Sony Patents "Interactive TV," Bad Movies Become Fun Again

Sony Computer Entertainment America filed a patent for a program to overlay avatars upon a tv show or movie, opening doors for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 game for which we've all been clamoring.

In a patent filed recently, SCEA describes a program designed to place players' avatars in the corner of a movie or tv show. It's unclear where the avatars come from, if they are native to this program or if Sony will institute a Mii or XBLA-type avatar system. Several minigames are listed for players to participate in using these avatars, from tossing tomatoes to literally kicking the actor's ass. From the patent documents:

"For example, avatars displayed to a user, in response to user gestures in the real world, e.g. in response to manipulation of a game controller or other such expedient, may toss tomatoes that stick to the actor's face or bounce off the actor's face and roll along a table that appears in the movie or television show."

The player, or viewer I suppose, would then receive points based on their performance. Sony hints at getting more points for hitting lead actors with tomatoes as opposed to just bit players.

The minigames seem a bit juvenile, but, then again, so is Mystery Science Theater 3000, which the patent lists as inspiration. While the game described above might be enjoyable to some, I'd personally rather just watch the movie without all of the hullabaloo.

There is one caveat though. If Sony figures out a way to let you comment on the action as if you were sitting with Mike, Crow and Servo, then I'm all for it. It would be hard for an algorithm to award points on funny-ness, but a voting system could be implemented so that each player could rate comments on a scale of "Yes, that was funny" or "No dude, stop." Suddenly, all those crappy Uwe Boll movies might actually be fun to watch.

via Siliconera

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The one thing you may not have thought of, or wanted to think of, is what the kiddiwinks are going to be doing to the latest Megan Fox film.

And I'm sure a lot of you will now need to use the brain-bleach.

I don't thnk that this will make Uwe Boll movies anygood, lol.

But I agree, the fun thing about MST3K is sitting there and watchign the movie while hearing the hilarious riffs of Joel/Mike and the bots. If we could our own, that'd be pretty cool.

But in all reality, I just wish the show would come back. I've heard excerpts of their new stuff, but they do high budget movies and it's much more fun when they do the low budget one.

Okay, I'm actually all for this. :D

I'd be even better if I could sit in on another group watching the movie.

The_root_of_all_evil:
The one thing you may not have thought of, or wanted to think of, is what the kiddiwinks are going to be doing to the latest Megan Fox film.

And I'm sure a lot of you will now need to use the brain-bleach.

not really.

maybe some eye tide, but not brain bleach.

also, this sounds too ambitious to be really good, for instance how will the game know there is a table for the tomato to land upon?

though the novelty is great, if it has "theaters" that show movies, or the host is able to play movies on, you can expect some excellent "bad movie nights".

however, if its new releases, the margin for griefing is very big, as in "VOLDEMORT KILLS HARRY!" type of griefing in movies.

I don't exactly understand how this would work, but imagine all the fun you could have in a Michal Bay film if this is utilized properly. Hur hur hur.

Some years ago,Sony was just another faceless corporation for me. This summer,i was hit by an anvil with words "Ratchet & Clank" inscribed on it. And now this.

They surely elevated in my eyes.