Methods for the unambiguous association of at least one autonomous storage unit with at least one player in a score keeping device

• US 8,702,521 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2011
• Issued: 04/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SMARTRAC Investment B.V. (Avery Dennison Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Publicsolution GmbH
• Inventors: Wilm, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Milap
• Assistant Examiner(s): PINHEIRO, JASON PAUL
• Application Number:
  US12/932,442
• Publication Number:
  US 20110250973A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,152 Days
• Field of Search: 463/25, 463/42
• US Class Current: 463/42
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/10 Control of the course of the game, e.g. start, progess, end
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/335 using Internet
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/45 Controlling the progress of the video game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/73 Authorising game programs or game devices, e.g. checking authenticity
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/95 Storage media specially adapted for storing game information, e.g. video game cartridges
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/201 Playing authorisation given at platform level
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/206 Game information storage, e.g. cartridges, CD ROM's, DVD's, smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/636 involving process of starting or resuming a game
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3251 involving media of variable value, e.g. programmable cards, programmable tokens

Abstract

A method for the unambiguous personal association of at least one autonomous storage unit (10) with at least one player in a score keeping device (20) in order to store at least one status of a game, especially a computer game, network game, or trading card game, is characterized in that an unambiguous identification feature that is effective in the game environment is allocated in a way clearly indicating the player'"'"'s action to a game status, particularly an amount of properties of a game piece created and/or guided by the player and/or an amount of game situations created and/or managed by the player within the group of players detected by the score keeping device, the game status being created and/or managed by the player, being stored in the at least one autonomous storage unit, and unambiguously identifying the player.

Claims

1. A method for unambiguous association of at least one autonomous storage unit (10) with at least one player within a group of players registered in a network-capable score keeping device (20) for storing at least one game score of a game, which comprises the steps of:

associating an unambiguous identifier, effective in a game environment, designating the actions of the at least one player in an unambiguous manner with a game status which is at least one of generated and handled by the at least one player, characterizing the at least one player in an unambiguous manner and stored in the at least one autonomous storage unit, whereby at least one of

     1) a sum of features of a game figure at least one of created and managed by the at least one player, and

     2) a plurality of game situations at least one of generated and created by the at least one player within the group of players is registered in the score keeping device;

performing an exchange of registering data between the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) and a game manager storage unit (30) managing the at least one autonomous storage unit (10), wherein as a result of the data exchange a first register data set (40), linked with the stored game status, identifying the at least one player, is generated, stored and processed in the game manager storage unit (30), and a second register data set (41), identical to the first register data set, and associated with the stored game status is generated, stored and processed in the at least one autonomous storage unit (10);

wherein the step of performing an exchange of registering data includes the sub-steps of;

transmitting a first component (50a) of a storage identifier (50) from the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) to the game manager storage unit (30), the storage identifier (50) having the first component (50a) and a second component (50b), the first component (50a) including the same information as that of the second component (50b), the information identifying the at least one player, the second component (50b) not being transmitted to the game manager storage unit (30) and remaining in the at least one autonomous storage unit (10);

transmitting a first component (51a) of a game manager identifier (51) from the game manager storage unit (30) to the at least one autonomous storage unit (10), the game manager identifier (51) having the first component (51a) and a second component (51b), the first component (51a) including the same information as that of the second component (51b), the information relating to game status, the second component (51b) not being transmitted to the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) and remaining in the game manager storage unit (30);

linking the transmitted first component (50a) of the storage identifier (50) in the game manager storage unit (30) with the second component (51b) of the game manager identifier (51) remaining in the game manager storage unit (30) to form the first register data set (40); and

linking the transmitted first component (51a) of the game manager identifier (51) in the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) with the second component (50b) of the storage identifier (50) remaining in the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) to form the second register data set (41).

2. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises the step of:

transmitting the first register data set (40) from the game manager storage unit (30) to a superimposed game data base (60).

3. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises the step of:

processing the first register data set (40) in the game manager storage unit (30) and transmitting the first register data set (40) to a superimposed player data base (60).

4. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises the step of:

testing the first and the second register data set (40) (41) for conformity in at least one log in process of the autonomous storage unit (10) following the step of performing an exchange of the registering data.

5. The method according to claim 1, which further comprises the step of:

performing an update during the course of a game of relevant data of the at least one player in the first register data set (40) and in the second register data set (41), wherein the relevant data which is updated includes at least one of the game status data, the at least one game score of a game, and positions in a player list.

6. A score keeping device (20), which comprises:

at least one game manager storage unit (30); and

at least one autonomous storage unit (10) operatively linked to the at least one game manager storage unit (30), the at least one game manager storage unit (30) managing the at least one autonomous storage unit (10);

wherein the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) is unambiguously associated with at least one player within a group of players registered in the score keeping device (20), the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) storing at least one game score of a game;

wherein an unambiguous identifier, effective in a game environment, designating the actions of the at least one player in an unambiguous manner, is associated with a game status which is at least one of generated and handled by the at least one player, characterizing the at least one player in an unambiguous manner and stored in the at least one autonomous storage unit (10), whereby at least one of

     1) a sum of features of a game figure at least one of created and managed by the at least one player, and

     2) a plurality of game situations at least one of generated and created by the at least one player within the group of players is registered in the score keeping device (20);

wherein the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) and the at least one game manager storage unit (30) exchange registering data between the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) and the at least one game manager storage unit (30);

wherein the at least one game manager storage unit (30) generates, stores and processes a first register data set (40), linked with the stored game status, identifying the at least one player, as a result of the data exchange between the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) and the at least one game manager storage unit (30);

wherein the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) generates, stores and processes a second register data set (41), identical to the first register data set (40), and associated with the stored game status;

wherein the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) includes a storage identifier (50) having a first component (50a) and a second component (50b), the first component (50a) including the same information as that of the second component (50b), the information identifying the at least one player, the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) transmitting the first component (50a) of the storage identifier (50) to the at least one game manager storage unit (30), whereby the second component (50b) of the storage identifier (50) is not transmitted to the at least one game manager storage unit (30) and remains in the at least one autonomous storage unit (10);

wherein the at least one game manager storage unit (30) includes a game manager identifier (51) having a first component (51a) and a second component (51b), the first component (51a) including the same information as that of the second component (51b), the information relating to game status, the at least one game manager storage unit (30) transmitting the first component (51a) of the game manager identifier (51) to the at least one autonomous storage unit (10), whereby the second component (51b) of the game manager identifier (51) is not transmitted to the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) and remains in the at least one game manager storage unit (30);

wherein the first register data set (40) is formed by linking the transmitted first component (50a) of the storage identifier (50) in the at least one game manager storage unit (30) with the second component (51b) of the game manager identifier (51) remaining therein; and

wherein the second register data set (41) is formed by linking the transmitted first component (51a) of the game manager identifier (51) in the at least one autonomous storage unit (10) with the second component (50b) of the storage identifier (50) remaining therein.

7. The device according to claim 6, wherein

the game manager storage unit (30) is provided as a game manager card (70), and wherein the device further includes a game console, and a card reader connected with the game console, the game manager card (70) being readable by the card reader, the game manager card (70) being provided as a chip card having a card shaped based body (75), a memory chip (80) integrated into the base body, and a data transmission device (85) connected to the memory chip.

8. The device according to claim 7, wherein the data transmission device (85) is provided as an electrical contact field.

9. The device according to claim 8, wherein the data transmission device (85) is provided as a touch free transponder device.

10. The device according to claim 6, wherein the game manager storage unit (30) is provided as a modular component in the form of one of a circuit board and a plug in module (90).

11. The device according to claim 7, wherein the game console (100) has an interface (110) for a network connection.