JP2003230132A - Game-playing customer managing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a game-playing customer managing system which lightens the burden for managing customers due to erroneous recognition in managing the customers playing games by recognizing the photographed customers and prevents management data from being divided. <P>SOLUTION: A controller has a CCD camera for photographing the faces of customers playing games to recognize the customers. If the controller mistakes the face of the playing customer for an instant only, it decides that the same playing customer continues playing, and hence the burden for the customer management due to erroneous recognition can be lightened. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a player management system for managing a player based on an image obtained by shooting the player.

[0002]

In the past, as means for managing the number of players playing on a gaming machine in a game arcade,
It is proposed that a camera is provided for each gaming machine and the face of the player photographed by the camera is identified so that the management device manages the number of retained players in the game hall or the game history for each player. Has been done.

However, although the recognition rate of a face based on an image taken by a camera has been increasing in recent years, it may be erroneously recognized due to a subtle change in facial expression or a face orientation. Therefore, even if the same player continues to play, the management device may determine that the player has been replaced when misrecognized. In such a case, The staying number of players managed by the management device is different from the actual staying number, and the burden on the management device due to erroneous recognition increases. Further, when the player leaves the seat for a short time and resumes the game after taking a break, for example, the management device divides the management data based on the fact that the player cannot recognize the existence of the player. The burden on the management device increases.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to reduce the burden of management due to erroneous recognition when managing by recognizing a photographed player and to save management data. It is to provide a player management system capable of preventing the player from being divided.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided, corresponding to a gaming machine, a photographing means for photographing a player playing the game on the gaming machine, and a game is played based on an image of the player photographed by the imaging means. An image processing means for recognizing the playing customers is provided,
When it is determined that the first player has been replaced by the second player based on the recognition result of the image processing means, the second player is replaced by the first player within a predetermined time from that timing. When it is determined that the first player has played the game, the first player determines that the player is continuously playing the game (claim 1).

According to this structure, when the player starts playing the game, the image capturing means captures the image of the player, so that the image processing means displays the player playing based on the image captured by the image capturing means. Can be recognized. This makes it possible to manage the number of players staying in the game arcade and the like.

By the way, in recent years, although the face image recognition rate has increased, it may be erroneously recognized, and if it is erroneously recognized, management of the number of staying people and the like becomes uncertain. Therefore, the determination means is that the second player is replaced by the first player within a predetermined time after the first player is replaced by the second player based on the recognition result of the image processing means. When the judgment is made, it is considered that the first player is playing the game continuously, so that it is possible to prevent the staying number of the player from being different from the actual staying number.

Further, the present invention, corresponding to the gaming machine, is provided with a photographing means for photographing the gamer playing the game machine, and the game is played based on the image of the gamer photographed by the photographing means. When an image processing unit for recognizing a customer is provided and it is determined that the player is no longer present based on the recognition result of the image processing unit, it is determined that the same player restarts the game within a predetermined time from that timing. When I did
A determination means for determining that the player is playing the game is provided (claim 2). According to such a configuration, if the determination means cannot recognize the presence of the player within a predetermined time, it is considered that the same player is continuously playing, so the management data is divided. It can be prevented.

In each of the above-mentioned configurations, it is desirable that the image processing means recognize the player based on a plurality of images obtained by the photographing means photographing the same player (claim 3).
According to such a configuration, the player is recognized based on a plurality of images of the same player, so that the accuracy of image recognition by the image recognition means can be improved.

Further, the image processing means and the determination means may be provided in the periphery of each of the gaming machines (claim 4). According to such a configuration, the image processing means and the judging means are provided in the periphery of each gaming machine, so that the image processing means and the judging means can be operated locally, and the upper management device. It is possible to reduce the burden of.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a pachinko hall will be described below with reference to the drawings. Figure 1
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the entire system. In FIG. 1, a control device 3 is provided above (around) the gaming machine 1 and the inter-lens ball lending machine 2. The control device 3 manages the operation information of the gaming machine 1 to be managed and the sales of the inter-lens ball lending machine 2, and sends the management information to the gaming machine management device 4 installed in the pachinko hall. ing.

