Patents by Inventor Sam Johnson

Sam Johnson 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).

  • Patent number: 10140818
    Abstract: A secondary service provides a second, or collateral, service in connection with a client application associated with a first service. The secondary service receives user input from the client application and forwards the user input to at least one second server for the collateral service. The collateral service may be a lottery gaming system that generates or receives lottery entries as users perform certain actions. Other non-limiting examples of a collateral service that may receive user input via the secondary service include a data mining system, an advertising system, a loyalty and bonus system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2018
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Patent number: 10127765
    Abstract: A gaming machine has a main or master gaming controller for presenting primary games. A secondary controller is associated with the gaming machine for presenting secondary games. The gaming machine includes a primary gaming machine interface and a secondary gaming machine interface to one or more external servers, such as an accounting server. The secondary gaming machine interface is positioned between the master gaming controller and the primary gaming machine interface, whereby the secondary gaming machine interface acts as a host to the master gaming controller and whereby the secondary controller acts as a gaming device to the primary gaming machine interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2018
    Assignee: Tipping Point Group, LLC
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Publication number: 20180322769
    Abstract: An activity monitor is associated with a container, such as a medication bottle, and includes one or more detectors configured to detect activity associated with the bottle, such as movement, opening and/or closing, and changes in volume and/or mass. The activity monitor may include alerting devices and be programmed with scheduling information. The activity monitor may also, or instead, communicate with one or more remote devices such as a user device or monitoring system, such as to receive programming information from those devices or to output activity information to those devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 13, 2018
    Publication date: November 8, 2018
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Publication number: 20180268654
    Abstract: Secondary gaming functionality is provided for a casino gaming machine (26) by a secondary controller (200) of the casino gaming machine. The secondary gaming functionality may function to provide a multi-game experience at the gaming machine or remotely at another gaming machine or other device, e.g., a smart phone (28), tablet, personal computer (32), and the like, via the casino gaming machine. The multi-game experience may comprise one or more secondary wager-based games in addition to the one or more primary wager-based game(s) provided by the primary gaming functionality of the gaming machine. The secondary controller functionality may cause the secondary wager-based game to be presented upon a single input player to the gaming machine which also initiates the primary game, whereby primary and secondary games are initiated seamlessly to the player via a single input.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 21, 2018
    Publication date: September 20, 2018
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Patent number: 10026295
    Abstract: An activity monitor is associated with a container, such as a medication bottle, and includes one or more detectors configured to detect activity associated with the bottle, such as movement, opening and/or closing, and changes in volume and/or mass. The activity monitor may include alerting devices and be programmed with scheduling information. The activity monitor may also, or instead, communicate with one or more remote devices such as a user device or monitoring system, such as to receive programming information from those devices or to output activity information to those devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Publication number: 20180197374
    Abstract: In a method, a mobile communication device associated with a player is paired to an electronic gaming machine. The method determines that the mobile communication device is in a vicinity of the electronic gaming machine, transmits player identification information from the mobile communication device to the server, confirms an identity of the player at the server by comparing the player identification information to stored identification information, and pairs the mobile communication device with the electronic gaming machine after confirmation of the player identity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 5, 2018
    Publication date: July 12, 2018
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Patent number: 10002492
    Abstract: Secondary gaming functionality is provided for a casino gaming machine by a secondary controller of the casino gaming machine. The secondary gaming functionality may function to provide a multi-game experience at the gaming machine or remotely at another gaming machine or other device, e.g., a smart phone, tablet, personal computer, and the like. The multi-game experience may comprise one or more additional instances of a wager-based video game provided by the primary gaming functionality of the gaming machine. The secondary gaming functionality of the gaming machine may cause the one or more additional instances of the wager-based video game to be presented at another device either directly or indirectly via a server, such as a social media server or a server-based gaming system's server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 18, 2012
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2018
    Assignee: Tipping Point Group, LLC
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Publication number: 20180084295
    Abstract: This application discloses a system and method for the delivery of television programming comprising of: a video source connected to a subscriber network to transport a primary video signal; a message source connected to said subscriber network to transport a supplemental video signal; wherein the primary and supplemental video signals are combined to display the primary and supplemental video signals concurrently. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the subscriber receives discounts relative to the amount of supplemental video signal that is viewed by the subscriber.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2017
    Publication date: March 22, 2018
    Inventors: Aldemaro Ribeiro, Sam Johnson
  • Patent number: 9911286
    Abstract: A video output signal analyzes that analyzes a video output signal to determine game play information. In video poker, card values and player strategies can be determined based on a “reverse encoding” of the video signal to determine the original video bitmap. The bitmap can then be analyzed to determine what is taking place during a game, without having to receive this information directly from the processing unit that is actually implementing the game.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2018
    Assignee: IGT
    Inventors: Chad A. Ryan, Sam Johnson, Zaki Khal
  • Publication number: 20170330409
    Abstract: A secondary service provides a second, or collateral, service in connection with a client application associated with a first service. The secondary service receives user input from the client application and forwards the user input to at least one second server for the collateral service. The collateral service may be a lottery gaming system that generates or receives lottery entries as users perform certain actions. Other non-limiting examples of a collateral service that may receive user input via the secondary service include a data mining system, an advertising system, a loyalty and bonus system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2017
