U.S. patent application number 14/644335 was filed with the patent office on 2015-07-02 for automated statistics content preparation.
The applicant listed for this patent is CBS INTERACTIVE INC.. Invention is credited to George Barry Gleadall, Ronnie Paskin, Shawn Stewart.
Application Number | 20150182863 14/644335 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 50728758 |
Filed Date | 2015-07-02 |
United States Patent
Application |
20150182863 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Gleadall; George Barry ; et
al. |
July 2, 2015 |
AUTOMATED STATISTICS CONTENT PREPARATION
Abstract
Various embodiments are generally directed to automated
searching and comparison of game statistics to identify, rank and
present statistically significant events related to game play
during and/or after a game in automatically generated sentences. An
apparatus comprises a processor circuit and storage storing
instructions operative on the processor circuit to receive signals
conveying a first set of statistical information closely related to
play of a first game; search the first set of statistical
information for a first set of statistical anomalies; and in
response to the first set of statistical anomalies comprising an
insufficient number of statistical anomalies, search a second set
of statistical information less closely related to play of the
first game for a second set of statistical anomalies, and transmit
a multitude of sentences describing statistical anomalies of the
first and second sets of statistical anomalies to a computing
device. Other embodiments are described and claimed herein.
Inventors: |
Gleadall; George Barry;
(Boca Raton, FL) ; Paskin; Ronnie; (Ft.
Lauderdale, FL) ; Stewart; Shawn; (Wake Forest,
NC) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
CBS INTERACTIVE INC. |
San Francisco |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
50728758 |
Appl. No.: |
14/644335 |
Filed: |
March 11, 2015 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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13683548 |
Nov 21, 2012 |
8996434 |
|
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14644335 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
463/42 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63F 13/75 20140902;
G06F 40/56 20200101; G06Q 10/00 20130101; A63F 13/798 20140902 |
International
Class: |
A63F 13/798 20060101
A63F013/798; A63F 13/75 20060101 A63F013/75 |
Claims
1. An apparatus comprising: a processor circuit; and a storage
communicatively coupled to the processor circuit and arranged to
store instructions operative on the processor circuit to: receive
signals that convey a first set of statistical information related
to play of a first game; search the first set of statistical
information for a first set of statistical anomalies according to a
configuration data, the configuration data specifying a number of
statistical anomalies; determine whether the number of statistical
anomalies specified by the configuration data has been identified;
and transmit a multitude of sentences that describe statistical
anomalies of the first set of statistical anomalies to a computing
device when the first set of statistical anomalies comprises the
number of statistical anomalies specified by the configuration
data.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to: identify that the first set of statistical
anomalies comprises fewer statistical anomalies than the number of
statistical anomalies specified by the configuration data; and in
response to the identifying, search a second set of statistical
information less closely related to play of the first game for a
second set of statistical anomalies.
3. The apparatus of claim 2, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to receive signals that convey the second set of
statistical information, the second set of statistical information
closely related to play of a second game.
4. The apparatus of claim 2, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to: receive a signal that indicates the first
game is still in progress; in response to reception of the signal
that indicates the first game is still in progress, receive signals
via the network that convey further statistical information closely
related to play of the first game; add the further statistical
information to the first set of statistical information; search the
first set of statistical information for further statistical
anomalies; add the further statistical anomalies to the first set
of statistical anomalies; and in response to the first set of
statistical anomalies comprising the number of statistical
anomalies specified by the configuration data, transmit another
multitude of sentences that describe statistical anomalies of the
first set of statistical anomalies to the computing device via the
network.
5. The apparatus of claim 2, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to rank statistical anomalies of the first and
second sets of statistical anomalies by degree of closeness of
relationship to the first game.
6. The apparatus of claim 1, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to search the first set of statistical
information for the first set of statistical anomalies by searching
for statistical anomalies deviating from a normal distribution of
statistics of the first set of statistical information to at least
a specified degree of standard deviation.
7. The apparatus of claim 6, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to rank statistical anomalies of at least the
first set of statistical anomalies by degree of standard
deviation.
8. The apparatus of claim 1, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to: generate a sentence of the multitude of
sentences in a specified language for each statistical anomaly of
at least the first set of statistical anomalies employing a
multitude of syntactic rules of a language data stored in the
storage, each sentence comprising a statement of a statistical
anomaly; and randomly select at least one verb for each statement
of a statistical anomaly from the language data.
9. The apparatus of claim 8, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to modify a likelihood of random selection of the
at least one verb with at least one weighting value.
10. The apparatus of claim 8, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to format each sentence of the multitude of
sentences into a specified machine-readable format for transmission
to the computing device via the network.
11. An apparatus comprising: a processor circuit; an interface
operative to communicatively couple the processor circuit to a
network; and a storage communicatively coupled to the processor
circuit and arranged to store instructions operative on the
processor circuit to: receive signals via the network that convey a
set of statistical information closely related to play of a first
game; generate a first multitude of sentences in a specified
language that describe statistical anomalies identified in the set
of statistical information employing a multitude of syntactic rules
of a language data stored in the storage, each sentence comprising
a statement of a statistical anomaly; and transmit the first
multitude of sentences to a first computing device via the
network.
12. The apparatus of claim 11, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to randomly select at least a verb for each
statement of a statistical anomaly from the language data.
13. The apparatus of claim 12, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to modify a likelihood of random selection of the
at least one verb with at least one weighting value.
14. The apparatus of claim 11, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to format each sentence of the first multitude of
sentences into a first specified machine-readable format for
transmission to the first computing device.
15. The apparatus of claim 13, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to: receive a signal via the network that
indicates the first game is still in progress; and in response to
reception of the signal that indicates the first game is still in
progress, transmit the first multitude of sentences to the first
computing device in the first specified machine-readable
format.
16. The apparatus of claim 13, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to: receive a signal via the network that
indicates the first game has ended; and in response to reception of
the signal that indicates the first game has ended, transmit the
first multitude of sentences to the second computing device in the
second specified machine-readable format.
17. The apparatus of claim 11, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to: embed data in the first multitude of
sentences associated with a second game; receive a signal from the
first computing device that indicates that the embedded data has
been selected as a selectable object; and in response to reception
of the signal that indicates that the embedded data has been
selected, cease transmitting the first multitude of sentences to
the first computing device and transmit a second multitude of
sentences that describe statistical anomalies associated with the
second game to the first computing device.
18. The apparatus of claim 11, the first computing device comprises
one of a presentation server that transmits at least a portion of
the first multitude of sentences to a presentation device, and a
presentation device.
19. The apparatus of claim 11, the instructions operative on the
processor circuit to receive signals that convey a configuration
data that specifies at least one of a selection of a game as the
first game, a degree of deviation required of the statistical
anomalies identified, the specified language, a syntactic rule of
the specified language, a verb of the specified language, and a
machine-readable format into which to format the multitude of
sentences.
20. A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving signals via
a network conveying a first set of statistical information closely
related to play of a first game; searching the first set of
statistical information for a first set of statistical anomalies;
generating a multitude of sentences in a specified language
describing statistical anomalies of the first set of statistical
anomalies, each sentence comprising a statement of a statistical
anomaly; randomly selecting at least a verb for each statement of a
statistical anomaly; and transmitting the multitude of sentences to
a first computing device via the network.
21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein searching
the first set of statistical information for the first set of
statistical anomalies comprises searching for statistical anomalies
deviating from a normal distribution of statistics of the first set
of statistical information to at least a specified degree of
standard deviation.
22. The computer-implemented method of claim 21, comprising ranking
the statistical anomalies of the first set of statistical anomalies
comprises ranking the statistical anomalies of the first set of
statistical anomalies by degree of standard deviation.
23. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, comprising ranking
statistical anomalies of the first set of statistical anomalies by
degree of deviation from a normal distribution.
24. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, comprising
receiving signals via the network conveying a second set of
statistical information closely related to play of a second
game.
25. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, comprising: in
response to the first set of statistical anomalies comprising an
insufficient number of statistical anomalies: searching the second
set of statistical information for a second set of statistical
anomalies; ranking statistical anomalies of the first and second
sets of statistical anomalies at least by degrees of deviation from
normal distributions; generating the multitude of sentences in the
specified language describing statistical anomalies of the first
and second sets of statistical anomalies; and transmitting the
multitude of sentences to the first computing device via the
network.
26. The computer-implemented method of claim 24, comprising:
receiving a signal via the network indicating the first game is
still in progress; in response to the signal indicating the first
game is still in progress, receiving signals via the network
conveying further statistical information closely related to play
of the first game; adding the further statistical information to
the first set of statistical information; searching the first set
of statistical information for further statistical anomalies;
ranking the further statistical anomalies of the first set of
statistical anomalies by degree of deviation from a normal
distribution; and generating further sentences in a specified
language describing the further statistical anomalies.
27. At least one machine-readable storage medium comprising
instructions that when executed by a computing device, cause the
computing device to: receive signals via a network conveying a
first set of statistical information closely related to play of a
first game; search the first set of statistical information for a
first set of statistical anomalies according to a configuration
data, the configuration data specifying a number of statistical
anomalies; determine whether the number of statistical anomalies
specified by the configuration data has been identified; and
transmit a multitude of sentences describing statistical anomalies
of the first set of statistical anomalies to a computing device
when the first set of statistical anomalies comprises the number of
statistical anomalies specified by the configuration data via the
network.
28. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 27,
the computing device caused to: generate a sentence of the
multitude of sentences in a specified language for each statistical
anomaly of at least the first set of statistical anomalies
employing a multitude of syntactic rules of a language data stored
in the storage, each sentence comprising a statement of a
statistical anomaly; randomly select at least a verb for each
statement of a statistical anomaly from the language data; and
format each sentence of the multitude of sentences into a specified
machine-readable format for transmission to the computing device
via the network.
29. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 28,
the computing device caused to: receive a signal via the network
indicating the first game is still in progress; in response to the
signal indicating the first game is still in progress, transmit the
multitude of sentences to the computing device in the first
specified machine-readable format; receive a signal via the network
indicating the first game has ended; and in response to the signal
indicating the first game has ended, transmit the multitude of
sentences to the computing device in the second specified
machine-readable format.
Description
BACKGROUND
[0001] Presentations of statistical data concerning the performance
of players and/or teams are often desired during and following a
presentation of a sporting event (e.g., a visual presentation on a
television, a smart phone, etc.) such as football, baseball,
soccer, basketball, hockey, golf, etc. However, combing through
decades of a history of game statistics, as well as deriving new
statistics as game play is ongoing, are both time consuming tasks
that often cannot be completed soon enough to effectively enable
either meaningful commentary during game play or meaningful review
of highlights of that game immediately after it has ended.
[0002] Often, multiple hours of time following end of play of a
particular game must be given to expert individuals who are
assigned either to review a history of game play in a given sport
to locate statistical information that is in some way related to
that particular game or to complete a review of game play of that
particular game to spot statistically significant events that
occurred within that particular game. Indeed, it is often hoped
that those expert individuals will be able, themselves, to remember
statistically significant historical events in game play related to
particular players and/or teams as a means to forego having to
search for such historical events, and thereby reduce the overall
amount of time required to perform such historical research.
[0003] This inability to complete such work more quickly
effectively results in post-game commentary that must be delivered
hours after the game it relates to is over, when audience interest
in any commentary of that game has diminished due simply to the
passage of time. Indeed, it is not uncommon for commentary
concerning an earlier game to be presented at a time immediately
following the end of a later game such that an audience that has
just viewed the later game is presented with commentary about an
earlier game that they may very well have not seen.
