James D Lawrence, Age 716767 W Windmill Ln UNIT 3118, Las Vegas, NV 89139

8568227, Oct 29, 2013

Nov 13, 2009

12/618662

James Lawrence - Henderson NV, US
Lasse Faabeng - Las Vegas NV, US

Bally Gaming, Inc. - Las Vegas NV

A63F 9/24
A63F 13/00

463 31, 463 29, 463 30, 463 42, 463 43

Various embodiments disclosed herein are directed to a game platform and video extension system for a gaming machine, in which game videos interact with the game platform and video extension system. The system includes a game operating system that provides services to render graphics for the gaming machine. Further, the operating system includes an OS video engine and a window server. The system also includes a game, wherein the game comprises a game library and game application. The game library includes one or more library video engines, in which each video engine may be used in conjunction with the window server of the operating system. The game application includes one or more game modules, in which each game module is associated with, and supported by, a corresponding library video engine in the game library or OS video engine in the game operating system. The game application uses an application program interface of the operating system to display video content. Additionally, the system enables game modules within the gaming application that have new features which are not supported by the video engine of the game operating system to be instead supported by corresponding library video engines within the game library.

2011010, May 12, 2011

Nov 12, 2009

12/617681

James Lawrence - Henderson NV, US

BALLY GAMING, INC. - Las Vegas NV

G06T 13/00
G09G 5/00

345582, 345473

A sprite capture and reproduction system for a gaming machine is disclosed. A sprite is a graphic image that can move within a larger graphic image. The system includes a sprite capture component and a sprite reproduction component. The sprite capture component enables capture of a sprite in video memory for use as another sprite. The sprite reproduction component enables reproduction of independent animated images that are combinable in a larger animation. The system does not require a discreet texture for each and every image that is loaded. Additionally, the system dramatically increases likelihood that desired images are resident and available for use in video memory, thereby saving texture memory. Further, the system minimizes shadow RAM usage.

2011011, May 12, 2011

Nov 12, 2009

12/617674

James Lawrence - Henderson NV, US

BALLY GAMING, INC. - Las Vegas NV

H04N 7/12

37524001, 375E07076

Various embodiments disclosed herein are directed to a video codec engine system for a gaming machine. The system includes: an encoder and decoder system for encoding and decoding video and still images, wherein the encoder and decoder system includes a library to encode to blob and decode from blob, wherein blob is a binary large object comprising a large image or sound file, and a partial decoding component, wherein the partial decoding component supports decoding a sub-rectangle of a given frame. The encoder and decoder system breaks up an image into spatial blocks, choosing an encoding type for each block from a list of possible encoding schemas. The schemas are individually designed such that decoding procedures are a series of repetitive operations on byte-aligned symbols in a fixed length data stream. The video codec engine system enables a seek function that advances in stream without decoding all frames in-between a beginning seek frame and an ending seek frame. The video codec engine system enables alpha blending of its output buffer with an output from another buffer. The system supports both still frames and video.

2011011, May 12, 2011

Jun 30, 2010

12/828206

Andrew St. Martin - Las Vegas NV, US
Sreekanth Iyer - Las Vegas NV, US
James Lawrence - Henderson NV, US

BALLY GAMING, INC. - Las Vegas NV

A63F 9/24
A63F 13/00

463 42, 463 35

A gaming platform for a gaming machine includes a game application having non-shared, executable game objects and game specific information. The game application comprises at least one game manager interface, at least one library routine for receiving commands from the game manager and sending commands to gaming machine drivers, and at least one I/O server comprising a plurality of gaming machine hardware drivers. The gaming platform also includes an operating system having an operating system application and data that are used to provide a plurality of general gaming features, wherein the operating system runs the game application and executes general gaming features in response to requests from the game application. The gaming platform further includes a testing manager in communication with the game manager, wherein the testing manager communicates with an external test client to determine operability of one or more components within the gaming machine. In this embodiment, the game manager interface receives an I/O stream to the game application and communicates with at least one of the library routine, the I/O server, and the operating system to facilitate game application functions.

2011011, May 12, 2011

Nov 13, 2009

12/618634

James Lawrence - Henderson NV, US

BALLY GAMING, INC. - Las Vegas NV

G06F 17/00

700 94

Various embodiments disclosed herein are directed to a method for playing an audio file using an audio codec engine system in a gaming environment. The method comprising: reading an audio file into a memory buffer only once; receiving a request from a game application to play the audio file; inputting the memory buffer into the audio codec engine to obtain a decompressed audio sample in response to the request; and decoding only a one second maximum of an audio sample at time, wherein the audio codec does not decode the entire audio file at once; and wherein an audio file's samples are decoded only when the audio file is requested for active playback by the game application.

2011011, May 19, 2011

Nov 16, 2009

12/619625

James Lawrence - Henderson NV, US

BALLY GAMING, INC. - Las Vegas NV

G09G 5/02
G06K 9/36
A63F 13/00

345590, 382166, 463 30

Various embodiments are directed to gaming devices utilizing a color reduction filter. In one embodiment, the color reduction filter reduces the number of unique colors in a digital image presented on a gaming device from N to M where N>M. The color reduction filter maintains the color palette and clarity of the image with fewer colors while enhancing the effectiveness of file compression. As a result, the processing unit of the gaming device has more time to run various applications and has more available memory for computational processes.

2011011, May 19, 2011

Nov 13, 2009

12/618679

James Lawrence - Henderson NV, US
Frederick L. Longacre - Henderson NV, US
Ravi Dharmashetty Patlegar - Bangalore, IN

BALLY GAMING, INC. - Las Vegas NV

H04N 7/26
G09G 5/00

345672, 386E05003

Various embodiments disclosed herein are directed to an audio/video codec engine system and method for a gaming machine. The method displays content using a multimedia codec engine system with BINK support. The method includes: loading a multimedia file into memory from a disk; decoding a frame from memory to the off-screen buffer when requested by the video engine, wherein decoding a frame from the off-screen buffer requires a seek operation to a proper position in the multimedia file; and performing a draw operation on decoded data from the off-screen buffer that was requested by the video engine, wherein the draw operation may request only a target region of the source resolution to be updated by specifying an update region that is smaller than the source resolution.

4918572, Apr 17, 1990

Dec 27, 1988

7/289885

Carl R. Tarver - Phoenix AZ
James G. Lawrence - Buckeye AZ
Charles L. Whittington - Lake Zurich IL

Motorola Computer X, Inc. - Schaumburg IL
Emtek Health Care Systems, Inc. - Tempe AZ

H05K 710

361395

Method and apparatus for packaging electronic equipment comprise a housing and a "midplane" that is removably secured to suitable flanges centrally located within the housing. Individual sub-modules (CPU, disk drive, I/O unit, power supply, etc. ) have suitable electrical connectors which mate with corresponding connectors on the midplane. The sub-modules are inserted into the midplane from different sides of the housing. The exposed, outer surfaces of the sub-modules may either be finished in final form, or suitable bezels may be placed over the sides of the housing so that the sub-modules can be appropriately accessed for necessary replacement or repair.