1256results about How to "Improve gaming experience" patented technology

A peer-to-peer (P2P) probing / network quality of service (QoS) analysis system utilizes a UDP-based probing tool for determining latency, bandwidth, and packet loss ratio between peers in a network. The probing tool enables network QoS probing between peers that connect through a network address translator. The list of peers to probe is provided by a connection server based on prior probe results and an estimate of the network condition. The list includes those peers which are predicted to have the best QoS with the requesting peer. Once the list is obtained, the requesting peer probes the actual QoS to each peer on the list, and returns these results to the connection server. P2P probing in parallel using a modified packet-pair scheme is utilized. If anomalous results are obtained, a hop-by-hop probing scheme is utilized to determine the QoS of each link. In such a scheme, differential destination measurement is utilized.

A system and method is provided for incentivizing players to visit a gambling location. In one aspect, a qualified person is invited to play an electronic game which has a plurality of outcomes, at least one of which is a winning outcome. In one embodiment, the qualified person may be required to redeem the outcome at the gambling location. In another embodiment, the person may be required to redeem the outcome at a redemption location. In another aspect, a method is provided for permitting a person to take one or more actions within a gambling location and in response inviting the person to play an electronic game separate from the games offered in a gambling environment at the gambling location, where the game has a plurality of outcomes, at least one of which is a winning outcome, and if the person obtains a winning outcome, requiring the person to redeem the at least one outcome at the gambling location. In one embodiment, the method includes the acts of qualifying a person. Qualification may require specific acts, for example, referring another person, and / or providing an invitation to play an electronic game to another person. Various systems and method assist in tracking and maintaining such referrals. Additionally group gaming in and amongst referrals and / or designated groups may be performed, and in some embodiment required for qualification and / or redemption. Further, another aspect relates to providing special incentives, for example for referral of a new player, for providing casino affiliation or membership information, among others.

Methods and apparatus for game play using virtual players, sometimes referred to herein as vBots, is disclosed. In one aspect, a method for game play involves the use of the system electronic system environment described herein, wherein one or more virtual players are displayed to the player of the game, preferably, the virtual players have differing play characteristics, receiving from the user association with a selection of a virtual player, displaying a simulated game using the virtual players, identifying a subset of the virtual players as being winners of the simulated game, and awarding a win to the lottery user if the selected virtual player is in the subset of virtual players. In this way, the player of the game is selecting a virtual player to do the playing of the base game, thereby providing the excitement of player participation in a game of skill or chance, yet not actually be playing the game. Yet another parameter for modified and enhanced game play is the arrangement and presentation of various graphics, symbols, or icons (collectively “indicia”) to the player. The arrangement of the indicia in a predefined arrangement indicates that the player has won. By way of example, a grid or array arrangement may be used wherein the winning combination is a set of indicia arranged in a line, either horizontally in a row, vertically in a column or diagonally. Other patterns using multiple adjoining segments may be used, such as an X-pattern or a T-pattern. Alternatively, a predefined patter of non-adjoining segments may be used, such as where a win includes matches in a four corners or north, south, east and west positions.

A system for electronic interaction in a multi-player lottery system preferably displays information to players regarding various variable duration game rooms. The game rooms may be for durations such as 5 minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour, and hour, a week or a month. The player may optionally be provided further information about the game rooms, such as the current prize amounts or the remaining duration of the game room. A clock or time indicates the end of game play in the room. A point tally system including a processor for ranking the players score relative to one another, and a memory for storing the information, the point tally system providing the ranking information to the displays, the point tally system selecting at least the player with the highest score at the expiration of game play as determined by the timer for the variable duration game room. Preferably, the system includes a payment system for providing the lottery winnings to the winner.

A peer-to-peer (P2P) probing / network quality of service (QoS) analysis system utilizes a UDP-based probing tool for determining latency, bandwidth, and packet loss ratio between peers in a network. The probing tool enables network QoS probing between peers that connect through a network address translator. The list of peers to probe is provided by a connection server based on prior probe results and an estimate of the network condition. The list includes those peers which are predicted to have the best QoS with the requesting peer. Once the list is obtained, the requesting peer probes the actual QoS to each peer on the list, and returns these results to the connection server. P2P probing in parallel using a modified packet-pair scheme is utilized. If anomalous results are obtained, a hop-by-hop probing scheme is utilized to determine the QoS of each link. In such a scheme, differential destination measurement is utilized.

