Linked communications for gaming systems using acoustic signatures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11386750-B2
Application number	US-202117224595-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 7, 2021
Priority date	Sep 27, 2017
Publication date	Jul 12, 2022
Grant date	Jul 12, 2022

Abstract

A gaming system includes logic circuitry and a gaming machine for conducting a casino wagering game. The logic circuitry receives, via an acoustic input component of the gaming machine, an acoustic capture signal representative of a player account identifier corresponding to a player account from a mobile device, determines the player account identifier represented by the capture signal, and associates a gaming session on the gaming machine with the corresponding player account. In addition, the logic circuitry, in response to receiving in a prescribed manner, via the acoustic input component, an acoustic maintain-session signal from the mobile device, maintains the association between the gaming session on the gaming machine and the corresponding player account for a period of time, in response to failing to receive the maintain-session signal in the prescribed manner, the logic circuitry terminates the association between the gaming session and the corresponding player account.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A gaming system comprising:
a gaming machine configured to conduct a casino wagering game, the gaming machine including an acoustic input component and an acoustic output component; and
logic circuitry configured to:
receive, via the acoustic input component, an acoustic capture signal from a mobile device, the acoustic capture signal representative of a player account identifier corresponding to a player account, the acoustic capture signal having distinctive capture characteristics;
determine the player account identifier represented by the acoustic capture signal and associate a gaming session of the casino wagering game on the gaming machine with the corresponding player account;
generate an acoustic maintain-session signal associated with the gaming session, the acoustic maintain-session signal having distinctive maintain-session characteristics;
emit the acoustic maintain-session signal via the acoustic output component;
in response to the mobile device indicating the acoustic maintain-session signal was received by the mobile device in a prescribed manner, maintain the association between the gaming session and the player account for a period of time; and
in response to the mobile device indicating that the mobile device failed to receive the acoustic maintain-session signal in a prescribed manner, terminate the association between the gaming session and the player account.

2. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein the gaming machine includes a presence sensor, and wherein the logic circuitry is further configured to:
detect, via the presence sensor, an indication of the mobile device being within a detection range; and
in response to detecting the indication, trigger the gaming machine to receive the acoustic capture signal.

3. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the acoustic capture signal or the acoustic maintain-session signal is an audible tone.

4. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein the acoustic capture signal has a first modulation scheme, and the acoustic maintain-session signal has a second modulation scheme different from the first modulation scheme.

5. The gaming system of claim 1 , wherein the logic circuitry comprises game logic circuitry, the gaming machine including the game logic circuitry.

6. A method of operating a gaming system, the gaming system including logic circuitry and a gaming machine with an acoustic input component and an acoustic output component, the method comprising:
receiving, by the logic circuitry via the acoustic input component, an acoustic capture signal from a mobile device, the acoustic capture signal representative of a player account identifier corresponding to a player account, the acoustic capture signal having distinctive capture characteristics;
determining, via the logic circuitry, the player account identifier represented by the acoustic capture signal and associating, via the logic circuitry, a gaming session on the gaming machine with the corresponding player account;
generating, via the logic circuitry, an acoustic maintain-session signal associated with the gaming session, the acoustic maintain-session signal having distinctive maintain-session characteristics;
emitting, via the acoustic output component, the acoustic maintain-session signal for a mobile device associated with the player account;
in response to the mobile device indicating the acoustic maintain-session signal was received by the mobile device in a prescribed manner, maintaining, by the logic circuitry, the association between the gaming session and the player account for a period of time; and
in response to the mobile device indicating that the mobile device failed to receive the acoustic maintain-session signal in a prescribed manner, terminating, by the logic circuitry, the association between the gaming session and the player account.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the acoustic capture signal has a first modulation scheme and the acoustic maintain-session signal has a second modulation scheme different from the first modulation scheme, and wherein at least one of the first modulation scheme or the second modulation scheme is a digital modulation scheme, the digital modulation scheme being one of frequency-shift keying (FSK), phase-shift keying (PSK), or amplitude-shift keying (ASK).

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the player account identifier is embedded in the signal modulation of the acoustic capture signal.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein generating the acoustic maintain-session signal includes embedding a session identifier within the acoustic maintain-session signal, the session identifier associated with the gaming session.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising receiving, by the logic circuitry in response to emitting the acoustic maintain-session signal, the session identifier from the mobile device to indicate that the acoustic maintain-session signal was received by the mobile device in the prescribed manner.

11. A gaming system comprising:
a gaming machine configured to conduct a casino wagering game, the gaming machine including an acoustic input component and an acoustic output component; and
logic circuitry configured to:
cause the acoustic output component to emit an acoustic capture signal to be received by a mobile device of a player, the acoustic capture signal having distinctive capture characteristics associated with the gaming machine;
receive indication that the acoustic capture signal was received by the mobile device;
in response to receiving the indication, identify a player account associated with the player of the mobile device and associate the player account with a gaming session of the casino wagering game;
in response to receiving, in a prescribed manner via the acoustic input component, an acoustic maintain-session signal from the mobile device, the acoustic maintain-session signal having distinctive maintain-session characteristics, maintain the association between the gaming session on the gaming machine and the player account for a period of time; and
in response to failing to receive the acoustic maintain-session signal in the prescribed manner, terminate the association between the gaming session on the gaming machine and the player account.

12. The gaming system of claim 11 , wherein the gaming machine includes a presence sensor, and wherein the logic circuitry is further configured to:
detect, via the presence sensor, an indication of the mobile device being within a detection range; and
in response to detecting the indication, trigger the gaming machine to receive the acoustic capture signal.

13. The gaming system of claim 12 , wherein the presence sensor is a proximity sensor.

14. The gaming system of claim 11 , wherein the prescribed manner of receiving the acoustic maintain-session signal includes receiving the acoustic maintain-session signal periodically according to a predetermined time schedule.

15. The gaming system of claim 11 , wherein the prescribed manner of receiving the acoustic maintain-session signal includes determining a distance between the mobile device and the gaming machine and, in response to the distance exceeding a predetermined maximum distance, storing game play information associated with the gaming session and terminating the gaming session.

16. The gaming system of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the acoustic capture signal or the acoustic maintain-session signal is an audible tone.

17. The gaming system of claim 11 , wherein the acoustic capture signal has a first modulation scheme and th

Assignees

• Sg Gaming Inc

Inventors

• Lyons Martin
• Gray Ronald

Classifications

• G07F17/3241 Primary

  Security aspects of a gaming system, e.g. detecting cheating, device integrity, surveillance (computer security G06F21/00) · CPC title