WO1998036389A1

WO1998036389A1 - Cyclic visor for recreational machines

Info

Publication number: WO1998036389A1
Application number: PCT/ES1997/000208
Authority: WO
Inventors: Bernardo Sierra Picon
Original assignee: Sega, S.A.
Priority date: 1997-02-13
Filing date: 1997-08-06
Publication date: 1998-08-20
Also published as: EP1008970A1; ZA977107B

Abstract

It comprises a dihedral support (7) provided with a large circular window (8) which extends through both faces of the support (7); immediately behind the window there is provided a disc (1) made of transparent or translucide flexible plastic material and provided at its periphery with a row of images (2) involved in the game of the machine, in a such a way that said disc (1) is retained by the support (7) through its periphery and is integral at its center with the shaft (3) of an electric motor, preferably a synchronous step motor which is appropriately controlled by means of a photoemitter-receiver. The rotation motion of the motor transmitted to the image-carrier disc (1) causes the latter to keep permanently a dihedral configuration due to its flexible nature. The viewer sees a line of images (2) according to a circumferential arc having an amplitude varying as a function of the occultation of the front face of the assembly. The disc can be applied also simultaneously to various machines, offering to all of them the corresponding images through their respective windows provided in the front face of each machine. When applying simultaneously the disc to various machines, it has two shoulders which are proximate and parallel to one of its diameter in order to define two substantially semicircular sectors, i.e. a front sector and a rear sector; the intermediary sector is used to mount the assembly to the corresponding body of the machine.

Description

CYCLIC VIEWER FOR RECREATIONAL MACHINES

D E S C R I P C I Ó N

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a cyclic viewer, usable in recreational machines, a viewer that allows either the simultaneous display of a plurality of symbols or images, distributed according to an arc of circumference, sequentially changing images, or the display of only one image, which is changing within the corresponding display window.

The viewer that is recommended is especially suitable for use in recreational machines that provide cash prizes, obtainable based on a combination of symbols that appear sequentially in said viewers, either as a main game, according to a profit plan conveniently reflected on the screen of the machine, or as an auxiliary game, complementary to the aforementioned main game.

The viewfinder can be materialized so that it can be applied jointly to several recreational machines, these being able to be in number of two, three, four or more, fulfilling all of them and simultaneously their function, which is none other than offering corresponding images through the respective windows provided on the front of each of the machines.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Recreational machines of the aforementioned type are known since time immemorial and internationally are structured based on rotating drums, of considerable diameter, carriers on their periphery of the images participating in the game.

This type of recreational machines, banned in Spain until a few years ago, were subsequently authorized with certain limitations and one such limitation is specifically that their rotating drums cannot exceed four centimeters in diameter. Obviously this limitation assumes that if the images on the drum are directly established, their number or size are very small, so that the functionality of the machine is considerably limited.

Trying to avoid this problem, different solutions based on different systems have been adopted, such as projection systems that allow an increase in images, fixed, transparent and superimposed plate systems that allow the visualization of images by light refraction, based systems in a continuous band, carrier of the images to be displayed, flexible band and established on a series of drums that act exclusively as guiding and dragging means for it, whereby said drums can have a diameter smaller than the maximum determined by the current legislation, while the continuous band, being a laminar body, can have any length, without any limitation.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The cyclic viewer that the invention proposes is approximates the last type mentioned in the previous paragraph, in what refers to the use of a flexible and laminar body, as support for the symbols or images to be visualized, but with a totally different conception.

In front of the classic continuous band, closed on itself, provided with a longitudinal alignment of images, the cyclic viewer that is recommended incorporates as a support for said images a disc, which incorporates such images in its periphery, preferably with a uniform distribution. This disc, which in principle can adopt any diameter, appropriate to the number and size of the images to be displayed, is affected by an orthogonal bending, so that its discoid configuration is not affected by the legal prohibitions mentioned previously, to which effect a dihedral support, preferably straight, collaborates with it, which at least on one of its faces, which must be the face of the viewfinder, has a large window, in the form of a circular sector, whose edge It acts as a means of retention for the periphery of the disc, which and thanks to its flexible nature, is able to rotate on its center, permanently maintaining the dihedral configuration to which it is forced by the support that assists it.

