AU644957B2 - Method and apparatus for the operation of gaming machines - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 644957 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT (Original) APPLICATION NUMBER:

LODGED:

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION LODGED:

ACCEPTED:

PUBLISHED:

RELATED ART:

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*SSS

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S S NAME OF APPLICANT: FORTUNE

LIMITED

MACHINE CORPORATION

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S S. S ACTUAL INVENTOR(S): ADDRESS FOR SERVICE: INVENTION TITLE: ANTHONY ROSS GLEN STOLLERY KELVIN LORD AND COMPANY 4 Douro Place West Perth WA 6005 "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE OPERATION OF GAMING MACHINES" ASSOCIATED PROVISIONAL APPLICATION NOS: The following statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to me/us:- BjCKGROUND TO THE INVENTION This invention relates to an apparatus and method of operating a gaming machine.

Conventional gaming machines often have a display screen or monitor as well as flashing lights to prompt the operator of the machine to press a particular button to provide an input for the game running on the machine. Unfortunately, the combination of display screen, flashing lights and sounds can be very confusing to the operator, particularly if the operator is new to the game being played on the machine. One of the more confusing aspects is to know which button to press and what particular effect pressing that button has on the course of the game.

A considerable amount of the confusion which can occur when playing on a gaming machine is obviated by the use of a touch screen. These enable an operator to directly point to the relevant part of the screen in which it is 15 desired to have some action. No confusion occurs as the operator does not have to decide what the flashing lights are meant to portray or which button external to the screen is required to cause something to happen on a certain part of the screen.

Touch screens are used with a variety of games programmed into gaming machines. One particular type of game for which touch screens are most suitable are card games. For instance, if a hand of poker is dealt by the machine and the cards are displayed on the screen, the operator need only point to the cards that he/she wishes to be held or discarded instead of pressing on buttons remote from the screen.

The operation of gaming machines which use touch screens as described above, is very simple. These machines rely on a touch/untouch verification procedure. An operator of the gaming machine touches the screen at a particular point and it is only upon removal of the object touching the screen that a single set co-ordinate values of where the finger was touching is sent to the processing means operating the gaming machine.

This method of operation cannot track the movement of a finger on the screen and therefore it is only suitable for simulating button pushing.

Further, the resolution of touch screens is typically only 128 by 128 pixel 10 and only allows for coarse manipulation of the visual information on the *o display of the gaming machine.

At present, there are many scratch chance games available which involves the purchase of a cardboard card such as Instant Kiwi T M The purchaser has to peel off windows or scratch off a covering layer on the card to reveal if there is a winning combination under the covering layer.

Part of the fun of having a card on which winning combinations are covered is the selective removal of various parts of the covering layer by the operator.

At present, there is no means by which these scratch chance games can be readily replicated in a gaming machine.

OBJECT OF THE PRESENT INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to address the above problems, or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description which is given by way of example only.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of operating a gaming machine, the gaming machine including a screen through which can be viewed a display of visual information, sensors associated with said screen and processing means, the method being characterised by the steps of: a* S a) sensing with the sensors the movement of an object across at least part of the screen, and b) sending the information received by the sensors to the processing means, and c) processing the information received by the processing means and converting the information into instructions to control the display of visual information, and d) using those instructions to visually remove parts of a layer on the visual display to coincide substantially with the movement of the object across the screen wherein the removal of parts of the layer reveals further visual information underneath said layer.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a gaming machine including a screen through which can be viewed a display of visual information, sensors associated with the screen and processing means, the arrangement and construction being such that movement of an object across at least part of the screen can be sensed by the sensors and translated by the processing means into instructions for the visual display so that the movement of the object across the screen coincides with the visual removal of a layer on the visual display to reveal further visual information under the removed layer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The applicant has coined the term 'rub screen' to refer to a touch screen for a gaming machine which operates as previously described. This term "is considered apt as the rub screen detects a finger moving or 'rubbing' 10 across the screen, whereas previous touch screens only detected a single touch.

The term 'scratching' shall refer to the movement of the operator's finger *0 or other device across the rub screen. The term scratching is used to provide an analogy between the physical 'scratch and win' cards and the simulation provided by the display and touch screen.

To achieve this effect, the present invention requires that the gaming machine be operated in a completely different manner to previous machines. Instead of having a touch/untouch sequence which only sends one set of co-ordinates to the processing means, it is now necessary to have means which allow for dynamic tracking so that all of the co-ordinates relating to the movement of an object across the rub screen can be sent to the processing means. For this to occur, it is not possible to use the previous methods where removal of a finger from the rcreen is a verification means to send data back to the processing means. Instead, there must be continual data transmission from the sensors to the processing means while the finger (or any other object) is still on the rub screen. The programming means to achieve this may be stored in various forms on the gaming machine, and in one embodiment may be an

EPROM.

The gaming machine need not only simulate chance games, for instance the further visual information under the layer may be information unrelated to the immediate winning of a game.

The resolution given by the scratching can vary according to the type of gaming machine with which the present invention is used. In a preferred embodiment, rub screens with a resolution of 1024 by 1024 pixels will be 10 used. If such a grid is used, the resolution of the scratching may be as fine as the area of the rub screen directly affected by the movement of the operator's hand on the rub screen.

