DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Drawings
The objection to the drawings is withdrawn based on the amendments made to the specification, correcting a reference number.
New corrected drawings in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in this application because Figures 1-11 are grayscale. According to MPEP 608.01:
Legibility includes ability to be photocopied and scanned so that suitable reprints can be made and paper can be electronically reproduced by use of digital imaging and optical character recognition. This requires a high contrast, with black lines and a white background. Gray lines and/or a gray background sharply reduce photo reproduction quality.
Applicants are advised to employ the services of a competent patent draftsperson outside the Office, as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office no longer prepares new drawings. The corrected drawings are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. The requirement for corrected drawings will not be held in abeyance.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-2, 5, 7-10, 14-16, and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over VO et al., US 2020/0034629 A1 (hereinafter Vo 629) in view of Vuong et al., US 2004/0023722 A1 (hereinafter Vuong).
Regarding Claim 1 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 discloses a method for gaming monitoring, the method comprising:
receiving, by a computing device, a series of images and timestamp information of a capture time of each image in the series of images, wherein each image of the series of images is an image of a gaming environment (Vo 629, the depth sensing device and camera 120 is coupled with or connected to a Computing Device 130 to receive instructions from the Computing Device 130 and transmit recorded data to the Computing Device 130 using a link 107 [0068]; in step 2570, the event data captured during the monitoring process is sent to the Database Server 150 to be stored as Gaming Event Data 1124 by via the Message Broker Server 140; this event data may comprise timestamps the event occurred [0197]);
processing, by the computing device, a first image in the series of images to determine a first event trigger indicator in the first image (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]);
identifying a gaming monitoring start event based on the determined first event trigger indicator (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards su7ch as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]);
processing, by the computing device, a second image in the series of images to determine a second event trigger indicator in the second image, the second image being an image captured subsequent to the first image (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]);
identifying a gaming monitoring end event based on the determined second trigger indicator (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]); and
Vo 629 fails to explicitly disclose
responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring start event, initiating transmission of image data of the first image and images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image to an upstream computing device;
terminating transmission of the image data responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring end event.
Vuong teaches
responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring start event, initiating transmission of image data of the first image and images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image to an upstream computing device (Vuong, when the next play of the game of chance begins, as indicated at step 814, virtual video manager 134 selects a video stream from the second camera set associated with the selected gaming table and provides the selected video stream to the network manager for transmission to the remote player [0063]);
terminating transmission of the image data responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring end event (Vuong, detecting the conclusion of play of said casino game; automatically terminating the transmission from said first camera [Claim 14]).
Vo 629 discloses a system for automated gaming recognition, the system comprising: at least one image sensor configured to capture image frames of a field of view including a table game; at least one depth sensor configured to capture depth of field images of the field of view; and a computing device configured to receive the image frames and the depth of field images, and configured to process the received image frames and depth of field images in order to produce an automated recognition of at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view (Vo 629 [Abstract]).
Vuong teaches an improved system and method for both local and remote players to play a casino game (Vuong [Abstract]). More specifically, the system and method automatically transmits a video stream comprised of a plurality of video feeds to remote players showing in an efficient manner (Vuong [Abstract]). In accordance with the present invention, a virtual video stream manager is associated with a gaming table (Vuong [Abstract]). By monitoring movement and placement of detectable gaming objects, the virtual video manager determines both the game state and the location of the relevant gaming object (Vuong [Abstract]). Based on the game state and the location of the gaming object, the virtual video controller selects one of a plurality of video cameras to transmit the video to each of the remote players (Vuong [Abstract]). The virtual video manager selectively customizes the video transmitted to each remote player so that the remote players may independently and efficiently participate in the remote play of a casino game (Vuong [Abstract]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the system and method that automatically transmits a video stream comprised of a plurality of video feeds to remote players showing in an efficient manner as taught by Vuong in order to allow local and remote players to participate in a table game.
Regarding Claim 2 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein:
the first event trigger indicator is determined based on detection of a first game object in the first image, and the first game object was not detected in an image captured prior to the first image in the series of images (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]).
Regarding Claim 5 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein determining the second event trigger indicator is determined based on detection of an absence of a game object in the second image (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]).
Regarding Claim 7 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses capturing the series of images of the gaming environment (Vo 629, the Depth Sensing Device and Camera 120 performs the functions of capturing visual images and depth information of the field of view before the device; the device 120 is placed before a playing surface or a gaming table in order to capture all the designated regions of interest identified on the gaming table [0079]).
Regarding Claim 8 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein each image in the series of images is captured using a camera including:
a visual spectrum camera, an infrared spectrum camera, a depth sensing camera, a neuromorphic camera, an Al camera, an event camera, a pixel processing camera, or a combination thereof (Vo 629, the Depth Sensing Device and Camera 120, may capture images from multiple spectrums of human-visible and/or human-invisible light; for example, the Depth Sensing Device and Camera 120 may capture an image from the visible light spectrum through camera 730 and from the infrared spectrum through the infrared sensor 720, and consequently may operate as a multi-spectral camera [0079]).
Regarding Claim 9 (Original): Vo 629 further discloses wherein the camera is at a same gaming table location as the computing device (Vo 629, the Gaming Monitoring Setup 105 comprises a Gaming Environment 110, a Depth Sensing Device and Camera 120 and a Computing Device 130 [0068] and [Fig. 2]).
Regarding Claim 10 (Currently Amended): Vuong teaches wherein the upstream computing device is remote from a location of the computing device (Vuong, when the next play of the game of chance begins, as indicated at step 814, virtual video manager 134 selects a video stream from the second camera set associated with the selected gaming table and provides the selected video stream to the network manager for transmission to the remote player [0063]).
Regarding Claim 14 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein the first game object includes a game value object, cash, a playing card, dice, a position marker, or a combination thereof (Vo 629, game Objects may comprise cards 211 in a specific shape with specific markings to identify them, Chips or wager objects 213 or other such objects may designate amounts players may wager in a game, or may comprise other objects with a distinct shape that may designate the outcome of a game such as a position marker or a dolly used in a game of roulette [0076]).
Regarding Claim 15 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein the computing device is a gaming environment computing device positioned in or proximate to the gaming environment (Vo 629, the position of the depth sensing device or camera 120 and the computing device 130 may be above or adjacent to other display screens on a pillar or post that are located at that gaming table 210 [0074]).
