Presentation of remotely-hosted and locally rendered content for gaming systems

• US 10,026,255 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2009
• Issued: 07/17/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Original Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Inventors: LeMay, Steven G., Nelson, Dwayne R.
• Primary Examiner(s): GARNER, WERNER G
• Application Number:
  US12/426,165
• Publication Number:
  US 20090233705A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,378 Days
• Field of Search: 463 31
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3223 Architectural aspects of a gaming system, e.g. internal configuration, master/slave, wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3239 Tracking of individual players

Abstract

A gaming system including a number of host devices each coupled to one or more gaming machines, wherein content provided by the host device is output on the gaming machine. To output the content provided by the remote host, a host-controlled process that is authenticated by the gaming machine and executed in a secure memory location such that it is isolated from other processes executing on the gaming machine may be utilized. The host-controlled processes may be decoupled from the process used to execute the game of chance played on the gaming machine such that the content output by the host-controlled process does not alter the play of game of chance.

Claims

1. A gaming device comprising:

a housing;

a plurality of input devices supported by the housing, said plurality of input devices including an acceptor, and a cashout device;

a display device supported by the housing;

an interface system including a network interface and an externally controlled interface; and

a logic system configured to;

responsive to a physical item being received via the acceptor, establish a credit balance based, at least in part, on a monetary value associated with the received physical item,

receive, via at least one of the plurality of input devices, a wager on a play of a game of chance, said received wager causes a decrease of the credit balance,

for the wagered on play of the game of chance, determine gaming video content including an outcome of the game of chance,

responsive to a determination occurring, based at least in part on a usage of the logic system, to allocate control of a first resource of the display device to at least one remote host which is distinct from the logic system;

receive an integrated video content including both remotely hosted video content and the gaming video content, wherein;

the remotely hosted video content is received, via the interface system, from the at least one remote host which executes remote host software to control, independent of the logic system, the first resource of the display device,

the remotely hosted video content comprises an available player service executed by a service provider associated with a gaming establishment, the available player service being at least one of;

a placement of an order of at least one of a food and a drink, a transfer of funds to the credit balance, a transfer of funds from the credit balance, a purchase of a lottery ticket which causes a decrease of the credit balance, and a reservation for an upcoming tournament, and

the integrated video content is received from a video integration system which integrates the remotely hosted video content and the gaming video content to produce the integrated video content, and

cause the display device to display the received integrated video content including both the remotely hosted video content and the gaming video content, and

responsive to a cashout input being received via the cashout device, cause an initiation of any payout associated with the credit balance.

2. The gaming device of claim 1, wherein the logic system is operable to independently generate the outcome of the game of chance.

3. The gaming device of claim 1, wherein the logic system is operable to independently execute a gaming program for the game of chance to independently generate the outcome of the game of chance.

4. The gaming device of claim 1, which includes an audio output device, wherein the remotely hosted content includes remotely hosted audio content and the logic system is configured to control the audio output device to output the remotely host audio content.

5. The gaming device of claim 4, wherein the logic system is configured to control the audio output device to output gaming audio content for the game of chance.

6. The gaming device of claim 1, which includes determining the gaming video content associated by at least one of:

receiving the gaming video content, selecting the gaming video content and identifying the gaming video content.

7. The gaming device of claim 1, which includes an audio output system configured to:

receive at least one host audio signal from at least one gaming server; and

when the remotely hosted content and the gaming video content are output to the display device, output the at least one host audio signal to an audio device associated with the audio output system.

8. The gaming device of claim 1, wherein the video integration system including at least one of:

a Picture and Picture subsystem configured to, using a Picture and Picture technique, cause a display of the gaming video content and the remotely hosted video content at the same time on the display device;

a Picture in Picture subsystem configured to, using a Picture in Picture technique, cause a display of the gaming video content and the remotely hosted video content at the same time on the display device;

a Split Screen subsystem configured to, using a Split Screen technique, cause a display of the gaming video content and the remotely hosted video content at the same time on at least two split portions of the display device; and

a Video Compositing subsystem configured to;

combine the gaming video content and the remotely hosted video content to generate a composited image; and

using a Video Compositing technique, cause a display of the composited image on the display device.

9. The gaming device of claim 8, wherein the video compositing technique includes a Digital Compositing technique.

10. The gaming device of claim 1, wherein the video integration system including a video overlay subsystem includes a Hardware Overlay technique.

11. The gaming device of claim 10, wherein a video overlay technique used to produce the integrated video content uses a plurality of memory sections, wherein at least one section of the plurality of memory sections is dedicated to store local video content locally rendered by a local video rendering subsystem of the gaming device, and wherein at least one other section of the plurality memory sections is dedicated to store the remotely hosted video content.

12. The gaming device of claim 1, wherein the at least one remote host includes at least one gaming server;

and the gaming device includes an apparatus configured to receive the remotely hosted content from the at least one gaming server.

13. The gaming device of claim 1, wherein the remotely hosted content is determined based on at least one of:

an identity of a player, a location of the gaming device within the gaming establishment, a status of the player, an amount wagered, an amount of an award, a theme of the game of chance, a theme of the gaming establishment where the gaming device is located, a preference of the player, a preference of an operator of the gaming device, and an event related to the play of the game of chance.

14. A gaming device comprising:

a housing;

a display device supported by the housing;

a plurality of input devices supported by the housing, said plurality of input devices including an acceptor, and a cashout device;

at least one gaming device processor; and

at least one gaming device memory device which stores a plurality of gaming device instructions, which when executed by the at least one gaming device processor, cause the at least one gaming device processor to;

responsive to a physical item being received via the acceptor, establish a credit balance based, at least in part, on a monetary value associated with the received physical item;

receive, via at least one of the plurality of input devices, a wager on a play of a game of chance, said received wager causes a decrease of the credit balance,

for the wagered on play of the game of chance, determine gaming video content including an outcome of the game of chance;

responsive to a determination occurring, based at least in part on a usage of the at least one gaming device processor, to allocate control a first resource of the display device to at least one remote host gaming server which is distinct from the at least one gaming device processor;

receive remotely hosted video content from the at least one remote host gaming server, wherein the at least one remote host gaming server is distinct from the at least one processor, and;

integrate the remotely hosted video content with the gaming video content using a video overlay integration technique to generate an integrated video content including both the remotely hosted video content and the gaming video content, wherein;

the remotely hosted video content is received from the at least one remote host gaming server which executes remote host software to control, independent of the at least one gaming device processor, the first resource of the display device, and

the remotely hosted video content comprises an available player service executed by a service provider associated with a gaming establishment, the available player service being at least one of;

a placement of an order of at least one of a food and a drink, a transfer of funds to the credit balance, a transfer of funds from the credit balance, a purchase of a lottery ticket which causes a decrease of the credit balance, and a reservation for an upcoming tournament; and

cause the display device to display the integrated video content; and

responsive to a cashout input being received via the cashout device, cause an initiation of any payout associated with the credit balance.