Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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ENHANCED ELECTRONIC GAMING MACHINE WITH ELECTRONIC
MAZE AND EYE GAZE DISPLAY
FIELD
[0001] Embodiments described herein relate to the field of electronic
gaming systems,
and more specifically to manipulating game components or interface in response
to a
player's eye movements and/or gaze positions.
INTRODUCTION
[0002] Casinos and other establishments may have video gaming terminals that
may
include game machines, online gaming systems (that enable users to play games
using
computer devices, whether desktop computers, laptops, tablet computers or
smart phones),
computer programs for use on a computer device (including desktop computer,
laptops,
tablet computers or smart phones), or gaming consoles that are connectable to
a display
such as a television or computer screen.
[0003] Video gaming terminals may be configured to enable users to play games
with a
touch interface. Example games may be a slot machine game, which may involve a
reel of
symbols that may move by pulling a lever to activate the reel of symbols. A
user may win a
prize based on the symbols displayed on the reel. In addition to slot machine
games, video
gaming machines may be configured to enable users to play a variety of
different types of
games. To interact with a game component of the game, the user may have to
press a
button that is part of the machine hardware, or the user may have to touch a
button
displayed on a display screen.
[0004] The size of a video gaming terminal may be limited by its hardware,
which may
limit the amount of and types of physical interactions that a user may engage
in with the
machine to play the game. A user may want to have different experiences while
playing at
the same video gaming terminal. However, since a video game terminal and its
associated
hardware have finite size, there may be a limit on the number of buttons or
physical
elements on the gaming terminal. For example, a display screen of a gaming
terminal has a
finite size, so a limited number of game components, buttons, or interfaces
may be
displayed.
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[0005] It may be desirable to immerse the user in their gaming experience
while at the
same video gaming terminal and making more efficient use of the physical
limitations of the
hardware of the video gaming terminal. Therefore it is necessary to innovate
by launching
new and engaging game machines with innovative hardware where the player can
interact
with the interactive game using their eye gaze.
SUMMARY
[0006] In accordance with an aspect, there is provided an electronic
gaming machine
comprising: at least one data storage unit to store game data for a game, the
game data
comprising at least one game condition and an interactive network of
intercommunicating
paths, the at least one game condition being associated with traversal of the
interactive
network of intercommunicating paths; a graphics processor to generate an
interactive game
environment, wherein the interactive game environment provides graphical game
components for the interactive network of intercommunicating paths and an
electronic player
token; a display unit to display, via a graphical user interface, the
graphical game
components in accordance with the game data to graphically display the
interactive network
of intercommunicating paths; a data capture camera unit to collect player eye
gaze data; a
game controller for detecting a plurality of points of eye gaze of the player
relative to the
displayed graphical game components for the interactive network of
intercommunicating
paths using the collected player eye gaze data; and continuously computing a
player
pathway based on the plurality of points of eye gaze to generate a graphical
animation for
the electronic player token relative to the graphical game components for the
interactive
network of intercommunicating paths; and a display controller to control the
display unit, via
the graphical user interface, to trigger the graphical animation for the
electronic player token
representative of movement of the electronic player token as a mapping of the
player
pathway to the interactive network of intercommunicating paths, and to
determine whether
the at least one game condition has been satisfied to trigger an award
notification.
[0007] In accordance with another aspect, the player pathway is computed
based at least
on a plurality of predicted points of eye gaze.
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[0008] In accordance with another aspect, the plurality of predicted
points of eye gaze are
predicted through using at least prior player data of one or more other
players.
[0009] In accordance with another aspect, the interactive network of
intercommunicating
paths includes one or more award positions, which when traversed upon by the
electronic
player token, causes provisioning of one or more awards that cause at least
one of the at
least one game condition to be satisfied.
[0010] In accordance with another aspect, the graphical game components
graphically
displaying of the interactive network of intercommunicating paths are
configured to
graphically display a concealment layer, the concealment layer concealing at
least a portion
of the interactive network of intercommunicating paths.
[0011] In accordance with another aspect, the concealment layer
utilizes at least one of
covering, blurring, mosaicking, and pixelization techniques for concealing the
at least a
portion of the interactive network of intercommunicating paths.
[0012] In accordance with another aspect, the concealment layer is
graphically removed
across one or more graphical areas in response to the position of the
electronic player token
mapped of the player pathway to the interactive network of intercommunicating
paths.
[0013] In accordance with another aspect, the concealment layer is graphically
removed
at positions derived at least from the plurality of points of eye gaze of the
player.
[0014] In accordance with another aspect, the provided electronic
gaming machine further
comprises a wagering component configured for tracking one or more wagers that
is placed
in relation to the satisfaction or a failure of at least one game condition,
and upon a
determination that the at least one game condition has been satisfied or
failed, to cause the
electronic gaming machine to provide one or more payouts or to collect one or
more
payments, each one of the one or more payouts and each one of the one or more
payments
corresponding to one of the one or more wagers.
[0015] In accordance with another aspect, the interactive network of
intercommunicating
paths is provided as a multi-dimensional maze having one or more interactive
planes
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representative of separate interactive networks of intercommunicating paths,
and wherein
the electronic player token is adapted for traversing between interactive
planes of the one or
more interactive planes through one or more linkages established between the
one or more
interactive planes.
[0016] In accordance with another aspect, the multi-dimensional maze is a
three
dimensional cube.
[0017] In accordance with another aspect, the multi-dimensional maze
is a three
dimensional sphere.
[0018] In accordance with another aspect, the multi-dimensional maze
is configured for
rotation in response to the electronic player token reaching an edge of one of
the one or
more interactive planes, and wherein rotation of the multi-dimensional maze
causes
exposure of at least another interactive plane of the one or more planes.
[0019] In accordance with another aspect, upon rotation of the multi-
dimensional maze,
the electronic player token is graphically repositioned on at least one of the
interactive
planes of the one or more planes that is exposed by the rotation of the multi-
dimensional
maze.
[0020] In accordance with another aspect, the data capture camera
unit is configured to
collect player eye gaze data of a second player; the game controller is
further configured for
detecting a plurality of points of eye gaze of the second player relative to
the displayed
graphical game components for the interactive network of intercommunicating
paths using
the collected player eye gaze data; and continuously computing a second player
pathway
based on the plurality of points of eye gaze of the second player to generate
a second
graphical animation for a second electronic player token relative to the
graphical game
components for the interactive network of intercommunicating paths; and the
display
controller is configured to control the display, via the graphical user
interface, to trigger the
second graphical animation for the second electronic player token
representative of
movement of the second electronic player token as a mapping of the second
player pathway
to the interactive network of intercommunicating paths.
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[0021] In accordance with another aspect, the at least one game condition
is associated
with traversal of the interactive network of intercommunicating paths by both
the first
electronic player token and the second electronic player token.
[0022] In accordance with another aspect, the at least one game condition
includes at
least one cooperative game condition requiring the satisfaction of the game
condition by
both the first electronic player token and the second electronic player token.
[0023] In accordance with another aspect, the at least one game condition
includes at
least one competitive game condition requiring the satisfaction of the game
condition by one
of the first electronic player token and the second electronic player token.
[0024] In accordance with another aspect, the player pathway is computed based
on the
plurality of points of eye gaze by determining a start position and an end
position for the
points of eye gaze across a duration of time, and the game controller
determining that the
start position is a current position of the electronic player token, and the
end position is a
valid position within the interactive network of intercommunicating paths in
which the
electronic player token is capable of moving to.
[0025] In accordance with another aspect, the player pathway is computed based
on
determining that the plurality of points of eye gaze are indicative of a
direction in which the
electronic player token is capable of making a valid move in within the
interactive network of
intercommunicating paths, and the player pathway includes establishing, by the
game
controller, a pathway in which the electronic player token moves in the
direction indicated by
the plurality of points of eye gaze.
[0026] In some embodiments, the display controller controls the display device
to display a
plurality of calibration symbols, wherein the at least one data capture camera
device
monitors the eye gaze of the player in relation to the calibration symbols to
collect calibration
data, and wherein the game controller calibrates the at least one data capture
camera
device and the display device based on the calibration data.
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[0027] In some embodiments, the player eye gaze data comprises a position and
a focus,
the position defined as coordinates of the player's eyes relative to the
display device, the
focus defined as a line of sight relative to the display device.
[0028] In some embodiments, the game controller determines the location of the
eye gaze
of the player relative to the viewing area by identifying coordinates on the
display device
corresponding to the player eye gaze data and mapping the coordinates to the
viewing area.
[0029] In some embodiments, the game controller defines a filter movement
threshold,
wherein the game controller, prior to determining the location of the eye gaze
of the player
relative to the viewing area and triggering the control command to the display
controller to
dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area, determines that the
player eye gaze
meets the filter movement threshold.
[0030] In some embodiments, the game controller predicts the location of the
eye gaze of
the player relative to the viewing area at a future time using the player eye
gaze data to
facilitate dynamic update to the rendering of the viewing area.
[0031] In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera unit
continuously
monitors an area proximate to the electronic gaming machine to collect
proximity data,
wherein the game controller detects a location of the player relative to the
electronic gaming
machine based on the proximity data, and triggers the display controller to
display an
advertisement on the display device.
[0032] In some embodiments, the display controller renders a gaze-sensitive
user
interface on the display device, wherein the game controller detects the
location of the eye
gaze of the player relative to the gaze-sensitive user interface using the
player eye gaze
data, and triggers the display controller to dynamically update the rendering
of the gaze-
sensitive user interface to provide a real-time or near real-time graphical
animation effect
displayed on the display device representative of a visual update to the gaze-
sensitive user
interface.
[0033] In some embodiments, the graphics processor generates left and right
eye images
based on a selected three-dimensional intensity level, wherein the display
device is a
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stereoscopic display device, and wherein the game controller triggers the
control command
to the display controller to dynamically update the rendering of the of the
left and right eye
images based on the player eye gaze data.
[0034] In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and the visual
update
focuses on a portion of the visible game components and blurs another portion
of the visible
game elements.
[0035] In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and the visual
update
displays at least a portion of the visible game components in greater detail
or higher
resolution.
[0036] In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and the visual
update
magnifies a portion of the visible game components.
[0037] In some embodiments, the viewing area has a plurality of invisible game
components, and wherein the graphical animation effect and the visual update
renders
visible at least a portion of the invisible game components.
[0038] In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and the visual
update distorts
a portion of the viewing area.
[0039] In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and the visual
update distorts
a portion of the visible game components.
[0040] In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and the visual
update hides a
portion of the visible game components.
[0041] In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and the visual
update selects
a portion of the visible game components.
[0042] In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and the visual
update is
representative of a magnetic attraction towards the location of the eye gaze
of the player
relative to the viewing area.
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[0043] In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera unit monitors
an eye
gesture of the player to collect player eye gesture data, and wherein the game
controller
triggers the control command to the display controller to dynamically update
the rendering of
the viewing area based on the player eye gesture data using the graphical
animation effect
to update the visible game components in the viewing area.
[0044] In some embodiments, the interactive game environment provides a reel
space of a
matrix of game symbols, wherein the rendering of the viewing area involves a
spin animation
of the reel space, and wherein the graphical animation effect involves slowing
the spin
animation or moving the reel space.
[0045] In some embodiments, at least one data storage device is provided that
stores
game data.
[0046] In some embodiments, the at least one data storage device stores game
data for at
least one interactive bonus game, wherein the interactive game environment
provides a reel
space of a matrix of game symbols, wherein the rendering of the viewing area
involves a
spin animation of the reel space, and wherein the graphical animation effect
involves
breaking a tile behind each reel space to trigger the interactive bonus game.
[0047] In some embodiments, the at least one data storage device stores game
data for at
least one bonus game, and wherein the game controller triggers the control
command to the
display controller to transition from the interactive game to the at least one
bonus game
based on player eye gaze data using the graphical animation effect.
[0048] In some embodiments, the at least one data storage device stores game
data for at
least one bonus game, and wherein the game controller triggers the control
command to the
display controller to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area to
provide a real-
time or near real-time graphical animation effect displayed on the display
device
representative of a visual update to the visible game components of the bonus
game in the
viewing area, the visual update based on the player eye gaze data.
[0049] In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera device is
configured to
collect player movement data associated with movement of the player's head.
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[0050] In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera device is
configured to
collect player movement data associated with movement of a part of the
player's body.
[0051] In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera device is
configured to
collect player movement data associated with a gesture by the player.
[0052] In some embodiments, the game controller detects the player movement
relative to
the viewing area using the player movement data, and triggers the control
command to the
display controller to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area
based on the
player movement data using the graphical animation effect to update the
visible game
components in the viewing area.
[0053] In some embodiments, the game controller interacts with the data
capture camera
unit to convert the player eye gaze data relative to the display unit to the
plurality of points of
eye gaze relative to the displayed graphical game components for the
interactive network of
intercommunicating paths to compute the player pathway.
[0054] In some embodiments, there is provided an electronic gaming
machine comprising:
at least one data storage unit to store game data for a game, the game data
comprising at
least one game condition and an interactive network of intercommunicating
paths, the at
least one game condition being associated with traversal of the interactive
network of
intercommunicating paths; a graphics processor to generate an interactive game
environment, wherein the interactive game environment provides graphical game
components for the interactive network of intercommunicating paths and an
electronic player
token; a display unit to display, via a graphical user interface, the
graphical game
components in accordance with the game data to graphically display the
interactive network
of intercommunicating paths; a data capture camera unit to continuously
collect player eye
gaze data defined as coordinates and a line of sight relative to the display
unit; a game
controller for converting the collected player eye gaze data relative to the
display unit to a
plurality of points of eye gaze relative to the displayed graphical game
components for the
interactive network of intercommunicating paths; and continuously computing a
player
pathway based on the plurality of points of eye gaze to generate a graphical
animation
representative of movement of the electronic player token relative to the
graphical game
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components for the interactive network of intercommunicating paths; and a
display controller
to control the display unit, via the graphical user interface, to trigger the
graphical animation
for the electronic player token representative of movement of the electronic
player token as a
mapping of the player pathway to the interactive network of intercommunicating
paths, and
to determine whether the at least one game condition has been satisfied to
trigger transfer of
an award to a token via a card reader.
[0055]
In some embodiments, the coordinates include at least three-dimensional eye
position coordinates based at least on a distance from a reference point of
the electronic
gaming machine.
[0056] In some embodiments, the converting of the collected player eye gaze
data relative
to the display unit to a plurality of points of eye gaze relative to the
displayed graphical game
components includes determining a corresponding virtual set of coordinates for
use within
the interactive game environment.
[0057]
In some embodiments, the corresponding virtual set of coordinates for use
within
the interactive game environment includes a two dimensional virtual
coordinate.
[0058]
In some embodiments, the corresponding virtual set of coordinates for use
within
the interactive game environment includes a three dimensional virtual
coordinate; wherein
the coordinates include left eye coordinates and right eye coordinates; and
wherein the
game controller is configured to transform the left eye coordinates, the right
eye coordinates,
and the line of sight to determine the three dimensional virtual coordinate.