Regarding Claim 16 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein the gaming environment includes a gaming table and the captured images include a gaming table surface (Vo 629, real time captured images of the table surface [0015]).
Regarding Claim 30 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 discloses a method for gaming monitoring, the method comprising:
receiving, by a computing device, a series of images and timestamp information of a capture time of each image in the series of images, wherein each image of the series of images is an image of a gaming environment (Vo 629, the depth sensing device and camera 120 is coupled with or connected to a Computing Device 130 to receive instructions from the Computing Device 130 and transmit recorded data to the Computing Device 130 using a link 107 [0068]; in step 2570, the event data captured during the monitoring process is sent to the Database Server 150 to be stored as Gaming Event Data 1124 by via the Message Broker Server 140; this event data may comprise timestamps the event occurred [0197]);
processing, by the computing devices a first image in the series of images to determine an event trigger indicator in the first image (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]);
identifying a gaming monitoring event based on the determined event trigger indicator (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]); and
wherein the event trigger indicator is determined based on detection of a first game object in the first image (Vo 629, Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]), and
wherein the first game object was not detected in an image captured prior to the first image in the series of images (Vo 629, Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]).
Vo 629 fails to explicitly disclose
transmitting image data of the first image and images proximate to the first image in the series of images to an upstream computing device.
Vuong teaches
transmitting image data of the first image and images proximate to the first image in the series of images to an upstream computing device (Vuong, when the next play of the game of chance begins, as indicated at step 814, virtual video manager 134 selects a video stream from the second camera set associated with the selected gaming table and provides the selected video stream to the network manager for transmission to the remote player [0063]).
As recited above with respect to claim 1, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the system and method that automatically transmits a video stream comprised of a plurality of video feeds to remote players showing in an efficient manner as taught by Vuong in order to allow local and remote players to participate in a table game.
Claims 3-4, and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vo 629, in view of Vuong, and further in view of Bulzacki et al., WO 2021/072540 A1 (hereinafter Bulzacki 540).
Regarding Claim 3 (Currently Amended): Vo 629, as modified, discloses the invention as recited above. Vo 629, as modified, fails to explicitly disclose wherein:
the first event trigger indicator is determined based on detection of a dealer gesture in the first image, and the dealer gesture is indicative of a start of a game.
Bulzacki 540 teaches wherein:
the first event trigger indicator is determined based on detection of a dealer gesture in the first image, and the dealer gesture is indicative of a start of a game (Bulzacki 540, the camera 998 may be configured to capture images of hand gestures of a dealer user conducted within the field of view of the camera; for example, referring to FIG. 10B, the captured image 1000B may include image detail illustrating hand gestures of a dealer user that may signal a start of a game [00126]).
Vo 629 discloses a system for automated gaming recognition, the system comprising: at least one image sensor configured to capture image frames of a field of view including a table game; at least one depth sensor configured to capture depth of field images of the field of view; and a computing device configured to receive the image frames and the depth of field images, and configured to process the received image frames and depth of field images in order to produce an automated recognition of at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view (Vo 629 [Abstract]). The main functions of the system of the presently described embodiment of the invention is to detect when a game starts and finishes (Vo 629 [0073]).
Bulzacki 540 teaches systems and methods of tracking playing chips on a gaming table (Bulzacki 540 [Abstract]). In some embodiments, the camera 998 may be configured to capture images of hand gestures of a dealer user conducted within the field of view of the camera (Bulzacki 540 [00126]). For example, referring to FIG. 10B, the captured image 1000B may include image detail illustrating hand gestures of a dealer user that may signal a start of a game (Bulzacki 540 [00126]). In some embodiments, the camera 998 may operate to capture video data or may operate to capture images at a high frame rate and the gaming monitoring server may be configured to detect defined hand gestures and, in response to detecting such defined hand gestures, may trigger other operations, such as playing chip inventory operations (e.g., activating other sensors described herein for identifying chip quantities or chip deposits or withdrawals to / from the chip tray) (Bulzacki 540 [00126]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the systems and methods that detect defined hand gestures as taught by Bulzacki 540 in order to accurately track the start of a game.
Regarding Claim 4 (Currently Amended): Vo 629, as modified, discloses the invention as recited above. Vo 629, as modified, fails to explicitly disclose wherein the first event trigger indicator is determined based on detection of a person or a part of a person in the first image.
Bulzacki 540 teaches wherein the first event trigger indicator is determined based on detection of a person or a part of a person in the first image (Bulzacki 540, the camera 998 may be configured to capture images of hand gestures of a dealer user conducted within the field of view of the camera; for example, referring to FIG. 10B, the captured image 1000B may include image detail illustrating hand gestures of a dealer user that may signal a start of a game [00126]).
Vo 629 discloses a system for automated gaming recognition, the system comprising: at least one image sensor configured to capture image frames of a field of view including a table game; at least one depth sensor configured to capture depth of field images of the field of view; and a computing device configured to receive the image frames and the depth of field images, and configured to process the received image frames and depth of field images in order to produce an automated recognition of at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view (Vo 629 [Abstract]). The main functions of the system of the presently described embodiment of the invention is to detect when a game starts and finishes (Vo 629 [0073]).
Bulzacki 540 teaches systems and methods of tracking playing chips on a gaming table (Bulzacki 540 [Abstract]). In some embodiments, the camera 998 may be configured to capture images of hand gestures of a dealer user conducted within the field of view of the camera (Bulzacki 540 [00126]). For example, referring to FIG. 10B, the captured image 1000B may include image detail illustrating hand gestures of a dealer user that may signal a start of a game (Bulzacki 540 [00126]). In some embodiments, the camera 998 may operate to capture video data or may operate to capture images at a high frame rate and the gaming monitoring server may be configured to detect defined hand gestures and, in response to detecting such defined hand gestures, may trigger other operations, such as playing chip inventory operations (e.g., activating other sensors described herein for identifying chip quantities or chip deposits or withdrawals to / from the chip tray) (Bulzacki 540 [00126]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the systems and methods that detect a dealer’s hands as taught by Bulzacki 540 in order to accurately track the operations in a game.
Regarding Claim 6 (Currently Amended): Vo 629, as modified, discloses the invention as recited above. Vo 629, as modified, fails to explicitly disclose wherein:
the second event trigger indicator is determined based on detection of a dealer gesture in the second image, and the dealer gesture is indicative of an end of a game.
