The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 12, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 03, 1999
Bradley K. Miller, Tampa, FL (US);
Thomas V. Saliga, Odessa, FL (US);
516 Holdings, Tampa, FL (US);
Abstract
Electronic equipment is provided for playing a bingo-like game in a fashion closely simulative of the well known game of bingo played with paper cards. The three main functional components are: a) a central computer that is used both to determine which sets of faces are downloaded into players' game boards and to reconcile cash received by a salesperson with the number of downloaded games authorized to be played; b) players' game boards, each of which is adapted to receive enabling messages from a sales unit, to display enabled sets of playable indicia simulative of a bingo card and to modify that display responsive to a player's input; and c) the sales unit, which is adapted both to send an enabling message to a player's game board responsive to a manual input from a salesperson, and to record each such enabling transaction for later upload to the central computer. Another feature of the system is a switching arrangement for controlling a LCD display in a manner simulative of the use of a conventional ink dauber in marking a paper bingo card. This may be done by using a permanent magnet disposed on a simulative dauber that cooperates with a Hall-effect, or other, magnetic field sensor disposed behind an LCD display cell.