[0059] In some embodiments, the corresponding virtual set of coordinates are
mapped to
correspond to one or more virtual positions within the interactive network of
intercommunicating paths.
[0060]
In some embodiments, the one or more virtual positions within the interactive
network of intercommunicating paths are virtual spaces within the interactive
network of
intercommunicating paths upon which electronic player token is able to
traverse.
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[0061] In some embodiments, the one or more virtual positions within the
interactive
network of intercommunicating paths are virtual walls within the interactive
network of
intercommunicating paths upon which electronic player token is able to
traverse.
[0062] In some embodiments, the player pathway is continuously computed based
on a
tracked changes to at least one of (i) the coordinates and (ii) the line of
sight relative to the
display unit, in relation to the displayed graphical game components for the
interactive
network of intercommunicating paths during a duration of time.
[0063] In some embodiments, the duration of time includes a start time
and an end time,
and the start time is initiated by identifying that the collected player eye
gaze correspond to a
location on the display unit upon which the graphical animation for the
electronic player
token is being displayed.
[0064] In some embodiments, the end time is determined by the data capture
camera unit
identifying a pre-determined gesture of the player.
[0065] In some embodiments, the pre-determined gesture of the player
includes at least
one of a wink, an eye close, an eyebrow movement, a blink, a set of blinks, a
looking away
from the display unit.
[0066] In some embodiments, there is provided an electronic gaming
machine comprising:
a card reader to identify a monetary amount conveyed by a token to the
electronic gaming
machine; at least one data storage unit to store game data for a game, the
game data
comprising at least one game condition and an interactive network of
intercommunicating
paths, the at least one game condition being associated with traversal of the
interactive
network of intercommunicating paths; a graphics processor to generate an
interactive game
environment, wherein the interactive game environment provides graphical game
components for the interactive network of intercommunicating paths and an
electronic player
token; a display unit to display, via a graphical user interface, the
graphical game
components in accordance with the game data to graphically display the
interactive network
of intercommunicating paths; a data capture camera unit to continuously
collect player eye
gaze data defined as coordinates and a line of sight relative to the display
unit; a game
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controller for converting the collected player eye gaze data relative to the
display unit to a
plurality of points of eye gaze relative to the displayed graphical game
components for the
interactive network of intercommunicating paths; and continuously computing a
player
pathway based on the plurality of points of eye gaze to generate a graphical
animation
representative of movement of the electronic player token relative to the
graphical game
components for the interactive network of intercommunicating paths; a display
controller to
control the display unit, via the graphical user interface, to trigger the
graphical animation for
the electronic player token representative of movement of the electronic
player token as a
mapping of the player pathway to the interactive network of intercommunicating
paths; and
the game controller determines whether the at least one game condition has
been satisfied
to trigger the card reader to update the monetary amount using the token.
[0067] In some embodiments, the token is updated based on a number of the at
least one
game condition that have been satisfied.
[0068] In some embodiments, updating the monetary amount includes incrementing
the
monetary amount.
[0069] In some embodiments, updating the monetary amount includes decrementing
the
monetary amount.
[0070] In some embodiments, the interactive network of intercommunicating
paths
includes at least a virtual end position; and wherein the at least one game
condition includes
a game condition requiring the electronic player token to be virtually
traversed to the virtual
end position.
[0071] In various further aspects, the disclosure provides corresponding
systems and
devices, and logic structures such as machine-executable coded instruction
sets for
implementing such systems, devices, and methods.
[0072] In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment in
detail, it is to be
understood that the embodiments are not limited in application to the details
of construction
and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following
description or illustrated
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in the drawings. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and
terminology employed
herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as
limiting.
[0073] Many further features and combinations thereof concerning embodiments
described herein will appear to those skilled in the art following a reading
of the instant
disclosure.
DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
[0074] In the figures, embodiments are illustrated by way of example. It is to
be expressly
understood that the description and figures are only for the purpose of
illustration and as an
aid to understanding.
[0075] Embodiments will now be described, by way of example only, with
reference to the
attached figures, wherein in the figures:
[0076] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electronic gaming machine for
implementing the
gaming enhancements according to some embodiments;
[0077] FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of an electronic gaming machine linked
to a casino
host system according to some embodiments;
[0078] FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram of an exemplary online implementation of
a
computer system and online gaming system according to some embodiments;
[0079] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a calibration process
for the electronic
gaming machine according to some embodiments;
[0080] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the mapping of a player's
eye gaze to the
viewing area according to some embodiments;
[0081] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an electronic gaming
machine displaying
an advertisement based on collected proximity data according to some
embodiments;
[0082] FIGS. 6A and 6B are schematic diagrams illustrating a gaze-sensitive
user
interface according to some embodiments;
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[0083] FIG. 7 is a schematic illustrating an electronic gaming machine
with a stereoscopic
3D screen where the player can interact with objects displayed on the
stereoscopic 3D
screen with the player's eye gaze according to some embodiments;
[0084] FIGS. 8A, 8B and 9 to 11 are schematic diagrams illustrating some
embodiments
of interactions between a player's eye gaze and the maze;
[0085] FIGS. 12 to 15 are schematic diagrams illustrating some embodiments of
interactions between a player's eye gaze and the maze having a concealment
layer
associated with the maze that is selectively revealed; and
[0086] FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram illustrating a three-dimensional
maze, according to
some embodiments, where the maze is navigable from one plane to another plane
in
response to tracked player gaze position data.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0087] Embodiments of methods, systems, and apparatus are described through
reference to the drawings.
[0088] The following discussion provides many example embodiments of the
inventive
subject matter. Although each embodiment represents a single combination of
inventive
elements, the inventive subject matter is considered to include all possible
combinations of
the disclosed elements. Thus if one embodiment comprises elements A, B, and C,
and a
second embodiment comprises elements B and D, then the inventive subject
matter is also
considered to include other remaining combinations of A, B, C, or D, even if
not explicitly
disclosed.
[0089] Embodiments described herein relate to an enhanced electronic gaming
machine
(EGM) where the player can play an interactive game using their eye gaze. In
some
embodiments, the EGM may be configured to interact with the player's eye gaze
to
generate, traverse, interact with, and/or a maze game wherein the player's eye
gaze (and/or
other inputs) is captured as an input into the game interface. The maze game
provided by
the EGM may, for example, provide a maze having paths that may be fully
revealed and/or
selectively revealed (e.g., as the player moves an avatar to traverse the
maze, a "fog of war"
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may be lifted such that paths may be selectively revealed in response to
actions taken by the
player). In some embodiments, the eye gaze data may be utilized in conjunction
and/or in
combination with other types of detected eye gestures, such as blinks, eye
openings,
closings, etc.
[0090] The player's eye gaze (and/or related gaze tracking information) may be
utilized to
determine the movement of an avatar of a system (e.g., the avatar may be
guided by the
gaze), the awarding of prizes (e.g., prizes may be selected by gaze), the
triggering of various
trigger conditions (e.g., the gaze may be used to determine when the player
has met a
condition for victory, the gaze may be used to cause the screen to darken,
lights to turn on),
the graduated hiding / revealing of game elements (e.g., opening and/or
closing an
upcoming path), etc.
[0091] The EGM may also be configured to process and/or interpret the player's
eye gaze
such that a predictive eye gaze is determined for the player. For example,
tracked
information such as past eye gaze data (e.g., positions from the last half a
second), the
trajectory of the eye gaze, the velocity of changes of the eye gaze, changes
in directionality
of the eye gaze, known information relating to the current maze "path" being
traversed by
the player (or the player's avatar), the various derivatives of eye gaze
position data (e.g.,
velocity, acceleration, jerk, snap), etc. may be utilized to
anticipate/predict a future eye gaze
position (e.g., the next gaze position will be [X,Y]) and/or path (e.g., the
next gaze position
appears to be the next position along a trajectory currently being tracked by
the player's eye
gaze). This predictive eye gaze may be utilized, in some embodiments, to
interact with the
interactive game, for example, predictive eye gaze data may be utilized to
present various
rewards and/or reveal maze pathways from the fog of war to the player.
[0092] The eye gaze and/or predicted eye gaze may be used to interact with
various
aspects and/or components of the maze and/or an interactive game provided by
the EGM.
The EGM may, in some embodiments, include one or more components, processors,
and/or
controllers that interpret and/or map tracked player gaze data (e.g.,
orientation, position,
directionality, angle) in relation to the position of rendered game
components, such as
avatars, maze pathways, interactive components (e.g., upon determining an
input directed
towards a component such as a lever), etc. The mapping of the player gaze data
may be
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indicative, for example, of a virtual and/or electronic "position" that
correlates on to a
particular location and/or "position" within a virtual space (e.g., a maze)
generated and/or
provisioned by the EGM, such as on a 2D or 3D rendering. Such renderings may
not have
to correlate directly to objects in reality, for example, a gaze position may
be mapped on to a
rendering of an impossible surface and/or various objects, designs and/or
worlds which may
not otherwise exist in reality (e.g., a rendering of Penrose stairs, a Penrose
triangle, a blivet).
[0093] The interactive game provided by the EGM may be of various types and in
some
embodiments, may include interactive mazes that may be provided in the form of
various
geometric two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional shapes. For example, the
maze may
be provided as a two-dimensional maze having various elements for a player to
traverse, or
in some embodiments, may be a three-dimensional maze (e.g., in the form of a
cube,
sphere, or any other three-dimensional shape) that may include the ability to
rotate and/or
translate (or a combination of the two), when, for example, a player's avatar
traverses to the
edge of the maze (e.g., the cube rotates to show another face).
[0094] The game may include, for example, multi-player games where two or more
players may interface with the electronic gaming machine (or more than one
electronic
gaming machines that may be communicatively linked to one another). For
example, two or
more players may interact with a single maze together (e.g., with two separate
avatars
based on the individual player's eye gaze), or interact on separate mazes that
may be linked
together (e.g., each player is playing on a separate electronic gaming machine
and the
mazes on each of the electronic gaming machines is linked together such that a
player can
traverse on to the maze being provided to the other player, and vice versa).
[0095] The gaze pathing and tracking aspects may, for example, be provided
such that
the gaze of another player and/or movement of another player's avatar in-game
may be
utilized to cause various actions and/or game triggers to occur. For example,
a first player
may be able to "lead" a path using the first player's tracked gaze, and a
second player may
be able to follow the first player's "lead" path through the second player's
tracked gaze.
Prizes may be awarded for activities wherein the two or more players interact
with one
another (e.g., the players have their gazes meeting, a first player's gaze
follows a second
- 16 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
-, ' =
player's gaze, a first player's gaze cooperates with a second player's gaze in
performing a
game activity).
[0096] The EGM may include at least one data capture camera device (e.g., at
least one
data capture camera unit) to continuously monitor the eye gaze of the player
to collect player
eye gaze data. The EGM may have a card reader to identify the amount of money
that a
player conveys to the EGM. The graphics processor of the EGM may be configured
to
generate an interactive game environment using the game data of an interactive
game. The
display device of the EGM may display a viewing area, which may be a portion
of the
interactive game environment. The EGM may have a game controller that can
determine
the location of the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area by
mapping the location
of the player eye gaze on the display device to the viewing area. The game
controller may
trigger a control command to the display controller of the EGM to dynamically
update the
rendering of the viewing area based on the player eye gaze data. In response
to the control
command, the display controller may control the display device in real-time or
near real-time
using the graphics processor to dynamically update the rendering of the
viewing area to
provide a real-time or near real-time graphical animation effect displayed on
the display
device to update the visible game components in the viewing area based on the
player eye
gaze data. Depending on the outcome of the interactive game, the card reader
may update
the monetary amount.
[0097] The EGM may include one or more data capture camera devices that may be
configured with algorithms to process recorded image data to detect in real-
time the position
of the player's eyes in three-dimensional (3D) space and the focus of the
player's gaze in
two dimensional-space (2D) or 3D space. The position of the player's eyes may
be the
physical location of the player's eyes in 3D space. The focus of the player's
gaze may be
the focus of the gaze on a display device of the EGM. A player may maintain
the position of
the player's eyes while focusing on different areas of a display device of the
EGM. A player
may maintain the focus of the player's eye gaze on the same portion of a
display device of
the EGM while changing the position of their eyes.
[0098] The EGM may monitor the player eye gaze on the viewing area by mapping
the
player eye gaze on the display device to the viewing area. The EGM may
dynamically
- 17-
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
,
update and render the viewing area in 2D or 3D. The player may play an
interactive game
using only the eye gaze of the player. In some embodiments, the player may
play an
interactive game using their eye gaze, eye gesture, movement, or any
combination thereof.
[0099] The gaming enhancements described herein may be carried out using a
physical
EGM. EGM may be embodied in a variety of forms, machines and devices
including, for
example, portable devices, such as tablets and smart phones, that can access a
gaming site
or a portal (which may access a plurality of gaming sites) via the Internet or
other
communication path (e.g., a LAN or WAN), and so on. The EGM may be located in
various
venues, such as a casino or an arcade. One example type of EGM is described
with respect
to FIG. 1.
[00100] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an EGM 10 configured to periodically
and/or
continuously monitor eye gaze of a player to collect player eye gaze data. A
game controller
may determine a location of the eye gaze of the player relative to a viewing
area of the
interactive game environment using the player eye gaze data and triggering a
control
command to a display controller to dynamically update the rendering of the
viewing area
based on the player eye gaze data. EGM 10 has at least one data storage device
to store
game data for an interactive game. The data storage device (e.g., a data
storage unit) may
store game data for one or more primary interactive games and one or more
bonus
interactive games. EGM 10 may have the display controller for detecting the
control
command to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area to provide a
real-time or
near real-time graphical animation effect displayed on the display device
representative of a
visual update to one or more visible game components that may be in the
viewing area.
[00101] An example embodiment of EGM 10 includes a display device 12 (e.g., a
display
unit) that may be a thin film transistor (TFT) display, a liquid crystal
display (LCD), a cathode
ray tube (CRT), auto stereoscopic 3D display and LED display, an OLED display,
or any
other type of display, or combinations thereof. An optional second display
device 14
provides game data or other information in addition to display device 12.
Display device 12,
14, may have 2D display capabilities or 3D display capabilities, or both.
Gaming display
device 14 may provide static information, such as an advertisement for the
game, the rules
of the game, pay tables, pay lines, or other information, or may even display
the main game
- 18-
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
. ' .
,
or a bonus game along with display device 12. Alternatively, the area for
display device 14
may be a display glass for conveying information about the game. Display
device 12, 14
may also include a camera, sensor, and other hardware input devices. Display
device 12,
14 may display at least a portion of the visible game components of an
interactive game.
[00102] In some embodiments, the display device 12, 14 may be a touch
sensitive display
device. The player may interact with the display device 12, 14 using touch
control such as,
but not limited to, touch, hold, swipe, and multi-touch controls. The player
may use these
interactions to manipulate the interactive game environment for easier viewing
or preference,
to manipulate game elements such as visible game components, or to select at
least a
portion of the visible game components depending on the design of the game.
