Sony Files Patent Application For "Mystery Science Theater 3000"-Like Interactive TV Technology

Interactive TV Today reports that Sony Computer Entertainment America has filed a patent application for an interactive TV technology that would superimpose viewer-controlled avatars on top of a TV show or movie–thus resulting in an experience which might be described as an interactive version of the cult show, “Mystery Science Theater 3000” (which is actually referenced in the patent application). “In an embodiment of the invention, users are enabled to interact with enhanced interactive productions of television shows or movies, based upon adding game overlays to such movies or television shows,” the patent application explains. “In this way, the physics in the game or virtual world meet with the boundaries defined in the television show or movie set. For example, avatars displayed to a user, in response to user gestures in the real world, e.g. in response to manipulation of a game controller or other such expedient, may toss tomatoes that stick to the actor’s face or bounce off the actor’s face and roll along a table that appears in the movie or television show.”

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