EA has announced that they’ll be sharing five of their previously protected patents to aid accessibility and “break down barriers for players living with disabilities or medical issues.”The list of patents, which was unveiled as part of
EA’s Accessibility Patent Pledge, includes a number of features that are designed to help those with “vision, hearing, speaking or cognitive issues,” which should make gaming more accessible for all.
“Through our patent pledge, we’re committing that every developer in the industry will be able to use our accessibility-centered technology patents — royalty free,”
EA announced via their website.
This means that “anyone can freely use these patents and implement our accessibility-centered IP in their own games to make them more inclusive,” which is a surprisingly generous move from the company whose greed garnered them the
most downvoted commend in the history of Reddit.
While EA still holds the right to terminate this accessibility pledge for specific parties if they choose to, it seems they’re turning over somewhat of a new leaf with this inclusive step forward.
The five patents EA is sharing as part of this accessibility pledge are as follows:
■
Contextually aware communications in video games – Ping System that allows players to transmit
contextually aware audio and visual communications generated via mappable controller inputs.
■
Systems and methods for automated image processing for images with similar luminosities – Image
processing that improves visibility of colors to optimize for color vision deficiencies.
■
Contrast ratio detection and rendering system – Automatically detecting contrast ratios in pixel
regions of rendered frames and updating regions having subpar contrast ratios to meet contrast ratio
standards or thresholds.
■
Personalized real-time audio generation based on user physiological response – Generating
personalized music based on a user’s hearing information and stylistic preference to best comport with that
user’s hearing issues.
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