Amusement devices: games – Including means for processing electronic data – In a chance application
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-01
2002-09-03
Harrison, Jessica (Department: 3714)
Amusement devices: games
Including means for processing electronic data
In a chance application
C463S040000, C463S025000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06443840
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to transmission by electronic media including radio and television broadcasting programs, as well as recordings of such programs, to listeners and viewers of the programs and, more particularly, to the provision of signals designating questions or tasks including a wagering situation, to the provision of response criteria for evaluating responses of the listeners and viewers of the broadcast or prerecorded programs, and to the dispensing of awards to individual listeners and viewers having provided answers meeting the response criteria and/or placed a wager.
The invention also particularly relates to the transmission of signals conveying scenarios of events about to take place or taking place and to outcome criteria for evaluating predictions of listeners and viewers of the broadcasts of such events and to the dispensing of awards to individual listeners and viewers having provided predictions meeting the outcome criteria. An example of a situation involving a prediction is a wagering situation in which a player designates a wager applied to a possible outcome of a given scenario.
A common form of program transmitted by the broadcast media is the quiz program. Typically, in such a program, a panel of people provide answers to questions arising from the subject matter of the quiz. Often, the answers are indicated by use of a keyboard with electronic circuitry. The answers may be provided in response to questions which are asked directly, or in response to a situation such as a chess game, or task presented by the program such as in the solving of a puzzle. Other situations such as in sports, call for predictions of outcomes of events.
A characteristic of such quiz programs is the fact that the responses to the questions are limited to participants in the studio audience. The much larger external audience, namely the listeners of radio and viewers of television, are generally excluded from participation except for those few people who, on occasion, may have the opportunity to call in a response via telephone to a situation arising in the program. Letter writing has also been employed as a means of response to questions and other matters raised by the program.
Thus, it is apparent that a problem exists in that a large percentage of the external audience is essentially excluded from active participation in the broadcast programs. In view of the fact that the studio audiences can provide their responses electronically, it is clear that personal involvement, such as conversation among participants, is not necessarily required. It is, therefore, apparent that such programs should be open to participation by the larger external audience in addition to the studio audience; yet, no system providing for such participation has been available.
It is noted that this problem is not limited to quiz programs only, but that other forms of programs in the areas of education and research might also be conducted in a fashion allowing active public participation if a suitable system were available to make such public participation possible. A desirable feature of such a system would be the capability for evaluating and recording the responses, a feature that would be very useful in the case of educational programs because such a feature would permit a teacher to grade or otherwise evaluate papers and examinations dispensed to students by the broadcast media. Such a system would also be useful in commercial ventures wherein a prize is to be given to a participant providing an acceptable answer. In such a case, the participant would bring the recorded answer, which might be in the form of a coded credit card, to a store or other establishment for receipt of the prize. This would be a great convenience in the implementation of a sales and advertising program. Responses by the listening or viewing audience can also be used in conducting a survey of public opinion. However, in spite of the advantages which would be provided by such a system, for including the listening and viewing audience, no practical system has yet been available.
It would be advantageous also if the equipment of the system could be employed in the conduct of wagering, whether a simple lottery or a more complex situation involving wagering based on responses to a quiz game, educational game or a situation relating to the advertising of a product. It would be advantageous furthermore if such wagering could be conducted electronically so as to inhibit forgery and to reduce the number of inconvenient trips which a better must make to a lottery agent. Such a system and method of wagering is not available at the present time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The foregoing problem is overcome, and other advantages are provided by a system for the evaluation of responses to a broadcast or a prerecorded program wherein a response may include the entry of a wager on a possible outcome of a situation presented in the program. In accordance with the invention, the system provides for the transmission of signals designating conditions of the wagering and, in the case of scenarios, games or other events upon which a person may wish to bet, the system provides questions and response criteria along with a transmission of the broadcast program. In the event of questions or similar tasks, signals may be recorded prior to transmission, and may be transmitted at a fixed predetermined time, or upon request of a person who will respond to the program and/or questions. The invention includes both method and system aspects which create added interest and excitement among listeners and viewers, and thus tend to increase the audience of stations carrying programs of the type to be described hereinafter.
In accordance with the theory of the invention, two groups of signals are broadcast, wherein each of the two signal groups may be divided in two portions designated as first and second signals. In the first signal group, the first of the two signals includes the program signal itself which may be broadcast from a radio station or television station to the listening or viewing audience. The second signal of the first group is a signal transmission setting forth a task, such as the answering of one or more questions which may be viewed on a television screen and/or listened to over radio or the audio portion of the television transmission. For simplicity in describing the invention, an audience viewing a televised program is presumed. It is understood that the description of the invention in terms of the viewing audience applies also to the listening audience of a radio broadcast.
The second of the two signal groups is in the nature of an instructional signal group identifying the amount of time available for an answer, the proper content and form of an acceptable answer, and a mode of scoring the answers. In one embodiment of the invention, the first signal of the second signal group sets forth the desired acceptable answer or answers, and the second signal provides the mode of scoring responses, such as the parameters, formulas and other response criteria to be employed in the scoring of the answers. Therefore, in this one embodiment of the invention, the two signal groups include at least four sets of signals which are transmitted, each of which can be varied independently of the other, and which may be transmitted concurrently or at different times.
Included at the site of each viewer in the external or remote audience is a television set, plus electronic response equipment having circuitry for reception of the instructional signal group transmitted from a central station, the response equipment also including a keyboard for designating answers or responses to the questions, timing circuitry, circuitry for comparing a response to one or more designated answers to determine acceptability of a response, scoring circuitry, and a recording device for recording answers to the question. The recording device includes preferably a dispenser for dispensing a record such as a printout, or a magnetizable card containing a person's responses to the
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