[0004] It is with respect to these and other considerations that
the techniques described herein are needed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] FIG. 1 illustrates a first embodiment of interaction among
computing devices.
[0006] FIG. 2 illustrates a portion of the embodiment of FIG.
1.
[0007] FIG. 3 illustrates a portion of the embodiment of FIG.
1.
[0008] FIG. 4 illustrates a portion of the embodiment of FIG.
1.
[0009] FIG. 5 illustrates a second embodiment of interaction among
computing devices.
[0010] FIG. 6 illustrates an example using the embodiment of FIG.
1.
[0011] FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a first logic flow.
[0012] FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of a second logic flow.
[0013] FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a third logic flow.
[0014] FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a fourth logic
flow.
[0015] FIG. 11 illustrates an embodiment of a fifth logic flow.
[0016] FIG. 12 illustrates an embodiment of a processing
architecture.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0017] Various embodiments are generally directed to automated
searching and comparison of game statistics to identify, rank and
present statistically significant events related to game play
during and/or after a game in automatically generated sentences.
Some embodiments are particularly directed to automated search and
presentation of statistically significant information regarding
game play in textual form presented visually and/or aurally to an
audience of consumers of information concerning the game.
[0018] More specifically, as a game is played, each play of the
game generates statistical information that is collected by a
collection device and is added to a statistics data that also
comprises statistical information related to the same players
and/or teams that are playing in the game, related more generally
to the sport of the game, and/or related to other games in the same
sport. During and/or following play of the game, a preparation
device searches the statistics data, making comparisons among
statistics to identify a selected quantity of statistically
significant anomalies related to the game to selected varying
degrees. These anomalies are ranked by the preparation device based
at least on their degree of statistical significance. As game play
continues and/or following game play, the preparation device
automatically forms sentences describing these anomalies in a
selected language using a language data comprising rules of
sentence structure and from which various words are randomly
selected. These sentences are automatically formatted to fit
various data formatting requirements for transmission to various
types of presentation device during and/or following play of the
game, creating a presentation data. The presentation devices may be
in the possession of consumers and directly present the
presentation data to them, and/or may be in the possession of
professional presenters who use the presentation data therefrom as
a basis of a presentation they provide to consumers.
[0019] As will be explained in greater detail, the preparation
device retrieves a configuration data specifying a prioritization
of types of anomalies to search for, specifies one or more
thresholds of statistical significance, one or more quantities of
statistically significant anomalies to search for, and/or specifies
one or more languages in which to automatically form sentences. It
is envisioned that statistically significant anomalies more closely
related to the statistical information received from the play of a
particular game will be given higher priority than statistically
significant anomalies having a more tangential or remote
relationship to that game.
[0020] An apparatus comprises a processor circuit and storage
storing instructions operative on the processor circuit to receive
signals conveying a first set of statistical information closely
related to play of a first game; search the first set of
statistical information for a first set of statistical anomalies;
and in response to the first set of statistical anomalies
comprising an insufficient number of statistical anomalies, search
a second set of statistical information less closely related to
play of the first game for a second set of statistical anomalies,
and transmit a multitude of sentences describing statistical
anomalies (or data taking other forms to describe statistical
anomalies, such as equations, symbolic logical representations,
mathematical representations, etc.) of the first and second sets of
statistical anomalies to a computing device. Other embodiments are
described and claimed herein.
[0021] With general reference to notations and nomenclature used
herein, portions of the detailed description which follows may be
presented in terms of program procedures executed on a computer or
network of computers. These procedural descriptions and
representations are used by those skilled in the art to most
effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in
the art. A procedure is here, and generally, conceived to be a
self-consistent sequence of operations leading to a desired result.
These operations are those requiring physical manipulations of
physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these
quantities take the form of electrical, magnetic or optical signals
capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and
otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient at times, principally
for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits,
values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be noted, however, that all of these and similar terms
are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and
are merely convenient labels applied to those quantities.
[0022] Further, these manipulations are often referred to in terms,
such as adding or comparing, which are commonly associated with
mental operations performed by a human operator. However, no such
capability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most
cases, in any of the operations described herein that form part of
one or more embodiments. Rather, these operations are machine
operations. Useful machines for performing operations of various
embodiments include general purpose digital computers as
selectively activated or configured by a computer program stored
within that is written in accordance with the teachings herein,
and/or include apparatus specially constructed for the required
purpose. Various embodiments also relate to apparatus or systems
for performing these operations. These apparatus may be specially
constructed for the required purpose or may comprise a general
purpose computer. The required structure for a variety of these
machines will appear from the description given.
[0023] Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like
reference numerals are used to refer to like elements throughout.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous
specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough
understanding thereof. It may be evident, however, that the novel
embodiments can be practiced without these specific details. In
other instances, well known structures and devices are shown in
block diagram form in order to facilitate a description thereof.
The intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and
alternatives within the scope of the claims.
[0024] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a statistics content
preparation system 1000 comprising one or more of collection
devices 100a, 100b and 100c; a statistics server 200; a preparation
device 400; a presentation server 600; and presentation devices
700a, 700b and 700c. Each of the computing devices 100a-c, 200,
400, 600 and 700a-c may be any of a variety of types of computing
device, including without limitation, a desktop computer system, a
data entry terminal, a laptop computer, a netbook computer, a
tablet computer, a handheld personal data assistant, a smartphone,
a body-worn computing device incorporated into clothing, a
computing device integrated into a vehicle (e.g., a car, a bicycle,
a wheelchair, etc.), a server, a cluster of servers, a server farm,
etc. As depicted, the computing devices 100a-c, 200, 400, 600 and
700a-c exchange signals concerning statistical data related to one
or more games of one or more sports through portions of at least
one network 999. In various embodiments, the network 999 may be a
single network possibly limited to extending within a single
building or other relatively limited area, a combination of
connected networks possibly extending a considerable distance,
and/or may include the Internet. Thus, the network 999 may be based
on any of a variety (or combination) of communications technologies
by which signals may be exchanged, including without limitation,
wired technologies employing electrically and/or optically
conductive cabling, and wireless technologies employing infrared,
radio frequency or other forms of wireless transmission.
[0025] As depicted, each of the collection devices 100a-c receives
statistical information concerning plays occurring in various games
in differing sports. Specifically, the collection devices 100a and
100b collect statistical information from the play of games A and
B, respectively, of the same first sport, while the collection
device 100c collects statistical information from the play of a
game of a second sport. As those familiar with the work of covering
sporting events will readily recognize, the typically seasonal
nature of sporting events often results in multiple games for the
same sport occurring at overlapping times on the same day. Further,
the typical preference to hold various games during nights,
weekends and holidays to enable larger audiences to attend games in
person sometimes results in games of entirely different sports
occurring at overlapping times on the same day. Thus, the
allocation of collection devices 100a-c among different games in
FIG. 1 is a depiction of an example in recognition of the
possibility of simultaneous play of multiple games. As play of
their corresponding ones of these games continues and/or at the
conclusion of such play, each of the collection devices 100a-c
provides their statistical information to the statistics server 200
via the network 999, which stores all of this statistical
information as the statistics data 230.
[0026] While these various games are in play and/or following the
end of play of each of these various games, the preparation device
400 receives the statistics data 230 from the statistics server 200
and searches the statistics data 230, making comparisons among
statistics to identify statistically significant anomalies to an
extent dictated by a configuration data 431. Also, while these
various games are in play and/or following the end of play of each
of these various games, the preparation device 400 automatically
generates sentences that describe the statistically significant
anomalies that have been identified in textual form for
presentation to consumers in language(s) specified by the
configuration data 431 and using syntax rules and/or randomly
selected vocabulary provided in a language data 434. Further, the
preparation device 400 formats each of the automatically generated
sentences into machine-readable format(s) specified by the
configuration data 431 that are appropriate for transmission to one
more types of presentation device, and stores them as the
presentation data 438. The configuration data 431 specifies one or
more of a desired quantity of statistically significant anomalies
to be identified, a desired quantitative threshold of statistical
significance that an identified anomaly must meet, aspects of the
relationship of each identified statistical anomaly to the play of
a particular game, one or more languages in which sentences are to
be automatically created, one or more machine-readable formats into
which the automatically created sentences are to be formatted, etc.
The preparation device 400 may receive the configuration data 431
via signals transmitted by another computing device via the network
999, via operation of the controls 420 by a member of personnel
associated with an organization creating and/or providing
commentary concerning sporting events (such that the preparation
device 400 receives signals conveying the configuration data 431 as
a result of operation of the controls 420), or via a removable
storage medium coupled to the preparation device 400 via a disk
drive or other component of the storage 460 that accesses the
contents of removable storage media. Organizations creating and/or
providing commentary concerning sporting events include, and are
not limited to, broadcasting companies transmitting broadcasts that
includes such commentary via open air radio frequency signals,
cable companies transmitting such broadcasts via electrically
and/or optically conductive cabling, and online companies
transmitting such commentary as audio and/or video streams (or
still other types of data streams) via the Internet.
[0027] The preparation device 400 provides copies of the
presentation data 438 to the presentation server 600, which in
turn, distributes those copies of the presentation data 438 to one
or more of the presentation devices 700a-c via the network 999. One
or more of the presentation devices 700a-c may be consumer-oriented
computing devices by which consumers may directly watch, listen to
or otherwise follow the play of one or more games, such as an
interactive television, a portable computing device carried on
their person, a desktop computer system, etc. Alternatively or
additionally, one or more of the presentation devices 700a-c may be
studio-based devices by which content for a television, radio,
Internet streaming or other presentation to consumers is generated,
such as a computing device employed for editing purposes, or a
computing device positioned on a set or in a recording room to
present information for use by a professional presenter who
verbally and/or visually provides game-related information to
consumers in a broadcast.
[0028] It should be noted that at least the collection of
statistical information of specific games, the search for and
ranking of statistical anomalies, and the generation and formatting
of sentences describing those statistical anomalies may all be
carried out while a game is in play, regardless of whether those
sentences will be transmitted and presented while the game is in
play. Where a presentation of those sentences is to be done only
after a game has ended (e.g., in a post-game review program
presented in a broadcast), one or more of the collecting,
searching, ranking, sentence generation and formatting either may
be performed while a game is still in progress as part of preparing
in advance or may not be performed until the game is concluded.
However, where presentation of sentences describing such
statistical anomalies is to occur concurrently with game play, then
all of the collecting, searching, ranking, sentence generation and
formatting must be performed as game play is still under way. Thus,
the statistics content preparation system 1000 may be operated in
one of at least two possible modes: a first mode in which
presentation occurs only following the end of a game such that any
of collection through formatting may be done either during or
following a game, or a second mode in which presentation occurs
during game play such that all of collection through formatting
must also be done during game play to generate the sentences to be
presented during game play.
[0029] FIGS. 2 and 3, taken together, depict the statistics content
preparation system 1000 in greater detail. FIG. 2 depicts greater
detail of aspects of collecting the statistical information from
one or more games, storing those pieces of statistical information
as a statistics data 230, and searching the statistics data 230 for
anomalies. FIG. 3 depicts greater detail of aspects of
disseminating copies of the presentation data formatted in various
ways for presentation in various ways to consumers of the
presentation data.
