Gaming Table Surface Display Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional gaming tables lack the capability to display complex moving images on their surfaces, which can enhance the gaming experience by synchronizing visual effects with game events, limiting engagement and entertainment.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a controllable display panel or projector system beneath the table surface, using LEDs or a diffuser screen to project animated sequences and images through the table surface, allowing for synchronized visual effects with game phases and events.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a conventional gaming table with basic lighting is used, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the capability to display complex moving images is lacking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the display panel with the table surface structure, integrating the imaging device into the tabletop itself. The display panel is positioned beneath the playing surface, merging the functional elements (display) with the structural element (table surface) into a unified component system.
Solution Approach 2:
The table surface serves multiple functions: it acts as both the structural playing surface and as a display medium for images. The translucent or transparent material allows the surface to simultaneously support game play while transmitting light from the display panel beneath, enabling dual functionality without requiring separate display hardware.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a display panel is integrated beneath the table surface, then complex moving images can be displayed, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The table is divided into distinct functional layers: the playing surface layer and the display panel layer beneath it. This segmentation allows each component to be manufactured and tested independently before assembly, simplifying the overall manufacturing process despite the integrated final product.
Solution Approach 2:
A translucent or transparent material is used as an intermediary between the display panel and the playing surface. This intermediate layer facilitates light transmission while maintaining the structural integrity of the table surface, enabling the display function without compromising the playing surface requirements.
3Illumination intensity
If opaque walls surround the lightbox to prevent light diffusion, then light control is improved, but the display of moving images is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes changes in material optical properties (translucency/ transparency) rather than color changes to achieve light control. The playing surface material is selected to have specific optical transmission characteristics that allow light from the display panel to pass through while maintaining the required light control for game play visibility.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the display of dynamic and engaging images on the gaming table surface, enhancing player experience and interaction by synchronizing visual effects with game events, thereby improving engagement and entertainment.
Implementation Method 1
The display panel may be controllable to show animated sequences of images or other moving displays
Implementation Method 2
Overlying the tabletop 3 and LED display panel 6 is a translucent layer of a resilient synthetic plastics foam material which acts as a diffuser screen 8
Implementation Method 3
the imaging device may be a projector which projects a moving image onto a screen placed beneath the table surface or on to the underside of the table surface
Data Source
AI summary
There is described a gaming table having a playing surface in which a display panel is positioned below the playing surface of the gaming table, and is operable to display moving and/or still images which can be viewed through the playing surface by players at the table. A diffuser screen 8 may be placed between the playing surface and the display panel. If the upper surface of the display panel is uneven, a cover sheet 16 may be placed over the display panel to provide a smooth substrate for the diffuser screen and/or the playing surface. Embodiments are described in which a projector projects an image onto the undersurface of a screen mounted below the playing surface so that the image is visible through the playing surface.