A system and method is provided for incentivizing players to visit a gambling location. In one aspect, a qualified person is invited to play an electronic game which has a plurality of outcomes, at least one of which is a winning outcome. One aspect relates to accumulating outcomes. Another relates to incentives provided to player program member(s). In some embodiments, the person does not need to be qualified. In one embodiment, the person may be required to redeem the outcome at the gambling location, in another at a redemption location. In one embodiment, a player is required to take an action in order to redeem an outcome. In some embodiments, game play and / or redemption and / or any action must occur in a specified time, respectively. In one embodiment the electronic game is not located at a gambling location, in another it is not located at a redemption location. According to another aspect, redemption systems and methods are provided for facilitating determination and validation of bonus awards by a bonus game operator. According to one embodiment, processing of redemption occurs at a gambling location using equipment connected to a bonus game operator, that retrieves awards corresponding to player entries.

A processing device measures the time it takes for a player to take some action in a game and bases the award or result in the game for the player at least in part on that measured time. A player receives a more desirable result or outcome for a particular game play in response to a shorter player action time and / or receives a less desirable result or outcome for a particular game play in response to a longer player action time. Providing more desirable results for shorter player action times or less desirable results for longer player action times provides players an incentive that influences them to take the appropriate player actions more quickly.

A system and method are configured to provide a videogame to one or more players. The videogame may involve a series of different virtual geographic locations at which players perform activities. A group of players may be associated with each location. The players may include virtual players controlled by artificial intelligence and one or more real world players. Players may progress through the videogame by moving from location to location, performing objectives at the various locations, and interacting with the players at the locations.

A system for controlling operation of a computer. The system includes, a sensing apparatus configured to obtain positional data of a sensed object controllable by a first user, such positional data varying in response to movement of the sensed object, and engine software operatively coupled with the sensing apparatus and configured to produce control commands based on the positional data, the control commands being operable to control, in a multi-user software application executable on the computer, presentation of a virtual representation of the sensed object in a virtual environment shared by the first user and a second user, the virtual representation of the sensed object being perceivable by the second user in a rendered scene of the virtual environment, where the engine software is configured so that the movement of the sensed object produces control commands which cause corresponding scaled movement of the virtual representation of the sensed object in the rendered scene that is perceivable by the second user.

Multiple shops exist in a virtual space of a game. Each shop belongs to any one of multiple unions. When a player character buys or sells a game item at any of the shops, a power point value of the union to which the shop belongs is increased according to the sales amount. The higher the power rank of the union to which the shop belongs becomes, the more the types of sellable and buyable game items are increased. The higher the power rank of the union to which the shop belongs becomes, the more cheaply the player can buy the game item and the higher the amount the player can sell the game item. The higher the power rank of the union where the shop belongs becomes, the more points that are given to a point card according to the buying or selling of the game items.

Methods and systems for electronic interaction comprising a display for presenting a grid of identifying objects, an input for receiving a player selection of an identifying object, a random generator for randomly selecting a winning identifying object, and a point tally system for awarding points to the player according to the rules comprising a first point value if the player selected identifying object exactly matches the winning identifying object, a second point value if the player selected identifying object is in a geometric relationship with the winning identifying object, and a third, negative, point value if the player is not awarded the first point value or the second point value.

A system for electronic interaction in a multi-player lottery system preferably displays information to players regarding various variable duration game rooms. The game rooms may be for durations such as 5 minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour, and hour, a week or a month. The player may optionally be provided further information about the game rooms, such as the current prize amounts or the remaining duration of the game room. A clock or time indicates the end of game play in the room. A point tally system including a processor for ranking the players score relative to one another, and a memory for storing the information, the point tally system providing the ranking information to the displays, the point tally system selecting at least the player with the highest score at the expiration of game play as determined by the timer for the variable duration game room. Preferably, the system includes a payment system for providing the lottery winnings to the winner.

A proportional force input apparatus for an electronic device includes a mechanism operable by a user of the electronic device, such as a stylus inserted into a spring-loaded socket of the device. The mechanism provides a tactile feedback to the user proportional to a force applied by the user. A variable strength sensor detects the force applied by the user to the mechanism and converts this to an electrical signal proportional to the force applied by the user. A processor operates to input the electric signal from the variable strength sensor and provide force information to an application running on the electronic device. Optionally, a second sensor can detect rotation of the stylus. As a result, a stylus can be used to provide vector information to an application such as a game.

On a display screen, a game image, which contains one or more game character images showing a game character and item images each showing an item, is displayed. An item type is determined by causing a player to select at least one item image displayed on the display screen. If the player's input is provided to the touch panel, a coordinate value, which indicates a position on the touch panel where the player's input is provided, is detected at predetermined time intervals. Further, a graphical shape of an input trajectory represented by a group of detected coordinate values is identified. A process detail for changing a characteristic parameter of the game character is changed in accordance with a combination of the item type and the graphical shape of the input trajectory.

