Information Flow Control for Gaming Machines Requiring Server Support

• US 20100035690A1
• Filed: 08/25/2006
• Published: 02/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sg Gaming, Inc. (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Original Assignee: WMS Gaming Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Davis, Robert T., Blackburn, Christopher W., Frattinger, Christopher J., Warkentin, Terry D., Ruebusch, Suzanne J.
• Granted Patent: US 8,177,632 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/792 for payment purposes, e.g. monthly subscriptions
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/209 characterized by low level software layer, relating to hardware management, e.g. Operating System, Application Programming Interface
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/402 Communication between platforms, i.e. physical link to protocol
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/513 server hierarchy, e.g. local, regional, national or dedicated for different tasks, e.g. authenticating, billing
• 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 17/3244 Payment aspects of a gaming system, e.g. payment schemes, setting payout ratio, bonus or consolation prizes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

A computing apparatus operating as a gaming machine permits wagering on games. A browser generates a request for information contained on a remote server. An intermediate client-side processing, ICSP, engine coupled with the browser receives the request and generates a corresponding request that is transmitted to the remote server. The browser, following the transmission of the first message, being released to process other actions without having yet received a reply to the first message.

Claims

1. A communication method implemented by a portable computing apparatus operating as a gaming machine that permits wagering on games comprising the steps of:

receiving a first input from a browser residing on the portable computing apparatus by an intermediate client-side processing, ICSP, engine also residing on the computing apparatus, where the first input is a request for information of the physical location of the computing apparatus relative to a predetermined boundary within which the portable computing apparatus must be in order to be operated as a gaming machine that permits wagering on games;

generating a first message by the ICSP engine responsive to receipt of the first input and transmitting the first message to the remote server, where the first message seeks said information from a remote server;

releasing the browser to process other actions following the sending of the first input to the ICSP engine without having yet received a reply to the first input;

receiving, in response to said first message, an other message by the ICSP engine from the remote server, where the other message conveys to the portable computing apparatus whether it is within said predetermined boundary, where the computing apparatus communicates the first message to and receives the other message from the remote server by wireless communication channels.

2. The communication method of claim 1 wherein the first message comprises an asynchronous data retrieval message.

3. The communication method of claim 2 wherein the asynchronous data retrieval message comprises an extensible markup language hypertext transfer protocol request (XMLHttpRequest).

4. The communication method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating a second message by the ICSP engine responsive to receipt of the first input and transmitting the second message to the browser without awaiting receipt of a reply responding to the first message from the remote server;

receiving the second message by the browser enables the browser to continue processing other tasks without having received the reply from the remote server responding to the request by the browser;

receiving a third message originated by the remote server by the ICSP engine, the third message being a reply to the first message.

5. The communication method of claim 1 further comprising the step of displaying boundary information to the user in response to receipt of the other message so that the user is advised of whether the portable computing apparatus is permitted to operate as a gaming machine that permits wagering on games at its current location.

6. The communication method of claim 4 further comprising the step of converting by the ICSP engine the XML data of the third message into a fourth message that is transmitted to the browser.

7. The communication method of claim 6 wherein the fourth message comprises hypertext markup language, HTML, format and cascading style sheet, CSS, data.

8. The communication method of claim 6 wherein a first time interval from the receiving of the first input by the ICSP engine to receipt of the third message by the ICSP engine is substantially longer than a second time interval from the receiving of the first input by the ICSP engine to transmission of the second message by the ICSP engine.

9. The communication method of claim 1 further comprising the step of the remote server saving states associated with the ongoing play of a game by the user upon a determination being made that the portable computing apparatus is not within said predetermined boundary so that play of the game interrupted due to the computing apparatus being outside of the predetermined boundary can be resumed by restarting the game with said saved states when the computing apparatus is inside of the predetermined boundary.