Here, the control device 3 is provided with a CCD camera (corresponding to photographing means) 5 and has a function of recognizing the face of the player based on the image photographed by the CCD camera 5. The recognition result is transmitted to the gaming machine management device 4 and the customer management device 6. In addition, a multi-store management device 7 is installed in the headquarters that controls the group stores to which the pachinko hall belongs, and the control device 3 includes a router 8
Management information can be transmitted from the Internet to the multi-store management device 7 through the Internet 9.

FIG. 2 is a front view schematically showing a control device 3 provided corresponding to the gaming machine 1 and the inter-lens ball lending machine 2.
In FIG. 2, the control device 3 includes an operation unit 10, a lamp display unit 11 and a data display unit 12 in addition to the CCD camera 5. The CCD camera 5 is installed so that the face of the player sitting on the chair is the subject to be photographed.

FIG. 3 shows an electrical configuration of the control device 3. In FIG. 3, the control device 3 includes a control unit (corresponding to an image processing unit and a determination unit) 13, a data communication unit 14, an operation unit 10, a lamp display unit 11, a data display unit 12, and a CC.
It is composed of a D camera 5.

The control device 3 mainly comprises a CPU 15, a ROM 16 in which a program is stored, a RAM 17 for storing work data, and an image processing section 18 for processing an image from the CCD camera 5, which is stored in the ROM 16. The function of controlling the display of the lamp display unit 11 according to the operation on the operation unit 10 by operating based on the program, the function of displaying the operating information of the gaming machine 1 to be managed on the display unit 12, the game on the gaming machine 1 It has a function of recognizing the face of the player, and a function of preventing erroneous recognition of the player, which is a feature of this embodiment, as will be described later.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control device 3. In FIG. 4, the control device 3 determines whether the face of the player is recognized by processing the image captured by the CCD camera 5 (S101).

Now, when a player sits on a chair, the CCD
Since the player's face is positioned in the image from the camera 5, the image processing unit 18 recognizes the face (S
101: YES), feature points of the face are extracted by a known recognition technique (S102), and the feature points are stored (S10).
3). The feature points are the eyes of the face extracted from the image, the eyebrows,
Faces such as a nose and a mouth can be recognized based on the positional relationship of such feature points.

Although not shown in FIG. 4, the control device 3 collects a plurality of characteristic points regarding this player when it is determined that the player has started playing the game. This is because the recognition of the player may be uncertain with only one extracted feature point of the face of the player. Therefore, by collecting feature points when the player faces sideways, for example, The face is multifaceted based on the feature points. Subsequently, the control device 3 transmits the feature points extracted as described above to the gaming machine management device 4 and the customer management device 6.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the operation of the gaming machine management device 4. In FIG. 5, when the gaming machine management device 4 receives the characteristic points (S201: YES),
The control device 3 creates a record in the game history file corresponding to the gaming machine 1 to be managed (S202).

On the other hand, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the customer management device 6. In FIG. 6, when the customer management device 6 receives a feature point (S301: YE
S), it is determined that the player has started playing the game, and the staying number is incremented (S303).

Subsequently, the received characteristic points are compared with the characteristic points stored today (S304), and if they are not the same (S3).
(05: NO), the number of visitors is incremented when it is determined that the player is a visitor who has not processed the store. Further, when both characteristic points are the same (S305: YES), it is determined that the player is a player who has already completed the store visit process, and the number of visitors is not incremented.

Now, when a player plays a game on the gaming machine 1, an out-ball is generated and a safe ball is generated in association with the occurrence of a winning. Since an out signal or a safe signal is output to the control device 3 in association with the generation of these out balls or safe balls, the control device 3 causes the game information indicating the number of out balls and the number of safe balls of the gaming machine 1 to be managed. To send. Also,
When a special prize is generated in the gaming machine 1, a special prize signal is output to the control device 3, so the control device 3 transmits game information indicating the number of special prizes of the gaming machine 1 to be managed.

