Graphical Marker Alignment for Multiplayer Game Synchronization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing social networking systems struggle to synchronize the start times of multiplayer games or augmented reality applications across multiple user devices, despite users' efforts to initiate them simultaneously, due to the inherent complexities in networking and digital processing.
Innovation Solution
A system generates a graphical marker that includes fixed and rotating indicators, allowing users to align these indicators at a designated angle for simultaneous activation of gaming applications across devices, ensuring synchronized gameplay initiation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If users manually initiate multiplayer games on multiple devices simultaneously, then the game can start on each device, but the start times cannot be synchronized across devices due to networking and processing delays
Solution Approach 1:
A centralized server acts as an intermediary to coordinate game initiation. The server sends a initiation signal to all participating devices, ensuring they start the game simultaneously. This mediator approach eliminates the timing discrepancies that occur when devices attempt to start games independently, as the server centralizes the synchronization control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by having all devices connect to the server and register before the game starts. The server prepares the game state and coordinates the exact moment of initiation in advance, ensuring all devices are ready and will start simultaneously when the signal is given, rather than attempting to synchronize during actual game start.
2Reliability
If a centralized server coordinates game initiation, then synchronization accuracy improves, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each device independently monitors the server for initiation signals and automatically starts the game when received. This self-service approach means devices don't need complex synchronization logic or communication protocols with each other - they simply listen to the server and act independently, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining synchronization accuracy.
3Ease of operation
If devices independently process game initiation requests, then device autonomy is maintained, but synchronization precision deteriorates due to processing delays
Solution Approach 1:
Devices send confirmation to the server when they have successfully started the game. The server collects these feedback signals to verify synchronization. This feedback mechanism allows the system to maintain device autonomy while ensuring precise synchronization, as the server can monitor and confirm that all devices started simultaneously based on their feedback.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods directed to generating an interactive graphical marker that includes a first region with a first indicator and a second region with a second indicator, the second region being around a circumference of the first region. The systems and methods are also directed to monitoring an animation of the interactive graphical marker to detect when the first indicator and the second indicator are aligned at a predetermined angle of rotation, and in response to detecting that the first indicator and the second indicator are aligned, initiating an interactive game application on a second computing device and a third computing device.