Bulzacki 540 teaches wherein:
the second event trigger indicator is determined based on detection of a dealer gesture in the second image, and the dealer gesture is indicative of an end of a game (Bulzacki 540, the camera 998 may be configured to capture images of hand gestures of a dealer user conducted within the field of view of the camera; for example, referring to FIG. 10B, the captured image 1000B may include image detail illustrating hand gestures of a dealer user that may signal a start of a game [00126]; gesture to detect end of game is an important operation in game play).
Vo 629 discloses a system for automated gaming recognition, the system comprising: at least one image sensor configured to capture image frames of a field of view including a table game; at least one depth sensor configured to capture depth of field images of the field of view; and a computing device configured to receive the image frames and the depth of field images, and configured to process the received image frames and depth of field images in order to produce an automated recognition of at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view (Vo 629 [Abstract]). The main functions of the system of the presently described embodiment of the invention is to detect when a game starts and finishes (Vo 629 [0073]).
Bulzacki 540 teaches systems and methods of tracking playing chips on a gaming table (Bulzacki 540 [Abstract]). In some embodiments, the camera 998 may be configured to capture images of hand gestures of a dealer user conducted within the field of view of the camera (Bulzacki 540 [00126]). For example, referring to FIG. 10B, the captured image 1000B may include image detail illustrating hand gestures of a dealer user that may signal a start of a game (Bulzacki 540 [00126]). In some embodiments, the camera 998 may operate to capture video data or may operate to capture images at a high frame rate and the gaming monitoring server may be configured to detect defined hand gestures and, in response to detecting such defined hand gestures, may trigger other operations, such as playing chip inventory operations (e.g., activating other sensors described herein for identifying chip quantities or chip deposits or withdrawals to / from the chip tray) (Bulzacki 540 [00126]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the systems and methods that detect a dealer’s hands as taught by Bulzacki 540 in order to accurately track the end of a game.
Claims 11-13, 28, and 32-42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vo 629, in view of Vuong, and further in view of BULZACKI et al., US 2018/0247134 A1 (hereinafter Bulzacki 134).
Regarding Claim 11 (Currently Amended): Vo 629, as modified, discloses the invention as recited above. Vo 629, as modified, fails to explicitly disclose wherein the upstream computing device includes a remote server in a cloud computing environment.
Bulzacki 134 teaches wherein the upstream computing device includes a remote server in a cloud computing environment (Bulzacki 134, a game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating the compressed image data from the client hardware devices to generate aggregated betting data for the plurality of gaming tables; and a front end interface device for displaying the aggregated betting data from the game monitoring server for provision to or display on end user systems, the front end interface device for receiving control commands from the end user systems for controlling the provision or display of the aggregated betting data [0027]; the computing device components may be connected in various ways including directly coupled, indirectly coupled via a network, and distributed over a wide geographic area and connected via a network (which may be referred to as “cloud computing”) [0258]).
Vo 629 discloses a system for automated gaming recognition, the system comprising: at least one image sensor configured to capture image frames of a field of view including a table game; at least one depth sensor configured to capture depth of field images of the field of view; and a computing device configured to receive the image frames and the depth of field images, and configured to process the received image frames and depth of field images in order to produce an automated recognition of at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view (Vo 629 [Abstract]). The main functions of the system of the presently described embodiment of the invention is to detect when a game starts and finishes (Vo 629 [0073]).
Bulzacki 134 teaches a platform, device and process for capturing images of the surface of a gaming table and determining the quantity, identity, and arrangement of chips bet at a gaming table (Bulzacki 134 [Abstract]). A game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating the compressed image data from the client hardware devices to generate aggregated betting data for the plurality of gaming tables; and a front end interface device for displaying the aggregated betting data from the game monitoring server for provision to or display on end user systems, the front end interface device for receiving control commands from the end user systems for controlling the provision or display of the aggregated betting data (Bulzacki 134 [0027]). The computing device components may be connected in various ways including directly coupled, indirectly coupled via a network, and distributed over a wide geographic area and connected via a network (which may be referred to as “cloud computing”) (Bulzacki 134 [0258])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the game monitoring server in a cloud computing network for collecting, processing and aggregating compressed image data from the client hardware devices to generate aggregated betting data for the plurality of gaming tables as taught by Bulzacki 134 as it is a commonly used method of organizing servers.
Regarding Claim 12 (Currently Amended): Vo 629, as modified, discloses the invention as recited above. Vo 629, as modified, fails to explicitly disclose:
determining a region of interest in each of the first image and images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image; and
wherein the image data transmitted to the upstream computing device is confined to the image data of the determined regions of interest.
Bulzacki 134 teaches:
determining a region of interest in each of the first image and images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image (Bulzacki 134, the image data may, for example, focus on a particular region of interest or regions of interest that are within the field of view of the sensor component [0146]); and
wherein the image data transmitted to the upstream computing device is confined to the image data of the determined regions of interest (Bulzacki 134, transmitting the compressed set of image data to a game monitoring server [0049]).
Vo 629 discloses a system for automated gaming recognition, the system comprising: at least one image sensor configured to capture image frames of a field of view including a table game; at least one depth sensor configured to capture depth of field images of the field of view; and a computing device configured to receive the image frames and the depth of field images, and configured to process the received image frames and depth of field images in order to produce an automated recognition of at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view (Vo 629 [Abstract]). The main functions of the system of the presently described embodiment of the invention is to detect when a game starts and finishes (Vo 629 [0073]).
Bulzacki 134 teaches a platform, device and process for capturing images of the surface of a gaming table and determining the quantity, identity, and arrangement of chips bet at a gaming table (Bulzacki 134 [Abstract]). The image data may, for example, focus on a particular region of interest or regions of interest that are within the field of view of the sensor component (Bulzacki 134 [0146]).
As recited above with respect to claim 11, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the method of focusing on a particular region of interest or regions of interest that are within the field of view of the sensor component as taught by Bulzacki 134 to minimize the area required to detect objects, thereby requiring less memory and processing resources.
Regarding Claim 13 (Original): Bulzacki 134 further teaches wherein the region of interest is a region within the images depicting a game object, or a part of a person (Bulzacki 134, the image processing engine 204 may be configured to visually identify the pixels and/or regions of interest (e.g., by using a combination of depth data and similarity/size information) regarding the chips [0168]).
