Abstract:
A disclosed a player tracking unit provides a touch screen display with a touch screen controller integrated into the touch screen sensor assembly. Game service interfaces may be presented on the touch screen display that allow a user to obtain one or more game services. The game service interfaces may include buttons with alpha-numeric symbols, function keys and hand-writing recognition capabilities that are recognized using input data from the touch screen sensor. Thus, with the touch screen sensor, a user may navigate through the game service interface and supply gaming information required to obtain a game service. In one embodiment, a registration game service interface is provided that allows a player to join a player tracking program at the gaming machine. In another embodiment, a metering game service interface with a calculator is provided that allows a casino operator to obtain and operate on metering information at a gaming machine.
Abstract:
A system for authenticating software is disclosed. In one embodiment, the invention is utilized in conjunction with a gaming machine to authenticate the software utilized by the gaming machine or loaded onto the gaming machine. To achieve authentication, one exemplary mode of operation is used to authenticate the contents of a removable media, the removable media being used to perform any desired operation on the gaming machine. Use of a removable media provides means to store large amounts of software on a single media to thereby access and perform numerous tasks including software install, software update, diagnosis, authentication, or configure. Prior to use of the removable media in the gaming machine, an authentication file is created. The authentication file contains a listing of each file on the removable media and an associated hash value calculated with a known hash function. These hash values are calculated and stored in an authentication file when the files on the removable media are known to be trusted. Encryption of the one or more hash values may occur. At a later date when the removable media is used in the gaming machine, a hash value re-calculation is performed on each file to determine the hash value at the time of use. The re-calculated hash values are compared to the decrypted hash values stored in the authentication file on the removable media on a file-by-file basis. If the values match, the removable media authenticates. If the values do not match, the removable media does not authenticate.