For example,
the player may select one or more visible game components displayed by the
display device
12, 14. As another example, the player may not have to touch the display
device 12, 14 to
play the interactive game. The player may instead interact with the
interactive game using
their eye gaze, eye gestures, and/or body movements.
[00103] EGM 10 may include a player input device or a data capture camera
device to
continuously detect and monitor player interaction commands (e.g., eye gaze,
eye gestures,
player movement, touch, gestures) to interact with the viewing area and game
components
displayed on the display device 12, 14. EGM 10 has a game controller for
determining a
location of the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area using the
player eye gaze
data collected by the at least one data capture camera device, which may
continuously
monitor eye gaze of a player. The game controller may trigger a control
command to the
display controller to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area
based on the
player eye gaze data. In response to the control command, the display
controller may
control the display device in real-time or near real-time using the graphics
processor to
dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area to provide a real-time or
near real-time
graphical animation effect displayed on the display device that may represent
a visual
update to the visible game components in the viewing area, the visual update
based on the
player eye gaze data. In some embodiments, the control command may be based on
the
eye gaze, eye gesture, or the movement of the player, or any combination
thereof. The eye
gaze of the player may be the location on the display device where the player
is looking.
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CA 02915020 2015-12-11
=
The eye gesture of the player may be the gesture made by the player using one
or more
eyes, such as widening the eyes, narrowing the eyes, blinking, and opening one
eye and
closing the other. The movement of the player may be the movement of the
player's body,
which may include head movement, hand movement, chest movement, leg movement,
foot
movement, or any combination thereof. A winning outcome of the game for
provision of an
award may be triggered based on the eye gaze, eye gesture, or the movement of
the player.
For example, by looking at a game component displayed by the display
controller on the
display device 12, 14 for a pre-determined period of time, the player may
trigger a winning
outcome. The award may include credits, free games, mega pot, small pot,
progressive pot,
and so on.
[00104] Display device 12, 14 may have a touch screen lamination that includes
a
transparent grid of conductors. Touching the screen may change the capacitance
between
the conductors, and thereby the X-Y location of the touch may be determined.
The X-Y
location of the touch may be mapped to positions of interest to detect
selection thereof, for
example, the game components of the interactive game. A processor of EGM 10
associates
this X-Y location with a function to be performed. Such touch screens may be
used for slot
machines, for example, or other types of gaming machines. There may be an
upper and
lower multi-touch screen in accordance with some embodiments. One or both of
display
device 12, 14 may be configured to have auto stereoscopic 3D functionality to
provide 3D
enhancements to the interactive game environment. The touch location positions
may be
3D, for example, and mapped to at least one visible game component of the
plurality of
visible game components.
[00105] A coin slot 22 may accept coins or tokens in one or more denominations
to
generate credits within EGM 10 for playing games. An input slot 24 for an
optical reader and
printer receives machine readable printed tickets and outputs printed tickets
for use in
cashless gaming. An output slot 26 may be provided for outputting various
physical indicia,
such as physical tokens, receipts, bar codes, etc.
[00106] In some embodiments, coin slot 22 may also provide the ability to
place a wager in
relation to a particular outcome associated with games, such as the
satisfaction of various
gaming conditions, time elapsed, time remaining, score, a successful outcome,
a negative
- 20 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
,
,
outcome, etc. A payoff may be determined, for example, based on the amount of
wager, the
type of wager, payoff conditions and/or quantities determined by various
logical rules, an
amount of jackpot available, etc.
[00107] A coin tray 32 may receive coins or tokens from a hopper upon a win or
upon the
player cashing out. However, the EGM 10 may be a gaming terminal that does not
pay in
cash but only issues a printed ticket for cashing in elsewhere. Alternatively,
a stored value
card may be loaded with credits based on a win, or may enable the assignment
of credits to
an account associated with a computer system, which may be a computer network
connected computer.
[00108] A card reader slot 34 may read from various types of cards, such as
smart cards,
magnetic strip cards, or other types of cards conveying machine readable
information. The
card reader reads the inserted card for player and credit information for
cashless gaming.
Card reader slot 34 may read a magnetic code on a conventional player tracking
card, where
the code uniquely identifies the player to a host system at the venue. The
code is cross-
referenced by the host system to any data related to the player, and such data
may affect
the games offered to the player by the gaming terminal. Card reader slot 34
may also
include an optical reader and printer for reading and printing coded barcodes
and other
information on a paper ticket. A card may also include credentials that enable
the host
system to access one or more accounts associated with a user. The account may
be debited
based on wagers by a user and credited based on a win.
[00109] The card reader slot 34 may be implemented in different ways for
various
embodiments. The card reader slot 34 may be an electronic reading device such
as a player
tracking card reader, a ticket reader, a banknote detector, a coin detector,
and any other
input device that can read an instrument supplied by the player for conveying
a monetary
amount. In the case of a tracking card, the card reader slot 34 detects the
player's stored
bank and applies that to the gaming machine being played. The card reader slot
34 or
reading device may be an optical reader, a magnetic reader, or other type of
reader. The
card reader slot 34 may have a slot provided in the gaming machine for
receiving the
instrument. The card reader slot 34 may also have a communication interface
(or control or
connect to a communication interface) to digitally transfer tokens or indicia
of credits or
- 21 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
,
money via various methods such as RFID, tap, smart card, credit card, loyalty
card, near
field communication (NFC) and so on.
[00110] An electronic device may couple (by way of a wired or wireless
connection) to the
EGM 10 to transfer electronic data signals for player credits and the like.
For example, NFC
may be used to couple to EGM 10 which may be configured with NFC enabled
hardware.
This is a non-limiting example of a communication technique.
[00111] A keypad 36 may accept player input, such as a personal identification
number
(PIN) or any other player information. A display 38 above keypad 36 displays a
menu for
instructions and other information and provides visual feedback of the keys
pressed.
[00112] Keypad 36 may be an input device such as a touchscreen, or dynamic
digital
button panel, in accordance with some embodiments.
[00113] Player control buttons 39 may include any buttons or other controllers
needed to
play the particular game or games offered by EGM 10 including, for example, a
bet button, a
repeat bet button, a spin reels (or play) button, a maximum bet button, a cash-
out button, a
display pay lines button, a display payout tables button, select icon buttons,
and any other
suitable button. Buttons 39 may be replaced by a touch screen with virtual
buttons.
[00114] EGM 10 may also include a digital button panel. The digital button
panel may
include various elements such as for example, a touch display, animated
buttons, frame
lights, and so on. The digital button panel may have different states, such as
for example,
standard play containing bet steps, bonus with feature layouts, point of sale,
and so on. The
digital button panel may include a slider bar for adjusting the three-
dimensional panel. The
digital button panel may include buttons for adjusting sounds and effects. The
digital button
panel may include buttons for betting and selecting bonus games. The digital
button panel
may include a game status display. The digital button panel may include
animation. The
buttons of the digital button panel may include a number of different states,
such as
pressable but not activated, pressed and active, inactive (not pressable),
certain response or
information animation, and so on. The digital button panel may receive player
interaction
commands, in some example embodiments.
- 22 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
. ,
,
[00115] EGM 10 may also include hardware configured to provide eye, motion or
gesture
tracking. For example, the EGM 10 may include at least one data capture camera
device,
which may be one or more cameras that detect one or more spectra of light, one
or more
sensors (e.g. optical sensor), or a combination thereof. The at least one data
capture
camera device may be used for eye, gesture or motion tracking of player, such
as detecting
eye movement, eye gestures, player positions and movements, and generating
signals
defining x, y and z coordinates. For example, the at least one data capture
camera device
may be used to implement tracking recognition techniques to collect player eye
gaze data,
player eye gesture data, and player movement data. An example type of motion
tracking is
optical motion tracking. The motion tracking may include a body and head
controller. The
motion tracking may also include an eye controller. EGM 10 may implement eye-
tracking
recognition technology using cameras, sensors (e.g. optical sensor), data
receivers and
other electronic hardware to capture various forms of player input. The eye
gaze, eye
gesture, or motion by a player may interact with the interactive game
environment or may
impact the type of graphical animation effect. Accordingly, EGM 10 may be
configured to
capture player eye gaze input, eye gesture input, and movement input as player
interaction
commands.
[00116] For example, the player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, and
player
movement data defining eye movement, eye gestures, player positions and
movements may
be used to select, manipulate, or move game components. As another example,
the player
eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, and player movement data defining eye
movement,
eye gestures, player positions and movements may be used to change a view of
the gaming
surface or gaming component. A visible game component of the game may be
illustrated as
a three-dimensional enhancement coming towards the player. Another visible
game
component of the game may be illustrated as a three-dimensional enhancement
moving
away from the player. The player's head position may be used as a view guide
for the at
least one data capture camera device during a three-dimensional enhancement. A
player
sitting directly in front of display 12, 14 may see a different view than a
player moving aside.
- 23 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
,
The at least one data capture camera device may also be used to detect
occupancy of the
machine or detect movement proximate to the machine.
[00117] Embodiments described herein are implemented by physical computer
hardware
embodiments. The embodiments described herein provide useful physical machines
and
particularly configured computer hardware arrangements of computing devices,
servers,
electronic gaming terminals, processors, memory, networks, for example. The
embodiments
described herein, for example, is directed to computer apparatuses, and
methods
implemented by computers through the processing of electronic data signals.
[00118] Accordingly, EGM 10 is particularly configured to provide an
interactive game
environment. The display device 12, 14 may display, via a user interface, the
interactive
game environment and the viewing area having one or more game components in
accordance with a set of game data stored in a data store. The interactive
game
environment may be a 2D interactive game environment or a 3D interactive game
environment, or a combination thereof.
[00119] A data capture camera device may capture player data, such as button
input,
gesture input and so on. The data capture camera device may include a camera,
a sensor or
other data capture electronic hardware. In some embodiments, EGM 10 may
include at
least one data capture camera device to continuously monitor the eye gaze of a
player to
collect player eye gaze data. The player may provide input to the EGM 10 using
the eye
gaze of the player. For example, using the eye gaze of the player, which may
be collected
as player eye gaze data, the player may select an interactive game to play,
interact with a
game component, or trigger a bonus interactive game.
[00120] Embodiments described herein involve computing devices, servers,
electronic
gaming terminals, receivers, transmitters, processors, memory, display, and
networks
particularly configured to implement various acts. The embodiments described
herein are
directed to electronic machines adapted for processing and transforming
electromagnetic
signals which represent various types of information. The embodiments
described herein
pervasively and integrally relate to machines, and their uses; and the
embodiments
- 24 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
described herein have no meaning or practical applicability outside their use
with computer
hardware, machines, a various hardware components.
[00121] As described herein, EGM 10 may be configured to provide an
interactive game
environment. The interactive game environment may be a 2D or 3D interactive
game
environment. The interactive game environment may provide a plurality of game
components or game symbols based on the game data. The game data may relate to
a
primary interactive game or a bonus interactive game, or both. For example,
the interactive
game environment may comprise a 3D reel space that may have an active primary
game
matrix of a primary subset of game components. The bonus subset of game
components
may be different from the primary subset of game components. The player may
view a
viewing area of the interactive game environment, which may be a subset of the
interactive
game environment, on the display device 12, 14. The interactive game
environment or the
viewing area may be dynamically updated based on the eye gaze, eye gesture, or
movement of the player in real-time or near real-time. The update to the
interactive game
environment or the viewing area may be a graphical animation effect displayed
on the
display device 12, 14. The update to the interactive game environment or the
viewing area
may be triggered based on the eye gaze, eye gesture, or movement of the
player. For
example, the update may be triggered by looking at a particular part of the
viewing area for a
pre-determined period of time, or looking at different parts of the viewing
area in a pre-
determined sequence, or widening or narrowing the eyes. The interactive
game
environment may be updated dynamically and revealed by dynamic triggers from
game
content of the primary interactive game in response to electronic data signals
collected and
processed by EGM 10.
[00122] For an interactive game environment, the EGM 10 may include a display
device
12, 14 with auto stereoscopic 3D functionality. The EGM 10 may include a touch
screen
display for receiving touch input data to define player interaction commands.
The EGM 10
may also include at least one data capture camera device, for example, to
further receive
player input to define player interaction commands. The EGM 10 may also
include several
effects and frame lights. The 3D enhancements may be an interactive game
environment
for additional game symbols.
- 25 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
y ,
[00123] EGM 10 may include an output device such as one or more speakers. The
speakers may be located in various locations on the EGM 10 such as in a lower
portion or
upper portion. The EGM 10 may have a chair or seat portion and the speakers
may be
included in the seat portion to create a surround sound effect for the player.
The seat portion
may allow for easy upper body and head movement during play. Functions may be
controllable via an on screen game menu. The EGM 10 is configurable to provide
full control
over all built-in functionality (lights, frame lights, sounds, and so on).
[00124] EGM 10 may also include a plurality of effects lights and frame
lights. The lights
may be synchronized with enhancements of the game. The EGM 10 may be
configured to
control color and brightness of lights. Additional custom animations (color
cycle, blinking,
etc.) may also be configured by EGM 10. The custom animations may be triggered
by
certain gaming events.
[00125] FIG. 2A is a block diagram of hardware components of EGM 10 according
to some
embodiments. EGM 10 is shown linked to the casino's host system 41 via network
infrastructure. These hardware components are particularly configured to
provide at least
one interactive game. These hardware components may be configured to provide
at least
one interactive game and at least one bonus game.
[00126] A communications board 42 may contain circuitry for coupling the EGM
10 to
network. Communications board 42 may include a network interface allowing EGM
10 to
communicate with other components, to access and connect to network resources,
to serve
an application, to access other applications, and to perform other computing
applications by
connecting to a network (or multiple networks) capable of carrying data
including the
Internet, Ethernet, plain old telephone service (POTS) line, public switch
telephone network
(PSTN), integrated services digital network (ISDN), digital subscriber line
(DSL), coaxial
cable, fiber optics, satellite, mobile, wireless (e.g. Wi-Fi, WiMAX), SS7
signaling network,
fixed line, local area network, wide area network, and others, including any
combination of
these. EGM 10 may communicate over a network using a suitable protocol, such
as the
G2S protocols.
- 26 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
,
[00127] Communications board 42 communicates, transmits and receives data
using a
wireless transmitter, or it may be wired to a network, such as a local area
network running
throughout the casino floor, for example. Communications board 42 may set up a
communication link with a master controller and may buffer data between the
network and
game controller board 44. Communications board 42 may also communicate with a
network
server, such as in accordance with the G2S standard, for exchanging
information to carry
out embodiments described herein.
[00128] Game controller board 44 includes memory and a processor for carrying
out
program instructions stored in the memory and for providing the information
requested by
the network. Game controller board 44 executes game routines using game data
stores in a
data store accessible to the game controller board 44, and cooperates with
graphics
processor 54 and display controller 52 to provide games with enhanced
interactive game
components.