Regarding Claim 28 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 discloses a distributed system for gaming monitoring, the distributed system comprising:
a camera positioned in a gaming environment and configured to capture images of the gaming environment (Vo 629, a system of monitoring game play on a table surface of a gaming table, the system comprising: at least one camera configured to capture images of a table surface [0020]);
a gaming environment computing device positioned in or proximate to the gaming environment, the computing device configured to be in communication with the camera (Vo 629, a computing device in communication with the camera [0020]); and
wherein the gaming environment computing device is configured to:
receive by the gaming environment computing device a series of images and timestamp information of a capture time of each image in the series of images, wherein each image of the series of images is an image of a gaming environment (Vo 629, the depth sensing device and camera 120 is coupled with or connected to a Computing Device 130 to receive instructions from the Computing Device 130 and transmit recorded data to the Computing Device 130 using a link 107 [0068]; in step 2570, the event data captured during the monitoring process is sent to the Database Server 150 to be stored as Gaming Event Data 1124 by via the Message Broker Server 140; this event data may comprise timestamps the event occurred [0197]);
process a first image in the series of images to determine a first event trigger indicator in the first image (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]);
identify a gaming monitoring start event based on the determined first event trigger indicator (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]);
process a second image in the series of images to determine a second event trigger indicator in the second image, the second image being an image captured subsequent to the first image (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]);
identify a gaming monitoring end event based on the determined second trigger indicator (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]); and
process the received image data to identify a game object in the image data (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]).
Vo 629 fails to explicitly disclose
an upstream computing device configured to be in communication with the computing device; and
responsive to identification of the gaming monitoring start event, initiate transmission of image data of the first image and images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image to an upstream computing device;
terminate transmission of the image data responsive to identification of the gaming monitoring end event; and
wherein the upstream computing device is configured to:
receive, at an upstream computing device from a gaming environment computing device in a gaming environment,
an image region of the image data corresponding to the identified game object; and
process the image region corresponding to the identified game object to determine a game object attribute of the identified game object.
Vuong teaches
an upstream computing device configured to be in communication with the computing device (Vuong, a player, remote from casino environment 600, may access the casino over network 122 with a telephone, such as a web-enabled cell phone, computer or some other computer-based communication device (not shown) [0053] and [Fig. 9]); and
responsive to identification of the gaming monitoring start event, initiate transmission of image data of the first image and images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image to an upstream computing device (Vuong, when the next play of the game of chance begins, as indicated at step 814, virtual video manager 134 selects a video stream from the second camera set associated with the selected gaming table and provides the selected video stream to the network manager for transmission to the remote player [0063]);
terminate transmission of the image data responsive to identification of the gaming monitoring end event (Vuong, detecting the conclusion of play of said casino game; automatically terminating the transmission from said first camera [Claim 14]).
As recited above with respect to claim 1, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the system and method that automatically transmits a video stream comprised of a plurality of video feeds to remote players showing in an efficient manner as taught by Vuong in order to allow local and remote players to participate in a table game.
Bulzacki 134 teaches
wherein the upstream computing device is configured to:
receive, at an upstream computing device from a gaming environment computing device in a gaming environment (Bulzacki 134, a game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating the compressed image data from the client hardware devices to generate aggregated betting data for the plurality of gaming tables; and a front end interface device for displaying the aggregated betting data from the game monitoring server for provision to or display on end user systems, the front end interface device for receiving control commands from the end user systems for controlling the provision or display of the aggregated betting data [0027]),
an image region of the image data corresponding to the identified game object (Bulzacki 134, the image data may, for example, focus on a particular region of interest or regions of interest that are within the field of view of the sensor component [0146]); and
process the image region corresponding to the identified game object to determine a game object attribute of the identified game object (Bulzacki 134, the image recognizer engine 206 may obtain the extracted and compressed information from the image processing engine 204, applying recognition techniques to determine the actual chip value for each chip in the relevant region of interest [0171]).
Vo 629 discloses a system for automated gaming recognition, the system comprising: at least one image sensor configured to capture image frames of a field of view including a table game; at least one depth sensor configured to capture depth of field images of the field of view; and a computing device configured to receive the image frames and the depth of field images, and configured to process the received image frames and depth of field images in order to produce an automated recognition of at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view (Vo 629 [Abstract]). The main functions of the system of the presently described embodiment of the invention is to detect when a game starts and finishes (Vo 629 [0073]).
Bulzacki 134 teaches a platform, device and process for capturing images of the surface of a gaming table and determining the quantity, identity, and arrangement of chips bet at a gaming table (Bulzacki 134 [Abstract]). A game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating the compressed image data from the client hardware devices to generate aggregated betting data for the plurality of gaming tables; and a front end interface device for displaying the aggregated betting data from the game monitoring server for provision to or display on end user systems, the front end interface device for receiving control commands from the end user systems for controlling the provision or display of the aggregated betting data (Bulzacki 134 [0027]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating compressed image data from the client hardware devices and providing to or display on end user systems as taught by Bulzacki 134 to limit the amount of processing required of client devices to which the compressed image data is sent.
Regarding Claim 32 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 discloses a method for gaming monitoring, the method comprising:
receiving, by a computing device, a series of images and timestamp information of a capture time of each image in the series of images, wherein each image of the series of images is an image of a gaming environment (Vo 629, the depth sensing device and camera 120 is coupled with or connected to a Computing Device 130 to receive instructions from the Computing Device 130 and transmit recorded data to the Computing Device 130 using a link 107 [0068]; in step 2570, the event data captured during the monitoring process is sent to the Database Server 150 to be stored as Gaming Event Data 1124 by via the Message Broker Server 140; this event data may comprise timestamps the event occurred [0197]);
determining, by the computing device, a first event trigger indicator in relation to a gaming table in the gaming environment (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]);
identifying a gaming monitoring start event based on the determined first event trigger indicator (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]);
determining, by the computing device, a second event trigger indicator in relation to the gaming table at a time after determination of the first trigger event (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]);
identifying a gaming monitoring end event based on the determined second event trigger indicator (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]); and
Vo 629 fails to explicitly disclose one of:
subsequent to identifying the gaming monitoring start event, initiating transmission of image data of a set of images including a first image captured at a time of the first event trigger indicator and images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image to an upstream computing device for remote image processing of the set of images using artificial intelligence, and subsequent to identifying the gaming monitoring end event, terminating transmission of the image data; or
responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring end event, transmitting image data of a set of images in the series of images from the first image captured at a time of the first event trigger indicator to a second image captured at a time of the second event trigger indicator to an upstream computing device for remote image processing of the set of images using artificial intelligence.
