EA open source Fonttik, helps devs check text size & contrast — plus patent pledges

As part of their original initiative about sharing patent pledge to not go after others on accessibility, EA have recently released Fonttik as open source to help game developers. Available on GitHub under the BSD license along with Linux noted as supported, Fonttik is a way for developers to check text size & contrast to help with accessibility.

From the GitHub page:

Fonttik is a console application and library created by EA Compliance & Certification that processes images and videos highlighting compliant and not compliant text that meets and does not meet desired according to a set of guidelines. The guidelines checked by Fonttik ensure text has a minimum size relative to screen resolution or DPI and that it has sufficient luminance contrast against its background, according to desired criteria, to be readable or more likely to be readeable by color vision deficient people. Fonttik is not intended to guarantee, certify or otherwise validate an image or video's complance with legal, regulatory or other requirements.

Nice move from EA, hope to see more like this out in the open.

On top of that, they've recently added more patents to this accessibility pledge, where they won't go after other developers and publishers for using them. The newly added patents include:

• US 11,458,388 - Machine learning system that automatically recommends controller configuration settings based on a player's specific gameplay style, skill and tendencies.
• US 10,926,173 - Player-designated custom voice utterances for controlling in-game actions of non-player characters (NPCs).
• US 10,621,317 - Audio-based authentication for pairing player accounts with voice controlled devices, allowing players to use voice utterances to interact with portions of a game in an authenticated manner.
• US 9,772,743 - Virtual joystick that moves based on the position of a player’s thumb on a touchscreen.
• US 11,358,054 - Using haptic feedback sequences to convey to players information displayed on a screen as well as inputs to press to select certain content.
• US 11,504,625 - Color blindness indication objects used in game to automatically determine, enable, and adjust color blind accessibility settings during a gameplay session of a video game.

It's worth noting though, that EA are reserving their right to terminate this open patent pledge with anyone specific, if they or an affiliate "files a patent infringement lawsuit or other patent proceeding against EA, its affiliates, or partners". So basically, don't go after EA and they won't go after you.