[00129] EGM 10 may include at least one data capture camera device for
implementing the
gaming enhancements, in accordance with some embodiments. The EGM 10 may
include
the at least one data capture camera device, one or more sensors (e.g. optical
sensor), or
other hardware device configured to capture and collect in real-time or near
real-time data
relating to the eye gaze, eye gesture, or movement of the player, or any
combination thereof.
[00130] In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera device may
be used
for eye gaze tracking, eye gesture tracking, motion tracking, and movement
recognition.
The at least one data capture camera device may collect data defining x, y and
z
coordinates representing eye gaze, eye gestures, and movement of the player.
[00131] In some examples, a game component may be illustrated as a 3D
enhancement
coming towards the player. Another game component may be illustrated as a 3D
enhancement moving away from the player. The player's head position may be
used as a
reference for the at least one data capture camera device during a 3D
enhancement. A
player sitting directly in front of display 12, 14 may see a different view
than a player moving
aside. The at least one data capture camera device may also be used to detect
occupancy
of the EGM 10 or detect movement proximate to the EGM 10. The at least one
data capture
- 27 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
=
camera device and/or a sensor (e.g. an optical sensor) may also be configured
to detect and
track the position(s) of a player's eyes or more precisely, pupils, relative
to the screen of the
EGM 10.
[00132] The at least one data capture camera device may also be used to
collect data
defining player eye movement, eye gestures, body gestures, head movement, or
other body
movement. Players may move their eyes, their bodies or portions of their body
to interact
with the interactive game. The at least one data capture camera device may
collect data
defining player eye movement, eye gestures, body gestures, head movement, or
other body
movement, process and transform the data into data defining game interactions
(e.g.
selecting game components, focusing game components, magnifying game
components,
movement for game components), and update the rendering of the viewing area to
provide a
real-time or near real-time graphical animation effect representative of the
game interactions
using the player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, player movement data,
or any
combination thereof. For example, the player's eyes may be tracked by the at
least one data
capture camera device (or another hardware component of EGM 10), so when the
player's
eyes move left, right, up or down, one or more game components on display
device 12, 14,
may move in response to the player's eye movements. The player may have to
avoid
obstacles, or possibly catch or contact items to collect depending on the type
of game.
These movements within the game may be implemented based on the data derived
from
collected player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, player movement data,
or any
combination thereof.
[00133] In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera device may
track a
position of each eye of a player relative to display device 12, 14, as well as
a direction of
focus of the eyes and a point of focus on the display device 12, 14, in real-
time or near real-
time. The focus direction may be the direction at which the player's line of
sight travels or
extends from his or her eyes to display device 12, 14. The focus point may be
referred to as
a gaze point and the focus direction may sometimes be referred to as a gaze
direction. In
one example, the focus direction and focus point can be determined based on
various eye
tracking data such as position(s) of a player's eyes, a position of his or her
head, position(s)
and size(s) of the pupils, corneal reflection data, and/or size(s) of the
irises. All of the above
- 28 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
mentioned eye tracking or movement data, as well as the focus direction and
focus point,
may be examples of, and referred to as, player's eye movements or player
movement data.
[00134] A game component may be selected to move or manipulate with the
player's eye
movements. The gaming component may be selected by the player or by the game.
For
example, the game outcome or state may determine which symbol to select for
enhancement.
[00135] As previously described, the at least one data capture camera device
may track a
position of a player's eyes relative to display device 12, 14, as well as a
focus direction and a
focus point on the display device 12, 14 of the player's eyes in real-time or
near real-time.
The focus direction can be the direction at which the player's line of sight
travels or extends
from his or her eyes to the display device 12, 14. The focus point may
sometimes be
referred to as a gaze point and the focus direction may sometimes be referred
to as a gaze
direction. In one example, the focus direction and focus point can be
determined based on
various eye tracking data such as position(s) of a player's eyes, a position
of his or her head,
position(s) and size(s) of the pupils, corneal reflection data, and/or size(s)
of the irises. All of
the above mentioned eye tracking or movement data, as well as the focus
direction and
focus point, may be instances of player movement data.
[00136] In addition, a focus point may extend to or encompass different visual
fields visible
to the player. For example, a foveal area may be a small area surrounding a
fixation point
on the display device 12, 14 directly connected by a (virtual) line of sight
extending from the
eyes of a player. This foveal area in the player's vision may generally appear
to be in sharp
focus and may include one or more game components and the surrounding area. A
focus
point may include the foveal area immediately adjacent to the fixation point
directly
connected by the (virtual) line of sight extending from the player's eyes.
[00137] The player eye gaze data and player eye gesture data may relate to the
movement
of the player's eyes. For example, the player's eyes may move or look to the
left, which may
trigger a corresponding movement of a game component within the game. The
movement
of the player's eyes may also trigger an updated view of the entire
interactive game on the
display device 12, 14 to reflect the orientation of the player in relation to
the display device
- 29 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
,
12, 14. The player movement data may be associated with movement of the body
of the
player, such as the player's head, arms legs, or other part of the player's
body. As a further
example, the player movement data may be associated with a gesture made by the
player,
such as a gesture by a hand or a finger.
[00138] In one embodiment of the invention, the EGM 10 may be configured to
target,
select, deselect, move, or rotate one or more game components based on player
eye gaze
data, player eye gesture data, and player movement data. For example, the EGM
10 may
determine that a player has gazed at (e.g. the focus point has remained more
or less
constant) a previously unselected game component for three or more seconds,
then the
EGM 10 may select or highlight the game component, so the player may know that
he or she
may proceed to move or rotate the selected or highlighted game component. In
another
example, the EGM 10 may determine that after a player has selected a game
component,
the same player has moved his or her eyes to the right on a horizontal level
for a
predetermined length or period of time, then the EGM 10 may cause the selected
game
component to move to the right as well on a horizontal level. Similarly, the
EGM 10 may
determine that the player has moved his or her eyes down on a vertical level
for a
predetermined length or period of time, and then the EGM 10 may cause the
selected game
component to move to the bottom vertically.
[00139] Display controller 52 may control one or more of display device 12, 14
using
graphics processor 54 to display a viewing area that may include one or more
visible game
components based on the game data of an interactive game.
[00140] Display controller 52 may, in response to detection of the control
command from
the game controller 44 based on the player eye gaze data, player eye gesture
data, or player
movement data, control display device 12, 14 using graphics processor 54.
Display
controller 52 may update the viewing area to trigger a graphical animation
effect displayed
on one or both of display device 12, 14 representative of a visual update to
the visible game
components in the viewing rea, the visual update based on the player eye gaze
data, player
eye gesture data, or player movement data.
- 30 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
,
[00141] In some embodiments, the player may focus their eye gaze on a game
component
to trigger one or more outcomes, effects, features, and/or bonus games. This
may cause
the player to pay more attention to the game, and may increase the enjoyment
and
interactivity experienced by the player. The at least one data storage device
of EGM 10 may
store game data for at least one interactive game and at least one bonus game.
The game
controller 44 may trigger the display controller 52 to transition from the at
least one
interactive game to the at least one bonus game based on the player eye gaze
data using
the graphical animation effect. The eye gaze of the player may trigger effects
associated
with the interactive game and/or commence the bonus game. For example, a bonus
object
such as a peephole may be displayed on display device 12, 14. The player may
focus their
eye gaze on the peephole for a pre-determined amount of time. Based on the
player eye
gaze data, the game controller 44 may determine that the player has focused
their eye gaze
on the peephole for the pre-determined amount of time, and may trigger the
bonus game.
The display controller 52 may control display device 12, 14 to display a
graphical animation
effect representative of zooming into the peephole and reveal the bonus
screen. This may
increase the attention paid to EGM 10 by the player and the amount of
enjoyment
experienced by the player when interacting with EGM 10.
[00142] The eye gaze of the player may affect the game play of the interactive
game, such
as triggering and transitioning from a primary interactive game to a bonus
interactive game.
The player may focus on a bonus object displayed on display device 12, 14 for
display
controller 52 to control display device 12, 14 to render and display the bonus
screen of a
bonus game.
[00143] FIG. 2B illustrates an online implementation of a gaming system that
may
periodically and/or continuously monitor, and in some embodiments, predict
(e.g., estimate),
the eye gaze of a player as described herein. The eye gaze may be monitored
and/or
predicted such that data relating to tracked positions, trajectories, etc.,
may be obtained.
Data may be processed to obtain further information, such as various
derivatives of eye
gaze data, including, for example, velocity, acceleration, snap, and jerk. The
eye gaze data
may be processed (e.g., smoothed out) to remove undesirable characteristics,
such as
- 31 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
,
,
artefacts, transient movements, vibrations, and inconsistencies caused by head
movements,
blinking, eye irregularities, eyelid obstruction, etc.
[00144] The gaming system may be an online gaming device (which may be an
example
implementation of an EGM). As depicted, the gaming system includes a gaming
server 40
and a gaming device 35 connected via network 37.
[00145] In some embodiments, gaming server 40 and gaming device 35 cooperate
to
implement the functionality of EGM 10, described above. So, aspects and
technical features
of EGM 10 may be implemented in part at gaming device 35, and in part at
gaming server
40.
[00146] Gaming server 40 may be configured to enable online gaming, and may
include
game data and game logic to implement the games and enhancements disclosed
herein.
For example, gaming server 40 may include a player input engine configured to
process
player input and respond according to game rules. Gaming server 40 may include
a graphics
engine configured to generate the interactive game environment as disclosed
herein. In
some embodiments, gaming server 40 may provide rendering instructions and
graphics data
to gaming device 35 so that graphics may be rendered at gaming device 35.
[00147] Gaming server 40 may also include a movement recognition engine that
may be
used to process and interpret collected player eye gaze data, player eye
gesture data, and
player movement data, to transform the data into data defining manipulations
and player
interaction commands.
[00148] Network 37 may be any network (or multiple networks) capable of
carrying data
including the Internet, Ethernet, POTS line, PSTN, ISDN, DSL, coaxial cable,
fiber optics,
satellite, mobile, wireless (e.g. Wi-Fi, WiMAX), SS7 signaling network, fixed
line, local area
network, wide area network, and others, including any combination of these.
[00149] Gaming device 35 may be particularly configured with hardware and
software to
interact with gaming server 40 via network 37 to implement gaming
functionality and render
2D or 3D enhancements, as described herein. For simplicity only one gaming
device 35 is
shown but an electronic gaming system may include one or more gaming devices
35
- 32 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
,
operable by different players. Gaming device 35 may be implemented using one
or more
processors and one or more data stores configured with database(s) or file
system(s), or
using multiple devices or groups of storage devices distributed over a wide
geographic area
and connected via a network (which may be referred to as "cloud computing").
Aspects and
technical features or EGM 10 may be implemented using gaming device 35.
[00150] Gaming device 35 may reside on any networked computing device, such as
a
personal computer, workstation, server, portable computer, mobile device,
personal digital
assistant, laptop, tablet, smart phone, an interactive television, video
display terminals,
gaming consoles, electronic reading device, and portable electronic devices or
a
combination of these.
[00151] Gaming device 35 may include any type of processor, such as, for
example, any
type of general-purpose microprocessor or microcontroller, a digital signal
processing (DSP)
processor, an integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a
reconfigurable
processor, a programmable read-only memory (PROM), or any combination thereof.
Gaming
device 35 may include any type of computer memory that is located either
internally or
externally such as, for example, random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory
(ROM),
compact disc read-only memory (CDROM), electro-optical memory, magneto-optical
memory, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), and electrically-
erasable
programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) or the like.
[00152] Gaming device 35 is operable to register and authenticate users (using
a login,
unique identifier, and password for example) prior to providing access to
applications, a local
network, network resources, other networks and network security devices. The
computing
device may serve one user or multiple users.
[00153] Gaming device 35 may include one or more input devices (e.g. player
control
inputs 50), such as a keyboard, mouse, camera, touch screen and a microphone,
and may
also include one or more output devices such as a display screen (with 3D
capabilities) and
a speaker. Gaming device 35 has a network interface in order to communicate
with other
components, to access and connect to network resources, to serve an
application and other
applications, and perform other computing applications.
- 33 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
p ,
,
[00154] Gaming device 35 connects to gaming server 40 by way of network 37 to
access
technical 2D and 3D enhancements to games as described herein. Multiple gaming
devices
35 may connect to gaming server 40, each gaming device 35 operated by a
respective
player.
[00155] Gaming device 35 may be configured to connect to one or more other
gaming
devices through, for example network 37. In some embodiments the gaming server
40 may
be utilized to coordinate the gaming devices 35. Where gaming devices 35 may
be utilized
to facilitate the playing of a same game (e.g., having a traversable maze)
wherein the game
includes at least sections where there is interaction between activities
performed by a player
on the gaming devices 35, various elements of information may be communicated
across
network 37 (and in some embodiments, through gaming server 40). For example
the
elements of information may include player gaze position data (which may
include prior gaze
position data as well as present and/or predicted gaze position data),
characteristics of
electronic tokens (e.g., position, velocity, movement destination, movement
origin), among
others. This information may be used by each of the gaming devices 35 to
provision and/or
display interfaces that take into consideration the received data from another
gaming device
35. For example, a maze game may be shown, where other the tokens of other
garners may
be displayed, and in some embodiments, the gaming devices 35 may be configured
for
cooperative and/or competitive play (or a combination thereof) between the
players in
relation to various game objectives, events and/or triggers.
[00156] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a calibration process for
the electronic
gaming machine according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, the at
least one
data capture camera device and the display device 12, 14 may be calibrated.
Calibration of
the at least one data capture camera device and the display device may be
desirable
because the eyes of each player using the EGM 10 may be physically different,
such as the
shape and location of the player's eyes, and the capability for each player to
see. Each
player may also stand at a different position relative to the EGM 10.
[00157] The at least one data capture camera device may be calibrated by the
game
controller 44 by detecting the movement of the player's eyes. In some
embodiments, the
display controller 52 may control the display device 12, 14 to display one or
more calibration
- 34 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
,
symbols. There may be one calibration symbol that appears on the display
device 12, 14 at
one time, or more than one calibration symbol may appear on the display device
12, 14 at
one time. The player may be prompted by text, noise, graphical animation
effect, or any
combination thereof, to direct their eye gaze to one or more of the
calibration symbols. The
at least one data capture camera device may monitor the eye gaze of the player
looking at
the one or more calibration symbols and a distance of the player's eyes
relative to the EGM
to collect calibration data. Based on the eye gaze corresponding to the player
looking at
different calibration symbols, the at least one data capture camera device may
record data
associated with how the player's eyes rotate to look from one position on the
display device
10 12, 14 to a second position on the display device 12, 14. The game
controller 44 may
calibrate the at least one data capture camera device based on the calibration
data.