The invention is suitable for technical field of touch control display, and provides a method for operating games based on pressure sensitive information. The method comprises the following steps of receiving the touching information of a touch screen, wherein the touching information includes the pressure sensitive information; obtaining the pressure value according to the pressure sensitive information; determining the pressure grade threshold value range of the pressure value, and obtaining the corresponding operation instruction, wherein the pressure grade threshold value range corresponds to different operation instructions respectively; according to the operation instructions, controlling a game object to release the corresponding function. The invention also discloses a system for operating the games based on the pressure sensitive information. The method and the system have the advantage that the traditional operation mode of the multi-key control of the game object is replaced by the pressure sensing, so the purpose of operating the game by one key is realized; the simplicity and convenience are realized, and the better game experience is provided for a user.

Methods and apparatus for game play using virtual players, sometimes referred to herein as vBots, is disclosed. In one aspect, a method for game play involves the use of the system electronic system environment described herein, wherein one or more virtual players are displayed to the player of the game, preferably, the virtual players have differing play characteristics, receiving from the user association with a selection of a virtual player, displaying a simulated game using the virtual players, identifying a subset of the virtual players as being winners of the simulated game, and awarding a win to the lottery user if the selected virtual player is in the subset of virtual players.

The invention discloses an adaptive streaming adaptation and resource optimization method applied to a cloud-game system. Based on a user QoE model (Quality of Experience) and a service and cost model, user distribution and resource allocation are carried out. The adaptive streaming adaptation and resource optimization method applied to the cloud-game system comprises the following steps: a cloud-game platform operational cycle is divided into multiple time periods; user information and a visual machine resource are updated in a cloud-game platform system in each time period; a user distribution and resource allocation plan is decided based on a current system state, the service cost of a cloud-game service provider is minimized by the plan in the system operational cycle and the user QoE sum is maximized; the user distribution and resource allocation plan is applied to each game user. By establishing the QoE model, namely, the QoE model, a user utility model and a cloud-platform costing model, and based on a Lyapunov optimizing framework, the optimizing method of the user distribution and resource allocation is designed based on a game type and the adaptive streaming adaptation technology.

A processing device measures the time it takes for a player to take some action in a game and bases the award or result in the game for the player at least in part on that measured time. A player receives a more desirable result or outcome for a particular game play in response to a shorter player action time and / or receives a less desirable result or outcome for a particular game play in response to a longer player action time. Providing more desirable results for shorter player action times or less desirable results for longer player action times provides players an incentive that influences them to take the appropriate player actions more quickly.

A system and method is provided for incentivizing players to visit a gambling location. In one aspect, a qualified person is invited to play an electronic game which has a plurality of outcomes, at least one of which is a winning outcome. In one embodiment, the qualified person may be required to redeem the outcome at the gambling location. In another embodiment, the person may be required to redeem the outcome at a redemption location. In another aspect, a method is provided for permitting a person to take one or more actions within a gambling location and in response inviting the person to play an electronic game separate from the games offered in a gambling environment at the gambling location, where the game has a plurality of outcomes, at least one of which is a winning outcome, and if the person obtains a winning outcome, requiring the person to redeem the at least one outcome at the gambling location. In one embodiment, the method includes the acts of qualifying a person, and in response to the act of qualifying the person, performing acts of providing an award to the qualified person and inviting the person to visit a gambling location to redeem the award. A method is provided for incentivizing players to return to a gambling location after a previous visit. One aspect relates to a method for providing additional incentives to a frequent player program member to visit a gambling location such as a casino. In one example, the ease of using the Internet or other remote technologies is combined with advantages of a frequent player program to encourage players to return to the casino. A prize may be revealed in an online game, and the prize may need to be redeemed at the location of the casino. In one example game format, the player may be provided game credits to a player to play one or more online games that reveal prizes. The prizes may include, for example, an amount of non-cashable credit that may be used by the player to play one or more games located at the gambling location, thus encouraging player return. Other prizes, such as, for example, complimentary offers and / or promotional prizes may be awarded that can only be redeemed by the player by returning to the gambling location. Further, another aspect relates to providing special incentives for remote entry of casino affiliation or membership cards. The special incentives may include providing a prize or award to frequent player program members that remotely use his or her membership. In one example, the player is provided an indication of winning an incentive during play of an online game. In another example, the player may be required to obtain the winnings at the casino to encourage players to return to the casino.

A system, method, and apparatus are provided that allow episodic delivery of entertainment content to a user. More specifically, an application module is created with episodic content technology, which can be purchased as a CD-ROM or downloaded from a remote server. The application module contains a current episode of the game and a technology shell to allow future episodes to be downloaded and executed. The entertainment content delivery system is implemented through a centralized server that provides new episodes of the content available for downloading at regularly scheduled intervals to the users' computers. The current instantiation of the application module segregates technology components from content components of the application module to allow independent modification of either. Technological advancements are incorporated as they occur into the new episodes and are executed by the application module. An Internet-enabled game using the entertainment content delivery system communicates with users through various mechanisms, including e-mail, voice mail, fax machines, web sites, and the like.

