Patents Examined by Werner G Garner
  • Patent number: 11488440
    Abstract: A system, apparatus, and method for electronically transferring value using a portable electronic device. In one embodiment, a method for transferring funds to or from play a portable electronic device to facilitate playing a game of chance on a portable electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2022
    Assignee: ARISTOCRAT TECHNOLOGIES, INC. (ATI)
    Inventor: Binh T. Nguyen
  • Patent number: 11468732
    Abstract: A gaming machine having a game controller, a display, and a player interface. The game controller generates a game state to be displayed. The display also displays an object outside of the game state to be moved into a location within the game state. The player interface receives a player selection of a direction or a speed to move the object into the location to effect a change in the game state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Limited
    Inventors: Dinh Toan Tran, Oliver Crispino, Erika Degens
  • Patent number: 11458399
    Abstract: Embodiments of the systems and methods described herein can automatically measure the difficulty metrics associated with various aspects of a video game using an artificial intelligence system. The artificial intelligence system may include multiple game agents. Telemetry data associated with the gameplay of each game agent may be recorded while the game application is automatically executed by the game agents. The telemetry data may be communicated to a data analysis system which can calculate game difficulty metrics for various aspects of the game. The data analysis system can determine game difficulty associated with the various aspects based on the game difficulty metrics. The results from the data analysis system may be visualized and communicated to a game developer for updating the operations of the video game.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2022
    Assignee: ELECTRONIC ARTS INC.
    Inventors: Navid Aghdaie, John Kolen, Mohamed Marwan Mattar, Mohsen Sardari, Su Xue, Kazi Atif-Uz Zaman, Meng Wu
  • Patent number: 11439896
    Abstract: Disclosed are a method, a device, a system, and/or a manufacture of a mental and physical challenge through recalling and inputting a sequence of touch inputs and/or sound inputs. In one embodiment, a device for engaging a user in a mental and/or physical challenge includes a platform capable of laying substantially flat on a surface, two or more touch sensors attached to the platform for receiving a touch input from the user, two or more visual indicators of the platform, a speaker for providing a sound indicator, and a microphone for receiving a sound input from the user. A computer memory includes a sequence data specifying a set of inputs, a sequence indication routine for generating an input indication of the sequence data, and a comparison routine for comparing the sequence data to the input data to provide a score and/or a rank. The challenge may be set to music.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2022
    Inventor: Dennis Fountaine
  • Patent number: 11433299
    Abstract: To enhance motivation of a player to invite another player to a social game, thus activating the social game and a platform that provides the social game, a server device includes incentive giving means that gives an incentive to a player who operates a first terminal device when a player of a second terminal device that receives, from the first terminal device, invitation information including solicitation information to at least suggest participating in the game and specific information to at least specify a landing screen associated with a home screen of the game operates the second terminal device to access the landing screen on a basis of the specific information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: GREE, Inc.
    Inventor: Yuki Ino
  • Patent number: 11430292
    Abstract: A lottery pick advising system includes a user-operable computing device having a screen, camera, processor, and memory comprising code of an application computer program, the code configured to: (a) as part of an identity authentication session of the program, operate the computing device to, during the authentication session, capture, for identity authentication: an image of a fingerprint of the user, an image of the user's face with the camera such that the user's face is facing the screen, or both types of images; (b) offer, onscreen, the user a full-price upfront option of paying in full upfront in exchange for receiving from a lottery pick advising service a suggestion as to, from among a set of lottery numbers possibly drawable in a particular upcoming lottery drawing, what one or more subsets of the lottery numbers to play as respective one or more picks in the drawing and (c) offer as an onscreen alternative a contingency fee arrangement of at a reduced price upfront and/or free-of-charge upfront rec
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Inventor: Shneider Ramson Thomas
  • Patent number: 11420108
    Abstract: An electronic gaming machine and a method are provided which generates outcome presentations from a Class 2 or a central determination game outcome. A database stores RNG seeds that correspond to various presentations. To generate the outcome presentations, the RNG seeds are retrieved from the database and random numbers are generated from the RNG seeds. These random numbers are then used to generate the outcome presentations for the Class 2 or central determination game outcome. The RNG seeds may be stored as a series of RNG seeds which may be individually accessed to eliminate certain outcomes or sort certain outcomes prior to presentation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: Aristocrat Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Edward Hennessy