[00158] For example, as shown in FIG. 3, before the player 310 plays the
interactive game,
the EGM 10 may notify the player 310 that the at least one data capture camera
device (not
shown) and the display device 12, 14 may be calibrated. The display controller
52 may
cause the display device 12, 14 to display one or more calibration symbols
330. In FIG. 3,
nine calibration symbols 330 "A" through "I" are displayed, but the
calibration symbols 330
may be any other symbols. For example, the calibration symbols 330 may be one
or more
game components related to the interactive game to be played. The calibration
symbols 330
may be displayed on any portion of the display device 12, 14. The player 310
may be
prompted to look at the calibration symbols in a certain order. The at least
one data capture
camera device may monitor the eye gaze 320 of the player 310 looking at the
calibration
symbols 330 and the distance of the player's eyes relative to the EGM 10 to
collect the
calibration data. When the at least one data capture camera device collects
player eye gaze
data in real-time, the game controller 44 may compare the player eye gaze data
with the
calibration data in real-time to determine the angle at which that the
player's eyes are
looking.
[00159] The display controller 52 may calibrate the display device 12, 14
using the
graphics processor 54 based on the calibration data collected by the at least
one data
capture camera device. The at least one data capture camera device may monitor
the eye
gaze of the player to collect calibration data as described herein. The
display controller 52
- 35 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
, =
may calibrate the display device 12, 14 using the graphics processor 54 to
display a certain
resolution on the display device 12, 14.
[00160] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the mapping of a player's
eye gaze to the
viewing area, according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, the game
controller
44 may determine the location of the eye gaze relative to the viewing area
based on the
position of the player's eyes relative to the EGM 10 and an angle of the
player's eyes.
[00161] As shown in FIG. 4, the at least one data capture camera device 420
may monitor
the position of the player's eyes 430 relative to EGM 10, and may also monitor
the angle of
the player's eyes 430 to collect display mapping data. The angle of the
player's eyes may
be determined based on the calibration of the at least one data capture camera
device 420
described herein. The angle of the player's eyes may define the focus of the
eye gaze,
which may be a line of sight relative to the display device 12, 14. Based on
the display
mapping data, which may comprise the position of the player's eyes relative to
the EGM 10
and an angle of the player's eyes or the line of sight relative, the game
controller 44 may be
configured to determine the direction and length of a virtual array 440
projecting from the
player's eyes 430. Virtual array 440 may represent the eye gaze of the player
410. The
game controller 44 may determine where the virtual array 440 intersects with
the display
device 12, 14. The intersection of virtual array 440 and display device 12, 14
may represent
where the eye gaze of the player 410 is focused on the display device 12, 14.
The display
device 12, 14 may be controlled by display controller 52 to display the
viewing area. The
game controller 44 may identify coordinates on the display device 12, 14
corresponding to
the player eye gaze data and may map the coordinates to the viewing area to
determine the
eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area. EGM 10 may determine the
location of
the viewing area that the player 410 is looking at, which may be useful for
EGM 10 to
determine how the player 410 is interacting with the interactive game. In
some
embodiments, the eye gaze of the player may be expressed in 2D or 3D and may
be
mapped to a 2D or 3D viewing area, depending on whether the interactive game
is a 2D
interactive game or a 3D interactive game.
- 36 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
r =
[00162] Peripheral devices/boards communicate with the game controller board
44 via a
bus 46 using, for example, an RS-232 interface. Such peripherals may include a
bill validator
47, a coin detector 48, a smart card reader or other type of credit card
reader 49, and player
control inputs 50 (such as buttons or a touch screen).
[00163] Player input or control device 50 may include the keypad, the buttons,
touchscreen
display, gesture tracking hardware, and data capture device as described
herein. Other
peripherals may be one or more cameras used for collecting player input data,
or other
player movement or gesture data that may be used to trigger player interaction
commands.
Display device 12, 14 may be a touch sensitive display device. Player control
input device 50
may be integrated with display device 12, 14 to detect player interaction
input at the display
device 12, 14.
[00164] Game controller board 44 may also control one or more devices that
produce the
game output including audio and video output associated with a particular game
that is
presented to the user. For example, audio board 51 may convert coded signals
into analog
signals for driving speakers.
[00165] Game controller board 44 may be coupled to an electronic data store
storing game
data for one or more interactive games. The game data may be for a primary
interactive
game and/or a bonus interactive game. The game data may, for example, include
a set of
game instructions for each of the one or more interactive games. The
electronic data store
may reside in a data storage device, e.g., a hard disk drive, a solid state
drive, or the like.
Such a data storage device may be included in EGM 10, or may reside at host
system 41. In
some embodiments, the electronic data store storing game data may reside in
the cloud.
[00166] Card reader 49 reads cards for player and credit information for
cashless gaming.
Card reader 49 may read a magnetic code on a conventional player tracking
card, where the
code uniquely identifies the player to a host system at the venue. The code is
cross-
referenced by host system 41 to any data related to the player, and such data
may affect the
games offered to the player by the gaming terminal. Card reader 49 may also
include an
optical reader and printer for reading and printing coded barcodes and other
information on a
paper ticket. A card may also include credentials that enable host system 41
to access one
- 37 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
or more accounts associated with a user. The account may be debited based on
wagers by
a user and credited based on a win.
[00167] Graphics processor 54 may be configured to generate and render
animation game
enhancements based on game data as directed by game controller board 44. The
game
enhancements may involve an interactive game environment that may provide one
or more
game components and graphical animation effects. Graphics processor 54 may be
a
specialized electronic circuit designed for image processing (including 2D and
3D image
processing in some examples) in order to manipulate and transform data stored
in memory
to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer for output to the
display by way of
display controller 52. Graphics processor 54 may redraw various game
enhancements as
they dynamically update. Graphics processor 54 may cooperate with game
controller board
44 and display controller 52 to generate and render enhancements as described
herein.
Graphics processor 54 may generate an interactive game environment that may
provide one
or more game components, for example, a 3D reel space of a plurality of game
components.
The graphics processor 54 may generate graphical animation effects to
represent a visual
update to the game components in the viewing area, the visual update based on
the player
eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, player movement data, or any
combination thereof.
[00168] Display controller 52 may require a high data transfer rate and may
convert coded
signals to pixel signals for the display. Display controller 52 and audio
board 51 may be
directly connected to parallel ports on the game controller board 44. The
electronics on the
various boards may be combined onto a single board. Display controller 52 may
control
output to one or more display device 12, 14 (e.g. an electronic touch
sensitive display
device). Display controller 52 may cooperate with graphics processor 54 to
render
animation enhancements on display device 12, 14.
[00169] Display controller 52 may be configured to interact with graphics
processor 54 to
control the display device 12, 14 to display a viewing area defining the
interactive game
environment including navigation to different views of the interactive game
environment.
Player control inputs 50 and the at least one data capture camera device may
continuously
detect player interaction commands to interact with interactive game
environment. For
- 38 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
example, the player may move a game component to a preferred position, select
a game
component, or manipulate the display of the game components.
[00170] In some embodiments, display controller 52 may control the display
device 12, 14
using the graphics processor 54 to display the viewing area that may have one
or more
game components. In response to the detection of the control command based on
the
player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, player movement data, or any
combination
thereof, display controller 52 may trigger a graphical animation effect to
represent a visual
update to the game components in the viewing area.
[00171] While playing an interactive game on the EGM 10, the eyes of a player
may move
suddenly without the player being conscious of the movement. The eyes of the
player may
demonstrate subconscious, quick, and short movements, even if the player is
not actively
controlling their eyes to move in this manner. These subconscious, quick, and
short eye
movements may affect the game controller's determination of the eye gaze of
the player
based on the player eye gaze data. Accurate processing of the player eye gaze
data related
to these subconscious, quick, and short eye movements may result in detecting
the location
of the eye gaze of the player representative of eye twitching or erratic eye
movements not
reflective of the player's intended eye gaze, and may be distracting to the
player. It may be
useful for the player eye gaze data to be filtered to not reflect these quick
and short eye
movements, for example, so the determination of the eye gaze of the player
relative to the
viewing area by the game controller reflects the intended eye gaze of the
player. It may also
be useful for the portion of the player eye gaze data representative of the
subconscious,
quick, and short eye movements to have less determinative effect on the
determined
location of the eye gaze of the player. In some embodiments, the game
controller 44 may
define a filter movement threshold, wherein the game controller, prior to
determining a
location of the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area using the
player eye gaze
data and updating the rendering of the viewing area, determines that the
player eye gaze
meets the filter movement threshold. The game controller 44 may "smooth out"
sudden and
subconscious eye movement.
[00172] For example, the game controller 44 may delay in processing the player
eye gaze
data associated with subconscious, quick, and short eye movements, so the
detected
- 39 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
0 =
)
,
location of the eye gaze of the player does not represent twitching or sudden
unconscious
eye movements. Large eye motions may also be associated with more delay in
processing
and more smoothing. In some embodiments, the game controller may partition the
player
eye gaze data associated with large eye motions into data representative of
shorter eye
motions. The game controller 44 may analyze the player eye gaze data to
determine which
data is associated with subconscious eye movement or with conscious eye
movement based
on a filter movement threshold, a time threshold, movement threshold, or any
combination
thereof. Player eye gaze data associated with quick eye movements over a
certain period of
time may be determined by the game controller 44 to be subconscious eye
movement. The
game controller 44 may delay in processing this portion of data so the
detected location of
the eye gaze of the player may be stable and may not distract the player, or
the game
controller may filter out this data and not process it. Player eye gaze data
associated with
large eye movements over a certain period of time may be determined by the
game
controller to be the player losing focus or being distracted. The game
controller 44 may
similarly delay in processing this portion of data or not process this portion
of data.
[00173] The locations where EGM 10 may be used may have a variety of lighting
conditions. For example, EGM 10 may be used in a restaurant, a hotel lobby, an
airport, and
a casino. It may be brighter in some locations and darker in other locations,
or the light
quality may fluctuate from brightness to darkness. In some embodiments, EGM 10
may
include an infrared light source that illuminates the player. The infrared
light sources may
not interfere with the eyes of the player. In some embodiments, the at least
one data
capture camera device may be an infrared data capture camera device.
[00174] The infrared data capture camera device may collect player eye gaze
data, player
eye gesture data, and player movement data without being affected by the
lighting
conditions of the locations where EGM 10 may be used. In some embodiments, EGM
10
may have a plurality of light sources providing a plurality of spectra of
light, and the at least
one data capture camera device may be a plurality of data capture camera
devices
configured to detect a plurality of spectra of light, so the at least one data
capture camera
device may collect player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, and player
movement
- 40 -
CA 02915020 2015-12-11
data without being affected by the lighting conditions of the locations where
EGM 10 may be
used.
[00175] A player that plays an interactive game using EGM 10 may be wearing
glasses.
The glasses of the player may cause refractions of the light that illuminates
the player. This
may affect the at least one data capture camera device while it monitors the
eye gaze, eye
gesture, and/or movement of the player. Glasses that comprise an infrared
filter may also
interfere with or affect the at least one data capture camera device while it
monitors the eye
gaze, eye gesture, and/or movement of the player. EGM 10 may recognize that
the player
may be wearing glasses. For example, as the interactive game commences,
display
controller 52 may display on display device 12, 14 using graphics processor 54
a question
asking the player if he or she is wearing glasses. The player may provide
input indicating
whether he or she is wearing glasses, such as, but not limited to, with an
audio command,
touch command, or with the player's eye gaze. As other example, the game
controller 44
may recognize, based on processing the player eye gaze data from the at least
one data
capture camera device, that the light illuminating the player may be
refracted, and may
determine that the player is wearing glasses. When EGM 10 recognizes that the
player may
be wearing glasses, the game controller 44 may perform additional and/or more
stringent
filtering functions as described herein to compromise for the player's use of
glasses and to
accommodate the refractions of the light that illuminates the player. For
example, the filter
movement threshold may be set to be higher for players who wear glasses.
[00176] In some embodiments, the game controller 44 may be configured to
predict the
location of the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area at a
future time using the
player eye gaze data to facilitate dynamic update to the rendering of the
viewing area. For
example, if the game controller 44 determines that a player is changing their
gaze on a
horizontal plane from the left to the right, the game controller 44 may
predict that the player
may look at a game component displayed on the right side of display device 12,
14. The
ability for game controller 44 to predict the location of the eye gaze of the
player at a future
time may be useful to rule out inaccurate readings.
[00177] For example, while a player plays a game, the at least one data
capture camera
device may incorrectly detect a button on the clothing of a player to be the
player's eyes, and
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'
may collect incorrect player eye gaze data based on the button. Based on the
location of the
eye gaze predicted by game controller 44, the incorrect player eye gaze data
may be ruled
out by game controller 44, and may not be processed by game controller 44 to
trigger a
control command to update the viewing area with a graphical animation effect.
As another
example, by predicting the location of the eye gaze, the display controller 52
may adjust the
resolution of the display device 12, 14 where the player is not expected to be
looking. This
may be useful because the EGM 10 may have limited processing power. Not all
visible
game components may require high resolution. Only the game components that the
player
is looking at may require high resolution. The ability for game controller 44
to predict the
location of the eye gaze of the player may allow display controller 52 to
reduce the resolution
of game components that the player may not be looking at, which may increase
the
efficiency of the processing power of the EGM 10.
[00178] In some embodiments, the player may play an interactive game with EGM
10 in
communication with a mobile device. Depending on the game data of the
interactive game,
the player may play the interactive game on EGM 10, on the mobile device, or
on both. The
player may play the interactive game using their eye gaze, eye gestures,
movement, the
interface of the mobile device, or any combination thereof. The player may
play the
interactive game using only the eye gaze of the player while the player holds
on to the
mobile device with one or more hands. The mobile device may, for example, be a
computer,
personal digital assistant, laptop, tablet, smart phone, media player,
electronic reading
device, data communication device, or a wearable device, such as GoogleTM
Glass, virtual
reality device, or any combination thereof. The mobile device may be a custom
mobile
device that may be in communication with EGM 10.
[00179] The mobile device may be operable by a user and may be any portable,
networked
(wired or wireless) computing device including a processor and memory and
suitable for
facilitating communication between one or more computing applications of
mobile device
(e.g. a computing application installed on or running on the mobile device). A
mobile device
may be a two-way communication device with advanced data communication
capabilities
having the capability to communicate with other computer systems and devices.
The mobile
device may include the capability for data communications and may also include
the
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CA 02915020 2015-12-11
capability for voice communications, in some example embodiments. The mobile
device
may have at least one data capture camera device to continuously monitor the
eye gaze,
eye gesture, or movement of the player and collect player eye gaze data,
player eye gesture
data, or player movement data.
[00180] EGM 10 may include a wireless transceiver that may communicate with
the mobile
device, for example using standard WiFi or Bluetooth, or other protocol based
on the
wireless communication capabilities of the mobile device. The player may be
able to play
the interactive game while the mobile device is in communication with EGM 10.