Here, the control device 3 displays, for example, the number of special prizes in the management information described above on the data display unit 12.
Thereby, the game player can determine the operating state of the gaming machine 1 based on the data displayed on the data display unit 12, and can use it as a guide when selecting the gaming machine 1.

On the other hand, when the gaming machine management device 4 receives the game information as shown in FIG. 5 (S203: YES),
The game information is registered in the record (S205). When the face is recognized as shown in FIG. 4 (S105: YES), the control device 3 extracts feature points (S115),
The stored feature points, that is, the feature points stored in step S103 are compared (S116), and it is determined whether they are the same (S117). At this time, since the player is playing the game continuously, it is determined that they are the same (S117: YES), and S
105 to S117 are repeatedly executed.

Now, when the player finishes the game and leaves the seat, the control device 3 cannot recognize the face of the player (S105: NO), and starts measuring the elapsed time at that timing ( S106), when a predetermined time has passed without recognizing the face (S108: YES), it is determined that the game of the player has ended, and the game end is transmitted (S10).
9).

When the game machine management device 4 receives the game end as shown in FIG. 5 (S204: YES), the game machine management device 4 ends the registration of the game information in the record of the game history file. With the above operation, the game history of the game player in the game machine 1 can be managed.

On the other hand, when the customer management device 6 receives the end of game as shown in FIG. 6 (S302: YES), the customer management device 6 decrements the staying number (S307). With the above operation, it is possible to manage the number of staying players of the pachinko hall.

By the way, although the face image recognition of a person as described above has become more accurate in recent years, there is still a risk of erroneous recognition, and the same player continues to play a game. If it is erroneously recognized, the game history management by the gaming machine management device 4 may be erroneous, or the number of retained customers or the number of visitors by the customer management device 6 may be erroneously managed. Such erroneous recognition is expected to occur only for a short time due to a subtle change in facial expression of the player or the orientation of the face.

Therefore, in this embodiment, erroneous recognition of the face by the control device 3 is prevented as follows.
That is, the control device 3 in the state where the face is recognized is shown in FIG.
In step S117, the extraction feature points and the stored feature points are compared to each other. However, when the recognition feature points are erroneously recognized as described above, it is determined that they are not the same (S117:
No), the elapsed time is measured from that timing (S118), feature points are extracted (S119), and it is compared whether the extracted feature points are the same as the stored feature points (S120). In this case, when both feature points become the same within a predetermined time (S121: YES), that is, the first player is replaced by the second player within a predetermined time after the first player is replaced by the second player. When it is determined that the game is restarted, it is determined that it is a false recognition,
It does not transmit the facial features of the second player.

With such an operation, when the control device 3 determines that the player has replaced another player within a predetermined time, it is considered that the same player is continuously playing the game (see FIG. 7), since the characteristic points are not transmitted, a new record is not created in the gaming machine history file managed by the gaming machine management device 4, and the number of staying persons managed by the customer management device 6 and The number of visitors will not be incremented. It should be noted that the control device 3 determines that the erroneous recognition state continues when a predetermined time has elapsed after determining that the feature points of the player's face have changed as shown in FIG. 4 (S122: YES). To notify the error (S
123).

On the other hand, when the game player leaves the seat, the control device 3 judges that the game of the game player has ended and sends the game end one by one, so that the game history file managed by the game machine management device 4 Records will be split. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the control device 3 becomes unable to recognize the face of the player as shown in FIG. 4 (S105: N).
O), when the face is recognized before the predetermined time elapses (S
107: YES), feature points are extracted (S110), the feature points are compared with the stored feature points (S111), and it is determined whether they are the same (S112). In this case, when both feature points are the same (S112: YES), it is determined that the same player has restarted the game, and the process proceeds to step S105 to recognize the face without transmitting the game end. continue. If both feature points are not the same (S11
2: NO), it is determined that the players have been replaced, the characteristic points are stored (S113), and the characteristic points are transmitted (S1).
14) Continue to recognize the face of the player.

