TITLE OF THE INVENTION
ON DEM7AND INSTALLATION AND PLAYBACK OF UNAUTHORIZED ADVERTISEMENTS
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This Application claims the benefit of Provisional
Application Serial No. 60/162,079.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to coin operated electronic amusement devices such as dart games, jukeboxes, and video games. In particular, the present invention relates to advertisement display on electronic amusement devices.
Electronic amusement devices have evolved considerably since their inception. Old mechanical jukeboxes that play vinyl records, for instance, have been replaced by Compact Disc jukeboxes and entirely digital downloading jukeboxes. An example of such a downloading jukebox is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,398 to Martin et al .
Virtually every electronic amusement device includes a generous amount of processing power. During the periods where the electronic amusement device is not interacting with a user the processing power either goes unused, or is used to generate an "attract mode" that entices users to the electronic amusement device. Recently, it has become more popular to allocate the processing power to the display of revenue generating advertising .
In the past, however, the same processing power that allowed electronic amusement devices to display advertisements also allowed the electronic amusement device to locally upload (e.g., at the establishment where the electronic amusement device is installed) custom advertisements, or even provide editing capability for localized, customized advertisement display. Thus, not only may an electronic amusement device display a sequence of advertisements from an authorized, revenue generating play list, but it may also be used to display unauthorized advertisements generated locally by the route operator. The unauthorized advertisement display raised the opportunity for a route operator to skirt established authorization and royalty schemes, for example.
In some sense, however, locally generated advertisements are desirable because they allow establishment owners to inform patrons of locally available goods, services, and events. Some of these locally generated advertisements may be temporary in nature, not lasting more than a few days or so. Others may be of a generous nature, where a route operator may customize a local advertisement for a location owner where the machine will reside. This locally customized advertisement may contain a daily menu or logo, for example. In addition, route operators often desire a preview of their advertisements before submission of the advertisement to a central distribution or authorization agency (for eventual downloading to the amusement device as part of the standard advertisement play list) . The preview provides the establishment owner with the ability to evaluate the advertisement and make changes to better adapt the advertisement to attracting purchasers for the associated goods and services.
In the past, however, electronic amusement devices had no suitable control mechanism to handle customized local display of advertisements. In particular, electronic amusement devices had no mechanism to allow local preview of custom advertisements, while ensuring that the establishment owner did not receive free, unauthorized, or unlimited display of the custom advertisements .
A need has long existed in the industry for an apparatus and method that overcomes the difficulties noted above and other previously experienced.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One aspect of the present invention is an electronic amusement device that allows limited display of local customized advertisements.
Another aspect of the present invention is a method for controlling the display of custom advertisements on an electronic amusement device. A further aspect of the present invention is an electronic amusement device that allows the electronic amusement device to switch between a standard advertisement play list and a custom advertisement play list. A further aspect of the present invention is an electronic amusement device that monitors for human intervention to switch between a standard advertisement play list and a custom advertisement play list.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic amusement device that controls display of advertisements. The electronic amusement device includes a display, an input device for accepting patron input, and a processor coupled to the display, the input device, and a memory. The memory stores instructions for displaying advertisements from a standard advertisement list on the display, and for detecting human intervention to display advertisements from a custom advertisement list on the display. As an example, the instructions for detecting human intervention may be instructions that determine when a human has caused an activation condition using the input device. The activation condition may be, for example, simultaneous activation of two or more keys on the input device. The memory also preferably includes instructions for returning to display of advertisements from the standard advertisement list after display of each advertisement in the custom advertisement list.
The present invention also resides in a method for displaying advertisements on an electronic amusement device. The method includes the steps of displaying advertisements selected from a standard advertisement list on a display associated with the electronic amusement device and monitoring for human intervention in the form of an activation condition on an input device. When the activation condition is detected, the method displays advertisements from a custom advertisement list. The method, may, for example, monitor for simultaneous keys depressed on the input device. In addition, the method preferably returns to display of advertisements from the standard advertisement list after displaying each advertisement in the custom advertisement list.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of an electronic amusement device adapted to control display of standard and custom advertisements.