As a complement to the described structure and as in other conventional viewers, the image carrier element, in this case the flexible disk, is assisted by an electric motor, preferably a step-by-step synchronous motor with which a photo-emitter group collaborates. -receptor for control of said motor and, consequently, for motor control of the image-holder disk. Also similar to what happens in other conventional viewers of this type, after the image-holder element, in the present case after the flexible disk, specifically in the operative sector thereof, a series of light bulbs will be established, preferably compartmentalized by partitions established in individual boxes or in a multiple box.

The invention also relates to improvements of the constituent disc of the referred viewer, so that it can be assembled together on several recreational machines, without exceeding in depth the dimensions established by current regulations.

More specifically, the disk that constitutes the viewer object of the invention, according to the improvements, instead of having the L-configuration referred to above, has a U-configuration, thus reducing the depth level, even if the diameter of the disk is elevated, thus allowing its use or simultaneous application on several machines, within the permissible dimensional limits.

The disk in this U-configuration will offer an intermediate band or section and two determining sectors of arc or practically semicircular surfaces, one of which will constitute what is considered as the frontal part, that is, the one provided with screen printing corresponding to the images , while the other party will be considered as later.

The disc thus constituted will be mounted on a piece of furniture that will be arranged on the group of recreational machines in which said disc is jointly applicable, piece of furniture on which the edge guides corresponding to the two sectors will be established semicircular of the disk, in the rotation of the latter, at the same time that it will have a folding door in the part considered as frontal through a squaring square provided in the lower and frontal part of the furniture, which in turn will have means for the assembly of the corresponding motor-reducer and to be able to avoid or regulate its position, both in height and in position to the right and to the left and in depth, allowing to perfectly center the output axis of such a motor-reducer with respect to the ideal point, to place the center of the disc itself.

The way to regulate the position of the motor-reducer is based on a support formed by a static part and fixed in the corresponding furniture and another movable part movable in ascending and descending direction, as well as towards one side and towards another respect to that static part and even with an element in which the motor itself is precisely fixed, which is also variable in position so as to be able to regulate the motor position itself.

The assembly of the constituent disc of the visor with respect to the motor axis is carried out by means of the collaboration of a series of protection discs, collaborating with a bushing that is fixed to the motor axis itself and in which the disc on which the optical reader acts, controlling the rotation of said disk and therefore of the motor reducer.

On the other hand, it is also worth noting the fact that the folding front door of the furniture on which the image-bearing disk is mounted, constituting the viewfinder itself, allows its dismantling to replace it with another one, in case of deterioration of the same, or to carry out a change of the corresponding images, the change being made by disassembling the protective discs that collaborate in the assembly of the own disk carrying the images with respect to the motor axis, intervening in that assembly a bushing that it is fixed to the motor shaft and with which the disk on which the reader acts is fixed together, while the protective discs form a "sandwich" together with the disk carrying the images, all this set or "sandwich" can be fixed to the aforementioned bushing, this being provided with a step in which screw anchoring holes are provided that hold the components that form that sandwich.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To complement the description that is being made and in order to help a better understanding of the characteristics of the invention, a set of drawings is attached hereto as an integral part thereof, with an illustrative and non-limiting character , the following has been represented:

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a cyclic viewer for recreational machines made in accordance with the object of the present invention.

Figure 2. - It shows a plan view of the same in which, by transparency of the image-disk, the multiple container box of the light bulbs is observed, which appears partially sectioned.

Figure 3. - Shows an elevation view Rear of the same viewfinder.

Figure 4. - Shows a cross section of the viewfinder, in accordance with the line A-B of Figure 3.

Figure 5. - It shows a representation according to a general perspective of the flexible disk carrying the images to form a cyclic viewer according to a second embodiment that constitutes an improvement of the previous one, whose disc has a pair of diametrically shaped couplings. determining a "U" profile, showing in this figure the support and means for adjustable mounting of the motor-reducer and the disks involved in the assembly of the image-carrying disk itself with respect to the motor-reducer.