[0030] In various embodiments, each of the collection devices
100a-c comprises a storage 160 storing a control routine 140, a
processor circuit 150, controls 120 and an interface 190 coupling
each of the collection devices 100a-c to the network 999. In
executing a sequence of instructions of at least the control
routine 140, the processor circuit 150 of each of the collection
devices 100a-c is caused to await receipt of signals indicative of
statistical information associated with the play of their
associated game. The signals awaited may be signals indicative of
operation of the controls 120 (e.g., keys of a keyboard or keypad,
a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, etc.) by a person monitoring a
game and thereby entering statistical information into the one of
the collection devices 100 associated with that game. In other
words, the signals awaited may be indicative of manual entry of
statistical information arising from each play of a game in
progress. Alternatively or additionally, and as depicted with
regard to the collection device 100a, the signals awaited may be
signals received by a component of the interface 190 from one or
more of the transponders 119a-x disposed about various locations
related to a game in progress. More specifically, in some games,
transponders are carried by players, racing vehicles, locations of
goals, etc. in a game to enable automated tracking of movement
and/or to detect successful scoring.
[0031] The exact nature of the statistical information collected by
one of the collection devices 100a-c depends on the type of game
played. Thus, the statistical information could include one or more
of distances run, bicycled, driven, jumped, thrown, etc. by
particular players; distances by which a ball is moved in a given
direction across a field; goals scored; fastest times; number of
laps and/or pit stops; number of timeouts and/or penalty points;
number of holes-in-one and/or under par; number of swings, misses,
balls, strikes, spares, fouls, home runs and/or outs; fastest pitch
and/or longest kick; etc. Each of the collection devices 100a-b
signals the statistics server 200 with an indication of the current
state of play of their associated game (e.g., ongoing, ended,
postponed, etc.) as well as with statistical information.
[0032] In various embodiments, the statistics server 200 (if
present) comprises a storage 260 storing a control routine 240 and
the statistics data 230, a processor circuit 250, and an interface
290 coupling the statistics server 200 to the network 999. In
executing a sequence of instructions of at least the control
routine 240, the processor circuit 250 is caused to operate the
interface 290 to receive signals conveying statistical information
and indications of current state of play of various games from one
or more of the collection devices 100a-c via the network 999. The
processor circuit 250 is caused to store the received statistical
information concerning the various games as part of the statistics
data 230. The statistics data 230 is organized to correlate games
to individual players and/or teams; locations and/or dates played;
types of plays (e.g., runs, passes, punts, kicks, dunks, etc.);
official calls made (e.g., fouls, time-outs, penalties, etc.); etc.
The processor circuit 250 then operates the interface 290 to
transmit the statistics data 230 and indications of the current
state of play of various games to the preparation device 400.
[0033] In various embodiments, the presentation server 600 (if
present) comprises a storage 660 storing a control routine 640 and
the presentation data 438, a processor circuit 650, and an
interface 690 coupling the statistics server 600 to the network
999. In executing a sequence of instructions of at least the
control routine 640, the processor circuit 650 is caused to operate
the interface 690 to receive signals conveying copies of the
presentation data 438 from the preparation device 400, and to store
those copies in the storage 660. As previously discussed, the
presentation data 438 comprises automatically generated sentences
describing statistical anomalies of one or more games in textual
form, and automatically formatted into various machine-readable
formats appropriate for transmission to various types of
presentation device. The processor circuit 650 is also caused to
transmit one or more of the automatically generated sentences of
which the presentation data 438 is composed to various presentation
devices, such as the presentation device 700a-c, via the network
999.
[0034] In various embodiments, each of the presentation devices
700a-c comprises a storage 760 storing a control routine 740, a
processor circuit 750, controls 720, a display 780, and an
interface 790 coupling each of the collection devices 700a-c to the
network 999. In executing a sequence of instructions of at least
the control routine 740, the processor circuit 750 of each of the
presentation devices 700a-c is caused to await receipt of signals
conveying at least a subset of the automatically generated
sentences of the presentation data 438 via the network 999, and to
present those received sentences. Depending on various aspects of
each of the presentation devices 700a-c, the presentation may be
visual or aural, and/or may require those sentences to be formatted
into any of a variety of device-specific machine-readable
formats.
[0035] By way of example, where one of the presentation devices
700a-c is positioned within a studio (for a broadcasting company, a
cable company, an online streaming company, etc.) for use by a
sports commentator or other presentation professional describing a
game in a broadcast and/or Internet data stream, that particular
one of the presentation devices 700a-c may be a teleprompter device
visually presenting the automatically generated sentences on the
display 780 in a line of sight of that presentation professional to
be read during the broadcast. Alternatively, that one of the
presentation devices 700a-c may be a desktop or portable computer
system visually presenting the automatically generated sentences on
the display 780 to an editor at a broadcast studio who reviews the
automatically generated sentences to choose from among them the
content that is to be presented in an upcoming broadcast. It should
be noted that such sentences may be accompanied by graphs, charts
and/or other visual aids that visually present the statistical
anomalies described in one or more of the sentences.
[0036] By way of another example, where one of the presentation
devices 700a-c is a computing device in the possession of a
consumer receiving a broadcast of sports-related information, the
particular type of computing device may correspond to a particular
network protocol that, in turn, dictates the use of a particular
machine-readable format in which the automatically generated
sentences must be transmitted via the network 999. Specifically,
where that one of the presentation devices 700a-c is computer
system incorporating a web browser by which its user views content
provided by other computing devices across the network 999 via the
display 780, the automatically generated sentences may be formatted
into HTML (hypertext markup language), XML (extensible markup
language), SGML (standard generalized markup language), PDF
(portable data format), JSON (JavaScript object notation), etc.
Alternatively, where that one of the presentation devices 700a-c is
a handheld computing device such as a smart phone having a
relatively small form of the display 780, the automatically
generated sentences may be formatted for transmission via the
network 999 as SMS (short message service) or IM (instant
messenger) text messages more appropriate for a smaller
display.
[0037] By way of still another example, one of the presentation
devices 700a-c may be a more stationary content viewing device such
as an interactive television or other computing device in which the
display 780 is sufficiently large as to permit both play of a game
to be viewed and the automatically generated sentences to be read
simultaneously. This particular example is best illustrated by the
more detailed depiction of the presentation device 700a in FIG. 3,
in which the display 780 is depicted as having defined thereon two
possible display regions 781 and 782 on which such text may be
display alongside a visual presentation of the game to which such
text relates elsewhere on the display 780, and possibly accompanied
by verbal descriptions of the play in progress by a professional
presenter through a speaker (not shown). The automatically
generated sentences may be visually presented in the display region
781 in a continuously horizontally scrolling manner commonly
referred to as a "crawler" or "ticker" (either along the bottom
edge of the display 780, as shown, or along the top edge thereof).
Alternatively, the automatically generated sentences may be
visually presented in a "pop-up" or "windowed" manner in the
display region 782 that may be positioned towards one side of the
display (possibly with the game play visually presented in a
"windowed" manner towards the opposite side) or that may be
positioned towards one corner of the display to minimize the degree
to which the view of the game, itself, is obstructed or otherwise
hampered.
[0038] The presentation device 700a may receive the automatically
generated sentences and the video of the game to which they relate
as a combined series of transmissions via the network 999 or as
separate transmission employing different network protocols via the
network 999. In either case, the side-by-side or overlapping
positioning of one or the other of the display regions 781 and 782
on the display 780 may be performed by the processor circuit 750,
possibly with input from a user of the presentation device 700a via
the controls 720 concerning the shape, size and/or positioning of
one of these display regions on the display 780. Alternatively, the
presentation device 700a may receive the automatically generated
sentences via the network 999 while imagery of a game to which they
relate may be received entirely separately by the presentation
device 700a as a radio frequency transmission via land-based RF
broadcast service, satellite transmission service or a cable
television service. In such an alternative, the interface 790
comprises both an interface component coupling the presentation
device 700a to the network 999 and a radio frequency tuning
component to receive the radio frequency transmission of imagery.
As still another alternative, the presentation device 700a may
receive a radio frequency broadcast of imagery in which images of
game play of a game are already combined with visual presentation
of the automatically generated text, rather than receiving such
text via the network 999, at all.
[0039] In various embodiments, the preparation device 400 comprises
a storage 460 storing a control routine 440, the statistics data
230, the configuration data 431, the language data 436 and the
presentation data 438; a processor circuit 450, controls 420, a
display 480, and an interface 490 coupling the statistics server
200 to the network 999 and/or more directly to the statistics
server 200 and/or the presentation server 600. It is envisioned
that while the statistics server 400 and the presentation server
600 may be coupled to the collection devices 100a-c and the
presentation devices 700a-c, respectively, via more distant
connections through the network 999 (especially where the network
999 comprises the Internet), it is also envisioned that these two
servers may be more closely coupled to the preparation device
(e.g., via a relatively higher speed and capacity local network).
Alternatively, the preparation device 400 may comprise one or both
of these servers such that the preparation device 400 performs the
functions of one or both of the statistics server 200 and the
presentation server 400, thereby having a more directly coupling to
the collection devices 100a-c and/or the presentation devices
700a-c.
[0040] In various embodiments, each of the processor circuits 150,
250, 450, 650 and 750 may comprise any of a wide variety of
commercially available processors, including without limitation, an
AMD.RTM. Athlon.RTM., Duron.RTM. or Opteron.RTM. processor; an
ARM.RTM. application, embedded or secure processor; an IBM.RTM.
and/or Motorola.RTM. DragonB all.RTM. or PowerPC.RTM. processor; an
IBM and/or Sony.RTM. Cell processor; or an Intel.RTM. Celeron.RTM.,
Core (2) Duo.RTM., Core (2) Quad.RTM., Core i3.RTM., Core i5.RTM.,
Core i7.RTM., Atom.RTM., Itanium.RTM., Pentium.RTM., Xeon.RTM. or
XScale.RTM. processor. Further, one or more of these processor
circuits may comprise a multi-core processor (whether the multiple
cores coexist on the same or separate dies), and/or a
multi-processor architecture of some other variety by which
multiple physically separate processors are in some way linked.
[0041] In various embodiments, each of the storages 160, 260, 460,
660 and 760 may be based on any of a wide variety of information
storage technologies, possibly including volatile technologies
requiring the uninterrupted provision of electric power, and
possibly including technologies entailing the use of
machine-readable storage media that may or may not be removable.
Thus, each of these storages may comprise any of a wide variety of
types (or combination of types) of storage device, including
without limitation, read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory
(RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDR-DRAM),
synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), static RAM (SRAM), programmable ROM
(PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable
programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymer memory (e.g.,
ferroelectric polymer memory), ovonic memory, phase change or
ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)
memory, magnetic or optical cards, one or more individual
ferromagnetic disk drives, or a plurality of storage devices
organized into one or more arrays (e.g., multiple ferromagnetic
disk drives organized into a Redundant Array of Independent Disks
array, or RAID array). It should be noted that although each of
these storages is depicted as a single block, one or more of these
may comprise multiple storage devices that may be based on
differing storage technologies. Thus, for example, one or more of
each of these depicted storages may represent a combination of an
optical drive or flash memory card reader by which programs and/or
data may be stored and conveyed on some form of machine-readable
storage media, a ferromagnetic disk drive to store programs and/or
data locally for a relatively extended period, and one or more
volatile solid state memory devices enabling relatively quick
access to programs and/or data (e.g., SRAM or DRAM). It should also
be noted that each of these storages may be made up of multiple
storage components based on identical storage technology, but which
may be maintained separately as a result of specialization in use
(e.g., some DRAM devices employed as a main storage while other
DRAM devices employed as a distinct frame buffer of a graphics
controller).
