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EA has made five of its accessibility patents free for any studio to
use

The publisher wants to help "break down barriers for players living
with disabilities"

News
24th Aug 2021 / 10:02 am
Posted by

Chris Scullion

EA has made five of its accessibility patents free for any studio to
use

Electronic Arts is sharing five of its previously protected patents
that improve accessibility for players.

In a statement on the official EA site, the publisher announced a
'patent pledge' that lets any other game developer use five of its
patents (with potentially more to follow) without having to pay any
money or risk being sued.

"Through our patent pledge, we're committing that every developer in
the industry will be able to use our accessibility-centred technology
patents royalty free," the statement reads.

"Anyone can freely use these patents and implement our
accessibility-centred IP in their own games to make them more
inclusive.

"This pledge covers some of our most innovative technologies designed
to break down barriers for players living with disabilities or
medical issues. This includes those with vision, hearing, speaking or
cognitive issues."

 The patents EA is sharing include the ping system used in Apex
Legends

The five patents include the ping system used in Apex Legends, where
players can communicate with their teammates without speaking by
placing various different markers on the map.

According to the pledge, EA "promises not to enforce any party for
infringing any of the listed EA patents", and says it "may add
additional patents to this pledge at a later date".

It only has one exception: if someone files a lawsuit against EA for
infringing a different patent, EA will refuse to share the
accessibility patents with them.

The five patents are as follows:

  * Contextually Aware Communications System 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 (two patents) - Image processing that
    improves visibility of colours to optimize for colour vision
    deficiencies.
  * Contrast Radio 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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