Live action

Abstract: A virtual reality television system includes a video capture and encoding system for capturing and encoding the surface geometries and colors of objects and their background as the objects interact during a live action event taking place in a live action space; an audio capture and encoding system for capturing and encoding spatial sound sources emanating from the live action space as a result of the objects interacting therein, as well as ambient sounds emanating from a periphery area around the live action space and commentators' voices; and a rendering system responsive to viewer manipulated input devices for rendering a visual and auditory experience of the live action event from the perspective of a viewer selected virtual viewpoint related to the live action space.

Abstract: A player interactive live action football game which may be played for example on a television screen. A player interactive live action football game is provided which comprises a random access storage and retrieval device and a plurality of individual, pre-recorded action football plays illustrating interaction of players of opposite teams. This information is stored in random access storage and retrieval device and accessible according to type of play. The invention further comprises a microprocessor and microprocessor control device electronically associated with the random access storage and retrieval device. The microprocessor is programmed to enable one or more users to select in sequence, through the control device, different football plays according to play type. A display device is electronically associated with the microprocessor to enable the selected plays to be viewed by the users. The microprocessor is further programmed to evaluate and cumulate play results and report them to the users in a meaningful way. It is an object of the present invention to provide an interactive, live action football game that can be played by one or more persons in a home, bar or the like. It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a television game which permits players to select full motion video images, as opposed to computer graphics, to play such game and determine the outcome.

Abstract: This is a social history and aesthetics of the "controlled anarchy" of the cartoon, from the first talking Mickeys to the demise of Warners and MGM theatrical productions in 1960. Norman M. Klein follows the scrambling graphics and upside-down ballet of Fleischer's Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman of the Wolfie cartoons by Tex Avery, of the Bugs and Daffy, Tweetie and Roadrunner cartoons from Warners, of full animation at Disney, of the "whiteness of Snow White", and of how Mickey Mouse became a logo. Reviewing the graphics, scripts and marketing of each era, he discovers the links between cartoons and live action movies, newspapers, popular illustration, and the entertainment architecture coming out of Disneyland. Klein shows that the cartoon was a perverse juggling act, invaded constantly by economic and political pressures, by marketing for sound, by licensing characters to stave off bankruptcies, by Prohibition, the Great Depression, the World War II and the first wave of television. Norman Klein is the editor of "Lost Boundaries: A History of Media-Induced Experience", and authors of "Stories in an English I Don't Speak: The History of Forgetting in Los Angeles".

Abstract: Live action role-playing games share a range of characteristics with massively multi-player online games (MMOGs). Because these games have existed for more than 20 years, players of these games have a substantial amount of experience in handling issues pertinent to MMOGs. Survey and review of live action role-playing games, whose participant count can be in the thousands, reveal that features such as size, theme, game master-to-player ratio, and others interact to form complex systems that require several different groups of control tools to manage. The way that these games are managed offers a variety of venues for further research into how these management techniques can be applied to MMOGs.