[0042] In various embodiments, each of the interfaces 190, 290,
490, 690 and 790 employ any of a wide variety of signaling
technologies enabling each of computing devices 100, 200, 400, 600
and 700 to be coupled through the network 999 as has been
described. Each of these interfaces comprises circuitry providing
at least some of the requisite functionality to enable such
coupling. However, each of these interfaces may also be at least
partially implemented with sequences of instructions executed by
corresponding ones of the processor circuits 150, 250, 450, 650 and
750 (e.g., to implement a protocol stack or other features). Where
one or more portions of the network 999 employs electrically and/or
optically conductive cabling, corresponding ones of the interfaces
190, 290, 490, 690 and 790 may employ signaling and/or protocols
conforming to any of a variety of industry standards, including
without limitation, RS-232C, RS-422, USB, Ethernet (IEEE-802.3) or
IEEE-1394. Alternatively or additionally, where one or more
portions of the network 999 entails the use of wireless signal
transmission, corresponding ones of the interfaces 190, 290, 490,
690 and 790 may employ signaling and/or protocols conforming to any
of a variety of industry standards, including without limitation,
IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.16, 802.20 (commonly referred
to as "Mobile Broadband Wireless Access"); Bluetooth; ZigBee; or a
cellular radiotelephone service such as GSM with General Packet
Radio Service (GSM/GPRS), CDMA/1xRTT, Enhanced Data Rates for
Global Evolution (EDGE), Evolution Data Only/Optimized (EV-DO),
Evolution For Data and Voice (EV-DV), High Speed Downlink Packet
Access (HSDPA), High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), 4G LTE,
etc. It should be noted that although each of the interfaces 190,
290, 490, 690 and 790 are depicted as a single block, one or more
of these may comprise multiple interfaces that may be based on
differing signaling technologies. This may be the case especially
where one or more of these interfaces couples corresponding ones of
the computing devices 100, 200, 400, 600 and 700 to more than one
network, each employing differing communications technologies.
[0043] In various embodiments, each of the controls 120, 420 and
720 may comprise any of a variety of types of manually-operable
controls, including without limitation, lever, rocker, pushbutton
or other types of switches; rotary, sliding or other types of
variable controls; touch sensors, proximity sensors, heat sensors
or bioelectric sensors, etc. Each of the controls 120, 420 and 720
may comprise manually-operable controls disposed upon a casing of
corresponding ones of the computing devices 100, 400 and 700,
and/or may comprise manually-operable controls disposed on a
separate casing of a physically separate component of corresponding
ones of these computing devices (e.g., a remote control coupled to
other components via infrared signaling). Alternatively or
additionally, the controls 120, 420 and 720 may comprise any of a
variety of non-tactile user input components, including without
limitation, a microphone by which sounds may be detected to enable
recognition of a verbal command; a camera through which a face or
facial expression may be recognized; an accelerometer by which
direction, speed, force, acceleration and/or other characteristics
of movement may be detected to enable recognition of a gesture;
etc.
[0044] In various embodiments, each of the displays 480 and 780 may
be based on any of a variety of display technologies, including
without limitation, a liquid crystal display (LCD), including
touch-sensitive, color, and thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD; a
plasma display; a light emitting diode (LED) display; an organic
light emitting diode (OLED) display; a cathode ray tube (CRT)
display, etc. Each of these displays may be disposed on a casing of
corresponding ones of the computing devices 100 and 700, or may be
disposed on a separate casing of a physically separate component of
corresponding ones of these computing devices (e.g., a flat panel
monitor coupled to other components via cabling).
[0045] FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a portion of the block
diagram of FIG. 1 in greater detail. More specifically, aspects of
the operating environment of the preparation device 400 in which
the processor circuit 450 (shown in FIGS. 2 and 3) is caused by
execution of the control routine 440 to perform the aforedescribed
functions are depicted. As will be recognized by those skilled in
the art, the control routine 440, including the components of which
it is composed, is selected to be operative on whatever type of
processor or processors that are selected to implement the
processor circuit 450.
[0046] In various embodiments, the control routine 440 may comprise
a combination of an operating system, device drivers and/or
application-level routines (e.g., so-called "software suites"
provided on disc media, "applets" obtained from a remote server,
etc.). Where an operating system is included, the operating system
may be any of a variety of available operating systems appropriate
for the processor circuit 450, including without limitation,
Windows.TM., OS X.TM., Linux.RTM., or Android OS.TM.. Where one or
more device drivers are included, those device drivers may provide
support for any of a variety of other components, whether hardware
or software components, that comprise the preparation device
400.
[0047] The control routine 440 comprises a communications component
449 executable by the processor circuit 450 to operate the
interface 490 to transmit and receive signals via the network 999
as has been described. As will be recognized by those skilled in
the art, the communications component 449 is selected to be
operable with whatever type of interface technology is selected to
implement the interface 490. The communications component 449,
therefore, causes the processor circuit 450 to operate the
interface 490 to receive the statistics data 230 from the
statistics server 200 and to transmit the presentation data 438 (or
portions thereof) to the presentation server 600. However, as has
been discussed, in various possible embodiments, one or both of the
statistics server 200 and the presentation server 600 may be
incorporated into the preparation device 400. In such embodiments,
the collection devices 100a-c and/or the presentation devices
700a-c may be more directly in communication with the preparation
device 400 such that the preparation device 400 may directly
receive statistical information from game play and/or may directly
transmit at last portions of the presentation data 438 (possibly
individual ones of the automatically generated sentences
thereof).
[0048] The control routine 440 comprises a comparison component 441
executable by the processor circuit 450 to cause the processor
circuit 450 to employ comparisons among statistics of the
statistics data 230 to search for statistical anomalies in
accordance with requirements specified by the configuration data
431, and to store statistical anomalies identified as meeting those
requirements as an anomalies data 432 stored in the storage 460.
The configuration data 431 specifies a number of statistical
anomalies desired to be identified that relate to the play of a
game, and a threshold of deviation that the statistical anomalies
must meet. The threshold may be specified in a unit of standard
deviation from a norm of a set of statistical information that will
be familiar to those skilled in the art of statistical analysis,
e.g., sigma (.sigma.). As those skilled in the art of statistical
analysis will readily recognize, specifying a degree of deviation
from a norm of a set of statistical information requires that the
set of statistical information be defined such that aspects of the
normal distribution of that set of statistical information can be
derived, including the standard deviation itself.
[0049] The configuration data 431 may also specify a particular
order of types of statistical information within the statistics
data 230 to be searched that may be prioritized by closeness of
association to a particular game. By way of example, the
configuration data 431 may specify that highest priority be given
to statistical anomalies meeting the specified threshold of
deviation that are found within statistical information arising
solely from plays made in the game, itself. The next highest
priority may be given to statistical anomalies meeting the
specified threshold of deviation that are found within statistical
information concerning teams and/or individual players playing the
game, where that statistical information includes past games played
by those teams and/or players. Then, the next highest priority may
be given to statistical anomalies meeting the specified threshold
of deviation that are found within statistical information
concerning the sport to which the game belongs, including other
previously played games regardless of what teams and/or players
were involved. And then, the next highest priority may be given to
statistical anomalies meeting the specified threshold of deviation
that are found in sports that may be deemed in some way related to
the sport to which the game belongs (for example, where the game is
part of major league baseball, a related sport may be minor league
baseball). Alternatively or additionally, the next highest priority
may be given to statistical anomalies meeting the specified
threshold of deviation that are found in games of unrelated sports
that are being played on the same day as the particular game (e.g.,
related to the particular game in a temporal sense) and/or have
been played in the same location as the particular game (e.g.,
related to the particular game in a geographic sense).
[0050] In specifying an order of priority of sets of statistical
information in which to search for statistical anomalies that
starts with statistical information closely related to a particular
game before changing to sets of statistical information that are
progressively more remote in their relation to the particular game,
a presentation of statistical anomalies related to the game will
tend to focus first on statistical anomalies arising from that
game's play. Where play in a particular game presents a sufficient
number of statistical anomalies to meet the number of desired
statistical anomalies specified by in the configuration data 431,
there may be no need to include the lower prioritized sets of
statistical information that are more remotely related to the play
of that game, resulting ultimately in a presentation to consumers
that is more focused on that game. However, where the play of a
particular game proves to be lacking in the generation of a
sufficient number of statistical anomalies, then sets of
statistical information that are progressively more remote of play
of the particular game are included until the desired number of
statistical anomalies specified in the configuration data 431 is
reached. It should be noted, however, that this is but one example
ordering of statistical anomalies, and that the statistical
anomalies may be organized and/or prioritized by other criterion.
By way of example, it may be that a mixture of statistical
anomalies that are both closely related and not closely related to
the play of a game may be desired, or it may be that a presentation
starting and ending with statistical anomalies less related to game
play is desired where statistical anomalies most closely related to
game play are presented at a midpoint in that presentation.
[0051] The comparison component 441 may cause the processor circuit
450 to perform such searching on a recurring basis as game play of
a particular game is still in progress, or following end of play of
a particular game, or both. As previously discussed, the
statistical information provided by each of the collection devices
100a-c may be accompanied by indications of whether each of the
games for which the collection devices 100a-c collect statistical
information is still in progress or has concluded, and such
indications may be included in the statistics data 230, thereby
enabling the comparison component 441 to monitor the current state
of each game.
[0052] Where searching is caused by the comparison component 441 to
occur during game play and where a prioritization of sets of
statistical information related to differing degrees to that game
is employed, the closeness of relationship of identified anomalies
stored as the anomalies data 432 is apt to change over time as the
game play continues. More specifically, it is to be expected that
there is an initial dearth of statistical information related to
play of a game at the time the game commences, and thus, the
comparison component 441 is initially caused to search sets of
statistical information of the statistics data 230 that are given a
lower priority in the configuration data 431. However, as game play
progresses such that statistical information related to game play
for that game starts to accumulate in the statistics data 230,
subsequent searches of the statistics data 230 are apt to focus
progressively more on statistical information of the statistics
data 230 related to game play, and an increasing number of
statistical anomalies related to game play are apt to be identified
and included in the anomalies data 432.
[0053] The control routine 440 comprises a ranking component 443
executable by the processor circuit 450 to rank statistical
anomalies that have been identified by the comparison component 441
and thereby stored as the anomalies data 432 in an order specified
by the configuration data 431. The configuration data 431 specifies
at least the manner in which identified statistical anomalies from
the same set of statistical information are ranked, and it may be
deemed desirable for that order of ranking to be determined by
degree of deviation from a statistical norm in which statistical
anomalies having a greater degree of deviation are ranked more
highly than others. However, where the anomalies data 432 might
include statistical anomalies from different sets of statistical
information that have been given different relative priorities (as
has been discussed above, at length), then the ranking component
443 may also rank identified statistical anomalies in the anomalies
data 432 into groups of statistical anomalies organized by such
relative priorities. Thus, the identified statistical anomalies
stored as part of the anomalies data 432 may first be ranked by the
closeness of relationship to game play of a particular game of the
sets of statistical information in which they were found, and then
by their degree of deviation within each of those ranked groups.