Figure 2 shows a flow diagram of a method for controlling display of standard and custom advertisements .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Turning first to Figure 1, that figure shows an electronic amusement device 100. The electronic amusement device 102 includes a processing circuit 102 coupled to ROM 104 and RAM 106 and to high volume data storage that maintains a standard advertisement list 108 and a custom advertisement list 110. The electronic amusement device 100 includes a display 112, a patron input device 114 (e.g., a mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, or touchpad) , an audio reproduction circuit 116 and associated speaker system 118. A payment detector 120 (e.g., a coin or bill detector) and a MODEM 122 are also illustrated.
The processing circuit 102, in operation, displays advertisements on the display 112 selected from the standard advertisement list 108. The standard advertisement list 108 may be built by receiving advertisement data over the MODEM 122, for example. While the processing circuit 102 displays standard advertisements, it also checks for human intervention that indicates that it should display, instead, custom advertisements from the custom advertisement list 110.
As an example, the processing circuit 102 may monitor the input device 114 for an activation condition. As an example, when the input device 114 is a keyboard, the processing circuit 102 may monitor for two or more keys simultaneously depressed as the activation condition. If a mouse is part of the input device 114, for example, then the processing circuit may monitor for one or more mouse buttons and one or more keys simultaneously depressed as the activation condition. Any activation condition that requires human intervention at the electronic amusement device 100 may be monitored for as the activation condition, however. In other embodiments, the activation condition may
make use of a touchscreen or touchpad input as well .
Thus, the activation condition depends on inputs such as
key presses, mouse (or trackball) clicks, or touchscreen
and touchpad touches. The activation condition may be an
unusual sequence of such inputs (e.g., lower membrane
button, then upper membrane button, then touch the upper
left corner of the touchscreen four times in a row) , or
may be an unusual simultaneous activation of such inputs
(e.g., upper and lower membrane buttons held down while
touching the center of the touchscreen) .
When the processing circuit 102 detects the
activation condition, it displays the custom
advertisements in the custom advertisement list 110.
When the custom advertisement list 110 is exhausted, or after a predetermined time after the activation condition
is no longer present, the processing circuit 102 again
displays (and tracks for royalty purposes) advertisements
from the standard advertisement list 108.
Thus, the electronic amusement device 100 provides
the capability for an establishment owner to preview
custom advertisements uploaded to the electronic
amusement device 100. The electronic amusement device
100 requires, however, a human intervention to initiate the display of custom advertisements. Thus, the electronic amusement device 100 does not allow unrestricted display of custom advertisements, but instead exercises control over their display to ensure that, in normal operation, the electronic amusement device 100 presents the standard royalty generating advertisements .
Turning now to Figure 2, that figure shows a flow diagram 200 of the processing that occurs in the electronic amusement device 100. At step 202, the electronic amusement device 100 downloads (e.g., using the MODEM 122) advertisement data (and authorization codes) to build the standard advertisement list 110. The authorization codes may be used to indicate, for example, that the electronic amusement device 100 is in fact allowed to display any particular advertisement. At step 204, the electronic amusement device 100 stores custom advertisement data in the custom advertisement list 110. At step 206, the electronic amusement device displays advertisements from the standard advertisement list 110, while monitoring at step 208 for the activation condition. If the activation condition is detected (step 210) , then the electronic amusement device 100 begins displaying at step 212 custom advertisements from the custom advertisement list 112. If the activation condition is not detected, or the custom advertisement list 112 is exhausted (or a predetermined amount of time expires) , then processing continues at step 206 in which standard advertisements are displayed.
The present invention thereby provides establishment owners with the ability to preview custom advertisements. The custom advertisements may thereby be optimized on site for effectively selling local or non-local goods and services. The detection of human intervention to initiate display of custom advertisements allows the custom advertisements to be displayed in limited fashion, thereby ensuring that the standard advertisement display techniques and royalty schemes are not cheated. While particular elements, embodiments and applications of the present invention have been shown and described, it is understood that the invention is not limited thereto since modifications may be made by those skilled in the art, particularly in light of the foregoing teaching. It is therefore contemplated by the appended claims to cover such modifications and incorporate those features which come within the spirit and scope of the invention.