Vuong teaches
subsequent to identifying the gaming monitoring start event, initiating transmission of image data of a set of images including a first image captured at a time of the first event trigger indicator and images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image to an upstream computing device for remote image processing of the set of images (Vuong, when the next play of the game of chance begins, as indicated at step 814, virtual video manager 134 selects a video stream from the second camera set associated with the selected gaming table and provides the selected video stream to the network manager for transmission to the remote player [0063]; when the Gaming Monitoring System detect a dolly (or position marker), it may infer that a game may have been started in a few seconds before, for example 20 to 30 seconds before the detection of the dolly [0153]), and subsequent to identifying the gaming monitoring end event, terminating transmission of the image data (Vuong, detecting the conclusion of play of said casino game; automatically terminating the transmission from said first camera [Claim 14]);
As recited above with respect to claim 1, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the system and method that automatically transmits a video stream comprised of a plurality of video feeds to remote players showing in an efficient manner as taught by Vuong in order to allow local and remote players to participate in a table game.
Bulzacki 134 teaches
using artificial intelligence (Bulzacki 134, machine-learning techniques (e.g., random forests) may be utilized and refined such that visual features representative of different chip values are readily identified, despite variations between different facilities, lighting conditions and chip types [0138]), or
responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring end event, transmitting image data of a set of images in the series of images from the first image captured at a time of the first event trigger indicator to a second image captured at a time of the second event trigger indicator to an upstream computing device for remote image processing of the set of images using artificial intelligence (Bulzacki 134, a game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating the compressed image data from the client hardware devices to generate aggregated betting data for the plurality of gaming tables; and a front end interface device for displaying the aggregated betting data from the game monitoring server for provision to or display on end user systems, the front end interface device for receiving control commands from the end user systems for controlling the provision or display of the aggregated betting data [0027]; machine-learning techniques (e.g., random forests) may be utilized and refined such that visual features representative of different chip values are readily identified, despite variations between different facilities, lighting conditions and chip types [0138]; the computing device components may be connected in various ways including directly coupled, indirectly coupled via a network, and distributed over a wide geographic area and connected via a network (which may be referred to as “cloud computing”) [0258]).
As recited above with respect to claim 11, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating compressed image data from the client hardware devices and providing to or display on end user systems as taught by Bulzacki 134 to limit the amount of processing required of client devices to which the compressed image data is sent.
Regarding Claim 33 (Original): Vo 629 further discloses capturing the series of images of the gaming environment (Vo 629, the depth sensing device and camera 120 is coupled with or connected to a Computing Device 130 to receive instructions from the Computing Device 130 and transmit recorded data to the Computing Device 130 using a link 107 [0068]; in step 2570, the event data captured during the monitoring process is sent to the Database Server 150 to be stored as Gaming Event Data 1124 by via the Message Broker Server 140; this event data may comprise timestamps the event occurred [0197]).
Regarding Claim 34 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein each image in the series of images is captured using a camera including:
a visual spectrum camera, an infrared spectrum camera, a depth sensing camera, a neuromorphic camera, or a combination thereof (Vo 629, the Depth Sensing Device and Camera 120, may capture images from multiple spectrums of human-visible and/or human-invisible light; for example, the Depth Sensing Device and Camera 120 may capture an image from the visible light spectrum through camera 730 and from the infrared spectrum through the infrared sensor 720, and consequently may operate as a multi-spectral camera [0079]).
Regarding Claim 35 (Original): Vo 629 further discloses wherein the camera is at a same gaming table location as the computing device (Vo 629, the Gaming Monitoring Setup 105 comprises a Gaming Environment 110, a Depth Sensing Device and Camera 120 and a Computing Device 130 [0068] and [Fig. 2]).
Regarding Claim 36 (Currently Amended): Vuong further teaches wherein the upstream computing device is remote from a location of the computing device (Vuong, when the next play of the game of chance begins, as indicated at step 814, virtual video manager 134 selects a video stream from the second camera set associated with the selected gaming table and provides the selected video stream to the network manager for transmission to the remote player [0063]).
Regarding Claim 37 (Currently Amended): Bulzacki 134 further teaches wherein the upstream computing device includes a remote server in a cloud computing environment (Bulzacki 134, a game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating the compressed image data from the client hardware devices to generate aggregated betting data for the plurality of gaming tables; and a front end interface device for displaying the aggregated betting data from the game monitoring server for provision to or display on end user systems, the front end interface device for receiving control commands from the end user systems for controlling the provision or display of the aggregated betting data [0027]).
Regarding Claim 38 (Currently Amended): Bulzacki 134 further teaches determining a region of interest in each of the first image and images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image (Bulzacki 134, the image data may, for example, focus on a particular region of interest or regions of interest that are within the field of view of the sensor component [0146]); and
wherein the image data transmitted to the upstream computing device is confined to the image data of the determined regions of interest (Bulzacki 134, transmitting the compressed set of image data to a game monitoring server [0049]).
Regarding Claim 39 (Original): Bulzacki 134 further teaches wherein the region of interest is a region within the images depicting a game object, or a part of a person (Bulzacki 134, the image processing engine 204 may be configured to visually identify the pixels and/or regions of interest (e.g., by using a combination of depth data and similarity/size information) regarding the chips [0168]).
Regarding Claim 40 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein the computing device is a gaming environment computing device positioned in or proximate to the gaming environment (Vo 629, the position of the depth sensing device or camera 120 and the computing device 130 may be above or adjacent to other display screens on a pillar or post that are located at that gaming table 210 [0074]).
Regarding Claim 41 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein the gaming environment includes a gaming table and the captured images include a gaming table surface (Vo 629, real time captured images of the table surface [0015]).