The inventions herein relate to novel forms of interaction with an electronic system, such as for games of chance, games of skill, and combinations thereof. In certain embodiments, the existing lottery infrastructure is used in conjunction with electronic remote game play. A system is provided for effecting defined game play and prizing structure parameters in an electronic entertainment environment. The system may include an input for receiving the parameters, a memory coupled to the input for storing the parameters, a processing system coupled to the storage for generating game play to effect the defined parameters, storage for recording information regarding particular game play events and an interface for at least presenting game play events to users of the electronic entertainment system. In one mode of operation, one or more mandated parameters are externally imposed, and variable parameters are selected such that the mandated parameters are met globally, and such that the user experience is optimized. In another mode, the system receives and implements various prizing parameters, such as those that vary the winning and losing experience, and where the frequency of wins is varied by person, by multiple players, by number of plays, by source, by geography, by time, by game, or by any combination thereof. In some modes, a ‘prize board’ is used as a part of the system and methods, where initial game play may be conducted, followed by a prizing phase. The game play phase may be played in a predetermined manner or may be played where the player's actions determine the outcome of the game play phase. Since the system has the ‘last play’, the outcome may be set such that the prizing criteria are met. Game play may be utilized for entry into a prizing phase. Multilevel prizing may be utilized, such as where game play is utilized for entry into more lucrative prizing phases. Optionally, additional wagers may be required for game play for entry into higher prizing levels. In one mode, the identification number provided to the player includes the necessary information and instructions for complete game play.

A system and method is provided for incentivizing players to visit a gambling location. In one aspect, a qualified person is invited to play an electronic game which has a plurality of outcomes, at least one of which is a winning outcome. In one embodiment, the qualified person may be required to redeem the outcome at the gambling location. In another embodiment, the person may be required to redeem the outcome at a redemption location. In another aspect, a method is provided for permitting a person to take one or more actions within a gambling location and in response inviting the person to play an electronic game separate from the games offered in a gambling environment at the gambling location, where the game has a plurality of outcomes, at least one of which is a winning outcome, and if the person obtains a winning outcome, requiring the person to redeem the at least one outcome at the gambling location. In one embodiment, the method includes the acts of qualifying a person, and in response to the act of qualifying the person, performing acts of providing an award to the qualified person and inviting the person to visit a gambling location to redeem the award. A method is provided for incentivizing players to return to a gambling location after a previous visit. One aspect relates to a method for providing additional incentives to a frequent player program member to visit a gambling location such as a casino. In one example, the ease of using the Internet or other remote technologies is combined with advantages of a frequent player program to encourage players to return to the casino. A prize may be revealed in an online game, and the prize may need to be redeemed at the location of the casino. In one example game format, the player may be provided game credits to a player to play one or more online games that reveal prizes. The prizes may include, for example, an amount of non-cashable credit that may be used by the player to play one or more games located at the gambling location, thus encouraging player return. Other prizes, such as, for example, complimentary offers and / or promotional prizes may be awarded that can only be redeemed by the player by returning to the gambling location. Further, another aspect relates to providing special incentives for remote entry of casino affiliation or membership cards. The special incentives may include providing a prize or award to frequent player program members that remotely use his or her membership. In one example, the player is provided an indication of winning an incentive during play of an online game. In another example, the player may be required to obtain the winnings at the casino to encourage players to return to the casino.

Methods and systems for electronic interaction comprising a display for presenting a grid of identifying objects, an input for receiving a player selection of an identifying object, a random generator for randomly selecting a winning, identifying object, and a point tally system for awarding points to the player according to the rules comprising a first point value if the player selected identifying object exactly matches the winning identifying object, a second point value if the player selected identifying object is in a geometric relationship with the winning identifying object, and a third, negative, point value if the player is not awarded the first point value or the second point value.

A graphics system including a custom graphics and audio processor produces exciting 2D and 3D graphics and surround sound. The system includes a graphics and audio processor including a 3D graphics pipeline and an audio digital signal processor. Logical combination of N alpha compares can be used to provide a wide range of imaging effects including but not limited to cartoon outlining.

An electronic game platform is described. The electronic game platform includes a master, multiple bases and multiple cards. The cards are electrically connectable to the bases, which are electrically connectable with the master. The bases transmit identification data that is encoded in the cards and user input to the master, which runs the game. The master also provides visual and / or audio feedback to users at the bases and provides power to the bases.