The ranked statistical anomalies are then stored in ranked order as
a ranked anomalies data 434.
[0054] The control routine 440 comprises a rendering component 445
executable by the processor circuit 450 to automatically generate
sentences incorporating each of the statistical anomalies that have
been ranked and stored in the ranked anomalies data 434. In
automatically generating these sentences, the rendering component
445 employs vocabulary and syntactic rules for one or more
languages stored in the language data 436. The configuration data
431 specifies the language(s) used in generating these sentences.
The language data 436 comprises a vocabulary of verbs and other
words and/or clauses that are randomly selected by the rendering
component 445 in automatically generating sentences. This random
selection of words aids in providing some degree of variety in the
choice of words employed in forming sentences. For example, instead
of repeatedly using the word "thrown" each time a sentence is
formed describing a throw of a football by a quarterback to a
receiver, various synonyms may be randomly selected, such as
"tossed" or "launched" or "air-mailed" to the receiver. Further,
the selection of synonyms may be partially based on the degree of
deviation of the statistical anomaly involved. For example, more
colorful choices of words such as "launched" or "air-mailed" may be
used where a quarterback has thrown a football a sufficiently
lengthy distance to a receiver that the length is a statistical
anomaly with a high deviation from the norm. Alternatively or
additionally, such random selection may be modified with the use of
weighting values that can be adjusted to tend to cause certain
words to be more likely to be randomly selected than others. Also
alternatively or additionally, such random selection may be
modified through the use of variables that track how far long ago
each of various words were last used to avoid allowing instances of
a given word being randomly selected for use too frequently
(possibly by adjusting the weighting values that are used to cause
some words to be randomly selected more often than others).
[0055] The control routine 440 comprises a presentation component
447 executable by the processor circuit 450 to automatically format
the sentences automatically generated by the rendering component
445 into one or more machine-readable formats appropriate for
transmission to other computing devices, to store the formatted
sentences as the presentation data 438, and to provide at least a
portion of the presentation data 438 to other computing devices at
appropriate times. As previously discussed, the automatically
generated sentences setting forth statistical anomalies as text may
require formatting into various machine-readable formats depending
on the types of computing devices to which they are transmitted
and/or the network protocols employed in those transmissions. Where
presentations concerning a particular game are made during game
play, the processor circuit 450 is caused by the presentation
component 447 to recurringly operate the interface 490 to
recurringly transmit portions of the presentation data 438 to one
or more other computing devices during game play. Where a
presentation concerning a particular game is made following game
play, the processor circuit 450 is caused to operate the interface
490 to provide some or all of the presentation data 438 to one or
more other computing devices, possibly to enable professional
presenters to employ the automatically generated sentences
incorporating the identified and ranked anomalies in providing a
post-game review and commentary to consumers.
[0056] Where it is specified in the configuration data 431 that
statistical anomalies may be searched for in statistical
information that includes other games, such that the statistical
anomalies for which sentences may be automatically generated may
refer to other games, the presentation component 447 may embed
information providing a mechanism by which consumers may switch
what they view and/or what they receive automatically generated
sentences about to one of those other games. More specifically,
where the configuration data 431 specifies that the automatically
generated sentences are to be formatted into an machine-readable
format into which links, tags or similar data may be embedded, such
as any of a variety of markup languages (e.g., HTML, SGML, XML,
etc.), the presentation component may so embed such data. Such
embedded data enables a consumer receiving the automatically
generated sentences via one of the presentation devices 700a-c to
be visually presented with a selectable object as part of the
presentation of those sentences that the consumer may select by
operating the controls 720 to cause that one of the presentation
device 700a-c to transmit a signal via the network 999 to request
that automatically generated sentences and/or other content related
to a different game be provided to it.
[0057] FIG. 5 illustrates such use of such embedded data, depicting
an example of an alternate variant of the presentation server 600
in which other presentation data 437 and 439 are stored along with
the presentation data 438 for transmission via the network 999 to
the presentation device 700a. A consumer visually presented with
automatically generated sentences conveying statistical anomalies
concerning a game associated with the presentation data 438 as a
"ticker" or "crawler" of text in the display region 781 (or
possibly as a window in the display region 782) may be visually
presented with a selectable object within that text that the user
is able to select through operation of the controls 720 (e.g., a
portion of the text 783 that is underlined as a way to indicate
that it is a selectable object). The processor circuit 750 of the
presentation device 700a may be caused by the control routine 740
to monitor the controls 720 for receipt of a signal therefrom that
is indicative of that consumer making that selection (e.g.,
selecting that selectable portion of text 783). In response to the
receipt of such signals, the processor circuit 750 may then be
caused to operate the interface 790 to signal the presentation
server 600 to cease sending automatically generated sentences of
the presentation data 438, and instead, to send automatically
generated sentences of one or the other of the presentation data
437 or 439 conveying statistical anomalies of a different game.
[0058] In one example embodiment, game A of the first sport
(referring to FIG. 1), is in progress, and is to be discussed in a
broadcast commentary by a professional presenter immediately
following its conclusion. As game A is played, the collection
device 100a receives signals conveying statistical information
concerning game play (e.g., distances run, thrown, kicked or
jumped; number of laps, goals, balls, hits, strikes, fouls or home
runs; fastest time or time remaining, etc.). These signals may
emanate from personnel operating the controls 120 (e.g., one or
more of a keyboard, keypad, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, etc.) to
manually enter statistical information into the collection device
100a. Alternatively or additionally, these signals may be received
via the interface 190 from the transponders 119a-x disposed on
individual players, vehicles, goal locations, etc. in the playing
field that automatically provide the collection device 100a with
statistical information arising from the transponders 119a-x
tracking movement associated with game play, scores made at goal
locations (e.g., hoops, end zones, goal posts, goal nets), etc. The
processor circuit 150 is caused to operate the interface 190 to
signal the statistics server 200 to transmit this received
statistical information to the statistics server 200 via the
network 999 along with an indication of the current state of play
of game A (e.g., whether game A is still in progress or has
ended).
[0059] The statistics server 200 receives these transmissions of
the collection device 100a providing the statistical information
related to game play of game A, and adds the statistical
information, as it is received by the statistics server 200, to the
statistics data 200. As previously discussed, the statistics data
200 comprises statistical information received from numerous games
spanning a considerable period of time, and may also comprise
statistical information from games of different sports. Again, in
alternate variants, the functions of the statistics server 200 may
be performed by the preparation device 400, in which case, the
preparation device 400 receives the statistical information
transmitted by the collection device 100a, more directly.
[0060] Regardless of whether the statistics data 230 is created by
the statistics server 200 and conveyed to the preparation device
400, or the preparation device 400 creates the statistics data 230
directly from direct receipt of statistical information from the
collection device 100a, the preparation device 400 awaits a signal
indicating that game play of game A has ended. Upon receiving that
signal, the processor circuit 450 of the preparation device 400
searches the statistics data 230 to identify statistical anomalies
in statistics information relating to game A that meet requirements
specified in the configuration data 431. As previously discussed,
the configuration data 431 specifies various requirements of this
search, such as one or more of what game the search is related to,
a threshold of deviation that statistical anomalies must meet, a
desired number of anomalies to be identified, whether the search is
performed during or following a game (depending on whether
commentary about statistical anomalies is desired during or only
after a game), a prioritized list of sets of statistical
information within the statistics data 230 to be searched in a
particular order until the desired number of statistical anomalies
meeting the threshold are identified (possibly prioritized from
most related to game A to least related), what language(s) to use
in the sentences generated concerning the statistical anomalies,
and what machine-readable formats the sentences should be formatted
into for transmission to other computing devices.
[0061] Presuming that the configuration data 431 does specify a
prioritized order of sets of statistical information to be searched
in the statistics data 230 that starts with statistical information
related solely to game play of game A and then progresses to other
sets of statistical information that are progressively more remote
in relation to game A, then the processor circuit 450 is caused to
initially search for and identify one or more statistical anomalies
in the statistics data 230 that relate solely to game play of game
A and that meet a threshold of deviation presumably specified by
the configuration data 431 (e.g., 2.sigma., 3.sigma., etc.).
However, presuming that these statistical anomalies found in
statistical information related solely to the play of game A are
not enough to meet a number of statistical anomalies presumably
specified in the configuration data 431, the processor circuit 450
then widens the search to include statistical information bearing a
relationship to game A, but not focused solely on the play of game
A, such as statistical information concerning the teams and/or
players that played in game A where such statistical information
including plays made by those teams and/or players in other games,
as well as in game A. If this wider search still does not provide
enough statistical anomalies to meet the number specified by the
configuration data 431, then the processor circuit 450 is cause to
widen the search again, and perhaps still again, encompassing ever
lower priority sets of statistical information within the
statistics data 230 until enough statistical anomalies are
identified. In this progressive widening to sets of statistical
information that are ever more remote in relation to game A, the
search may eventually need to include statistical information from
all games that have occurred in the sport to which game A belongs,
and if that proves insufficient, then the search may be widened
again to include statistical information related to other games
that happened to be played at the same location as game A and/or on
the same day (or at the same time) as game A. Thus, if the play of
game A provides too few statistical anomalies meeting the specified
threshold, then the search may be widened to include statistical
anomalies of game B collected by the collection device 100b, which
may have been played on the same day or earlier in the day at the
same location as game A. It may also be that the search is widened
to include statistical anomalies of the game of the second sport
collected by the collection device 100c, which despite being a game
of a different sport, may have occurred on the same day or have
been played in the same location as game A.
[0062] With the specified number of statistical anomalies
identified, the processor circuit 450 is further caused to rank
them. The configuration data 431 may specify any of various
possible approaches to ranking. It is envisioned that the
identified statistical anomalies may be ranked in order from those
having the greatest deviation from a norm to those having the
least. However, where lower priority sets of statistical
information within the statistics data 230 had to be searched to
identify a sufficient number of statistical anomalies, the
identified statistical anomalies may additionally or alternatively
be ranked in order of the closeness of their relationship to game
A.
[0063] With the identified statistical anomalies ranked, the
processor circuit 450 is caused to generate sentences stating or
describing these statistical anomalies in textual form in whatever
language(s) are specified by the configuration data 431. In so
doing, the processor circuit 450 employs vocabulary and syntactic
rules provided by the language data 436 for each specified
language, including randomly selecting verbs and/or other words in
forming each sentence. Following this automated generation of these
sentences, the processor circuit 450 is further caused to format
each of these sentences into one or more machine-readable formats
appropriate for transmission to one or more of the presentation
devices 700a-c, and to store the formatted sentences as the
presentation data 438. Then, the processor circuit 450 is caused to
transmit the presentation data 438 to the presentation server 600.
Again, in alternate variants, the functions of the presentation
server 600 in transmitting some or all of the presentation data 438
to one or more of the presentation devices 700a-c may be performed
by the preparation device 400, in which case, the preparation
device 400 performs such transmissions to one or more of the
presentation devices 700a-c, more directly.
[0064] Regardless of whether it is the presentation server 600 or
the preparation device 400 that transmits some or all of the
presentation data 438 to one or more of the presentation devices
700a-c, in this example, the presentation data 438 is received by
at least the presentation device 700a and is presented by the
presentation device 700a to a member of the studio personnel
working at a broadcast studio. It may be that this member of the
studio personnel is an editor who reviews these automatically
generated sentences in contemplation of making changes before they
are used as part of the content that a professional presenter will
present to consumers receiving the studio's broadcast.
