Microsoft has submitted a patent that could greatly improve the viewing experience of esports competition livestreams and beyond. As more and more companies leverage the burgeoning niche of machine learning technologies, it was to be expected that one of the biggest software companies in the world, Microsoft, would have a few ideas on how to use them as well, and the new patent could serve a very useful function sometime down the line.
Of course, Microsoft is always submitting patents, it's worth pointing out. Some of these end up being used in the long run, while others might fade into obscurity due to the concept being somewhat unfeasible. This means that a submitted patent listing isn't proof enough that a feature might see the light of day on its own, though it's certainly a suggestion of what might come to fruition over time.
Specifically, Microsoft's new patent describes a machine learning solution that would be trained to keep track of esports competition livestreams and then immediately report the occurrence of particular events directly to the viewers. Whereas Microsoft's eye-tracking technology patent may sound more ominous at a glance, the featured patent instead appears to be a pure quality-of-life computing system that could report on the relevant esports match results, for example, without outside input and without having to wait for external verification of the live score.
Presumably, this patent would allow Microsoft's machine learning system to report the given score in a variety of ways, one of which may even include the newly patented Xbox controller with an LCD. Whatever the case may be, having access to a reliable, fair, and unbiased score reporting system could be an immense boon for esports audiences, and it follows that proper training could help expand Microsoft's hypothetical patent to real-world sports and beyond.
Considering all of the above, it may also be of interest to highlight that Microsoft patented emotionally manipulative machine learning algorithms earlier this year. This particular patent posits the use of heuristic methods interacting with the gameplay loop systems in real time to modify how the player feels about the game they're playing. While its functionality is wildly different from that of Microsoft's patented esports reporting system, it's likely that the lessons learned in one of these projects would apply to the other as Microsoft's expertise in machine learning broadens over time.
In broader terms, Microsoft does have more immediate concerns than its machine learning patents at this time. Namely, its attempt to acquire Activision Blizzard has been somewhat derailed as of late, thanks to the FTC's argument against allowing the acquisition to go through. Yet, the EU has contradicted the FTC in Microsoft's favor, which was quite an unexpected turn of events.