EA to Patent 23 Accessibility Technologies, Offering Royalty-Free Access to Developers to Enhance Gaming Inclusivity

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Electronic Arts (EA) is stepping up its game in making video gaming accessible to a wider audience by patenting 23 cutting-edge technologies. Excitingly, these innovations will be accessible to the whole industry without any royalties or licensing fees. This year, six of the 23 tools are set to be released, including Intelligent Personalized Speech Recognition, the IRIS plugin for Unreal Engine 5, and Emotion-Based Music Style Change Using Deep Learning.

In the spirit of recent events like the International Day of People with Disabilities on December 3rd, major gaming companies are focusing on how to reduce barriers in gaming. Xbox, for instance, recently showcased its dedication by announcing new accessibility features and spotlighting games with enhanced inclusivity. Now, it’s EA’s turn to shine as they expand their Patent Pledge and reveal 23 upcoming additions aimed at making gaming more inclusive.

Back in 2021, EA initiated an industry-first Patent Pledge dedicated to accessibility technologies. This bold move promised to hold patents providing solutions to overcome various accessibility challenges in games. Importantly, EA ensured these technologies would be open to all, industry-wide, without charging for royalties or licenses.

Kerry Hopkins, EA’s Senior Vice President of Global Affairs, remarked, “Games should be for everyone, and our lead thinkers are constantly driven to make this happen. By sharing our technologies, we aim to break down access barriers and promote inclusivity across the global gaming community.”

As part of their ongoing efforts, EA is rolling out a plugin for Unreal Engine 5, harnessing their IRIS photosensitivity analysis technology. This tool offers developers a powerful means to identify frames that might affect players with photosensitivity issues.

Developers using the IRIS plugin can conduct real-time analysis during gameplay, pinpointing luminance flashes, red saturation, and spatial patterns that might trigger discomfort or harm in players susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy.

EA’s initiative isn’t stopping there. Six assorted technologies from their 23-patent lineup are slated to be released this year. These include:

– Intelligent Personalized Speech Recognition: Tailoring speech recognition systems to each user’s unique accent or speech impairment variations.
– Generating Expressive Speech Audio From Text Data: Creating expressive speech from text, allowing players to personalize speech styles and features.
– Generating Speech in the Voice of a Player: This tech enables players to create speech for their game avatars mimicking their voice using minimal sample data.
– Voice Aging Using Machine Learning: A nifty system allowing players to age their voices to a desired age without needing extra voice samples.
– Emotion-Based Music Style Change Using Deep Learning: This feature smartly adjusts a game’s background soundtrack according to the player’s emotional state.
– Dynamically Selecting Speech Functionality on Client Devices: It effortlessly detects availabilities and launches speech recognition tech on any gaming device.

Moreover, EA’s earlier patented tools, like Fonttik, help assess text readability for players with different vision conditions by checking size and contrast. EA’s popular Apex Legends’ “ping system” has revolutionized team-based gaming communication and even inspired similar systems in games like Call of Duty.

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