Regarding Claim 42 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 discloses a method of gaming monitoring, the method comprising:
receiving, by an edge computing device, a series of images and timestamp information of a capture time of each image in the series of images, wherein each image of the series of images is an image of a gaming environment (Vo 629, the depth sensing device and camera 120 is coupled with or connected to a Computing Device 130 to receive instructions from the Computing Device 130 and transmit recorded data to the Computing Device 130 using a link 107 [0068]; some embodiments implement the Canny Edge detection operator or process to detect edges in images captured by the Depth Sensing Device and Camera 120 [0131]; in step 2570, the event data captured during the monitoring process is sent to the Database Server 150 to be stored as Gaming Event Data 1124 by via the Message Broker Server 140; this event data may comprise timestamps the event occurred [0197]);
processing, by the edge computing device, a first image in the series of images to determine a first event trigger indicator in the first image (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]);
identifying a gaming monitoring start event based on the determined first event trigger indicator (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]);
processing, by the edge computing device, a second image in the series of images to determine a second event trigger indicator in the second image, the second image being an image captured subsequent to the first image (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]);
identifying a gaming monitoring end event based on the determined second trigger indicator (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]).
Vo 629 fails to explicitly disclose
responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring start event, initiating transmission of image data of the first image and images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image to an upstream computing device;
receiving, at the upstream computing device from the edge computing device, the image data of the first image and each of the images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image and timestamp information for the first image and images in the series of images;
processing, at the upstream computing device, the received image data to identify a game object in the image data and an image region of the image data corresponding to the identified game object;
processing, at the upstream computing device, the image region corresponding to the identified game object to determine a game object attribute of the identified game object;
terminating transmission of the image data responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring end event.
Vuong teaches
responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring start event, initiating transmission of image data of the first image and images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image to an upstream computing device (Vuong, when the next play of the game of chance begins, as indicated at step 814, virtual video manager 134 selects a video stream from the second camera set associated with the selected gaming table and provides the selected video stream to the network manager for transmission to the remote player [0063]);
terminating transmission of the image data responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring end event (Vuong, detecting the conclusion of play of said casino game; automatically terminating the transmission from said first camera [Claim 14]).
As recited above with respect to claim 1, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the system and method that automatically transmits a video stream comprised of a plurality of video feeds to remote players showing in an efficient manner as taught by Vuong in order to allow local and remote players to participate in a table game.
Bulzacki 134 teaches
receiving, at the upstream computing device from the edge computing device, the image data of the first image and each of the images in the series of images captured subsequent to the first image and timestamp information for the first image and images in the series of images (Bulzacki 134, a game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating the compressed image data from the client hardware devices to generate aggregated betting data for the plurality of gaming tables; and a front end interface device for displaying the aggregated betting data from the game monitoring server for provision to or display on end user systems, the front end interface device for receiving control commands from the end user systems for controlling the provision or display of the aggregated betting data [0027]);
processing, at the upstream computing device, the received image data to identify a game object in the image data and an image region of the image data corresponding to the identified game object (Bulzacki 134, the game monitoring server are configured to, responsive to positively determining the presence of the one or more obstructing objects that are partially or fully obstructing the one or more chips from being sensed by the one or more sensors, aggregate a plurality of captured images over a duration of time and to compare differences between each of the plurality of captured images to estimate the presence of the one or more chips despite the presence of the one or more obstructing objects that are partially or fully obstructing the one or more chips from being sensed by the one or more sensors [0036]);
processing, at the upstream computing device, the image region corresponding to the identified game object to determine a game object attribute of the identified game object (Bulzacki 134, the image recognizer engine 206 may obtain the extracted and compressed information from the image processing engine 204, applying recognition techniques to determine the actual chip value for each chip in the relevant region of interest [0171]).
As recited above with respect to claim 11, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the method of focusing on a particular region of interest or regions of interest that are within the field of view of the sensor component as taught by Bulzacki 134 to minimize the area required to detect objects, thereby requiring less memory and processing resources.
Claims 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vo 629, in view of Vuong, and further in view of VO et al., WO 2019/068141 A1 (hereinafter Vo 141).
Regarding Claim 17 (Currently Amended): Vo 629, as modified, discloses the invention as recited above. Vo 629, as modified, fails to explicitly disclose wherein the first event trigger indicator in the first image is determined based on providing the first image to an artificial intelligence model.
Vo 141 teaches wherein the first event trigger indicator in the first image is determined based on providing the first image to an artificial intelligence model (Vo 141, said computing apparatus configured to analyse the captured images of the gaming surface to automatically apply machine learning processes to identify game objects, game events and players in the captured images [0008]; the specific nature of the events that define game start and end triggers may be stored in the Game Start and End Trigger Configuration 544 and referred to by the Game Event Detection Module 532 to estimate if a game has started or ended on a table; for example, for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game at step 880 by the Game Event Detection Module 532; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game; the specific shape and nature of a game start or end trigger initiating game object may be saved in the Game Start and End Trigger Configuration 544 of the Configuration Module 540 of the Computing Device 130 [0081]).
Vo 629 discloses a system for automated gaming recognition, the system comprising: at least one image sensor configured to capture image frames of a field of view including a table game; at least one depth sensor configured to capture depth of field images of the field of view; and a computing device configured to receive the image frames and the depth of field images, and configured to process the received image frames and depth of field images in order to produce an automated recognition of at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view (Vo 629 [Abstract]). Vo 629 fails to explicitly disclose how the images are processed.
Vo 141 teaches systems and methods for gaming monitoring (Vo 141 [Abstract]). In particular, embodiments relate to systems and methods for gaming monitoring based on machine learning processes configured to analyse captured images to identify or detect game objects and game events to monitor games (Vo 141 [Abstract]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to replace the method for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the machine learning processes configured to analyse captured images to identify or detect game objects and game events to monitor games as taught by Vo 141 since machine learning would have yielded predictable results.
Regarding Claim 18 (Currently Amended): Vo 629, as modified, discloses the invention as recited above. Vo 629, as modified, fails to explicitly disclose wherein the second event trigger indicator in the second image is determined based on providing the second image to an artificial intelligence model.
Vo 141 teaches wherein the second event trigger indicator in the second image is determined based on providing the second image to an artificial intelligence model (Vo 141, said computing apparatus configured to analyse the captured images of the gaming surface to automatically apply machine learning processes to identify game objects, game events and players in the captured images [0008]; the specific nature of the events that define game start and end triggers may be stored in the Game Start and End Trigger Configuration 544 and referred to by the Game Event Detection Module 532 to estimate if a game has started or ended on a table; for example, for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game at step 880 by the Game Event Detection Module 532; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game; the specific shape and nature of a game start or end trigger initiating game object may be saved in the Game Start and End Trigger Configuration 544 of the Configuration Module 540 of the Computing Device 130 [0081]).
