Patents by Inventor Prentice J. Plucker

Prentice J. Plucker has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20020133558
    Abstract: A hotel entertainment system adaptable to provide entertainment services to a large or small lodging facility is provided. The system comprises a master host and several slave subsystems, which communicate via a network backbone. The slave subsystems provide entertainment services to guest rooms, and the master host coordinates communications between the slave subsystems and other components of the hotel entertainment system. The master host can connect to a number of slave subsystems with the slave subsystems providing services to a subset of the guest rooms in a lodging facility, allowing the system to be scaled to provide entertainment services to lodging facilities of varying sizes. The master host contains a room map and a property management system daemon. The room map allows the master host to determine which guest rooms are by a particular slave subsystem, allowing accurate tracking of which guest room receives services.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 14, 2001
    Publication date: September 19, 2002
    Inventors: James L. Fenno, Brian P. Pelletier, Prentice J. Plucker, Shaun E. Marko, John S. Prince, Paul A. Johnson
  • Patent number: 5907715
    Abstract: A hotel room entertainment system enables video games to be played in each room of a hotel without providing a video game generator in each room. The entertainment system includes at a head end system portion in which the video game audio and video signals are generated and a plurality of guest terminals. Game interrogations are provided to each guest terminal in an active game-playing mode, each game interrogation having a plurality of response positions for guest terminal responses to the interrogation. The game interrogations are interleaved with a series of system interrogations generated at the head end system, enabling the entertainment system to provide video game signals along with other entertainment and services to the guest terminals using a single distribution system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 25, 1999
    Assignee: LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation
    Inventors: Leon P. Stoel, David M. Bankers, Vernon E. Hills, Prentice J. Plucker, Christopher A. Cinco
  • Patent number: 5675828
    Abstract: A hotel room entertainment system enables video games to be played in each room of a hotel without providing a video game generator in each room. The entertainment system includes at a head end system portion in which the video game audio and video signals are generated and a plurality of guest terminals. Game interrogations are provided to each guest terminal in an active game-playing mode, each game interrogation having a plurality of response positions for guest terminal responses to the interrogation. The game interrogations are interleaved with a series of system interrogations generated at the head end system, enabling the entertainment system to provide video game signals along with other entertainment and services to the guest terminals using a single distribution system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 1996
    Date of Patent: October 7, 1997
    Assignee: LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation
    Inventors: Leon P. Stoel, David M. Bankers, Vernon E. Hills, Prentice J. Plucker, Christopher A. Cinco
  • Patent number: 5641319
    Abstract: A hotel room entertainment system enables video games to be played in each room of a hotel without providing a video game generator in each room. The entertainment system includes at a head end system portion in which the video game audio and video signals are generated and a plurality of guest terminals. Game interrogations are provided to each guest terminal in an active game-playing mode, each game interrogation having a plurality of response positions for guest terminal responses to the interrogation. The game interrogations are interleaved with a series of system interrogations generated at the head end system, enabling the entertainment system to provide video game signals along with other entertainment and services to the guest terminals using a single distribution system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 1994
    Date of Patent: June 24, 1997
    Assignee: LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation
    Inventors: Leon P. Stoel, David M. Bankers, Vernon E. Hills, Prentice J. Plucker, Christopher A. Cinco