Mobile control for electronic gaming machine and tables

• US 9,734,661 B2
• Filed: 05/09/2014
• Issued: 08/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LNW Gaming Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Bally Gaming Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Lyons, Martin S., Kelly, Bryan M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Milap
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pinheiro, Jason
• Application Number:
  US14/274,582
• Publication Number:
  US 20150325077A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,194 Days
• 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 17/3239 Tracking of individual players
• 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: G07F 17/3288 Betting, e.g. on live events, bookmaking

Abstract

Disclosed is a system and method for providing enhanced mobile control of play for a gaming machine wagering game. A mobile device-enhanced system enables interaction with a gaming machine via a player-held mobile device using streaming video to deliver game content over a network. Player input from the player-held mobile device is passed back over the network to the game server in reaction to events displayed in the video stream. In one aspect, statistical information is provided to a player in convenient and useful formats on a display of the player-held mobile device. Also disclosed are approaches to providing convenient transactions that a player may employ to fund game play.

Claims

1. A method for providing mobile control for play of a gaming machine wagering game, comprising:

providing a mobile device-enhanced system that enables interaction with a gaming machine via a player-held mobile device using streaming video to deliver game content over a network, each gaming machine comprising;

(i) at least one display device;

(ii) a plurality of input devices including;

(a) an acceptor of a first physical item associated with a first monetary value;

(b) a cashout button actuatable to cause an initiation of a payout associated with a credit balance;

(iii) at least one gaming device processor; and

(iv) at least one gaming device memory device storing a gaming program;

providing a stream redirector interposed between a game server and the gaming machine that conducts display management processing on graphical data, wherein the display management processing includes rescaling and repositioning of the graphical data;

establishing communication between the player-held mobile device and the game server over the network and initiating a gaming session;

associating the player-held mobile device with the gaming machine;

receiving and displaying a video stream from the game server over the network on the player-held mobile device by receiving two or more video streams of graphical data at the stream redirector module, modifying the two or more video streams of graphical data to suit the computing device using the stream redirector module, assembling the two or more video streams of graphical data into a single video stream of graphical data, and sending the single video stream of graphical data to the player-held mobile device;

passing player input from the player-held mobile device back over the network to the game server in reaction to events displayed in the video stream, wherein touch data is generated when a player touches a point on the display of the player-held mobile device;

wherein the stream redirector receives touch data from the display on the player-held mobile device, routes the touch data, and conducts coordinate transformations to a processor executing the game content with which the touch data is associated; and

presenting personalized playing statistics to the player on player-held mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the game content includes a main screen content stream configured for a gaming machine presentation, a top screen game content stream configured for a gaming machine presentation, and a virtual button deck game content stream configured for a gaming machine presentation, and wherein the game content provides a betting interface to the player.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising modifying the betting interface to display results of prior gaming machine wagering games.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising providing statistically hot game performance buttons and statistically cold game performance buttons on the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling a player to set betting strategy across gaming sessions.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting gaming statistics to a player without re-approval.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing functionality to permit a player to peruse statistics off-line.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising leveraging E-wallet infrastructure.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the stream redirector re-encodes the main screen video stream and virtual button deck video stream into one combined stream of content that adjusts a screen resolution and bitrate of a resulting stream of content to match capabilities of the mobile device and network.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

compensating for a size of the display of the mobile device by remapping coordinates of the stream redirector into an original resolution of the display of the mobile device, and passing back the coordinates to a relevant touchscreen input of a virtual game instance.

11. A system for providing mobile control for play of a gaming machine wagering game, comprising:

a mobile device-enhanced system that enables interaction with a gaming machine via a player-held mobile device using streaming video to deliver game content over a network, each gaming machine comprising;

(i) at least one display device;

(ii) a plurality of input devices including;

(a) an acceptor of a first physical item associated with a first monetary value;

(b) a cashout button actuatable to cause an initiation of a payout associated with a credit balance;

(iii) at least one gaming device processor; and

(iv) at least one gaming device memory device storing a gaming program;

a stream redirector interposed between a game server and the gaming machine that conducts display management processing on graphical data, wherein the display management processing includes rescaling and repositioning of the graphical data;

wherein communication is established between the player-held mobile device and the game server over the network and a gaming session is initiated, the network also establishing communication between the player-held mobile device and the gaming machine;

wherein a video stream is received and displayed from the game server over the network on the player-held mobile device by receiving two or more video streams of graphical data at the stream redirector module, modifying the two or more video streams of graphical data to suit the computing device using the stream redirector module, assembling the two or more video streams of graphical data into a single video stream of graphical data, and sending the single video stream of graphical data to the player-held mobile device;

wherein player input is passed from the player-held mobile device back over the network to the game server in reaction to events displayed in the video stream, wherein touch data is generated when a player touches a point on the display of the player-held mobile device;

wherein the stream redirector receives touch data from the display on the player-held mobile device, routes the touch data, and conducts coordinate transformations to a processor executing the game content with which the touch data is associated; and

wherein personalized player statistics are presented on the player-held mobile device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the game content includes a main screen content stream configured for a gaming machine presentation, a top screen game content stream configured for a gaming machine presentation, and a virtual button deck game content stream configured for a gaming machine presentation, and wherein the game content provides a betting interface to the player.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the betting interface can be modified to display results of prior gaming machine wagering games.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising statistically hot game performance buttons and statistically cold game performance buttons on the mobile device.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the system enables a player to set a betting strategy across gaming sessions.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein pre-approval is unnecessary to present gaming statistics.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein a player can peruse statistics off-line from the system.

18. The system of claim 11, further comprising a communication button with E-wallet infrastructure.