System and method for awarding prizes

• US 6,824,469 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2002
• Issued: 11/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Pictures Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Pictures Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Allibhoy, Nizar, Wodtke, Nicholas Cross
• Primary Examiner(s): SAGER, MARK ALAN
• Application Number:
  US10/134,156
• Publication Number:
  US 20030013528A1
• Time in Patent Office: 950 Days
• Field of Search: 725/109-111, 725/135, 725/141, 725/105, 725/106, 340/323.R, 463/9-10, 463/29, 463/25, 463/23, 463/40-42, 700/91-93, 345/327, 348/13
• US Class Current: 463/40
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 11/0074 Game concepts, rules or strategies
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2003/083 played via television
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 3/081 electric

Abstract

A system and method for awarding prizes in a contest consisting of multiple sub-contests in which prizes are awarded to contestants based on the contestants'"'"' relative skill, even where some of the sub-contests may be known to some of the contestants in advance of the contest. Points are awarded to contestants for correct responses to the sub-contests. Contestants are ranked by the number of points they were awarded. The number of points awarded in the various sub-contests, or the weighting, causes the ranking to approximately correlate to the contestants'"'"' performance on a particular sub-set of the sub-contests. Sub-grouping of contestants and multi-tiered prizing structures are also employed.

Claims

1. A method for awarding prizes to contestants in a contest that includes a plurality of sub-contests comprising:

awarding points to contestants based in part on each respective contestant'"'"'s correct responses to a first set of sub-contests, the first set of sub-contests being a pre-recorded broadcast;

awarding points to contestants based in part on each respective contestant'"'"'s correct responses to a second set of sub-contests, the second set of sub-contests being a real-time broadcast;

creating a ranking of the contestants based on points awarded to each respective contestant from highest number of points awarded to lowest number of points awarded;

weighting the number of points awarded for each sub-contest so that the ranking approximately correlates to the contestants'"'"' performance on the second set of sub-contests; and

awarding at least one prize to a contestant based at least in part on the ranking.

2. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein the first set of sub-contests are based on chance.

3. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein the second set of sub-contests are based on skill.

4. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein the contest is an interactive game show.

5. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 4, wherein the first set of sub-contests is broadcasted in more than one time zone.

6. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein the contest is an interactive game show, and wherein the second set of sub-contests is broadcasted in a manner such that different sub-contests may be provided to different contestants.

7. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein the first set of sub-contests is the same for all contestants and wherein the second set of sub-contests is not the same for all contestants.

8. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein the contest is an interactive game show, and wherein the first set of sub-contests are pre-recorded puzzles.

9. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 8, wherein the second set of sub-contests are puzzles that are selected from a puzzle pool such that different puzzles from the puzzle pool may be presented to different contestants.

10. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein creating a ranking of the contestants further comprises:

dividing the contestants into sub-groups; and

creating a ranking for each sub-group of the contestants in the respective sub-group based on points awarded to each respective contestant from highest number of points awarded to lowest number of points awarded.

11. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 10, wherein the contestants are divided into sub-groups based on each contestant'"'"'s respective geographic region.

12. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 10, wherein the contestants are divided into sub-groups based on an amount each respective contestant paid to participate in the contest.

13. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 10, wherein the contestants are divided into sub-groups based on a frequency of play for each respective contestant.

14. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein awarding at least one prize comprises awarding a prize to a contestant who is awarded the most points.

15. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 10, wherein awarding at least one prize to a contestant based on the ranking comprises awarding a prize to a contestant in each sub-group who is awarded the most points within the respective sub-group.

16. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 10, wherein dividing the contestants into sub-groups is based at least in part on the ranking, and wherein at least one prize is awarded pseudo-randomly to a contestant in a sub-group.

17. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

charging the contestants to participate in the contest.

18. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein creating a ranking of the contestants based on points awarded further comprises ranking contestants who have the same number of points according to a second criterion.

19. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 18, wherein the second criterion is an amount of time taken by each respective contestant to solve the first set of sub-contests.

20. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 19, wherein the second criterion is a number of points awarded to each respective contestant based on the respective contestant'"'"'s responses to the first set of sub-contests.

21. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein the first set of sub-contests are sufficiently available to each respective contestant prior to the contest and the second set of sub-contests are sufficiently unavailable to each respective contestant prior to the contest.

22. A method for awarding prizes according to claim 1, wherein the second set of sub-contests are presented to each respective contestant at specified intervals between the first set of sub-contests.

23. A system for awarding prizes to contestants in an interactive television game show comprising:

a storage medium that stores a pre-recorded game show having pre-recorded puzzles;

a storage medium that stores a pool of bonus puzzles;

an integrating device that integrates at least a portion of the pool of bonus puzzles with the pre-recorded game show to create a combined signal;

a transmitting device that transmits the bonus puzzles in real-time along with the ore-recorded game show;

a plurality of engines that receive the combined signal and present different bonus puzzles in real time to different contestants along with the pre-recorded puzzles; and

a response network that receives communications from contestants that are associated with the pre-recorded puzzles and the bonus puzzles and awards points to contestants for correct responses to the pre-recorded puzzles and the bonus puzzles wherein the number of points awarded for the correct responses is weighted to sufficiently insure that a ranking of contestants based on a number of points awarded substantially correlates with a relative performance of the contestants on the bonus puzzles, and wherein the response network determines a contestants to be a prize winner based at least in part on the ranking.

24. A system for awarding prizes according to claim 23, wherein the response network divides the contestants into sub-groups and wherein a contestant in each sub-group is determined to be a prize winner based at least in part on the ranking.

25. A system for awarding prizes according to claim 24, wherein the response network divides the contestants into sub-groups based on each contestant'"'"'s geographic region.

26. A system for awarding prizes according to claim 24, wherein the response network divides the contestants into sub-groups based on an amount each contestant paid to participate in the contest.

27. A system for awarding prizes according to claim 24, wherein the response network divides the contestants into sub-groups based on a frequency of play for each contestant.

28. A system for awarding prizes according to claim 23, wherein the prize winner is a contestant who was awarded the most points among contestants.

29. A system for awarding prizes according to claim 23, wherein the contestants are charged to participate in the interactive television game show.

30. A system for awarding prizes according to claim 23, wherein the contestants who were awarded the same number of points are ranked according to a second criterion.

31. A system for awarding prizes according to claim 30, wherein the second criterion is an amount of time taken by each contestant to respond correctly to the pre-recorded puzzles.

32. A system for awarding prizes according to claim 30, wherein the second criterion is a number of points awarded to each contestant based on the respective contestant'"'"'s responses to the pre-recorded puzzles.

33. A system for awarding prizes according to claim 23, wherein the pre-recorded puzzles are sufficiently available to each respective contestant prior to the contest and the at least a portion of the bonus puzzles are sufficiently unavailable to each respective contestant prior to the contest.

34. A system for awarding prizes according to claim 23, wherein the at least a portion of the bonus puzzles are presented to each respective contestant at specified intervals between the pre-recorded puzzles.