By the above operation, the control device 3
When it is determined that the presence of the player cannot be recognized within a predetermined time, it is considered that the same player is continuously playing the game (see FIG. 8), and since the game end is not transmitted, the gaming machine management device 4 It is possible to prevent the record of the managed game history file from being divided.

According to such a configuration, the control device 3 is
When it is determined that the player has instantaneously changed, and when it is determined that the original player has resumed playing by the predetermined time from that timing, the same player continues to play the game. Since the characteristic points and the end of the game are not transmitted, it is possible to prevent the customer management device 6 from making a mistake in managing the number of staying players and the number of visitors.

In addition, when it is determined that the same player has restarted the game before the predetermined time elapses when it is determined that the player has been replaced, the game end is not transmitted. Also, it is possible to prevent the customer management device 6 from making a mistake in managing the number of staying players, and to prevent the record of the game history file managed by the game machine management device 4 from being divided.

Moreover, since the control device 3 located around the gaming machine 1 is provided with such a function having the excellent effect, the gaming machine management device 4 or the customer management device 6 has such a function. Compared with the case of having it, processing can be performed locally, and the burden on the upper management apparatus can be reduced.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be modified or expanded as follows. As a method of recognizing the player, the feature of clothing may be added to the feature of the face of the player to be recognized. The gaming machine management device 4 and the customer management device 6 may be provided with a function of preventing erroneous recognition, or the game files may be managed by the customer management device 6. Multi-store management device 7
By providing the functions of the gaming machine management device 4 and the customer management device 6 with each other, it is possible to manage the staying number of players and the number of visitors in the entire group store.

[0037]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the player management system of the present invention, it is determined that the player has been replaced by another player within a predetermined time, or the player is within a predetermined time. When it is determined that the player has replayed, the same player is considered to continue playing, so when managing by recognizing the photographed player, the management burden due to misrecognition It has an excellent effect that it can be reduced and the management data can be prevented from being divided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an entire system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a gaming machine and a control device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a control device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control device.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the gaming machine management device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the customer management device.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing a correction operation when a player is erroneously recognized.

FIG. 8 is a timing chart showing a correction operation when a player who has left the seat replays a game.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference numeral 1 is a game machine, 3 is a control device, 5 is a CCD camera (imaging means), and 13 is a control section (image processing means, determination means).

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G06T 1/00 340 G06T 1/00 340Z F term (reference) 2C088 CA04 CA21 CA35 EA43 EA48 5B057 AA19 BA02 DA12 DB02 DC05 DC33 DC36 DC39 5C054 AA01 CE16 CH01 EA05 EA07 FC11 GB01 GD05 HA15

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A photographing means provided corresponding to a gaming machine, for photographing a player playing the gaming machine, and recognizing the gaming player based on an image of the gaming person photographed by the photographing means. When it is determined that the first player is replaced by the second player based on the image processing means that performs the image processing means, the second player determines that the second player is the first player within a predetermined time from that timing. A player management system comprising: a determination unit that determines that the first player is continuously playing when it is determined that the first player has been replaced. 2. A photographing means which is provided corresponding to the gaming machine, and which photographs the player playing the game on the gaming machine, and recognizes the gaming player based on the image of the player photographed by the photographing means. When it is determined that the player does not exist based on the image processing means and the recognition result of the image processing means, when it is determined that the same player restarts the game within a predetermined time from the timing, A player management system comprising: a determination unit that determines that the player is continuously playing a game. 3. The player management system according to claim 1, wherein the image processing unit recognizes the player based on a plurality of images obtained by the image capturing unit capturing the same player. 4. The image processing means and the determination means,
The player management system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein each of the gaming machines is provided in a peripheral position.