Alternatively, it may be that this member of the studio personnel
is a professional presenter who (either alone or with other
professional presenters) more directly obtains the sentences from
the presenting device 700a (possibly during a live broadcast) and
uses them in presenting his/her review of game A in that broadcast
to consumers.
[0065] In another example embodiment differing somewhat from the
example embodiment just described, game A of the first sport,
again, is in progress. However, unlike the above example
embodiment, statistical anomalies related to game A are to be
presented to consumers as game A is played, instead of only after
game A has ended. Thus, as game A is played, and as statistical
information arising from the game play in game A is received and
added to the statistics data 230, the processor circuit 450 is
caused to repeatedly search the statistics data 230 for statistical
anomalies related to game A, repeatedly rank statistical anomalies
identified as meeting requirements, repeatedly automatically
generate sentences stating or describing the statistical anomalies,
and repeatedly transmit those automatically generated sentences to
one or more other computing devices, at least until game A
ends.
[0066] Understandably, early in game A, it is likely that not
enough play has yet occurred to generate enough statistical
information to enable the desired number of statistical anomalies
specified in the configuration data 431 to be found in statistical
information related solely to the play of game A. Therefore,
statistical information within the statistics data 230 that is more
remotely related to game A will likely need to be included in
searches for statistical anomalies, at least initially, such as
statistical information connected with another game in the same
sport as game A (e.g., game B) and/or statistical information
connected with the players or location connected to game A. FIG. 6
presents a block diagram of the manner in which the initial dearth
and subsequent accumulation of statistical information related
solely to the play of game A affects what statistical anomalies are
identified and relied upon in satisfying a requirement of a desired
number of statistical anomalies specified in the configuration data
431 over a span of time from time point Ta through time point
Te.
[0067] Starting at time point Ta, where play in game A is just
starting, the statistics data 230 comprises very little statistical
information 231a arising from play in game A, much more complete
statistical information 231b for other games in the same sport as
game A (e.g., game B for which the collection device 100b collects
or has collected statistical information), and much more complete
statistical information 231c for games in one or more other sports
(e.g., the game of the second sport for which the collection device
100c collects or has collected statistical information). As a
result of this initial dearth of statistical information related
solely to the play of game A, the repeated searching, ranking, and
automatic generation of sentences performed by the processor
circuit 450 results in the presentation data 438 comprising only
sentences 439b describing statistical anomalies found in
statistical information more remotely related to game A (e.g.,
statistical anomalies arising from the play of game B), and
possibly sentences 439c describing statistical anomalies found in
statistical information related to a game of a different sport
(e.g., statistical anomalies arising from the play of the game of
the second sport).
[0068] However, as play of game A progresses, at time point Tb, the
statistics data 230 starts to include a more significant amount of
statistical information 231a related solely to the game play of
game A. This results in the presentation data 438 including one or
more sentences 439a related more closely to the play of game A, and
a reduction in the inclusion of sentences 439c, as the repeated
searching, ranking and automatic generation of sentences continues.
In embodiments in which ranking of statistical anomalies is at
least partly based on closeness of relation of each statistical
anomaly to a particular game (game A, in this example), this
reduction in the inclusion of sentences 439c occurs as a result of
statistical anomalies related to games of a sport other than the
sport to which game A belongs being ranked lower and lower in
comparison to other statistical anomalies as more and more
statistical anomalies closely related to the play of game A are
identified. Thus, as the play of game A continues through time
points Tc and Td, and ultimately ends at time point Te, the
sentences 439c eventually cease to be included in the presentation
data 438, and the sentences 439a that are most closely related to
game A become the majority of the sentences of which the
presentation data 438 is composed.
[0069] During play of game A, from time point Ta through time point
Te, the processor circuit 450 is caused to repeatedly format the
sentences that it repeatedly generates and stores as the
presentation data 438 into one or more machine-readable formats
appropriate for transmission to one or more of the presentation
devices 700a-c. Following the end of play of game A, the processor
circuit 450 is caused to complete a last search of the statistics
data 230 for statistical anomalies meeting the requirements
specified by the configuration data 431, and then to rank a final
set of statistical anomalies and automatically generate a final set
of sentences describing those statistical anomalies. Then,
following generation of a final set of sentences, the processor
circuit 450 is caused to format those sentences into one or more
machine-readable formats appropriate for transmission to one or
more of the presentation devices 700a-c. It should be noted that
the choice of machine-readable formats for transmission to
presentation devices during game play may differ from the choice of
machine-readable formats for transmission to presentations device
following the end of game play. More specifically, during game
play, sentences of the presentation data 438 may be formatted for
transmission as SMS text messages for visual presentation by a
smartphone, or as data accompanying the transmission of live video
images of the game in a format enabling visual presentation on a
display of an interactive television as a crawler (e.g., the
crawler or ticker 781 depicted as visually presented on the display
780 of the presentation device 700a) or window (e.g., the window
782). Later, following game play, a final set of the sentences
associated with that game may be formatted in HTML, XML, SGML,
JSON, etc., for inclusion in a webpage of a website providing a
post-game review that may be transmitted to a presentation device
employing a web browser to view that webpage.
[0070] FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow 2100. The
logic flow 2100 may be representative of some or all of the
operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein.
More specifically, the logic flow 2100 may illustrate operations
performed by the processor circuit 150 of one of the collection
devices 100a-c in executing at least the control routine 140.
[0071] At 2110, a collection device (e.g., one of the collection
devices 100a-c) receives signals conveying to it statistical
information of a game in play. As has been discussed, these signals
may emanate from controls operated to manually enter the
statistical information and/or be received from transponders (or
other automated sensors) automatically providing the statistical
information.
[0072] If, at 2120, the collection device transmits the statistical
information to a server that accumulates and stores such
statistical information (e.g., the statistics server 200, or the
preparation device 400 performing the functions of the statistics
server 200).
[0073] At 2130, a check is made as to whether the game for which
the collection device is collecting statistical information is
still in progress. If the game is still in progress, then the
collection device receives signals conveying more statistical
information to it at 2110.
[0074] However, if the game is not still in progress, then at 2140,
the collection device signals the server within an indication that
play has ended in the game.
[0075] FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow 2200. The
logic flow 2200 may be representative of some or all of the
operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein.
More specifically, the logic flow 2200 may illustrate operations
performed by at least the processor circuit 450 of the preparation
device 400 in executing at least the control routine 440.
[0076] At 2210, a preparation device (e.g., the preparation device
400) performing the functions of a statistics server (e.g., the
statistics server 200) receives statistical information concerning
play of a game. At 2220, the preparation device adds the
statistical information to a statistics data in which statistical
information of multiple games is stored. As previously discussed,
such receipt and accumulation of statistical information of
individual games may be performed by a computing device functioning
as a separate and distinct server, or may be performed by the same
computing device that performs searches on the accumulated
statistics data.
[0077] At 2230, the preparation device searches the statistics data
for statistical anomalies meeting a specified threshold of
deviation. As has been discussed, the preparation device employs
comparisons of statistics within a set of statistical information
of the statistics data to identify statistical anomalies. The
threshold of deviation that must be found through such comparisons
to identify such statistical anomalies may be specified in a
configuration data employed by the preparation device, and may be
described in units of standard deviation (e.g., 2.sigma., 3.sigma.,
4.sigma., etc.).
[0078] At 2240, a check is made as to whether enough statistical
anomalies meeting the specified threshold of deviation have been
identified. If not, then the set of statistical information that is
searched within the statistics data for such statistical anomalies
is widened at 2242, and the search is repeated at 2230.
[0079] However, if enough statistical anomalies have been
identified, then at 2250, the preparation device ranks the
identified statistical anomalies. As previously discussed, ranking
may be based on one or both of the degree of deviation and degree
of closeness of relationship to the game.
[0080] At 2260, the preparation device automatically forms
sentences incorporating the statistical anomalies to state or
otherwise describe each of the statistical anomalies in textual
form. In so doing, the preparation device randomly selects verbs or
other words of a vocabulary stored as part of a language data.
[0081] At 2270, these sentences are stored by the preparation
device as a presentation data, and at least a portion of the
presentation data is transmitted to another computing device at
2280.
[0082] FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow 2300. The
logic flow 2300 may be representative of some or all of the
operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein.
More specifically, the logic flow 2300 may illustrate operations
performed by at least the processor circuit 450 of the preparation
device 400 in executing at least the control routine 440.
[0083] At 2310, a preparation device (e.g., the preparation device
400) performing the functions of a statistics server (e.g., the
statistics server 200) receives statistical information concerning
play of a game and adds the statistical information to a statistics
data in which statistical information of multiple games is
stored.
[0084] At 2320, the preparation device searches statistical
information within the statistics data that is closely related to
the game for statistical anomalies meeting a specified threshold of
deviation.
[0085] At 2330, a check is made as to whether enough statistical
anomalies meeting the specified threshold of deviation have been
identified. If not, then the set of statistical information that is
searched within the statistics data for statistical anomalies is
widened and a search of the widened set of statistical information
is performed at 2332, before the number of statistical anomalies
identified is checked again at 2330.
[0086] However, if enough statistical anomalies have been
identified, then at 2340, the preparation device ranks the
identified statistical anomalies.
[0087] At 2360, the preparation device automatically forms
sentences incorporating the statistical anomalies to state or
otherwise describe each of the statistical anomalies in textual
form, and these sentences are stored by the preparation device as a
presentation data at 2370.
[0088] At 2370, at least a portion of the presentation data is
transmitted to another computing device.
[0089] At 2380, a check is made as to whether the game is still in
play. If not, then there is no further searching, ranking, or
sentence generation focused on the game. However, if the game is
still in play, then the preparation device again receives signals
conveying statistical information arising from play of the game at
2310. In this way, the searching, ranking, sentence generation, and
sentence formatting are caused to repeat until play of the game
ceases.
[0090] FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of a logic flow 2400. The
logic flow 2400 may be representative of some or all of the
operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein.
More specifically, the logic flow 2400 may illustrate operations
performed by at least the processor circuit 450 of the preparation
device 400 in executing at least the control routine 440.
[0091] At 2410, a preparation device (e.g., the preparation device
400) formats sentences that are newly automatically generated by
the preparation device into a first machine-readable format and
stores those sentences as part of a presentation data.
[0092] At 2420, the preparation device transmits at least a portion
of the presentation data to a first other computing device (e.g.,
the presentation server 600, or one of the presentation devices
700a-c).
[0093] At 2430, a check is made as to whether the game for which
the sentences describe related statistical anomalies is still in
play. If so, then the preparation device formats more newly
automatically generated sentences at 2410.
[0094] However, if the game is not still in progress, then at 2440,
the preparation device formats sentences describing statistical
anomalies of the game are formatted into a second machine-readable
format and stored as part of the presentation data. As previously
discussed, there may be different machine-readable formats into
which such sentences are formatted for transmission during play of
the game versus transmission following the end of play of the
game.
[0095] At 2450, the preparation device transmits at least a portion
of the presentation data to a second other computing device.
[0096] FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of a logic flow 2500. The
logic flow 2500 may be representative of some or all of the
operations executed by one or more embodiments described herein.
More specifically, the logic flow 2500 may illustrate operations
performed by at least the processor circuit 750 of one of the
presentation devices 700a-c in executing at least the control
routine 740.