Figure 6.- Shows an exploded view of the different components involved in the assembly of the "U" disk shown in the previous figure.

Figure 7. - It shows a schematic view according to a side elevation, sectioned by a vertical plane, of the disk represented in the two previous figures mounted on a piece of furniture intended to be arranged on the top of several recreational machines, in order that the aforementioned disk constituting the cyclic viewer can be used simultaneously by that group of machines.

Figure 8 shows, finally, a schematic view according to a front elevation with section through a vertical plane, of the support and means for the adjustable mounting of the motor reducer and the disks involved in the assembly of the image carrier disk made of agreement with the improvements and represented from the figure 5.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

In view of these figures, it can be seen how the viewer that is recommended is structured, as a fundamental element, from a disc (1), of a transparent or translucent nature, bearing on its periphery an alignment of images (2), intended to participate in the game of the machine and to be shown cyclically to the observer, with the special feature that the aforementioned flexible disk (1), associated by its center to an axis (3) corresponding to an electric motor (4), specifically a synchronous motor, step by step, although any other appropriate motor element could be used, said motor (4) being, like the printed circuit (5) that assists it, established on a support (6) which in turn is integral to a second support (7) that adopts a dihedral, straight configuration, which is affected by a wide circular window (8), of dimensions slightly smaller than those of the disk (1), which acts as a means of retention on the periphery of said disc and that consequently forces it to adopt its own dihedral configuration, which is kept constant in the rotating movement of the disc (1), thanks to the flexible nature of the disc.

More specifically, the disk (1) carrying the images is fixed at its center to the axis (3) of the motor (4) with the collaboration of a clamp materialized in a cylindrical core (9) and a circular cover (10), as observed especially in figure 4, conveniently in solidarity with each other and with the axis (3). A pin (11) emerges radially from the core (9) which, acting on a photo-transmitter-receiver group (12), allows the viewfinder to be set to zero, to establish the starting point of its image carrier disk

(1), from which the images (2) can be counted, by means of the motor pulses (4), so that the stop of said disk (1) occurs in the image

(2) preselected according to the machine's operating program.

Finally, the support (6) parallel to the support for a multiple box (13), in each of whose breasts or parabolas (14) a light bulb (15) is established that improves the conditions of image display (2) corresponding through the front of the machine.

The cyclic viewfinder has been intended to be used primarily as an auxiliary game in the context of a recreational machine of the aforementioned type, but it can also be used as a component of the viewer set corresponding to the main game of the machine, where the classic combinations are established of prize-prone images, in which case the aforementioned support (7) may adopt a general "U" configuration, so that the flexible disk is affected by two orthogonal couplings, offering the observer exclusively the diametral stripe between the two couplings, or more specifically one of the ends thereof, showing only one figure with a reduced number of figures and allowing the necessary lateral coupling between visors to obtain the different prize-prone combinations. In a variant embodiment that represents an improvement, the disc (1 ') has a pair of close-ups (16) parallel to one of its diameters, determining a rectangular sector or intermediate section (17) and two practically semicircular sectors (18 , 18 X, the sector (18) being the one that will be considered as frontal and on which the corresponding images will be printed, as described and shown in the description corresponding to the viewfinder (1). ) of the disk (1) give rise to the fact that it presents a "U" profile, being mounted inside a piece of furniture (19) equipped with a front and hinged door (20) through corresponding brackets (21) provided on the front and bottom of said furniture, counting in turn inside it with guide rails (22) for the edges corresponding to the sectors (18, 18 X of the disk (1), one of the rails being ( 22) fixed on the inner face of the abat door itself ible (20), while the other is fixed in an internal partition (23) of the furniture itself (19).

Obviously, inside such furniture (19) there will be supports and various components (24) for the mechanisms and components required in the operation of the machine, such as power supply, steering CPU, etc.