    Publication date: November 16, 2017
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Publication number: 20170309118
    Abstract: A lottery-type game is enabled via two or more casino games such as keno or video poker games. If the outcome of the first game is winning, the player may be awarded first winnings. If the outcome of the second game is winning, the player may be awarded second winnings. Regardless of the outcomes of the base games, if designated indicia comprising certain indicia from the first and second games match a selected set of indicia, then the lottery-type game is winning. In the case of a keno game, the designated indicia may be certain player numbers from the keno games and in the case of a poker game, certain player-selected cards. The selected set of indicia may comprise drawn keno numbers or dealt cards.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 10, 2017
    Publication date: October 26, 2017
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Patent number: 9781460
    Abstract: This application discloses a system and method for the delivery of television programming comprising of: a video source connected to a subscriber network to transport a primary video signal; a message source connected to said subscriber network to transport a supplemental video signal; wherein the primary and supplemental video signals are combined to display the primary and supplemental video signals concurrently. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the subscriber receives discounts relative to the amount of supplemental video signal that is viewed by the subscriber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Tipping Point Group, LLC
    Inventors: Aldemaro Ribeiro, Sam Johnson
  • Patent number: 9767604
    Abstract: A method of object recognition and/or registration includes receiving a point cloud, arranging the points of the point cloud into a hierarchical search tree, and determining geometric information of the points located within a region, by identifying a highest level tree nodes where all of descendent leaf nodes are contained within the region and selecting the leaf nodes for the points where no sub-tree is entirely contained within the region, such that the points falling within the region are represented by the smallest number of nodes and performing statistical operations on the nodes representing the points in the region. The geometric information includes descriptors of features in the point cloud. The method further includes comparing the feature descriptors with a database of feature descriptors for a plurality of objects.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Minh-Tri Pham, Riccardo Gherardi, Frank Perbet, Bjorn Stenger, Sam Johnson, Oliver Woodford, Pablo Alcantarilla, Roberto Cipolla
  • Patent number: 9749581
    Abstract: A user's eye gaze is corrected in a video of the user's face. Each of a plurality of templates comprises a different image of an eye of the user looking directly at the camera. Every frame of at least one continuous interval of the video is modified to replace each of the user's eyes with that of a respective template selected for that frame, whereby the user is perceived to be looking directly at the camera in the modified frames. Different templates are selected for different frames of the continuous interval so that the user's eyes exhibit animation throughout the continuous interval.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Mattias Nilsson, Sam Johnson
  • Patent number: 9740938
    Abstract: A user's eye gaze is corrected in a video of the user's face. A facial tracking module is configured, in an active tracking mode, to track at least one angular coordinate of the user's face and to output a current value of the at least one angular coordinated that is within a range of possible values. Frames of the video are modified to correct the eye gaze of the user, whereby the user is perceived to be looking directly at the camera in the modified frames, only when the tracking module is in the active tracking mode and the current value is within a restricted subrange of the range of possible values for which the user's face is oriented towards the camera.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Mattias Nilsson, Sam Johnson
  • Patent number: 9734670
    Abstract: A secondary service provides a second, or collateral, service in connection with a client application associated with a first service. The secondary service receives user input from the client application and forwards the user input to at least one second server for the collateral service. The collateral service may be a lottery gaming system that generates or receives lottery entries as users perform certain actions. Other non-limiting examples of a collateral service that may receive user input via the secondary service include a data mining system, an advertising system, a loyalty and bonus system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Publication number: 20170178442
    Abstract: A network based lottery gaming system that generates or receives lottery entries as users perform certain actions. The numbers are identified with the users and collected over a period of time—the game interval. At the conclusion of the game interval, the collected entries are compared to a winning entry to identify if and who the winners are. Awards can be generated and paid out to the winners based on a payout table.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2017
    Publication date: June 22, 2017
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Publication number: 20170147874
    Abstract: In a method of generating a three dimensional representation of a human body shape from a depth image of a clothed human subject is disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 19, 2014
    Publication date: May 25, 2017
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Frank PERBET, Minh-Tri PHAM, Bjorn STENGER, Sam JOHNSON
  • Publication number: 20170148266
    Abstract: The present invention provides a closed-loop system that allows the operator of video gaming machines or other systems to offer an event for customer participation, receive funding for participation in the event, and providing feedback regarding the results. More specifically, a video game customer may receive notification of an invitation to place a bet on an event, participate in a transaction, or otherwise receive information or interaction. The use can press buttons on the video gaming machine to indicate choices, provide funding, and placing bets on an event. The funding for such participation may be directly deducted from the customers balance on the video gaming machine.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2017
    Publication date: May 25, 2017
    Inventor: Sam Johnson
  • Patent number: 9652941
    Abstract: A lottery-type game is enabled via two or more casino games such as keno or video poker games. If the outcome of the first game is winning, the player may be awarded first winnings. If the outcome of the second game is winning, the player may be awarded second winnings. Regardless of the outcomes of the base games, if designated indicia comprising certain indicia from the first and second games match a selected set of indicia, then the lottery-type game is winning. In the case of a keno game, the designated indicia may be certain player numbers from the keno games and in the case of a poker game, certain player-selected cards. The selected set of indicia may comprise drawn keno numbers or dealt cards.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2017
    Assignee: Tipping Point Group, LLC
    Inventor: Sam Johnson