This patent was filed in 2010 but published in 2012. Looks like Silicon Knights and Nintendo were working on something that involved tagging specific objects with indicators that would change your character's animation. For example, imagine walking past a scary painting in a background. The painting would have an invisible tag attached to it, and when your character crossed that tag's path they would start to shiver and sneak by. That's all without any special input from you.

I wonder what these guys were up to with this patent. Thanks to Emily for the heads up!