On the other hand, inside such furniture (19) there is in turn a support for the corresponding motor-reducer (25), support that is constituted from a long profile (26) with affected end pins (27) of holes. This profile (26) is fixed on the internal partition itself (23), above the edge corresponding to the sector (18 ') of the disc (1'), said profile (26) being provided in its intermediate hole area torn (28), in the longitudinal direction, which allow the variation of position of a square piece (29) fixed in that central area of the profile (26), square (29) that has torn holes (30), in the opposite direction to the holes (28), to allow not only to vary the position towards one or the other side of the square (29) with respect to the profile (26), but to be able to vary the position forward and backward of said square (29), which in its vertical branch is affected by other torn holes (31) to enable its fixing at a greater or lesser height with respect to a mast (32), at whose lower end it is a carrier of a new square (33), which can be arranged at a greater or lesser height with respect to the mast (32), with the particular feature that the horizontal branch of that square (33) constitutes a mounting means for the motor-reducer (25), at whose output axis (34) solidarity a disc (35) with a plurality of holes (36) in correspondence with a circumferential line thereof, which are read in turn by an optical reader (37), all in such a way that the control disk (35) is fixed to the motor shaft (34) by means of a bushing (38 ) that rides on the shaft itself and is fixed to it through a prisoner

(39), as shown in Figure 6, that bushing (38) being affected by a stepping (40) on whose annular surface a series of holes are provided, the function of which will be exposed later.

In addition to the control disk (35), a protective disk (41), located superiorly, and a pair of discs (42, 43), including the section or intermediate sector (17) corresponding to the disk itself ( 1 ') carrier of the images, it being further provided that between the latter and the disk (42) another disk (44) of larger diameter, of a flexible nature, is arranged that It constitutes a protective means against the friction of the internal surface of the disc (1 ') that carries the images with respect to the disc (42).

The discs (42, 43, 44), together with the disc (1 '), form a sandwich that is secured by means of the screws (45, 46), the assembly of this sanchwich being carried out on the bushing (38) through the screws (47) that thread the holes provided in the stepping (40) of the repeated bushing (38).

All the referred disks are in turn fixed to each other by means of screws (48), while to carry out the assembly it is necessary to establish a relative position between them, which is achieved by means of a screw (49) through the holes ( 50) provided on the discs (41, 42, 43).

As previously stated, the motor-reducer assembly (25) can be perfectly adjusted in position to search and find the most suitable point where its axis (34) coincides with the center of the disc (1 '), which is achieved by varying the relative positions of the square (29) with respect to the profile (26) and the square (33) with respect to the mast (32).

As it has been said before, when you want to replace the disc (1 ') with another one, as a result of having deteriorated the first one or because it is necessary to change the screen printing corresponding to the images and in order not to lose the synchronism, it will be enough to loosen the screws (48) to make the part that is fixed to the motor independent and that form the bushing (38) with the control disk (35), with respect to the sandwich formed by the discs (! ', 41, 42 and 43), being able to disassemble all this set prior to folding the front door (20) of the furniture, a door that will have transparent areas to reveal images and other opaque areas to prevent interior vision.

Claims

R E I V I N D I C A C I O N E S

I ^a .- Cyclic viewer for recreational machines, which being of the type that are capable of offering the observer a plurality of images (2), changing, is essentially characterized by being constituted from a disk (1), carrier in its periphery of the aforementioned images (2), based on a flexible and transparent or translucent plastic material, conveniently motorized, with the special feature that said disk, associated by its center to the motor shaft, is included in a dihedral, preferably straight, with the support of a support (7), which adopts the said dihedral configuration and is affected by a wide window (8), basically circular, which affects at least one of the two portions of the disc defined by its bending, the one that must constitute the view face of the viewfinder, and whose diameter is substantially smaller than the diameter of the flexible disk, so that the latter is retained by its periphery, maintaining its co Dihedral configuration during its rotating movement.

