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Hmmm... Fumito Ueda, barrels, a giant cat... it's NeoGAF's favorite perpetually-missing game, The Last Guardian!
Fumito Ueda is credited as the inventor for five different Sony patents between 2011 and 2013. Some of them (like the one pictured above) are obviously from The Last Guardian's development, though a few of them appear to be more general.
Here's a quick rundown (most recent first) and my best effort to translate from technical jargon to English.
- OBJECT CONTROL DEVICE, COMPUTER READABLE STORAGE MEDIUM STORING OBJECT CONTROL PROGRAM, AND OBJECT CONTROL METHOD
Text version
PDF version with diagrams
Appears to be an algorithm about controlling the catbird's attention depending on whether or not an object of interest is within its field of view. Stick figure cat appears on page 17.
- IMAGE GENERATING DEVICE, IMAGE GENERATING METHOD, AND NON-TRANSITORY INFORMATION STORAGE MEDIUM
Text version
PDF with diagrams
This one's about creature skeletons, and rendering its flexibility when in motion.
- IMAGE GENERATING DEVICE, IMAGE GENERATING METHOD, AND NON-TRANSITORY INFORMATION STORAGE MEDIUM
Text version
PDF with diagrams
This one is about creating a sag effect when a "person clings to or rides on any one of the left and right sides of an animal"
- COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM HAVING OBJECT CONTROL PROGRAM STORED THEREON, OBJECT CONTROL DEVICE, AND OBJECT CONTROL METHOD
Text version
PDF with images (image screencapped at the top of this post comes from here)
This one's about a main character (the boy) having control over a second character (the catbird) by using an intermediary object (barrels). I love that this is a highly technical document about controlling a fantastical giant griffin and yet curiously never makes specific reference to it.
- Game Control Program, Game Device and Game Control Method, Management Server, and Data Managing Method
Text version
PDF with diagrams
This one's interesting! This patent is about user-generated levels and how a user sets up obstacles (the patent refers to obstacles as "gimmicks") in a level. Are/were user-generated levels an idea that Ueda wanted to implement in The Last Guardian? This is the first time I've heard of that in connection with this title. Some of the diagrams look like Super Mario Bros....
Technical jargon gives me a headache (worse than legalese), so I'm hoping a few of you Gaffers can sort through these in more detail and maybe pick out some more interesting bits?