Method and Apparatus For Checking A Ticket Status From A Random Draw Game
AssigneeAlchemy3, LLC
InventorsPaul Francis Guziel, David Jason Schorr
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Mobile device software application that uses the camera in a web-enabled PDA, cellular phone or smart phone to capture a barcode image off a random draw game ticket, convert the barcode image to its unique serial number, pass the converted barcode through a database query using cellular data service to a remote computerized database to generate a result set of win/loss data as to the game ticket, and returning the result set to the PDA device for display.
Claims19
A method for checking a results status of a ticket held by a player from a random draw game having a plurality of tickets each ticket bearing a unique identifier with at least one of the plurality of tickets selected at random as a winning ticket by which the player in possession of the selected winning ticket wins a prize, comprising the steps of:
- (a) imaging an identifier of a ticket from a random draw game having a plurality of tickets each ticket bearing a unique identifier, with an imager of a mobile computer device to create a digital representation of the identifier;
- (b) communicating the digital representation with a communications connector of the mobile computer device to a remote computer that maintains a database of a winning ticket and its identifier selected from the plurality of tickets in the random selection game, for interrogating the database as to the status of the ticket;
- (c) receiving from the remote computer a response indicating the status of the ticket based on the interrogation;
- and
- (d) displaying the response on a display screen of the mobile computer device.
A system for checking a results status of a ticket held by a player from a random draw game having a plurality of tickets each ticket bearing a unique identifier with at least one of the plurality of tickets selected at random at a drawing event as a winning ticket by which the player in possession of the ticket matching with the selected winning ticket wins a prize, comprising:
- a remote computer server that maintains a database of a winning ticket number associated with a random draw game having a plurality of tickets each bearing a unique identifier of which at least one of the plurality of tickets is selected randomly as a winning ticket for a prize;
- at least one mobile computer device configured for imaging, for communicating with at least the remote computer server, and for displaying a response from the remote computer server on a display screen;
- and
- a computer application having a sequence of instructions for being executed by the mobile computer device to image the identifier of a ticket in the possession of a player of a random draw game, convert the imaged identifier to a representative number, communicate the representative number to the remote computer server for interrogating the database as to the status of the ticket;
- and displaying on the display screen a response from the remote computer server indicating the status of the ticket.
A mobile computer device configured with a set of computer instructions, which when executed, captures an image of an identifier printed on a ticket of a random draw game having a plurality of tickets each bearing a unique identifier using a built-in camera on the mobile computer device, converts the image into a digital representation, and using a data connection of the mobile computer device submits the digital representation to a winning ticket database maintained by a remote computer to record tickets and winning tickets of random draw games which winning tickets are selected randomly at a drawing event of the random draw game, for the remote computer to interrogate the wining ticket database as to the status of the ticket associated with the digital representation and for returning a status response to the mobile computer device, and displays the status response on a display of the mobile computer device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.