2 .- cyclic viewer for recreational machines, according ^to claim I, wherein the driving element of kinking the flexible disk (1) is a motor

(4) electric, preferably synchronous, step by step, conveniently fixed to a support (6), in solidarity with the support (7) of the flexible disk (1), and which constitutes the support for the printed circuit board (5) in parallel. assist the aforementioned electric motor (4).

3 .- cyclic viewer for recreational machines according to previous claims, characterized in that the support (6) of the electric motor (4) also adopts a dihedral configuration and is parallel to support for a multiple box (13), conveniently facing the operating sector of the flexible disk (1), in whose breasts or parabolas two light bulbs (15) are established that improve the visualization of the images (2) established on the periphery of the disk flexible (1).

4 .- Viewer cyclic for recreational machines according to previous claims, wherein the flexible disk (1) is fixed to the shaft (3) of the engine with the collaboration of a cylindrical core (9), conveniently integral with said shaft, and front disk (10), in turn in solidarity with the core (9), with said core (9) radially emerging from a pin (11) acting on a photoemitter-receiver motor (12) for motor control of the electric motor ( 4) and consequent positional control of the disk (1) carrier of the images (2).

5 .- cyclic viewer for recreational machines, according to claim I ^to which to apply simultaneously to several recreational machines to allow through the windows of all can be displayed the various images provided in the carrier images disc itself is characterized because the disc (1 ') simultaneously applicable to several recreational machines has a pair of orthogonal couplings in proximity and parallel to one of its diameters

(16) that determine a central and diametral sector (17) and two practically semicircular sectors (18, 18 '), the first one considered as previous and destined to receive the screen printing of the images, with the particularity that said disk ( 1 ') is mounted inside a piece of furniture (19) that is arranged on the set of machines in which it is applicable simultaneously the disc itself (1 '), furniture (19) that includes a front door (20) around some squares (21) provided on the front and bottom edge of the furniture, after whose front door (20) is arranged in proximity and parallel to it the sector (18) carrying the images, counting that door (20), as well as an intermediate partition (23) of the furniture (19) with guides (22) for the sectors (18, 18 ') of the disk (1 '), in its turn; with the particularity that the respective motor-reducer drive (25) is mounted with adjustable positioning to enable centering of its axis (34) on the center of the intermediate sector (17) of the disc (1 ').

6 .- cyclic viewer for recreational machines, according to claim 5, characterized in that means adjustable mounting for the gear motor (25) are formed from a profile (26) with end pins (27) for fixing the partition (23), said profile (26) being affected by torn holes (28) in its central area for fixing with an adjustable character, both anteroposteriorly and transversely, of a square (29) also affected by torn holes (30) with an orientation opposite to that of the holes (28), on whose square (29) a mast (32) is fixed, upstream and downstream, which at its lower end bears a second square (33) with holes torn (31) vertically to regulate the height of the latter, which is constituted as a mounting medium for the motor-reducer (25) on whose axis (34) a rotating disk (35) is connected controlled by an optical reader (37) and a socket (38) with a lower step (40), it is affected by holes to allow mounting and solidarity on such a bushing (38) of a sandwich formed by protective discs (42, 43, 44) between which the intermediate sector (17) of the disc itself (1 ') is arranged.

7 ^a .- Cyclic visor for recreational machines, according to claims 5 ^a and 6 ^a , characterized in that the intermediate sector (17) of the disc (1 ') is arranged between the protection discs (42, 43), with the particularity that between the disc (42) and the intermediate sector itself (17) a disc (44) of greater diameter is arranged, as a complementary protection element for the intermediate sector (17), the assembly of said sandwich being fixed to the bushing (38), through screws (47) through an intermediate disk (41) that is linked to the previous ones through screws (48) through them; having also provided that the discs (41, 42, 43, 44) have a hole (50) for a single screw (49) by which a relative position is established between the discs for mounting them; having also provided that the discs (42, 43, 44) and the disc itself (1 ') are fixed together by means of screws (45, 46), so that the sandwich they form is independent from the one formed by the bushing (38 ) and the disc (35) in solidarity with the axis (34) of the motor reducer (25), to enable the change of the disc (1 ') or allow the change of the images thereof.