A Michigan inventor and his startup company, Scrappy Elegant Gaming, is offering slot manufacturers a new patented technology that would enable players to transfer personal images from their smartphones into video slot games as icons on reels and in bonus games.
Darryl Rosenblatt was issued a U.S. patent in November for the technology, called “Real Reels.” Billed as a “personalized electronic gaming experience,” the technology allows replacement of screen images with personal images on any popular game equipped to incorporate the digital images. The images would not change the results, return or functioning o the game itself.
In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Rosenblatt said Real Reels can be a valid replacement for expensive licensing and theming developed for slot machines, as well as a new attraction for millennials whose world is dominated by the smartphone.
“I’ll give you an example,” he said. “Aristocrat will put out a game like Buffalo. They came out with it in 2009 and it was immediately recognized as perhaps one of the most successful slot titles they’d ever come up with. The wonderful thing that we have with this technology is branding no longer becomes an issue, because what’s important to people is what’s typically found on their phones.”
Another feature of the technology can link game features to a player’s Facebook or Instagram accounts. When a bonus is entered, a text message is sent to friends on a contact list noting the name of the player, the game and the casinos. Friends can download an app that will enable them to play social games to help the player succeed in the bonus round. “It’s kind of like ‘phone a friend’ in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ on TV,” Rosenblatt told the Review-Journal. “They’re not actually playing the game, but they’ll be able to help the p layer in the casino make decisions.”
Rosenblatt has hired Las Vegas patent attorney Rich Newman, who helped him secure the patent, to help him through the regulatory process. Newman told the Review-Journal that Rosenblatt should not be required to be licensed as a gambling supplier, since nothing in the technology would affect the functioning of an actual slot machine or determine results on the reels.