  • Patent number: 11403909
    Abstract: An electronic gaming machine includes a display, a player input device, a credit input mechanism, and a processor programmed to perform operations comprising: (i) display a search pattern matrix to a player on the display, the search pattern matrix includes a plurality of cells that are selectable by the player; (ii) receive an input selection of cells of the search pattern matrix from the player; (iii) search a pay table associated with a wagering game provided by the gaming machine for winning patterns included within the pay table and having at least the same plurality of cells daubed as are indicated by the search pattern matrix; and (iv) display the winning patterns identified by the searching to the player via the display, the displaying including presenting the winning patterns in a matrix display format identifying one or more daubed cells of the associated winning patterns within the matrix display.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Limited
    Inventors: Rajat Rajput, Sunil Mohan, Rohit Kumar Jain
  • Patent number: 11398127
    Abstract: A gaming terminal includes an input device, an image sensor, and logic circuitry. The logic circuitry detects user input received at the input device and that is associated with a restricted action, receives, via the image sensor, image data that corresponds to the user input, applies at least one neural network model to the image data to classify pixels of the image data as representing human characteristics including at least one face and at least one pose model, compares, based at least partially on pixel coordinates of (i) the human characteristics within the received image data and (ii) a user input zone within the image data, each of the pose models to the user input zone and the faces, and permits, in response to one of the pose models matching (i) a face of the at least one face and (ii) the user input zone, the restricted action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2022
    Assignee: SG Gaming, Inc.
    Inventors: Terrin Eager, Bryan Kelly, Martin Lyons
  • Patent number: 11398138
    Abstract: A gaming machine determines a base outcome and initiates a bonus display sequence including a plurality of bonus outcomes. Prior to displaying any of the bonus outcomes, the machine determines a quantity of free spins and an outcome for each free spin, including an outcome amount, and at least one additional free play outcome including a corresponding outcome amount. The machine identifies i) a plurality of winning outcomes and ii) a plurality of non-winning outcomes and sorts, in ascending order based on the outcome amount, the plurality of winning outcomes in a table stored in memory. The machine displays the winning outcomes in order retrieved from the table, and displays the at least one additional free play outcome when the corresponding outcome amount is equal to or greater than the respective free play outcome of the plurality of winning outcomes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2022
    Assignee: Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Limited
    Inventors: Ryan Cuddy, Lyndsay Nelson
  • Patent number: 11386751
    Abstract: A quarantine wallet associated with a user account that support funds to be quarantined for a defined period. A user account server determines that a respective win amount satisfies one or more funds quarantine criteria and removes at least a portion of the win amount satisfying the one or more funds quarantine criteria from access by one or more wallets associated with a user account. The user account server stores the removed portion of the win amount as a quarantined fund amount in a quarantine wallet associated with the user account. The user account server sets a release time for the quarantined funds amount in the quarantine wallet and performs a transfer of the quarantined funds amount to the one or more wallets based on satisfying the release time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Limited
    Inventors: Andrew Wyllie, Alan Wong
  • Patent number: 11354974
    Abstract: A system that interconnects multiple accounts associated with a gaming establishment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: IGT
    Inventors: Kevin M. Higgins, Jeffery Shepherd, Erik Petersen, Lance Yuan, Mike Zarlenga, Dwayne A. Davis, Sina Miri
  • Patent number: 11335165
    Abstract: Methods of operating a gaming table wager sensing apparatus are disclosed. A method includes storing, in a first token sensor assembly, a state of the first token sensor assembly based on a sensed presence of a token. The method also includes associating a first player position with the first token sensor assembly and the state of the first token sensor assembly. Further, the method includes transferring, to the sensor memory component of the first token sensor assembly, a desired state of the first token sensor assembly based on the state of the first token sensor assembly. The method also includes enabling a number of light sources of the first token sensor assembly based on the desired state of the first token sensor assembly stored in the sensor memory component of the first token sensor assembly. Associated apparatuses and systems are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignee: SG Gaming, Inc.