When
connected to the EGM 10, the viewing area may be displayed on display device
12, 14 or on
the screen of the mobile device, or both. The at least one data capture camera
device on
the mobile device may collect player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data,
or player
movement data, which may be processed by a game controller 44 of EGM 10 to
determine a
location of the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area displayed
on the mobile
device. The game controller 44 may trigger a control command to the display
controller 52
to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area based on the player
eye gaze data,
player eye gesture data, or player movement data. In response to the control
command
from the game controller 44, the display controller 52 may control the display
device 12, 14,
the mobile device, or both, in real-time or near real-time using the graphics
processor 54 to
dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area to provide a real-time or
near real-time
graphical animation effect displayed on the display device 12, 14 or the
mobile device
representative of a visual update to the game components in the viewing area,
the visual
update based on the player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, or player
movement
data.
[00181] In some embodiments, the mobile device in communication with EGM 10
may be
configured to be a display device that compliments display device 12, 14 when
playing the
interactive game. The player may interact with the interactive game through
the interface of
the mobile device, through the EGM 10, or any combination thereof. The
interactive game
environment, viewing area, and game components of the interactive game may be
displayed
on the mobile device, display device 12, 14, or any combination thereof.
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=
[00182] In some embodiments, a terminal may be connected to one or more EGM 10
over
a network. The terminal may serve as a registration terminal for setting
up the
communication between the mobile device and any EGM 10 connected to the
network.
Therefore, the player does not have to physically go to EGM 10 to set up the
link and play
the interactive game associated with EGM 10.
[00183] Host system 41 may store account data for players. EGM 10 may
communicate
with host system 41 to update such account data, for example, based on wins
and losses. In
an embodiment, host system 41 stores the aforementioned game data, and EGM 10
may
retrieve such game data from host system 41 during operation.
[00184] In some embodiments, the electronics on the various boards described
herein may
be combined onto a single board. Similarly, in some embodiments, the
electronics on the
various controllers and processors described herein may be integrated. For
example, the
processor of game controller board 44 and graphics processor 54 may be a
single integrated
chip.
[00185] EGM 10 may be configured to provide one or more player eye gaze, eye
gesture,
or movement interactions to one or more games playable at EGM 10. The
enhancements
may be to a primary interactive game, secondary interactive game, bonus
interactive game,
or combination thereof.
[00186] In some embodiments, EGM 10 may apply one or more predictive
techniques to
develop a plurality of predicted points of eye gaze, which, for example, may
approximate
and/or estimate where a player's gaze will travel next. These predictions may
also be
provided for use by graphics processor 54 and/or game controller board 44 in
relation with
smoothing out and/or accounting for removal of transient readings, undesirable
artefacts
and/or inadvertent gaze positions. In some embodiments, the predictions may
also be used
to improve the performance of EGM 10 in relation to gaze capture and/or
processing thereof,
by, for example, applying heuristic techniques to reduce the number of
computations and/or
capture frequency by relying on predictions to interpolate and/or extrapolate
between gaze
positions captured.
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[00187] For example, when a player views an area in a game or a maze, the EGM
10 may
record where they were looking and what events are being displayed to the
player (e.g., as
first movements and/or gaze positions). When an event is triggered a second
time, the
player's gaze movements are recorded into a data storage system, but then
compared to the
first movements. A comparison may include, for example, comparing positions,
velocities,
start and end positions, accelerations, etc. as between various gaze
movements.
[00188] For example, for each duration, a path start and end location may be
calculated,
and a predicted pathway may be developed based on these locations and stored
in a data
storage.
[00189] As the event is triggered more times (e.g., more iterations occur),
the data may be
accumulated and a predictive pathing model can be built. Once the predictive
pathing model
is developed, when the event is triggered, the EGM 10 could reduce the
frequency of the
gaze system updates and use the recorded pathing and final location to be used
to reduce
the overall computing resources required, for example (e.g., performing
various steps of
interpolation, extrapolation using the predictive pathing model).
[00190] Accordingly, predictive pathing can also be used to reduce errors
being produced
by the gaze system. Gaze systems may utilize cameras and edge detection to
determine
where the player is looking, and many utilize use infra-red light to see the
player's eye. If
there are other infra-red light sources, for example, such sources may cause
the gaze
camera to be impacted and may reduce accuracy of the gaze detection.
Accordingly,
predictive pathing may be useful to reduce error in similar situations where
there may
otherwise be recorded errors and/or aberrations.
[00191] Further, predictions may not be limited only to a current player. For
example,
aggregate information from a large population of players may be aggregated
together to
refine the model for predictive pathing. The model may, for example, take into
consideration
the type of player, the type of interaction the player is having with the EGM
10, the
characteristics of the player (e.g., height, gender, angle of incidence),
among others.
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[00192] In some embodiments, the predictive pathing model may also be utilized
in the
context of a game. For example, if the game includes aspects which may be
selectively
triggered based on various inputs, an input for triggering may include
predicted pathways. In
some embodiments, objects and/or layers may be modified and/or altered. As
described
further in the description, some embodiments may include a maze game wherein a
concealment layer may be selectively and/or gradually revealed based on
various
interactions, activities and/or events occurring. In some embodiments, such
revealing may
be provided, at least in part, using the predictive pathway model (e.g., a
player's gaze is
predicted at a particular location, and therefore that area of the concealment
layer is
modified to become revealed).
[00193] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating an electronic gaming
machine displaying
a display screen based on collected proximity data according to some
embodiments. In
some embodiments, the EGM 10 may recognize potential players proximate to the
EGM 10.
[00194] As shown in FIG. 5, the at least one data capture camera device may
periodically
and/or continuously monitor an area proximate to the EGM 10 to collect
proximity data. The
game controller 44 may process the proximity data to detect if a person is
proximate to the
EGM 10. If a person is detected proximate to the EGM 10, then the display
controller 52
controls the display device 12, 14 to display a display screen, such as an
advertisement.
The ability for EGM 10 to recognize potential players proximate to the EGM 10
and
commence active self-promotion is useful to gain a competitive advantage over
other
gaming machines. It may also be useful for welcoming and encouraging players
to play the
game and provide the player with a sense of astonishment. In contrast to a
gaming machine
that may interact with a player after the player has inserted a ticket,
pressed a button, or
touched a screen, may EGM 10 actively start the player's decision-making
process to
interact with EGM 10 sooner.
[00195] In some embodiments, the display controller 52 may render a gaze-
sensitive user
interface on the display device 12, 14, wherein the game controller 44 detects
the location of
the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area using the player eye
gaze data, and
triggers the control command to display controller 52 to dynamically update
the rendering of
the viewing area to provide a real-time or near real-time the graphical
animation effect
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. .
,
displayed on the display device 12, 14 representative of a visual update to
the gaze-
sensitive user interface.
[00196] The at least one data capture camera device may, for example, capture
the and/or
monitor the gaze data of two or more persons (e.g., person 502 and person 504
standing in
front of EGM 10), which may, for example, be two or more players of a game.
The gaze
data may be used such that both players are able to play the game
simultaneously (e.g.,
both players have representative tokens that are displayed on display devices
12, 14, and
controlled in a gaze-sensitive user interface).
[00197] In some embodiments, the display controller 52 may render a gaze-
sensitive user
interface on the display device 12, 14, wherein the game controller 44 detects
the location of
the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area using the player eye
gaze data, and
triggers the control command to display controller 52 to dynamically update
the rendering of
the viewing area to provide a real-time or near real-time the graphical
animation effect
displayed on the display device 12, 14 representative of a visual update to
the gaze-
sensitive user interface. For example, display controller 52 may control
display device 12,
14 to display a gaze-sensitive user interface as shown in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B.
The player
may gaze at the one or more visible game components 610 at the top of the
display device
12, 14, and the display controller 52 may cause a graphical animation effect
to be displayed
representative of reducing the size of or hiding an options menu 620 at the
bottom of the
display device 12, 14.
[00198] As shown in FIG. 6A, the options menu 620 may be small and out of the
way. As
the options menu 620 is being hidden, display controller 52 may cause another
graphical
animation effect to be displayed representative of enlarging the one or more
visible game
components 610 to use the portion of the display device 12, 14 vacated by the
options menu
620. As another example, as illustrated in FIG. 6B, the player may gaze at the
bottom of the
display device 12, 14, which may cause the options menu 620 to be revealed and
additional
options may appear on screen. When the option menu 620 is revealed, the one or
more
visible game components 610 may reduce in size to accommodate the options menu
620.
The player may gaze at a specific area of display device 12, 14, and
additional information
may be displayed on display device 12, 14. Even though the EGM 10 may have one
or two
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CA 02915020 2015-12-11
display device 12, 14, a gaze-sensitive user interface may effectively
increase the size of the
display devices available to EGM 10. For example, as illustrated in Figs. 6A
and 6B, display
device 12, 14 may display one or more visible game components 610 and an
options menu
620 without requiring an increase in size of the display device 12, 14. The
gaze-sensitive
user interface may optimize the use of the limited space available on display
device 12, 14.
By monitoring the eye gaze of the player, EGM 10 may demonstrate context
awareness of
what the player is looking at. For example, the EGM 10 may detect when the
player is
distracted by detecting whether the eye gaze of the player is on the display
device 12, 14.
[00199] EGM 10 may reward a player for maintaining their eye gaze on positive
game
aspects. For example, the at least one data capture display device may collect
player eye
gaze data that may indicate that the player is looking at a particular
positive game
component, such as, but not limited to, a positive game component
representative of the
rewarding of points, credits, prizes, or a winning line on a reel game. The
display controller
52 may control the display device 12, 14 to display a graphical animation
effect to enhance
the positive game component with additional fanfare, for example, a special
particle effect,
fireworks, additional resolution and/or size of the positive game component,
greater colour
contrast and brightness, or lights and noises. In some embodiments, the
graphical
animation effect may correlate with the amount of time the player has
maintained their eye
gaze on the positive game component. The longer the player focuses their eye
gaze on the
positive game component, the more graphical animation effects may be displayed
by display
controller 52 on display device 12, 14 and/or the duration of the graphical
animation effects
may be extended. The EGM 10 may include a display device 12, 14 with auto
stereoscopic
3D functionality.
[00200] FIG. 7 is a schematic illustrating an electronic gaming machine with a
stereoscopic
3D screen where the player can interact with objects displayed on the
stereoscopic 3D
screen with the player's eye gaze according to some embodiments.
[00201] The screen may be utilized, for example, to provide various renderings
of 3D
interactive games, which may have various 3D and/or overlaid 2D graphical
representations
that, for example, include various aspects of games as provided by game
controller 44. For
example, the EGM 10 may be configured to provide a stereoscopic 3D screen
where various
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3D games can be played, wherein the game object may be a cube (as depicted in
FIG. 7), or
any other type of shape. The game object may have various surfaces, and in
some
embodiments, the various surfaces may represent various separate areas which a
player
may interact with. The game object may be, for example, 3D, and to access
other surfaces
and/or other sections of the game object, the player and/or the EGM 10 may
provide a
control signal indicative of a desire and/or a command to rotate, translate
(or a combination
of the two) such that other gaming surfaces (e.g., surfaces hidden from view
and/or
positioned obliquely in view) are readily accessible by a player (e.g., a
surface is rotated to
the forefront of the screen).
[00202] FIG. 8A is an example interface screen illustrative of a maze 800 in
conjunction
with a player's avatar 802, according to some embodiments. The interface
screen may be
graphically rendered by display controller 52, in conjunction with a game
controller board 44.
[00203] The maze 800 may include various aspects of an interactive game
environment,
and may be represented in the form of graphical game components that are
rendered on the
display 12, 14. The maze 800 may have various electronic "positions"
indicative of areas
and/or locations within an interactive game environment, such as a 2D or 3D
game "world".
Maze 800, in some embodiments, may include planar surfaces and/or objects that
may also
exist in a non-linear and/or an environment only possible in a virtual game
environment (e.g.,
Penfold stairs).
[00204] As the game environment is rendered graphically, various elements of
data may
be stored to track, maintain and/or monitor various interactions and/or
graphical components
that may exist within the environment of the maze 800, and such elements of
data do not
necessarily need to correspond with real world physics, rules and/or
connections (e.g., one
position in the maze may be connected to another through, for example, a
graphical portal).
[00205] For example, some positions on the maze 800 may be associated with
various
outcomes, game awards, bonuses, etc., and the positions may be established
and/or
tracked such that gaming components (e.g., avatars representative of players)
are able to
traverse the positions within the maze 800.
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. .
[00206] Such a maze 800 may be provided through display controller 52, on
display device
12, 14. All and/or portions of a maze 800 may be depicted graphically, and
where a portion
of the maze 800 is depicted, the EGM 10 may be configured to track the
movement of a
player avatar 802 and corresponding "scroll" and/or otherwise adjust the
interface provided
through display controller 52, on display device 12, 14 to ensure that player
avatar 802 is
displayed properly on display device 12, 14.
[00207] Tracking the eye gaze, eye gesture, and movement of a player may be
implemented for a variety of interactive games and graphical animation effects
provided by
game controller board 44 and display controller 52 in conjunction with a
graphics processor
54. The player's gaze may be captured, for example, through at least one data
capture
camera unit, and converted into inputs for provisioning into player control
inputs 50. The
player's gaze may be represented as player eye gaze data, and could include
various raw
data collected in relation to the eye gaze (position, angle, altitude, focus
position derived
from two eyes operating stereoscopically), and data in relation to captured
characteristics of
the gaze, such as gaze movement velocity, acceleration, etc. Such information
may be
tracked, for example, by game controller 44.
[00208] For example, the EGM 10 may utilize the game controller 44 to interact
with the
data capture camera unit to convert the player eye gaze data relative to the
display unit to a
plurality of points of eye gaze relative to the displayed graphical game
components for the
interactive network of intercommunicating paths to compute the player pathway.
This
plurality of points, for example, may be representative of coordinates and a
line of sight
relative to the display unit.
[00209] Coordinates may be represented in various forms in data, for example,
in
Euclidean coordinates, cylindrical coordinates, spherical coordinates, and/or
other forms of
coordinate systems. Further, the coordinates (e.g., absolute, relative) may be
stored as
positional points, angles, elevations, vectors, matrices, arrays, etc., and
may further be
associated with aspects of metadata related to the stored coordinates, the
metadata
representative of stored instruction sets that may, for example, indicate the
veracity of the
measurements (e.g., how reliable), the type of measurement, the device upon
which the
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. .
,
,
measurement was recorded, a time-stamp associated with the measurement, etc.
Groups of
coordinates may be stored in the form of matrices of coordinates, for example.
[00210] These coordinates may be captured such that the coordinates may be
utilized in
downstream processing, such as transformations (e.g., coordinate
transformations),
rotations, skews. For example, in downstream processing, in the context of a
maze 800, the
maze 800 may in some embodiments representative of a virtual interactive
environment
which may not have the same physics and/or relationships between virtual
coordinates (e.g.,
the virtual interactive environment may not necessarily be a flat plane, in
Euclidean space).
For example, the virtual interactive environment may utilize a maze 800 having
surfaces
and/or positions configured such that the maze 800 is a virtual surface of a
sphere, which
may be manifold and/or space upon which is traversed differently than a
virtual flat planar
surface.
