displaying, to Jun. 16, 2008, now Pat. No. 7,625,284. a player of a rhythm-action game, a lane divided into at least two Sub-lanes, each sub-lane containing cues indicating a (60) Provisional application No. 60/944.054, filed on Jun. drum input element; and displaying, to the player, an addi 14, 2007. tional cue spanning a plurality of the Sub-lanes, the additional cue indicating a foot pedal action. In some embodiments, the (51) Int. Cl. additional cue may span all the Sub-lanes. In some embodi A63F 9/24 (2006.01) ments, each Sub-lane may contain cues indicating a drum A63F 3/00 (2006.01) input element of a set of linearly arranged drum input ele (52) U.S. Cl. ments. In other embodiments, each Sub-lanes may correspond USPC ...................... 463/31: 463/7: 463/30: 84/609 to a fret button of a simulated guitar and the additional cue (58) Field of Classification Search may correspond to an open strum. 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