Vo 629 discloses a system for automated gaming recognition, the system comprising: at least one image sensor configured to capture image frames of a field of view including a table game; at least one depth sensor configured to capture depth of field images of the field of view; and a computing device configured to receive the image frames and the depth of field images, and configured to process the received image frames and depth of field images in order to produce an automated recognition of at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view (Vo 629 [Abstract]). Vo 629 fails to explicitly disclose how the images are processed.
Vo 141 teaches systems and methods for gaming monitoring (Vo 141 [Abstract]). In particular, embodiments relate to systems and methods for gaming monitoring based on machine learning processes configured to analyse captured images to identify or detect game objects and game events to monitor games (Vo 141 [Abstract]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to replace the method for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the machine learning processes configured to analyse captured images to identify or detect game objects and game events to monitor games as taught by Vo 141 since machine learning would have yielded predictable results.
Regarding Claim 19 (Currently Amended): Vo 141 further teaches wherein the artificial intelligence model is an artificial neural network (Vo 141, the machine learning processes may be implemented through one or more neural networks [0008]).
Claims 20-25, 27, and 31 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vo 629 in view of Bulzacki 134.
Regarding Claim 20 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 discloses a method for gaming monitoring, the method comprising:
receiving image data of images captured in a gaming environment and timestamp information for each of the captured images (Vo 629, the depth sensing device and camera 120 is coupled with or connected to a Computing Device 130 to receive instructions from the Computing Device 130 and transmit recorded data to the Computing Device 130 using a link 107 [0068]; in step 2570, the event data captured during the monitoring process is sent to the Database Server 150 to be stored as Gaming Event Data 1124 by via the Message Broker Server 140; this event data may comprise timestamps the event occurred [0197]);
processing the received image data to identify a game object in the image data (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]) and
processing the identified game object to determine a game object attribute of the identified game object (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]).
Vo 629 fails to explicitly disclose
receiving, at an upstream computing device from a gaming environment computing device in a gaming environment,
processing, at the upstream computing device, the received image data to identify a game object in the image data and
an image region of the image data corresponding to the identified game object; and
processing, at the upstream computing device, the image region corresponding to the identified game object to determine a game object attribute of the identified game object.
Bulzacki 134 teaches
receiving, at an upstream computing device from a gaming environment computing device in a gaming environment (Bulzacki 134, a game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating the compressed image data from the client hardware devices to generate aggregated betting data for the plurality of gaming tables; and a front end interface device for displaying the aggregated betting data from the game monitoring server for provision to or display on end user systems, the front end interface device for receiving control commands from the end user systems for controlling the provision or display of the aggregated betting data [0027]),
processing, at the upstream computing device, the received image data to identify a game object in the image data (Bulzacki 134, the game monitoring server are configured to, responsive to positively determining the presence of the one or more obstructing objects that are partially or fully obstructing the one or more chips from being sensed by the one or more sensors, aggregate a plurality of captured images over a duration of time and to compare differences between each of the plurality of captured images to estimate the presence of the one or more chips despite the presence of the one or more obstructing objects that are partially or fully obstructing the one or more chips from being sensed by the one or more sensors [0036]) and an image region of the image data corresponding to the identified game object (Bulzacki 134, the image data may, for example, focus on a particular region of interest or regions of interest that are within the field of view of the sensor component [0146]); and
processing, at the upstream computing device, the image region corresponding to the identified game object to determine a game object attribute of the identified game object (Bulzacki 134, the image recognizer engine 206 may obtain the extracted and compressed information from the image processing engine 204, applying recognition techniques to determine the actual chip value for each chip in the relevant region of interest [0171]).
As recited above with respect to claim 28, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating compressed image data from the client hardware devices and providing to or display on end user systems as taught by Bulzacki 134 to limit the amount of processing required of client devices to which the compressed image data is sent.
Regarding Claim 21 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein:
the game object includes a plurality of token objects (Vo 629, the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end [0014]), and
the game object attribute determined for the plurality of token objects includes a value estimate of the plurality of token objects and a position indicator of the plurality of token objects (Vo 629, the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end [0014]).
Regarding Claim 22 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein the position indicator is configured to indicate a position of the plurality of token objects on a gaming table in the gaming environment (Vo 629, the main functions of the system of the presently described embodiment of the invention is to detect when a game starts and finishes, to detect a location of placed chips [0073]).
Regarding Claim 23 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein the plurality of token objects are arranged in a stack (Vo 629, the main functions of the system of the presently described embodiment of the invention is to detect when a game starts and finishes, to detect a location of placed chips, and to estimate the value and the height (how many chips) of chip stack [0073]).
Regarding Claim 24 (Currently Amended): Bulzacki 134 further teaches wherein the value estimate of the plurality of token objects is determined by:
detecting edge pattern regions in the image region corresponding to the plurality of token objects (Bulzacki 134, bet tracking information is collected using machine-vision capable sensors that may be present on a gaming table or surface, or other type of gaming machine; these machine-vision capable sensors monitor betting areas to determine the types of chips placed in them; machine vision may include image processing techniques, such as filtering, registration, stitching, thresholding, pixel counting, segmentation, edge detection [0137]);
processing the edge pattern regions to determine a token value indication encoded in respective edge pattern regions (Bulzacki 134, bet tracking information is collected using machine-vision capable sensors that may be present on a gaming table or surface, or other type of gaming machine; these machine-vision capable sensors monitor betting areas to determine the types of chips placed in them, and estimate the value of bets [0137]); and
estimating the value of the plurality of token objects based on the token value indication (Bulzacki 134, bet tracking information is collected using machine-vision capable sensors that may be present on a gaming table or surface, or other type of gaming machine; these machine-vision capable sensors monitor betting areas to determine the types of chips placed in them, and estimate the value of bets [0137]).