[00211] A line of sight may be stored, as described above, as a directional
vector relative to
the display 12, 14, and/or a reference point on or around EGM 10 (e.g., a
position on the
EGM 10 itself, a distance marker, a top point of the EGM 10, a point on
displays 12, 14). In
some embodiments, the game controller 44 is adapted to receive eye gaze
positional data
relative to two eyes, and to transform the eye gaze positional data to
establish an aggregate
line of sight based on both eyes. In some embodiments, separate lines of sight
may be
established for each eye, and a third line of sight may be determined for an
aggregate. Such
an embodiment may be useful for interactive games having a virtual interactive
environment
having more than two dimensions. The line of sight data may include associated
metadata
indicative of a veracity of data, etc.
[00212] In the context of an interactive game environment having maze 800, the
eye gaze
data may be converted to a plurality of points of eye gaze relative to the
displayed graphical
game components, and such conversion may include determining at a
corresponding virtual
set of coordinates for use within the interactive game environment. The
virtual set of
coordinates may require various transformations, and the virtual set of
coordinates may be in
relation to a two dimensional virtual coordinate, a three dimensional virtual
coordinate, and
may be on a different type of coordinate system than a Euclidean coordinate
system.
- 51 -
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,
[00213] Mapping from a Euclidean coordinate system to another type of
coordinate system
may require the game controller 44 to develop one or more non-linear mappings
upon which
a transformation may be performed, including, for example, the determination
of a Jacobian
determinant and/or a matrix including Jacobian determinants for use in the
transformation.
Where the corresponding virtual set of coordinates for use within the
interactive game
environment is a three dimensional virtual coordinate including left eye
coordinates and right
eye coordinates; and the game controller 44 may be configured to transform the
left eye
coordinates, the right eye coordinates, and the line of sight to determine the
three
dimensional virtual coordinate. For example, the left eye coordinates, the
right eye
coordinates, and the line of sight may be utilized together to derive a
linearly independent
set of base coordinates that are mapped into the interactive gaming
environment, based on
a virtual coordinate system set out in the interactive gaming environment. The
left eye
coordinates and the right eye coordinates may be utilized together to
determine the line of
sight, in some embodiments, based on a stereoscopic calculation based on the
two
coordinates (e.g., determining a parallax that is defined as the difference
between the left
and right eye coordinates).
[00214] The mapping of virtual coordinates may, for example, be within the
maze 800, and
represent virtual spaces 806 within the maze 800 (e.g., spaces within the
interactive network
of intercommunicating paths upon which electronic player token is able to
traverse), or walls
808. The game controller 44 may continuously compute the player pathway based
on a
tracked changes to at least one of (i) the coordinates and (ii) the line of
sight relative to the
display unit, in relation to the displayed graphical game components for the
interactive
network of intercommunicating paths during a duration of time (e.g., a pathway
duration,
which, for example, may be a pre-defined variable and/or a triggered
variable).
[00215] For example, the duration of time may have a start time and an end
time, and the
start time may be initiated by identifying that the collected player eye gaze
correspond to a
location on the display unit upon which the graphical animation for the
electronic player
token is being displayed, and the end time may be determined by the data
capture camera
unit identifying a pre-determined gesture of the player (e.g., a wink, an eye
close, an
eyebrow movement, a blink, a set of blinks, a looking away from the display
unit).
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' .
[00216] As indicated in FIG. 8A, a maze 800 is provided by the interface. The
maze 800
may have one or more interconnecting paths as indicated as the spaces 806
between the
walls 808 of the maze 800, and the player may, in some embodiments, traverse
the maze
800 by controlling the movement of the avatar 802 through the maze 800, for
example, by
providing gaze inputs through control inputs 50. Each space 806 and/or wall
808 may be
represented as a virtual position and associated with various characteristics,
such as being
associated with triggers, awards, bonuses, dis-bonuses, etc. The positions may
be
associated with various interactive game components, such as levers, stairs,
buttons, etc.,
which when interacted with, may cause various in-game effects, such as game
animations,
etc. to occur. In some embodiments, a maze 800 may have one or more spaces 806
that
may be operatively associated with one or more start positions, and/or end
positions (e.g.,
when a player avatar 802 traverses from a start position to an end position, a
game condition
may be satisfied. Multiple start and end positions may be generated, for
example, where
maze 800 is large, multidimensional, made of sub mazes, configured for
operation with
multiple players (each being associated with their own avatar 802), etc.
[00217] There may be other types of inputs 50, such as winks, blinks, open,
close, etc.,
that may be utilized in conjunction with the EGM 10 in addition to and/or in
various
combinations with gaze information. For example, in some embodiments, a player
may
indicate the start and/or end of a gaze pathway through an eye gesture, such
as winks,
blinks, open, close, etc. The player's eye gaze inputs may be utilized,
extracted, processed,
transformed, etc., to determine one or more gaze pathways. A player's gaze is
tracked by
the data capture camera device and the position of the gaze is denoted by the
eye symbol
804.
[00218] One or more gaze pathways may be mapped from the eye gaze data, and
these
gaze pathways may be indicative of where the player desires to interact with
an object, such
as the avatar 802, or an incentive 810, 812, or various interact-able
graphical components of
a maze 800 (e.g., a treasure chest, a wheel, a ladder, a hidden doorway, a
button, a pulley;
which may, for example, be interacted with to cause various effects to occur).
The mapping
may be based on an electronically determined and/or estimated position that
the player may
be indicated to be gazing towards.
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[00219] Gaze pathways may be mapped based on a start and an end gaze position
804
tracked for a duration of time, etc. Gaze pathways may be stored on EGM 10 as
game
data, and the game data may be utilized to, in addition to traversing
"positions" rendered by
graphics processor 54 in relation to the displayed maze 800, for interactions
with various
elements and/or aspects of an interactive game. In some embodiments, the
interactions
with various elements and/or aspects of an interactive game may cause
modifications to the
maze 800, such as the movement of a wall 808, the changing of a space 806, the
rotation of
the maze 800, the transformation of the maze 800 (e.g., a skewing), a
modification of a
position of the avatar 802 in the maze 800, etc.
[00220] The maze 800 may also have various bonuses and/or incentives
available,
denoted by the pentagon 810 and triangle 812. These bonuses and/or incentives
may be
associated, for example, with positions within maze 800, which, for example,
if the game
controller board 44 determines that a player's avatar 802 has come into
proximity (e.g.,
within a positional threshold in the context of positions within an
interactive game
environment) with and/or "retrieved" in the contexts of a game being played,
may trigger
various events and/or conditions to occur.
Awards may be triggered by various
determinations made by game controller 44 in relation to the gaze pathways
stored as game
data and/or eye gaze data.
[00221] For example, the retrieval of bonuses and/or incentives could cause a
timer (e.g.,
tracked by game controller 44) to permit further eligible time to play the
game, the payment
of a credit out of hopper 32, various activities associated with wagering
(e.g., increasing,
reducing a bet, cashing out a bet, placing a bet), among other effects.
In some
embodiments, the retrieval of bonuses and/or incentives 810, 812 may be a
required step in
relation to the successful traversal of maze 800. In some embodiments, the
retrieval of
bonuses and/or incentives may be optional (e.g., providing points, awards,
credits). Wager
may also be provided in relation to the fulfilment (e.g., satisfaction,
failure) of various game
conditions. A wager may be input through keypad 36 and displayed on display
38. For
example, upon determining that a game condition is met / not met, a wager may
be paid out
to the player, another player, or another person (e.g., a non-player could
also place a wager
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CA 02915020 2015-12-11
on a player's progress). An amount of coins and/or tokens may be provided out
of hopper
32, screens may flash and/or otherwise indicate a winning wager on display 12,
14, etc.
[00222] The interconnecting paths 806 provided are shown as examples. Other
types of
interconnections are possible and may be contemplated, for example, paths 806
that may,
on a three dimensional embodiment of a maze 800, be able to connect through
the maze
800 to another location (e.g., on another face of the maze 800). The display
12, 14, may be
configured to provide a stereoscopic view of a three dimensional object, and
the maze 800
may be graphically rendered such that one or more planar surfaces of the maze
800 are
exposed at a given time. In some embodiments, these surfaces may be indicative
of
different mazes 800.
[00223] Accordingly, game controller 44 may be configured to monitor and/or
track the
virtual positioning of avatar 802 and determine when the avatar has traversed
to a section of
maze 800 that is operatively connected to another section of maze 800, and for
example,
such effect may be caused by the triggering of a game condition.
[00224] FIG. 8B is a second example maze 800 provided by the interface. In
FIG. 8B, an
embodiment is depicted where there may be more than one player. For example,
there may
be a first player and a second player.
[00225] The players may be remote from one another, and may be connected
operatively
through a network 37, and/or connected through a game server 40. In some
embodiments,
a maze 800 is shared across the network 37 such that EGM lOs may be
graphically
rendering an interactive game environment wherein both players are interacting
with at a
given time.
[00226] In some embodiments, the players may be playing on the same EGM 10, on
which
data capture unit may capture the eye gaze data of both the first player and
the second
player. The second player's eye gaze data may also be collected by the data
capture
camera unit, and the game controller 44 may be further configured for
detecting a plurality of
points of eye gaze 816 of the second player relative to the displayed
graphical game
components for the maze using the collected player gaze data.
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[00227] Similar to the first player, the game controller 44 may continuously
and/or
periodically compute and/or graphically render a second player pathway based
on the
plurality of points of eye gaze 816 of the second player and generate a
graphical animation
for a second electronic player token (e.g., the second player's avatar 814).
The movement
of the second player's avatar 814 may, for example, be provided relative to
the graphical
game components for the maze based on second player's eye gaze data. The
movement of
the first player's avatar 802 and the second player's avatar 814 may also be
utilized in the
determination of whether the game conditions have been satisfied, and further,
the game
conditions may also include conditions that take into consideration the
positions of both the
first player's avatar 802 and the second player's avatar 814, and/or movements
thereof.
[00228] For example, a game condition may provide for the awarding of points
based on
the movement of the first player's avatar 802 following closely to that of the
second player's
avatar 814 (e.g., the ability to follow the avatar 814's lead). The game
condition may be
tracked by game controller 44, which may cause various physical interactions
to occur upon
events happening in relation to an interactive gaming environment. For
example, a wager
may be paid out, credits may be awarded, the interactive gaming environment
may switch to
another play state (e.g., a bonus round), etc.
[00229] Similarly, some awards, events, triggers and/or conditions may need
both the first
player's avatar 802 and the second player's avatar 814 to be at particular
positions (e.g., to
play cooperatively and/or cooperate to solve a puzzle and/or to satisfy a
condition). In some
embodiments, awards, events, triggers and/or conditions may be provided to
only one of the
players (e.g., where the players are playing competitively). An interactive
game may, for
example, include aspects of both cooperative and competitive play.
[00230] In some embodiments, there may be more than two players playing at
once. In
some embodiments, the players may be playing on separate EGM 10s, which may
display
the other avatar 814 and communicate information about a shared maze 800 based
on
information located on each of the EGM 10s, which, for example, may be remote
from one
another and be configured to communicate over a communication link 37.
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[00231] The interconnecting paths may represent various locations (e.g., along
paths 806)
upon which an avatar 802 may traverse, or, more generally, various positions
that may be
provided by the interface in relation to a game. The interconnecting paths may
be arranged
as an interactive network such that a player is able to interact with the
paths by, for example,
moving the player's avatar 802 across positions within the maze 800, denoted
by the
pathways of the paths. For example, while both players may be interacting with
portions of a
same game, the players may not necessarily be displayed on the same position
on their
respective screens, as the mazes displayed to the players may be focused on
different
portions of a maze 800 (e.g., the maze may, in some embodiments, be a large
and complex
maze that may require some scrolling, rotation, etc).
[00232] The player's avatar 802 may be an electronic indicia (e.g., an
electronic player
token) that is representative of a position of a character and/or object that
is being controlled
by the player, through inputs provided by the player (e.g., eye gaze inputs,
gestures,
predicted and/or actual). The characteristics (e.g., current position, past
positions, velocity,
abilities) of each avatar 802 may, for example, be tracked by a game
controller 44.
[00233] The traversal of the various interconnecting paths within the maze 800
may be
related to various game conditions, which may, for example, be representative
of events that
may occur within the game or beyond, such as the provisioning of points,
bonuses, and
capabilities; triggers for game events (e.g., victory conditions, failure
conditions,
advancement conditions, revealing and/or concealing of pathways), etc.
[00234] The eye gaze of the player, for example, may be provided through a
captured
plurality of points and adapted as inputs 50, and the EGM 10 may be configured
for
periodically and/or continuously computing a player pathway based on the
plurality of points
of eye gaze to generate a graphical animation for the electronic player token
relative to the
graphical game components for the interactive network of intercommunicating
paths.
[00235] For example, as shown at FIG. 9, the player's gaze position (as
provided by the
eye symbol 804), has indicated that the player is gazing at a position right
of where the
player's avatar 802 was residing at FIG. 8A. Accordingly, the EGM 10 may
recognize that
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=
the player is inputting a command through player control inputs 50, through
the player's
gaze, to move player's avatar 802 to another position within the maze 800.
[00236] The EGM 10 may then cause the movement of the player's avatar 802 to
the new
position as denoted in FIG. 8A. In some embodiments, a single point of gaze
may be
utilized in determining that a gaze input was provided. In some embodiments,
multiple
points of gaze are utilized, and for example, to cause movement of the player
avatar 802, a
gaze may need to begin at the current position of player avatar 802, and end
either
indicative in a position towards a direction upon which a player wishes the
player avatar 802
to advance towards, or in a position upon which the player wishes the player
avatar 802 to
advance to. Accordingly, a pathway may be formed by the player's tracked gaze
and
provided as an input 50.
[00237] Various characteristics of the gaze position may indicate varying
characteristics of
the player's avatar 802's movement. For example, a further gaze position
(e.g., further in a
direction) may be indicative of a faster (e.g., greater velocity,
acceleration) movement to be
provided to the player's avatar 802, which could correspondingly move faster
on the
interactive display provided by the EGM 10. The EGM 10 may, for example, be
configured
to recognize various eye gestures associated with the tracked eye gaze
position information,
such as repeated movements, pre-determined gestures (e.g., the eye gaze
position tracing a
circle), among others.
[00238] In some embodiments, the EGM 10, through controller 44, validates the
movement
of the player's avatar 802 in relation to valid and/or invalid positions 806
on the maze 800
(e.g., through the accessing of various business rules and/or logical
conditions) to ensure
that the player's avatar 802 has actually moved to a valid position within the
maze 800. For
example, the EGM 10 may be configured to prevent a player's avatar 802 from
traversing
through a wall of a maze 800, in normal circumstances (e.g., unless, for
example, the
player's avatar 802 has an ability to pass through walls). The player's avatar
802 may be
"stuck" at the wall and unable to traverse further in that direction, despite
the player's gaze
position indicating a desire to do so.