[0097] At 2510, a presentation device (e.g., one of the
presentation devices 700a-c) receives signals conveying a first set
of automatically generated sentences describing statistical
anomalies related to a first game, in which one of these sentences
comprises embedded data associated with a second game.
[0098] At 2520, the presentation device presents the first set of
automatically generated sentences and presents the embedded data as
a selectable object. As has been discussed, the presentation of
such automatically generated sentences may be performed visually
(e.g., on the display 780) and/or audibly (e.g., a
computer-generated voice reading such sentences aloud). As has also
been discussed, such embedded data may be visually presented on as
a selectable object that may be selected through operation of
controls of a presentation device (e.g., the controls 720).
[0099] At 2530, a check is made as to whether the selectable object
has been selected. If not, then the presentation device returns to
receiving signals conveying more of the first set of automatically
generated sentences associated with the first game at 2510.
[0100] However, if the selectable object has been selected, then
the presentation device receives signals conveying a second set of
automatically generated sentences describing statistical anomalies
related to the second game at 2540.
[0101] At 2550, the presentation device presents the second set of
automatically generated sentences.
[0102] FIG. 12 illustrates an embodiment of an exemplary processing
architecture 3100 suitable for implementing various embodiments as
previously described. More specifically, the processing
architecture 3100 (or variants thereof) may be implemented as part
of one or more of the computing devices 100a-c, 200, 400, 600 and
700a-c. It should be noted that components of the processing
architecture 3100 are given reference numbers in which the last two
digits correspond to the last two digits of reference numbers of
components earlier depicted and described as part of each of the
computing devices 100a-c, 200, 400, 600 and 700a-c. This is done as
an aid to correlating such components of whichever ones of the
computing devices 100a-c, 200, 400, 600 or 700a-c may employ this
exemplary processing architecture in various embodiments.
[0103] The processing architecture 3100 includes various elements
commonly employed in digital processing, including without
limitation, one or more processors, multi-core processors,
co-processors, memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals,
interfaces, oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards,
multimedia input/output (I/O) components, power supplies, etc. As
used in this application, the terms "system" and "component" are
intended to refer to an entity of a computing device in which
digital processing is carried out, that entity being hardware, a
combination of hardware and software, software, or software in
execution, examples of which are provided by this depicted
exemplary processing architecture. For example, a component can be,
but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor
circuit, the processor circuit itself, a storage device (e.g., a
hard disk drive, multiple storage drives in an array, etc.) that
may employ an optical and/or magnetic storage medium, an software
object, an executable sequence of instructions, a thread of
execution, a program, and/or an entire computing device (e.g., an
entire computer). By way of illustration, both an application
running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more
components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution,
and a component can be localized on one computing device and/or
distributed between two or more computing devices. Further,
components may be communicatively coupled to each other by various
types of communications media to coordinate operations. The
coordination may involve the uni-directional or bi-directional
exchange of information. For instance, the components may
communicate information in the form of signals communicated over
the communications media. The information can be implemented as
signals allocated to one or more signal lines. Each message may be
a signal or a plurality of signals transmitted either serially or
substantially in parallel.
[0104] As depicted, in implementing the processing architecture
3100, a computing device comprises at least a processor circuit
950, a storage 960, an interface 990 to other devices, and coupling
955. As will be explained, depending on various aspects of a
computing device implementing the processing architecture 3100,
including its intended use and/or conditions of use, such a
computing device may further comprise additional components, such
as without limitation, a display interface 985.
[0105] Coupling 955 is comprised of one or more buses,
point-to-point interconnects, transceivers, buffers, crosspoint
switches, and/or other conductors and/or logic that communicatively
couples at least the processor circuit 950 to the storage 960.
Coupling 955 may further couple the processor circuit 950 to one or
more of the interface 990 and the display interface 985 (depending
on which of these and/or other components are also present). With
the processor circuit 950 being so coupled by couplings 955, the
processor circuit 950 is able to perform the various ones of the
tasks described at length, above, for whichever ones of the
computing devices 100a-c, 200, 400, 600 or 700a-c implement the
processing architecture 3100. Coupling 955 may be implemented with
any of a variety of technologies or combinations of technologies by
which signals are optically and/or electrically conveyed. Further,
at least portions of couplings 955 may employ timings and/or
protocols conforming to any of a wide variety of industry
standards, including without limitation, Accelerated Graphics Port
(AGP), CardBus, Extended Industry Standard Architecture (E-ISA),
Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), NuBus, Peripheral Component
Interconnect (Extended) (PCI-X), PCI Express (PCI-E), Personal
Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) bus,
HyperTransport.TM., QuickPath, and the like.
[0106] As previously discussed, the processor circuit 950
(corresponding to one or more of the processor circuits 150, 250,
450, 650 or 750) may comprise any of a wide variety of commercially
available processors, employing any of a wide variety of
technologies and implemented with one or more cores physically
combined in any of a number of ways.
[0107] As previously discussed, the storage 960 (corresponding to
one or more of the storages 160, 260, 460, 660 or 760) may comprise
one or more distinct storage devices based on any of a wide variety
of technologies or combinations of technologies. More specifically,
as depicted, the storage 960 may comprise one or more of a volatile
storage 961 (e.g., solid state storage based on one or more forms
of RAM technology), a non-volatile storage 962 (e.g., solid state,
ferromagnetic or other storage not requiring a constant provision
of electric power to preserve their contents), and a removable
media storage 963 (e.g., removable disc or solid state memory card
storage by which information may be conveyed between computing
devices). This depiction of the storage 960 as possibly comprising
multiple distinct types of storage is in recognition of the
commonplace use of more than one type of storage device in
computing devices in which one type provides relatively rapid
reading and writing capabilities enabling more rapid manipulation
of data by the processor circuit 950 (but possibly using a
"volatile" technology constantly requiring electric power) while
another type provides relatively high density of non-volatile
storage (but likely provides relatively slow reading and writing
capabilities).
[0108] Given the often different characteristics of different
storage devices employing different technologies, it is also
commonplace for such different storage devices to be coupled to
other portions of a computing device through different storage
controllers coupled to their differing storage devices through
different interfaces. By way of example, where the volatile storage
961 is present and is based on RAM technology, the volatile storage
961 may be communicatively coupled to coupling 955 through a
storage controller 965a providing an appropriate interface to the
volatile storage 961 that perhaps employs row and column
addressing, and where the storage controller 965a may perform row
refreshing and/or other maintenance tasks to aid in preserving
information stored within the volatile storage 961. By way of
another example, where the non-volatile storage 962 is present and
comprises one or more ferromagnetic and/or solid-state disk drives,
the non-volatile storage 962 may be communicatively coupled to
coupling 955 through a storage controller 965b providing an
appropriate interface to the non-volatile storage 962 that perhaps
employs addressing of blocks of information and/or of cylinders and
sectors. By way of still another example, where the removable media
storage 963 is present and comprises one or more optical and/or
solid-state disk drives employing one or more pieces of
machine-readable storage media 969, the removable media storage 963
may be communicatively coupled to coupling 955 through a storage
controller 965c providing an appropriate interface to the removable
media storage 963 that perhaps employs addressing of blocks of
information, and where the storage controller 965c may coordinate
read, erase and write operations in a manner specific to extending
the lifespan of the machine-readable storage media 969.
[0109] One or the other of the volatile storage 961 or the
non-volatile storage 962 may comprise an article of manufacture in
the form of a machine-readable storage media on which a routine
comprising a sequence of instructions executable by the processor
circuit 950 may be stored, depending on the technologies on which
each is based. By way of example, where the non-volatile storage
962 comprises ferromagnetic-based disk drives (e.g., so-called
"hard drives"), each such disk drive typically employs one or more
rotating platters on which a coating of magnetically responsive
particles is deposited and magnetically oriented in various
patterns to store information, such as a sequence of instructions,
in a manner akin to removable storage media such as a floppy
diskette. By way of another example, the non-volatile storage 962
may comprise banks of solid-state storage devices to store
information, such as sequences of instructions, in a manner akin to
a compact flash card. Again, it is commonplace to employ differing
types of storage devices in a computing device at different times
to store executable routines and/or data. Thus, a routine
comprising a sequence of instructions to be executed by the
processor circuit 950 may initially be stored on the
machine-readable storage media 969, and the removable media storage
963 may be subsequently employed in copying that routine to the
non-volatile storage 962 for longer term storage not requiring the
continuing presence of the machine-readable storage media 969
and/or the volatile storage 961 to enable more rapid access by the
processor circuit 950 as that routine is executed.
[0110] As previously discussed, the interface 990 (corresponding to
one or more of the interfaces 190, 290, 490, 690 and 790) may
employ any of a variety of signaling technologies corresponding to
any of a variety of communications technologies that may be
employed to communicatively couple a computing device to one or
more other devices. Again, one or both of various forms of wired or
wireless signaling may be employed to enable the processor circuit
950 to interact with input/output devices (e.g., the depicted
example keyboard 920 or printer 970) and/or other computing
devices, possibly through a network (e.g., the network 999) or an
interconnected set of networks. In recognition of the often greatly
different character of multiple types of signaling and/or protocols
that must often be supported by any one computing device, the
interface 990 is depicted as comprising multiple different
interface controllers 995a, 995b and 995c. The interface controller
995a may employ any of a variety of types of wired digital serial
interface or radio frequency wireless interface to receive serially
transmitted messages from user input devices, such as the depicted
keyboard 920 (perhaps corresponding to one or more of the controls
120 and 420). The interface controller 995b may employ any of a
variety of cabling-based or wireless signaling, timings and/or
protocols to access other computing devices through the depicted
network 999 (perhaps a network comprising one or more links,
smaller networks, or perhaps the Internet). The interface 995c may
employ any of a variety of electrically conductive cabling enabling
the use of either serial or parallel signal transmission to convey
data to the depicted printer 970. Other examples of devices that
may be communicatively coupled through one or more interface
controllers of the interface 990 include, without limitation,
microphones, remote controls, stylus pens, card readers, finger
print readers, virtual reality interaction gloves, graphical input
tablets, joysticks, other keyboards, retina scanners, the touch
input component of touch screens, trackballs, various sensors,
laser printers, inkjet printers, mechanical robots, milling
machines, etc.
[0111] Where a computing device is communicatively coupled to (or
perhaps, actually comprises) a display (e.g., the depicted example
display 980, corresponding to one or more of the displays 480 and
780), such a computing device implementing the processing
architecture 3100 may also comprise the display interface 985.
Although more generalized types of interface may be employed in
communicatively coupling to a display, the somewhat specialized
additional processing often required in visually displaying various
forms of content on a display, as well as the somewhat specialized
nature of the cabling-based interfaces used, often makes the
provision of a distinct display interface desirable. Wired and/or
wireless signaling technologies that may be employed by the display
interface 985 in a communicative coupling of the display 980 may
make use of signaling and/or protocols that conform to any of a
variety of industry standards, including without limitation, any of
a variety of analog video interfaces, Digital Video Interface
(DVI), DisplayPort, etc.