In another embodiment, the resolution of the scratching may be considerably coarser than the area traversed by the operator's finger. The 15 coarser resolution may result from the use of a coarser resolution rub screen or may be determined by the software used within the gaming machine. It is thought that one embodiment of the present invention may only require three or four 'scratches' from an operator to remove the covering layer. This could be useful in situations where it is desired that the operator proceeds as fast as possible in using the machine.

In one embodiment of the present invention there may be included an additional feature involved with the operation of a gaming machine. For instance, there may be provided a 'rub all' button which can remove the whole of a specific layer on the rub screen independent of movement of the operator's finger on the rub screen.

The choice of screens can vary considerably, for instance there are many touch sensitive screens available including capacitive, resistive and acoustic screens.

Gaming machines are often subject to a considerable amount of wear and tear. It is quite common for drinks to be spilt on the screens and it is even possible for operators of the gaming machines to cut or break the screens.

Acoustic screens are perhaps not as suitable as other screens as it is possible for liquid on the screens to run into the acoustic sensors. Resistive i screens are commonly made of a fle:ible material which can be readily 10 cut. Once cut, the resistive screen no longer functions. It is for these reasons, that in preferred embodiments capacitive screens are used as they are made of a hardened glass plate bonded to the display screen and can still work when broken. It should be appreciated however that other types of screens may be used.

4** 15 In a preferred embodiment, the screen used may be of a type the same as or similar to Microtouch® CleartekM 1000 touch screens. This screen has a resolution of 1000 by 1000 points and can provide precise pixel by pixel control. The screen itself has a thick glass overcoat that minimises reflections, maximises transmission and is resistant to scratches from shape objects, temperature shifts, static discharges, grease and water.

The present invention also provides greater flexibility than the old style gaming machines. For instance, the present. invention can be programmed to run a number of different games. These games may have layers on different parts of the rub screen which can be removed according to the game being played.

The present invention can be used with a number of other features. For instance, the gaming machines may include bill readers as well as being coin operated. The machines may provide a direct pay out of money or can have a slip which is printed out. A second copy of the slip may be kept within the machine so it can be incorporated into the records of the owner of the machine.

Aspects of the present invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawing in which: Ot BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 10 Fiure 1: is a diagrammatic representation of only one possible screen in accordance with the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THIS

INVENTION

*ee With respect to Figure 1, there is provided a rub screen 1 for a gaming machine.

The rub screen 1 is a capacitive touch screen and has a grid of sensors which relay information back to the processing means of the gaming machine when the screen 1 is touched. Displayed on the rub screen 1 are six squares 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. The programming of the gaming machine is set up so that the squares 2 to 7 are depicted as having values printed on them which become apparent once a covering layer has been removed from the squares.

For instance, at the start of the game all of the squares 2 to 7 are effectively covered by a computer drawn colour or covering layer 8 such as in squares 6 and 7. To remove the colour 8, the operator passes his/her finger over the square the operator wishes to uncover. Each pass of the operator's fingers removes a portion of the colour 8 as illustrated on square 5. Upon removal of the colour 8, the value given to that square by the computer software is revealed as shown on sqr- 1 res 2, 3 and 4.

Below the display of squares, is a button 9 which the operator can press with his/her finger. Pressing of this button 9 is detected by the sensors on the touch screen 1 and acts to instruct the processing means to remove all of the layers 8 from the squares 2 to 7.

10 It should be appreciated that aspects of the present invention have been described by way of example only and modifications and additions may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

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Claims (10)

1. A method of operating a gaming machine, the gaming machine including a screen through which can be viewed a display of visual information, sensors associated with said screen and processing means, the method being characterised by the steps of: a) sensing with the sensors movement of an object across at least part of the screen, and b) sending the information received by the sensors to the processing means, and o c) processing the information received by the processing means and converting the information into instructions to control the display of visual information, and d) using those instructions to visually remove parts of a layer on the visual display to coincide substantially with the movement of soe the object across the screen wherein the removal of parts of the goo*** 0 2 layer reveals further visual information underneath said layer. so:

2. A mcthocO as claimed in claim 1 wherein the format of the visual information is in the form of a scratch chance card.

3. A method as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2 in which the screen is a capacitive touch screen.

4. A method as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2 in which the screen is a resistive touch screen. A gaming machine including a screen through which can be viewed a display of visual information, sensors associated with the screen

7- fo V^ 1 f and processing means, the arrangement and construction being such that movement of an object across at least part of the screen can be sensed by the sensors and translated by the processing means into instructions for the visual display so that the movement of the object across the screen coincides with visual removal of a layer on the visual display to reveal further visual information under the removed layer. 6. A gaming machine claimed in claim 5 wherein the format of visual information is in the form of a scratch chance card. 7. A gaming machine as claimed in either claim 5 or claim 6 wherein che screen is a capacitive touch screen.

8. A gaming machine as claimed in either claim 5 or claim 6 wherein "e ve the screen is a resistive touch screen.

9. A programming means for a gaming machine wherein said programming means includes instructions to visually remove a layer from the display of the gaming machine to reveal further visual "C information under the removed layer, said removal of the layer from the screen coinciding with movement of an object across the screen of said gaming machine. A programming means as claimed in claim 9 wherein the programming means is an EPROM,

11. A method of operating a gaming machine substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

12. A gaming machine substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

13. A programming means substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings. DATED OCTOBER 28 1993 FORTUNE MACHINE CORPORATION LIMITED By Their Patent Attorneys KELVIN LORD AND COMPANY PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA *oo 4 *o