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' .
[00239] Another sample movement is depicted at FIG. 10, wherein the player's
gaze
position (as provided by the eye symbol 804), has indicated that the player is
gazing at a
position below where the player's avatar 802 was located. The EGM 10
recognizes this
input and moves the player's avatar 802 accordingly to a valid position within
the maze 800
based on the player's gaze position.
[00240] The player's gaze position may be tracked such that a particular
velocity (or
acceleration) is associated with movement of the avatar 802. For example, a
player's avatar
802 may track and "move" based on the player's gaze position, but may not do
so
instantaneously.
[00241] Rather, the player's avatar 802 may move at a fixed and/or variable
speed in a
direction indicated by the player's gaze position (e.g., with the velocity
and/or acceleration
indicated by the distance and/or other characteristics of the gaze position),
and may change
direction and/or speed based on the movement of the gaze position of the
player. For
example, a player's gaze may be detected to change from a upper position
relative to the
position of the avatar 802 to a position on the right relative to the avatar
802, causing the
avatar 802 to turn (e.g., rotate) and/or move (or accelerate) in a direction
indicated by the
player's gaze.
[00242] In another embodiment, a movement may be controlled through the player
gazing
"at" the position of the player's avatar 802 as depicted on display 12, 14.
The player may
then gaze "at" another position within maze 800, and if the position is valid
(e.g., the position
does not require traversing through wall 808, game controller 44 may permit
such a move,
granted, for example, that such a movement is within a pre-defined range
within the
interactive gaming environment as defined by a logical rule. While the avatar
is moving, in
some embodiments, the avatar 802 may not be responsive to gaze inputs until
the avatar
has completed a move. In other embodiments, the avatar 802 may still be
selectable even
though the avatar 802 is moving, cancelling a previously entered move and/or
pathway when
a new movement position is indicated within maze 800, provided that the move
is valid.
Upon the successful traversal to a position where the player's avatar stops
moving, this eye
gaze control gesture may be repeated again.
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CA 02915020 2015-12-11
[00243] As the player's avatar 802 traverses the maze 800, various in-game
conditions
may be fulfilled, satisfied, not satisfied, triggered, etc. For example, there
may be various
awards (e.g., power ups, extra lives, extra capabilities) that may be
available within the
interactive maze 800, and the player may be able to access these awards
through
conducting various actions, such as guiding the player's avatar 802 to a
particular location
(e.g., a location having a power-up or a bonus), to the end of a maze 800
(e.g., an opening
may be located at another side of a maze 800, indicative of a victory
condition wherein the
player has successfully traversed the maze 800). For example, if at least one
game
condition is satisfied, game controller 44 may provision a suitable award to
the player, e.g., a
notification may be generated describing and/or indicative of the satisfaction
of the game
condition and/or a credit may be awarded to the player through hopper 32.
[00244] In some embodiments, the interactive maze 800 may be associated with
one or
more timing conditions. These timing conditions may be tracked by the time
elapsed during
the traversal of all or a portion of the maze 800, and kept, for example, by a
timer, for
example, provided by game controller 44. The timer may increase (indicative of
total
elapsed time) or may decrement (e.g., indicative of how much time remaining)
based on a
pre-defined time limit. As the player's avatar 802 traverses the maze 800,
there may, for
example, be various awards wherein the time limit may be extended, etc.
Similarly, there
may be various pitfalls and/or conditions that cause a time limit to be
decreased (e.g., failure
to meet a condition or to follow an instruction). Various notifications,
alerts, and/or warnings
may be generated based on the time elapsed and/or time remaining.
[00245] At FIG. 11, a player's avatar 802 is shown wherein the avatar 802 has
traversed
the maze 800 and the player's avatar 802 is able to exit the maze 800. The
maze 800, as
indicated, for example, may include at least a virtual end position; and a
game condition
could include requiring the avatar 802 to be virtually traversed to the
virtual end position.
[00246] At this point, for example, the player may be notified that the player
has
successfully met a game condition (e.g., successful traversal of the maze
800), and if the
player has traversed the maze 800 before a time limit has elapsed (or below a
particular
elapsed time), the player may be eligible for an award (e.g., a cash award, a
credit award, a
virtual credit award).
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[00247] In an embodiment, the EGM 10 includes a card reader to identify a
monetary
amount conveyed by a token to the electronic gaming machine, and this monetary
amount
may be associated with a determination by the game controller 44 of whether
the at least
one game condition has been satisfied to trigger the card reader to update the
monetary
amount using the token (e.g., the token may be updated based on a number of
the at least
one game condition that have been satisfied, and updating the monetary amount
may
include incrementing / decrementing the monetary amount on the token and/or on
a card).
[00248] FIGS. 12-15 are indicative of potential variations of the maze 1200 as
provisioned
on the interactive display, in accordance with some embodiments. As depicted
in FIGS. 12-
15, there may be a "fog of war" 1206 that may conceal various pathways from
the player, as
depicted by the solid areas of the figures. The "fog of war" 1206, for
example, may be
provided as a concealment layer that is created through concealment of all or
a portion of
the maze 1200 through various techniques, such as a adding solid covering,
adding a
shaded covering, distorting, adding hash lines, blurring, pixelization,
mosaicking, scrambling,
turning translucent, increasing opacity, and/or a combination thereof. For
example, while
solid areas are shown, there may be other types of obfuscation that may be
utilized, such as
greying out (e.g., the de-saturation of colors), scrambling (e.g., applying a
mosaic), among
others.
[00249] As the player's avatar 1202 traverses the maze 1200, further positions
of the maze
1200 may be "revealed", and such revealing may include, for example, rendering
visible,
uncovering, unscrambling, un-blurring, saturating with color, etc., by
graphics processor 54
and/or display controller 52 Accordingly, the game controller 44 may keep
track of the
position of player avatar 1202, and for example, uncover a radius around
player avatar 1202.
In some embodiments, the gaze position and/or a plurality of gaze positions,
may be utilized
in determining what areas of the concealment layer 1206 to reveal in relation
to the graphical
depiction rendered on displays 12, 14. The revealing may include, for example,
a gradual
and/or a sudden uncovering of concealment layer 1206. In some embodiments,
there may
be different layers of concealment layer 1206, for which the revealing may be
controlled by
game controller 44 through tracked game data. For example, concealment layer
1206 may
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. .
,
include various aspects of metadata, flags, and/or variables associated with
positions
mapped within an interactive gaming environment.
[00250] At FIG. 12 a player's avatar 1202 is depicted at a position at the
start of the maze
1200. As shown in FIG. 12, the maze 1200 is concealed aside from the area in
near
proximity to the player's avatar 1202. The concealment layer 1206, for
example, may
represent a "fog of war" that covers the maze 1200 which prevents the user
from seeing the
entire maze 1200.
[00251] The player's gaze is denoted with the eye symbol 1204 and, for
example, a player
may utilize the player's gaze to input a command to the player's avatar 1202
to indicate a
movement forward. FIG. 13 illustrates that the player's avatar 1202 has moved
forward,
traversing part of the maze 1200, travelling along a pathway of the maze 1200.
As indicated
in FIG. 13, more of the maze 1200 may be revealed to the player, for example,
through
permanent and/or temporary withdrawal of the concealment layer 1206.
[00252] FIG. 14 is an illustration wherein the player's avatar 1202 has been
guided to move
towards a lower wall of the maze 1200. As indicated, further portions of the
maze 1200 may
be uncovered in response to the movements of the player's avatar 1202. Other
conditions
may also be considered for selectively revealing and/or concealing portions of
the maze
1200, such as selectively revealing and/or concealing portions of the maze
1200 based on
satisfaction of various conditions, based on awards that are provisioned to
the player (e.g.,
for successfully completing an action, the entire maze 1200 or a larger
portion thereof may
be revealed), the payment of further credits by the player, the reduction of a
difficulty level,
etc.
[00253] FIG. 15 is illustrative of a player's avatar 1202 successfully
traversing a maze
1200, and as shown in FIG. 15, the concealment layer 1206 was selectively
revealed during
the traversal of the maze 1200. The concealment layer 1206, in some
embodiments, may
be revealed in accordance with a pathway taken by a player's avatar 1202 in
traversing the
maze 1200. In some embodiments, previously revealed positions on the maze 1200
may be
covered (e.g., after a period of time has elapsed) based on various triggers
and/or
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=
conditions. Upon successful traversal of the maze 1200, in some embodiments,
the entire
concealment layer 1206 may be removed.
[00254] FIG. 16 is a perspective view of a multi-dimensional maze 1600,
according to
some embodiments. While other shapes may be considered (e.g., there may be
more
complicated shapes, such as tunnels, non-regular 3D objects, impossible 3D
objects (e.g.,
objects that may not be able to exist in reality but may, for example, exist
in a virtual sense
where various physical rules may be contradicted and/or broken)). The game
controller 44
may assign various virtual positions to surfaces and/or planes of maze 1600
such that
graphics processor 54 and display controller 52 are able to render
corresponding graphical
images of various gaming components and/or aspects of maze 1600 (e.g., exposed
surfaces
relative to a "viewing perspective" of a player).
[00255] The multi-dimensional maze 1600 of FIG. 16, depicted as a 3D cube, may
be
traversed in various ways by player avatar 1610. For example, the multi-
dimensional maze
1600 may include, for example, a series of multiple mazes that may exist on
separate planes
1604, 1606 of a 3D object (e.g., an example being a cube with 6 sides, planes
1604 and
1606 are shown in FIG. 16). A larger number of dimensions and/or planes are
possible.
[00256] Each separate maze, for example, may be coupled and/or connected to
each other
with open edges of the mazes. Where the player's avatar 1610 and/or gaze
position 1608
indicates that a player's avatar 1610 is nearing the edge of a maze having,
for example, an
opening, the avatar 1610 may be able to "follow" the gaze off the edge and the
geometric
shape will rotate along the opposite axis the avatar is traveling.
[00257] The "following" may be represented by detected gaze inputs 50 that
may, for
example, be interpreted by game controller 44 to require captured actions such
as a
prolonged gaze at a particular position, a gaze off the "edge" of the maze, a
gaze having a
requisite velocity and/or acceleration towards the "edge', a gaze having a
starting position
and/or a trajectory indicative of a "directional rotation" of the maze 1600,
etc.
[00258] During the rotation, in some embodiments, the maze 1600 may not be
responsive
to player inputs. Once the maze has finished rotating within the display, the
player's avatar
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CA 02915020 2015-12-11
, , =
1610 may be adapted to follow the player's gaze 1608 again. For example,
player inputs 50
in relation to the movement of the player's avatar 1610 may be disabled during
a rotation.
[00259] In some embodiments, the player may be required to satisfy some
condition (e.g.,
hold their gaze 1608 at the edge for a specified amount of time) before the
avatar 1602 will
move to the other maze. There may be corresponding points between the mazes
different
planes (e.g., on 1602, 1604, and 1606) that indicate where a player's avatar
1602 will end up
when the maze 1600 rotates.
General
[00260] The embodiments of the devices, systems and methods described herein
may be
implemented in a combination of both hardware and software. These embodiments
may be
implemented on programmable computers, each computer including at least one
processor,
a data storage system (including volatile memory or non-volatile memory or
other data
storage elements or a combination thereof), and at least one communication
interface.
[00261] Program code is applied to input data to perform the functions
described herein
and to generate output information. The output information is applied to one
or more output
devices. In some embodiments, the communication interface may be a network
communication interface. In embodiments in which elements may be combined, the
communication interface may be a software communication interface, such as
those for
inter-process communication. In still other embodiments, there may be a
combination of
communication interfaces implemented as hardware, software, and combination
thereof.
[00262] Throughout the following discussion, numerous references will be made
regarding
servers, services, interfaces, portals, platforms, or other systems formed
from computing
devices. It should be appreciated that the use of such terms is deemed to
represent one or
more computing devices having at least one processor configured to execute
software
instructions stored on a computer readable tangible, non-transitory medium.
For example, a
server can include one or more computers operating as a web server, database
server, or
other type of computer server in a manner to fulfill described roles,
responsibilities, or
functions. The devices provide improved computer solutions for hardware
limitations such as
display screen, display device, and so on.
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. =
,
[00263] The following discussion provides many example embodiments. Although
each
embodiment represents a single combination of inventive elements, other
examples may
include all possible combinations of the disclosed elements. Thus if one
embodiment
comprises elements A, B, and C, and a second embodiment comprises elements B
and D,
other remaining combinations of A, B, C, or D, may also be used.
[00264] The term "connected" or "coupled to" may include both direct coupling
(in which
two elements that are coupled to each other contact each other) and indirect
coupling (in
which at least one additional element is located between the two elements).
[00265] Embodiments described herein may be implemented by using hardware only
or by
using software and a necessary universal hardware platform. Based on such
understandings, the technical solution of embodiments may be in the form of a
software
product. The software product may be stored in a non-volatile or non-
transitory storage
medium, which can be a compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), USB flash disk,
or a
removable hard disk. The software product includes a number of instructions
that enable a
computer device (personal computer, server, or network device) to execute the
methods
provided by the embodiments.
[00266] The embodiments described herein are implemented by physical computer
hardware. The embodiments described herein provide useful physical machines
and
particularly configured computer hardware arrangements. The embodiments
described
herein are directed to electronic machines methods implemented by electronic
machines
adapted for processing and transforming electromagnetic signals which
represent various
types of information. The embodiments described herein pervasively and
integrally relate to
machines, and their uses; and the embodiments described herein have no meaning
or
practical applicability outside their use with computer hardware, machines, a
various
hardware components. Substituting the computing devices, servers, receivers,
transmitters,
processors, memory, display, networks particularly configured to implement
various acts for
non-physical hardware, using mental steps for example, may substantially
affect the way the
embodiments work. Such computer hardware limitations are clearly essential
elements of
the embodiments described herein, and they cannot be omitted or substituted
for mental
means without having a material effect on the operation and structure of the
embodiments
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=
described herein. The computer hardware is essential to the embodiments
described herein
and is not merely used to perform steps expeditiously and in an efficient
manner.
[00267] For example, and without limitation, the computing device may be a
server,
network appliance, set-top box, embedded device, computer expansion module,
personal
computer, laptop, personal data assistant, cellular telephone, smartphone
device, UMPC
tablets, video display terminal, gaming console, electronic reading device,
and wireless
hypermedia device or any other computing device capable of being configured to
carry out
the methods described herein.
[00268] Although the embodiments have been described in detail, it should be
understood
that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without
departing
from the scope as defined by the appended claims.
[00269] Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to be
limited to the
particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of
matter,
means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary
skill in the art
will readily appreciate from the disclosure of the present invention,
processes, machines,
manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently
existing or later to
be developed, that perform substantially the same function or achieve
substantially the same
result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized.
Accordingly, the
appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes,
machines,
manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.
[00270] As can be understood, the examples described above and illustrated are
intended
to be exemplary only.
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