Regarding Claim 25 (Currently Amended): Bulzacki 134 further teaches wherein:
detection of the game objects is performed by a first object detection neural network (Bulzacki 134, by preprogramming the process to recognize particular nodes of the neural network relating to chips, Embodiments described herein can also deactivate specific nodes so that they are not optional paths in the decision process, which may improves both speed and accuracy [0316]); and
the detection of the edge pattern regions and the determination of the token value indication is performed by a second object detection neural network (Bulzacki 134, by preprogramming the process to recognize particular nodes of the neural network relating to chips, Embodiments described herein can also deactivate specific nodes so that they are not optional paths in the decision process, which may improves both speed and accuracy [0316]).
Regarding Claim 27 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 further discloses wherein:
the game object includes a gaming card, and the game object attribute of the gaming card includes a gaming card identifier (Vo 629, game Objects may comprise cards 211 in a specific shape with specific markings to identify them [0076]).
Regarding Claim 31 (Currently Amended): Vo 629 discloses a method for gaming monitoring, the method comprising:
receiving, by a computing device, a series of images and timestamp information of a capture time of each image in the series of images, wherein each image of the series of images is an image of a gaming environment (Vo 629, the depth sensing device and camera 120 is coupled with or connected to a Computing Device 130 to receive instructions from the Computing Device 130 and transmit recorded data to the Computing Device 130 using a link 107 [0068]; in step 2570, the event data captured during the monitoring process is sent to the Database Server 150 to be stored as Gaming Event Data 1124 by via the Message Broker Server 140; this event data may comprise timestamps the event occurred [0197]);
processing, by the computing device, a first image in the series of images to determine a first event trigger indicator in the first image (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]);
identifying a gaming monitoring start event based on the determined first event trigger indicator (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Start Detection occurs at 2420; to detect when the game starts, the some embodiment use cards as a trigger; for games without cards like Roulette, a dolly may be detected when the game finishes and a game start event is triggered back in n.sup.th frame [0187]);
processing, by the computing device, a second image in the series of images to determine a second event trigger indicator in the second image, the second image being an image captured subsequent to the first image (Vo 629, the image frames may comprise images within or constituting the visible spectrum, or may comprise infrared or ultraviolet images; the depth of field images may comprise time of flight data points for the field of view, and/or phase information data points reflecting depth of field; the at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view may comprise one or more or all of: game start; chip detection; chip value estimation, chip stack height estimation; and game end; game start and/or game end may be effected by card detection or dolly detection [0014]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]);
identifying a gaming monitoring end event based on the determined second trigger indicator (Vo 629, FIG. 25 represents a flowchart of a Gaming Monitoring Process 2500 that some embodiments may implement to monitor events on gaming tables; for a table designated for the game of blackjack, the presence of one or more cards in an image frame extracted in a step 2510 may be treated as the start of a game; likewise, after the start of a game, the absence of any cards in an image frame may be treated as the end of a game for the purpose of Game End Detection 2560; for games not based on cards such as roulette, the presence of other game objects such as a dolly may be used the start and end triggers for a game [0192]; Game Ending Detection 2460 is the process opposite to game starting detection; when the dealer clears out the cards, it triggers the game ending event; for roulette, the detection of removal of the dolly will trigger this event [0190]).
Vo 629 fails to explicitly disclose
responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring end event, transmitting image data of a set of images in the series of images from the first image to the second image to an upstream computing device for remote image processing of the set of images using artificial intelligence.
Bulzacki 134 teaches
responsive to identifying the gaming monitoring end event, transmitting image data of a set of images in the series of images from the first image to the second image to an upstream computing device for remote image processing of the set of images using artificial intelligence (Bulzacki 134, a game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating the compressed image data from the client hardware devices to generate aggregated betting data for the plurality of gaming tables; and a front end interface device for displaying the aggregated betting data from the game monitoring server for provision to or display on end user systems, the front end interface device for receiving control commands from the end user systems for controlling the provision or display of the aggregated betting data [0027]; machine-learning techniques (e.g., random forests) may be utilized and refined such that visual features representative of different chip values are readily identified, despite variations between different facilities, lighting conditions and chip types [0138]; the computing device components may be connected in various ways including directly coupled, indirectly coupled via a network, and distributed over a wide geographic area and connected via a network (which may be referred to as “cloud computing”) [0258]).
As recited above with respect to claim 11, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the system for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the game monitoring server for collecting, processing and aggregating compressed image data from the client hardware devices and providing to or display on end user systems as taught by Bulzacki 134 to limit the amount of processing required of client devices to which the compressed image data is sent.
Claim 26 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Vo 629, in view of Bulzacki 134, and further in view of SHIGETA, US 2019/0347893 A1 (hereinafter Shigeta).
Regarding Claim 26 (Original): Vo 629, as modified, discloses the invention as recited above. Vo 629, as modified, fails to explicitly disclose wherein the first object detection neural network and the second object detection neural network are implemented using a deep neural network.
Shigeta teaches wherein the first object detection neural network and the second object detection neural network are implemented using a deep neural network (Shigeta, or object detection, machine learning technologies such as deep neural network and deep learning are advantageously used [0147]).
Vo 629 discloses a system for automated gaming recognition, the system comprising: at least one image sensor configured to capture image frames of a field of view including a table game; at least one depth sensor configured to capture depth of field images of the field of view; and a computing device configured to receive the image frames and the depth of field images, and configured to process the received image frames and depth of field images in order to produce an automated recognition of at least one gaming state appearing in the field of view (Vo 629 [Abstract]). Vo 629 fails to explicitly disclose how the images are processed.
Shigeta teaches management and control devices that us the information acquired from the measurement device to detect a total bet amount of the chips placed on the bet area of the game table by the game participants, and uses the information acquired from the card shoe and the measurement device to detect a winning or losing amount for the game organizer (Shigeta [Abstract]). For object detection, machine learning technologies such as deep neural network and deep learning are advantageously used (Shigeta [0147]). In object detection using machine learning, the chips 9 may be independently recognized (Shigeta [0147]). The measurement device 21 may use a recursive neural network such as LSTM to recognize time series data such as a plurality of consecutive images or a video, thereby detecting an object (Shigeta [0147]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to replace the method for automated gaming recognition of gameplay on a table game as disclosed by Vo 629 with the deep neural network to detect objects as taught by Shigeta since neural network would have yielded predictable results.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WERNER G GARNER whose telephone number is (571)270-7147. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 7:30-15:30 EST.
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/WERNER G GARNER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3715
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