Remote EGM Content Rendering via Media Stream
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
The existing electronic gaming machines (EGMs) face challenges in efficiently updating and maintaining software due to lengthy approval processes, which increases costs and complexity for casino operators, and there is a need for a method to reduce these costs while ensuring security and regulatory compliance.
Innovation Solution
A gaming system that allows EGMs to receive and output encoded media streams from a remote host, enabling interactive applications to be executed without local maintenance, using basic media playback functions outside of commercial media players to avoid security risks and compatibility issues, and allowing for real-time interface rendering and input processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If software is updated and maintained locally on EGMs through traditional approval processes, then software security and regulatory compliance are ensured, but maintenance costs and time consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the software execution environment from the EGM hardware and relocates it to a remote server. The EGM becomes a thin client that only handles input/output operations, while all software processing occurs remotely. This separation allows rapid software updates on the server without requiring lengthy approval processes for each EGM, significantly reducing maintenance time while maintaining security through centralized control.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a media stream as an intermediary between the remote server and EGM display. The server renders software output as video frames and transmits them as encoded media streams, which the EGM decodes and displays. This intermediary approach allows the EGM to function without executing software locally, enabling rapid updates while maintaining hardware-based security boundaries.
2Ease of operation
If commercial media players are used on EGMs to play media streams, then media playback functionality is achieved, but security risks and compatibility issues arise
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive, complex commercial media players with a simplified, purpose-built media playback system integrated into the EGM firmware. This custom implementation provides only the essential media stream decoding and display functions needed, eliminating the security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues of commercial players while maintaining adequate playback capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the media playback functionality from commercial media player software and implements it as a dedicated function within the EGM's native operating system. This extraction removes the application hosting environment and scripting capabilities of commercial players, retaining only the essential media decoding and display functions, thereby eliminating security risks while maintaining playback capability.
3Productivity
If multiple EGMs execute the same application locally, then each machine operates independently, but software maintenance costs multiply across the network
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple software execution environments into a single centralized server instance. Instead of each EGM running its own copy of the application, all EGMs connect to and share the same remote software environment. This consolidation allows a single software update on the server to serve all connected EGMs simultaneously, reducing maintenance complexity and costs while maintaining operational independence through network connectivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes the remote server universally accessible to multiple EGMs across the network. A single software installation on the server provides services to all connected EGMs, regardless of their individual hardware configurations. This universal approach allows the system to serve multiple functions (different games, different operators, different locations) through a single software platform, reducing overall maintenance complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A gaming system is described. The gaming system can include one or more host devices and EGM clients that communicate with one another over a network. Various non-gaming applications can be maintained on the host device. In response to a request received from an EGM client, a non-gaming application program can be executed on the host device. Content from the non-gaming application can be converted to a media stream that is sent to the EGM client for output. The media stream can be processed using a codec executed on the EGM. Input data associated with the content can be received at the EGM and sent to the host device. The content from the non-gaming application executed on the host can be adjusted in response to the input data received from the EGM.