Gaming Button Hover Sensing for Intuitive Function Mapping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electronic gaming machines (EGMs) face issues with buttons that are not intuitively mapped to game functions, leading to player confusion, frustration, or intimidation, especially when updated or retrofitted with new games.
Innovation Solution
The EGMs are equipped with sensors to detect a selector's position relative to a button, providing feedback and information when the button is touched or hovered over without activation, such as visual, auditory, or haptic cues, adjusting button actions based on selector position, and enabling retrofitting with overlay graphics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If buttons are updated or retrofitted with new games, then game variety and adaptability are improved, but button-function mapping becomes less intuitive and player confusion increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by displaying hover information and visual cues before the button is activated. When a selector hovers over a button, the system pre-reveals the button's function through overlay graphics, text descriptions, or audio cues, allowing players to understand button mappings before pressing them, thus reducing confusion during game updates
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by providing real-time information about button functions through hover detection. When a selector approaches a button, the system sends feedback signals in the form of visual overlays, text, or audio that explain what the button does, creating a closed-loop understanding that helps players navigate button-function mappings after game updates
2Loss of information
If hover detection is implemented to provide button function information, then player understanding is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system achieves universality by making the existing button infrastructure serve multiple functions: buttons still trigger their traditional actions when pressed, while also serving as hover-sensitive interfaces that provide information when approached. This multi-functionality allows the same physical buttons to convey both control signals and informational feedback without adding separate interaction devices
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses an intermediary layer in the form of overlay graphics, text, or audio that mediates between the physical button and the player's understanding. This intermediary provides the missing information about button functions without requiring fundamental changes to the button hardware or player behavior, thus managing complexity while improving information delivery
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic gaming machine (“EGM”) can include a processor circuit and a memory coupled to the processor circuit. The memory can include machine-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor circuit, cause the EGM to perform operations. The operations can include determining a position of a selector relative to a button while the button is in an inactive state. The operations can further include adjusting operation of the EGM based on the position of the selector relative to the button while the button is in the inactive state.