10. A portable computing apparatus operating as a gaming machine that permits wagering on games, the computing apparatus comprising:

a browser adapted to generate a first message representing a request for information contained on a remote server;

an intermediate client-side processing, ICSP, engine coupled with the browser and adapted to receive the first message, the browser transmitting the first message to the ICSP engine where the first message is a request for information of the physical location of the computing apparatus relative to a predetermined boundary within which the portable computing apparatus must be in order to be operated as a gaming machine that permits wagering on games;

the ICSP engine generating a second message in response to receipt of the first message and transmitting the second message to the remote server, where the second message seeks said information from the remote server;

the browser, following the transmission of the first message, being released to process other actions without having yet received a reply to the first message;

the ICSP engine receiving, in response to said second message, an other message from the remote server, where the other message conveys to the portable computing apparatus whether it is within said predetermined boundary;

a wireless communication access module communicates the second message to and receives the other message from the remote server by wireless communication channels.

11. The computing apparatus of claim 10 wherein the second message generated by the ICSP engine comprises an asynchronous data retrieval message.

12. The computing apparatus of claim 11 wherein the asynchronous data retrieval message comprises an extensible markup language hypertext transfer protocol request (XMLHttpRequest).

13. The computing apparatus of claim 10 further comprising:

the ICSP engine generating a third message in response to receipt of the first message and transmitting the third message to the browser without awaiting receipt of a reply from the remote server responding to the second message;

the browser receiving the third message that enables the browser to continue processing other tasks without having received the reply from the remote server responding to the request by the browser;

the ICSP engine receiving a fourth message originated by the remote server, the fourth message being a reply to the second message.

14. The computing apparatus of claim 10 further comprising means for displaying boundary information to the user in response to receipt of the other message so that the user is advised of whether the portable computing apparatus is permitted to operate as a gaming machine that permits wagering on games at its current location.

15. The computing apparatus of claim 13 further comprising the ICSP engine converting the XML data of the fourth message into a fifth message that is transmitted to the browser.

16. The computing apparatus of claim 15 wherein the fifth message comprises hypertext markup language, HTML, format and cascading style sheet, CSS, data.

17. The computing apparatus of claim 15 wherein a first time interval from the receiving of the first message by the ICSP engine to receipt of the fourth message by the ICSP engine is substantially longer than a second time interval from the receiving of the first message by the ICSP engine to transmission of the third message by the ICSP engine.

18. The computing apparatus of claim 10 wherein the remote server stores states associated with the ongoing play of a game by the user upon a determination being made that the portable computing apparatus is not within said predetermined boundary so that play of a game interrupted due to the computing apparatus being outside of the predetermined boundary can be resumed by restarting the game with said stored states when the computing apparatus is inside of the predetermined boundary.

19. A communication method implemented by a computing apparatus operating as a gaming machine that permits wagering on games comprising the steps of:

receiving a first input from a browser residing on the computing apparatus by an intermediate client-side processing, ICSP, engine also residing on the computing apparatus, where the first input is a request for information of whether a special prize has been awarded to the user based on play of a game;

generating a first message by the ICSP engine responsive to receipt of the first input and transmitting the first message to the remote server, where the first message seeks said information from a remote server, the special prize information being accessible to the remote server from a special prize service server;

releasing the browser to process other actions following the sending of the first input to the ICSP engine without having vet received a reply to the first input;

receiving, in response to said first message, an other message by the ICSP engine from the remote server, where the other message conveys to the computing apparatus whether a special prize has been awarded.

20. A computing apparatus operating as a gaming machine that permits wagering on games, the computing apparatus comprising:

a browser adapted to generate a first message representing a request for information contained on a remote server;

an intermediate client-side processing, ICSP, engine coupled with the browser and adapted to receive the first message, the browser transmitting the first message to the ICSP engine where the first message is a request for information of whether a special prize has been awarded to the user based on play of a game;

the ICSP engine generating a second message in response to receipt of the first message and transmitting the second message to the remote server, where the second message seeks said information from the remote server, the special prize information being accessible to the remote server from a special prize service server;

the browser, following the transmission of the first message, being released to process other actions without having yet received a reply to the first message;

the ICSP engine receiving, in response to said second message, an other message from the remote server, where the other message conveys to the portable computing apparatus whether a special prize has been awarded to the user based on play of a game.