Standard peripheral communication

• US 6,503,147 B1
• Filed: 08/09/2000
• Issued: 01/07/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Original Assignee: IGT (International Game Technology)
• Inventors: Stockdale, James, LeMay, Steven G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Martin-Wallace, Valencia
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kasick, Julie
• Application Number:
  US09/635,987
• Time in Patent Office: 881 Days
• Field of Search: 463/36, 463/37, 463/38, 463/39, 463/29, 710/8, 710/15, 710/62, 710/64, 710/65, 710/72
• US Class Current: 463/29
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3202 Hardware aspects of a gaming system, e.g. components, construction, architecture thereof

Abstract

A disclosed gaming machine has a plurality of “gaming peripherals,” each communicating with a master gaming controller via a standard peripheral interface such as the USB (Universal Serial Bus). Further, the gaming peripherals employ a standard peripheral controller and one or more specialized “peripheral devices” (e.g., the actual lights, bill validators, ticket printers, etc. that perform the specific functions of the gaming peripherals). Much of the hardware associated with the peripheral controller is identical from one gaming peripheral to the next. Only a portion of the peripheral controller hardware is specific to the different types of gaming peripherals.

Claims

1. A method for controlling operation of a plurality of gaming peripherals connected to a gaming machine, each gaming peripheral comprising i) a peripheral controller, ii) one or more peripheral devices and iii) a standard peripheral communications connection for connecting the peripheral controller to a master gaming controller wherein the perpherial controller includes a control microprocessor for controlling communication with the master gaming controller over the standard peripheral communications connection the method comprising:

sending a high level instruction for controlling a first gaming peripheral in the plurality of gaming peripherals from the master gaming controller to a peripheral controller in the first gaming peripheral via the standard peripheral communications connection, wherein the high level instruction does not precisely specify how the gaming peripheral must perform low level operations associated with the high level instruction;

converting the high level instruction to one or more low level operating instructions for controlling the operation of the one or more peripheral devices provided with the gaming peripheral using the control microprocessor in the first gaming peripheral; and

controlling operation of the one or more peripheral devices with the low level operating instructions.

wherein each controller microprocessor is substantially identical in each gaming peripheral of the plurality of gaming peripherals.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising confirming that the gaming peripheral is communicating with the master gaming controller.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the gaming peripheral sends a keep alive message to the master gaming controller, in which the keep alive message specifies a current operation that is being executed by the gaming peripheral.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising prior to sending the high level instruction, identifying the features of a peripheral device using a standard device identification protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to sending the high level instruction, loading or initializing a device driver for the peripheral device at the master gaming controller.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

determining that the master gaming controller has no device driver precisely matching the gaming peripheral; and

identifying an available device driver that meets at least some requirements for controlling the gaming peripheral.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising

determining that the gaming peripheral has been disconnected or is no longer communicating with the master gaming controller;

and

removing the device driver.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending instructions to configure the gaming peripheral, wherein the instructions are sent from the master gaming controller to the gaming peripheral via the peripheral connection.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising

storing state history information in the gaming peripheral, said state history information specifying a recent operating state of the gaming peripheral;

transmitting the stored state history information to the master gaming controller.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the state history information is stored in a non-volatile memory in the gaming peripheral.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more peripheral devices are selected from a group consisting of lights, printers, coin counters, bill validators, ticket readers, card readers, key pads, button panels, display screens, speakers, information panels, motors, mass storage devices and solenoids.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the standard peripheral communications connection is a USB connection.