[0112] More generally, the various elements of the devices 100a-c,
200, 400, 600 and 700a-c may comprise various hardware elements,
software elements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardware
elements may include devices, logic devices, components,
processors, microprocessors, circuits, processor circuits, circuit
elements (e.g., transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and
so forth), integrated circuits, application specific integrated
circuits (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), digital signal
processors (DSP), field programmable gate array (FPGA), memory
units, logic gates, registers, semiconductor device, chips,
microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of software elements
may include software components, programs, applications, computer
programs, application programs, system programs, software
development programs, machine programs, operating system software,
middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines,
functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, application
program interfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code,
computer code, code segments, computer code segments, words,
values, symbols, or any combination thereof. However, determining
whether an embodiment is implemented using hardware elements and/or
software elements may vary in accordance with any number of
factors, such as desired computational rate, power levels, heat
tolerances, processing cycle budget, input data rates, output data
rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and other design or
performance constraints, as desired for a given implementation.
[0113] Some embodiments may be described using the expression "one
embodiment" or "an embodiment" along with their derivatives. These
terms mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic
described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least
one embodiment. The appearances of the phrase "in one embodiment"
in various places in the specification are not necessarily all
referring to the same embodiment. Further, some embodiments may be
described using the expression "coupled" and "connected" along with
their derivatives. These terms are not necessarily intended as
synonyms for each other. For example, some embodiments may be
described using the terms "connected" and/or "coupled" to indicate
that two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical
contact with each other. The term "coupled," however, may also mean
that two or more elements are not in direct contact with each
other, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.
[0114] It is emphasized that the Abstract of the Disclosure is
provided to allow a reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the
technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that
it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of
the claims. In addition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it
can be seen that various features are grouped together in a single
embodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This
method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an
intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than
are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following
claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all
features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following
claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with
each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment. In the
appended claims, the terms "including" and "in which" are used as
the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms "comprising"
and "wherein," respectively. Moreover, the terms "first," "second,"
"third," and so forth, are used merely as labels, and are not
intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.
[0115] What has been described above includes examples of the
disclosed architecture. It is, of course, not possible to describe
every conceivable combination of components and/or methodologies,
but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many
further combinations and permutations are possible. Accordingly,
the novel architecture is intended to embrace all such alterations,
modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope
of the appended claims. The detailed disclosure now turns to
providing examples that pertain to further embodiments. The
examples provided below are not intended to be limiting.
[0116] An example of an apparatus comprises a processor circuit and
a storage communicatively coupled to the processor circuit and
arranged to store instructions. The instructions are operative on
the processor circuit to receive signals that convey a first set of
statistical information closely related to play of a first game;
search the first set of statistical information for a first set of
statistical anomalies; and in response to the first set of
statistical anomalies comprising an insufficient number of
statistical anomalies, search a second set of statistical
information less closely related to play of the first game for a
second set of statistical anomalies, and transmit a multitude of
sentences that describe statistical anomalies of the first and
second sets of statistical anomalies to a computing device.
[0117] The above example of an apparatus in which the apparatus
comprises an interface operative to communicatively couple the
processor circuit to a network.
[0118] Either of the above examples of an apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to receive
signals via the network that convey the second set of statistical
information, the second set of statistical information closely
related to play of a second game.
[0119] Any of the above examples of an apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to receive a
signal via the network that indicates the first game is still in
progress; in response to reception of the signal that indicates the
first game is still in progress, receive signals via the network
that convey further statistical information closely related to play
of the first game; add the further statistical information to the
first set of statistical information; search the first set of
statistical information for further statistical anomalies; add the
further statistical anomalies to the first set of statistical
anomalies; and in response to the first set of statistical
anomalies comprising a sufficient number of statistical anomalies,
transmit another multitude of sentences that describe statistical
anomalies of the first set of statistical anomalies to the
computing device via the network.
[0120] Any of the above examples of an apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to search the
first set of statistical information for the first set of
statistical anomalies by searching for statistical anomalies
deviating from a normal distribution of statistics of the first set
of statistical information to at least a specified degree of
standard deviation.
[0121] Any of the above examples of an apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to rank
statistical anomalies of at least the first set of statistical
anomalies by degree of standard deviation.
[0122] Any of the above examples of an apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to rank
statistical anomalies of the first and second sets of statistical
anomalies by degree of closeness of relationship to the first
game.
[0123] Any of the above examples of an apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to generate a
sentence of the multitude of sentences in a specified language for
each statistical anomaly of at least the first set of statistical
anomalies employing a multitude of syntactic rules of a language
data stored in the storage, each sentence comprising a statement of
a statistical anomaly; and randomly select at least one verb for
each statement of a statistical anomaly from the language data.
[0124] Any of the above examples of an apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to modify a
likelihood of random selection of the at least one verb with at
least one weighting value.
[0125] Any of the above examples of an apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to format each
sentence of the multitude of sentences into a specified
machine-readable format for transmission to the computing device
via the network.
[0126] An example of another apparatus comprises a processor
circuit, an interface operative to communicatively couple the
apparatus to a network, and a storage communicatively coupled to
the processor circuit and arranged to store instructions. The
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to receive
signals via the network that convey a set of statistical
information closely related to play of a first game; generate a
first multitude of sentences in a specified language that describe
statistical anomalies identified in the set of statistical
information employing a multitude of syntactic rules of a language
data stored in the storage, each sentence comprising a statement of
a statistical anomaly; randomly select at least a verb for each
statement of a statistical anomaly from the language data; and
transmit the first multitude of sentences to a first computing
device via the network.
[0127] The above example of another apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to modify a
likelihood of random selection of the at least one verb with at
least one weighting value.
[0128] Either of the above examples of another apparatus in which
the instructions are operative on the processor circuit to format
each sentence of the first multitude of sentences into a first
specified machine-readable format for transmission to the first
computing device.
[0129] Any of the above examples of another apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to format each
sentence of the first multitude of sentences into a second
specified machine-readable format for transmission to a second
computing device.
[0130] Any of the above examples of another apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to receive a
signal via the network that indicates the first game is still in
progress; and in response to reception of the signal that indicates
the first game is still in progress, transmit the first multitude
of sentences to the first computing device in the first specified
machine-readable format.
[0131] Any of the above examples of another apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to receive a
signal via the network that indicates the first game has ended; and
in response to reception of the signal that indicates the first
game has ended, transmit the first multitude of sentences to the
second computing device in the second specified machine-readable
format.
[0132] Any of the above examples of another apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to embed data
in the first multitude of sentences associated with a second game;
receive a signal from the first computing device that indicates
that the embedded data has been selected as a selectable object;
and in response to reception of the signal that indicates that the
embedded data has been selected, cease transmitting the first
multitude of sentences to the first computing device and transmit a
second multitude of sentences that describe statistical anomalies
associated with the second game to the first computing device.
[0133] Any of the above examples of another apparatus in which the
first computing device comprises one of a presentation server that
transmits at least a portion of the first multitude of sentences to
a presentation device, and a presentation device.
[0134] Any of the above examples of another apparatus in which the
instructions are operative on the processor circuit to receive
signals that convey a configuration data that specifies at least
one of a selection of a game as the first game, a degree of
deviation required of the statistical anomalies identified, the
specified language, a syntactic rule of the specified language, a
verb of the specified language, and a machine-readable format into
which to format the multitude of sentences.
[0135] An example of a computer-implemented method comprises
receiving signals via a network conveying a first set of
statistical information closely related to play of a first game;
searching the first set of statistical information for a first set
of statistical anomalies; ranking statistical anomalies of the
first set of statistical anomalies by degree of deviation from a
normal distribution; generating a multitude of sentences in a
specified language describing statistical anomalies of the first
set of statistical anomalies, each sentence comprising a statement
of a statistical anomaly; randomly selecting at least a verb for
each statement of a statistical anomaly; and transmitting the
multitude of sentences to a first computing device via the
network.
[0136] The above example of a computer-implemented method in which
searching the first set of statistical information for the first
set of statistical anomalies comprises searching for statistical
anomalies deviating from a normal distribution of statistics of the
first set of statistical information to at least a specified degree
of standard deviation.
[0137] Either of the above examples of a computer-implemented
method in which ranking the statistical anomalies of the first set
of statistical anomalies comprises ranking the statistical the
statistical anomalies of the first set of statistical anomalies by
degree of standard deviation.
[0138] Any of the above examples of a computer-implemented method
in which the method comprises receiving signals via the network
conveying a second set of statistical information closely related
to play of a second game.
[0139] Any of the above examples of a computer-implemented method
in which the method comprises, in response to the first set of
statistical anomalies comprising an insufficient number of
statistical anomalies, searching the second set of statistical
information for a second set of statistical anomalies; ranking
statistical anomalies of the first and second sets of statistical
anomalies at least by degrees of deviation from normal
distributions; generating the multitude of sentences in the
specified language describing statistical anomalies of the first
and second sets of statistical anomalies; and transmit the
multitude of sentences to the first computing device via the
network.
[0140] Any of the above examples of a computer-implemented method
in which the method comprises receiving a signal via the network
indicating the first game is still in progress; in response to the
signal indicating the first game is still in progress, receiving
signals via the network conveying further statistical information
closely related to play of the first game; adding the further
statistical information to the first set of statistical
information; searching the first set of statistical information for
further statistical anomalies; ranking the further statistical
anomalies of the first set of statistical anomalies by degree of
deviation from a normal distribution; and generating further
sentences in a specified language describing the further
statistical anomalies.
[0141] Any of the above examples of a computer-implemented method
in which the method comprises formatting each sentence of the
multitude of sentences into a first specified machine-readable
format for transmission to the first computing device.
[0142] Any of the above examples of a computer-implemented method
in which the method comprises formatting each sentence of the
multitude of sentences into a second specified machine-readable
format for transmission to a second computing device.
[0143] Any of the above examples of a computer-implemented method
in which the method comprises receiving a signal via the network
indicating the first game is still in progress; and in response to
the signal indicating the first game is still in progress,
transmitting the multitude of sentences to the first computing
device in the first specified machine-readable format.
[0144] Any of the above examples of a computer-implemented method
in which the method comprises receiving a signal via the network
indicating the first game has ended; and in response to the signal
indicating the first game has ended, transmitting the multitude of
sentences to the second computing device in the second specified
machine-readable format.
[0145] An example of at least one machine-readable storage medium
comprises instructions that when executed by a computing device,
cause the computing device to receive signals via a network
conveying a first set of statistical information closely related to
play of a first game; search the first set of statistical
information for a first set of statistical anomalies; and in
response to the first set of statistical anomalies comprising an
insufficient number of statistical anomalies, search a second set
of statistical information less closely related to play of the
first game for a second set of statistical anomalies, and transmit
a multitude of sentences describing statistical anomalies of the
first and second sets of statistical anomalies to a computing
device via the network.
[0146] The above example of at least one machine-readable storage
medium in which the computing device is caused to generate a
sentence of the multitude of sentences in a specified language for
each statistical anomaly of at least the first set of statistical
anomalies employing a multitude of syntactic rules of a language
data stored in the storage, each sentence comprising a statement of
a statistical anomaly; randomly select at least a verb for each
statement of a statistical anomaly from the language data; and
format each sentence of the multitude of sentences into a specified
machine-readable format for transmission to the computing device
via the network.
[0147] Either of the above examples of at least one
machine-readable storage medium in which the computing device is
caused to receive a signal via the network indicating the first
game is still in progress; in response to the signal indicating the
first game is still in progress, transmit the multitude of
sentences to the computing device in the first specified
machine-readable format; receive a signal via the network
indicating the first game has ended; and in response to the signal
indicating the first game has ended, transmit the multitude of
sentences to the computing device in the second specified
machine-readable format.
* * * * *