    Inventors: James V. Kelly, Troy D. Nelson, Vladislav Zvercov, Attila Grauzer
  • Patent number: 11328561
    Abstract: Systems and methods of conducting wagering games involving, among other things, a modified Blackjack wagering game including an option to resolve the game prior to a final determination and optional wagers on the final dealer hand score.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: Golden Dragon Gaming, LLC
    Inventor: Michael Pertgen
  • Patent number: 11308768
    Abstract: A system and method of gaming includes randomly selecting a first set of cards from a deck and analyzing them to determine a combination that yields a highest payout amount from a payout schedule. Probabilities of achieving better combinations of the cards are determined by combining the first set of the cards with all possible combinations of a second number of the cards taken from the cards remaining in the deck. For each such probability, a present value is calculated by summing products of each probability of achieving the better combination by the amount for achieving the better combination from the payout schedule and then adding the sum to the highest payout amount. The player is given a choice to accept the present value or receive the second number of cards to complete the hand and either wins or loses based on the hand with respect to the payout schedule.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: Platform Gaming Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: David Brian Hirsch
  • Patent number: 11302149
    Abstract: A gaming apparatus having electronic input controls therein includes: a player input panel; a video display system; and a gaming processor. The player input panel may have a first input control specific to providing a command to the gaming processor and the player input panel. The command enables a second player input control on the player input panel. This second player input control is specific to alteration of game play so that physical activity at the player panel will enter commands to the gaming controller to execute gaming play without placing any economic value at risk during a demonstration period. The gaming processor allows the demonstration period to continue for only a predetermined time limit or event occurrence that does not result in resolution of a wager.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: INTERBLOCK D.D.
    Inventors: Joze Pececnik, Mark A. Litman
  • Patent number: 11288913
    Abstract: An augmented reality method for displaying remote and virtual players and spectators includes generating a live video signal of a first scene associated with a field of view of a first user, wherein the first scene comprises at least one gaming element associated with a game being played by the first user at a first location. The method further includes determining a second user associated with the first user, wherein the second user is at a second location. The method further includes displaying an avatar of the second user to the first user so that the avatar is part of the first scene.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: IGT
    Inventors: Michael Russ, Elisabeth Kiss, Caprice Mitterhoefer, Julia-Ines Lerchbaumer, Petra Wagner
  • Patent number: 11288918
    Abstract: A gaming system, including a game outcome server, an account handling device and a client device communicatively coupled via network, is described. The game outcome server may be operable to send command, instructions, data or combinations thereof that allow an interface for a wager-based game to be generated on the client device, generate a game outcome for the wager-based game that is displayed on the client device and generate an update to a player balance maintained on the account handling device. The account handling device is operable to provide gaming services related to the game play on the client device including a) web-site hosting where the web-site lists available gaming services including games provided by the game outcome server, b) accounting, c) money handling including player account management and d) player eligibility functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: IGT
    Inventors: Paul Douglas Miltenberger, Kaushal Sheth, Ryan Michael Fissell, Carmen Atienza Tan, Andy O. Bryson, Shanmugapriyan Devaraj, Theodore Yuchiang Cheng
  • Patent number: 11284160
    Abstract: A method for remotely provisioning resources for running a computer application is described. The method includes: receiving a request to execute a computer application using a virtual machine, the computer application having a static video portion and a user interactive video portion; while preparing the user interactive video portion, providing the static video portion to a user device remotely positioned relative to a server hosting the virtual machine; and streaming the user interactive video portion to the user device at an end of the static video portion. A start time of the static video portion is adjusted to accommodate a display time of the static video portion being different than a time required to prepare the user interactive video portion. A server and a system that are capable of performing the above method are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: Nvidia Corporation
    Inventors: Bojan Vukojevic, Franck Diard
  • Patent number: 11276273
    Abstract: Processor-based systems and methods of recommending to a user which lottery ticket to play. Example embodiments of the methods include receiving a game structure, receiving an updated data, receiving a user risk/reward profile, determining a recommended lottery ticket for a user to play, and communicating the recommended lottery ticket to the user through a user interface. Example embodiments of lottery scratch ticket applications include a processor-based device executing an application that recommends which lottery ticket to play based on the game structure, updated data about the game and the user risk/reward profile of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2022
    Assignee: Scratchshark, Inc.
    Inventors: Douglas A. Donahue, III, Scott E. Blumberg