Location-based real-time casino data

• US 9,626,826 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2010
• Issued: 04/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aristocrat Technologies Incorporated (Aristocrat Leisure Limited)
• Original Assignee: Nguyen Gaming LLC
• Inventors: Nguyen, Binh T.
• Primary Examiner(s): McCulloch, Jr., William H
• Application Number:
  US12/797,610
• Publication Number:
  US 20110306400A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,504 Days
• Field of Search: 463 42, 463 29, 463 46, 463 47
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3206 Player sensing means, e.g. presence detection, biometrics
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3209 Input means, e.g. buttons, touch screen
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3211 Display means
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3218 wherein at least part of the system is portable
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3223 Architectural aspects of a gaming system, e.g. internal configuration, master/slave, wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3225 Data transfer within a gaming system, e.g. data sent between gaming machines and users
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3227 Configuring a gaming machine, e.g. downloading personal settings, selecting working parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/323 wherein the player is informed, e.g. advertisements, odds, instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3232 wherein the operator is informed
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3241 Security aspects of a gaming system, e.g. detecting cheating, device integrity, surveillance computer security G06F21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3255 Incentive, loyalty and/or promotion schemes, e.g. comps, gaming associated with a purchase, gaming funded by advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/326 Game play aspects of gaming systems
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3272 Games involving multiple players
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/34 depending on the stopping of moving members in a mechanical slot machine, e.g. "fruit" machines

Abstract

An apparatus, method, and system to acquire and display casino data on a portable electronic device may include a portable electronic device having a processor operative with a real-time location based data application to transmit the location of the portable electronic device and acquire, prioritize, store and display real-time casino data. The real-time casino data may be periodically updated based on the location of the portable electronic device and visually presented to a user on a display of the portable electronic device.

Claims

1. A portable electronic device having an identifier associated with the user of the portable electronic device, comprising:

an indoor location identifying device configured to indicate a location of the portable electronic device in a casino environment;

a processor configured to receive real-time casino data from a server, the real-time casino data is associated with the location of the portable electronic device in the casino environment, at least one user-generated interest criteria search input, and data access privileges of the portable electronic device;

an authentication device configured to verify and authorize data access privileges of the portable electronic device'"'"'s software application based on at least one digital signature associated with the software application and stored on the portable electronic device, the digital signature and the identifier transmitted to the server and compared to a stored digital signature and a stored identifier stored on the server for authentication;

a memory configured to store the real-time casino data and a casino data application; and

a display configured to present the real-time casino data;

wherein the user-generated interest criteria search input is used by the server to generate the real-time casino data, the real-time casino data indicating relative gaming performance data for gaming machines located proximate to the indoor location of the portable electronic device.

2. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to operate with the casino data application to receive real-time casino data associated with the location of the portable electronic device.

3. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to interact with a casino data center to receive real-time casino data associated with the location of the portable electronic device.

4. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the location is associated with a particular zone of a casino floor.

5. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the real-time casino data is further prioritized according at least one sponsor preference or at least one player preference.

6. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the real-time casino data is periodically reprioritized.

7. The portable electronic device of claim 1, further comprises at least one input device configured to allow navigation of the real-time casino data.

8. The portable electronic device of claim 1, wherein the location identifying device includes a location acquisition device configured to acquire a location data of the portable electronic device.

9. A portable electronic device, comprising:

an indoor location identifying device configured to indicate a location of the portable electronic device in a casino environment;

a processor configured to receive real-time casino data from a server, the real-time casino data is associated with the location of the portable electronic device in the casino environment, at least one user-generated interest criteria search input, and data access privileges of the portable electronic device;

an authentication device configured to receive and transmit authentication data to a casino data access server, the authentication data including at least one digital signature associated with an application software to be run on the portable electronic device;

a memory configured to store the real-time casino data and a casino data application; and

a display configured to present the real-time casino data;

wherein the user-generated interest criteria search input is used by the server to generate the real-time casino data, the real-time casino data is prioritized according to at least one casino preference prior to being presented on the display of the portable electronic device.

10. A method for acquiring casino data on a portable electronic device comprising:

transmitting, by the portable electronic device, a location of the portable electronic device in a casino environment to at least one gaming device;

transmitting, by the portable electronic device, a digital signature associated with at least one casino data application;

transmitting an identifier associated with the portable electronic device;

authenticating, by an authentication server, the digital signature and the identifier; and

determining if data access privileges to the casino data application operative to run on the portable electronic device is to be granted based at least in part on the digital signature;

receiving, at the portable electronic device, real-time casino data from a server if it is determined that data access privileges are to be granted, the real-time casino data is based on the location of the portable electronic device in the casino environment, at least one user-generated interest criteria search input, and the data access privileges of the portable electronic device; and

presenting the real-time casino data on a display of the portable electronic device;

wherein the user-generated interest criteria search input is used by the server to generate the real-time casino data, the real-time casino data indicating relative gaming performance data for gaming devices in the casino environment that are located proximate to the location of the portable electronic device.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

periodically updating the location of the portable electronic device,

transmitting an updated location of the portable electronic device to the gaming device; and

receiving updated real-time casino data based on the updated location and access privileges of the portable electronic device.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

periodically reprioritizing the real-time casino data based on at least one criterion.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

maintaining the portable electronic device'"'"'s state and session data.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising prioritizing the real-time casino data according to at least one sponsor preference or at least one player preference prior to the presenting of the real-time casino data on the display of the portable electronic device.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the location is associated with a particular zone of the casino floor.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the real-time casino data includes gaming machine data.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the gaming machine data includes pay-in data collected during a predefined period of time, pay-out data collected during a predefined period of time, and/or game session duration data.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein the real-time casino data is associated with the predefined zone of the casino floor.

19. The method of claim 10 wherein the at least one of the gaming device is a slot machine.

20. The method of claim 10 wherein the at least one of the gaming device is a central gaming server.

21. A system for providing real-time casino data, comprising:

at least one portable electronic device including;

a location identifying device configured to indicate a location of the at least one portable electronic device in a casino environment;

a processor configured to receive real-time casino data from a server, the real-time casino data is based on the location of the at least one portable electronic device in the casino environment and gaming devices located in the casino environment that are proximate to the location of the at least one portable electronic device;

an authentication device configured to;

verify a digital signature associated with a casino data application to be run on the at least one portable electronic device, the digital signature compared to a stored digital signature on a server; and

grant data access privileges to the casino data application operative to run on the at least one portable electronic device if the digital signature is verified;

a display configured to present the real-time casino data; and

a gaming device configured to;

(i) acquire the location of at least one portable electronic device in the casino environment, (ii) receive at least one user-generated interest criteria search input, wherein the user-generated interest criteria search input is used by the gaming device to generate the real-time casino data and (iii) transmit the real-time casino data to the at least one portable electronic device, the real-time casino data generated based on;

(i) the location of the at least one portable electronic device;

(ii) the data access privileges of the casino data application;

(iii) and relative gaming performance data for gaming devices located proximate to the location of the at least one portable electronic device.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one gaming device is configured to periodically update the location of the at least one portable electronic device.

23. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

reprioritizing the real-time casino data based on at least one criterion.

24. The system of claim 21, further comprising:

storing the portable electronic device'"'"'s state and session data.

25. The system of claim 21 wherein the at least one portable electronic device comprises a touch screen display configured to receive user inputs.

26. The system of claim 21 wherein the real-time casino data is further prioritized according to at least one sponsor preference or at least one player preference prior to being presented on the display of the portable electronic device.

27. The system of claim 21 wherein the real-time casino data is associated with a particular zone of the casino floor.

28. The system of claim 21 wherein the gaming device is a gaming server.

29. The system of claim 21 wherein the gaming device is a slot machine.