Patent Publication Number: US-2010120536-A1

Title: Entertaining visual tricks for electronic betting games

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     Part of game play in betting environments such as card rooms and casinos includes handling the game components, such as playing cards, betting chips, and dice, and demonstrating skill and manual dexterity by performing card maneuvers, chip tricks, artful dice throws, etc. Textual description and video demonstration of known tricks can be found online using a search engine. Card maneuvers and “chip tricks” can also be observed first-hand at casinos. 
     Description of a few chip tricks is now presented to underscore the mechanical dexterity and sometimes the acrobatic skill that is needed to execute a trick for a game component. However, tricks are not limited to those for betting chips. 
     In Mexican Jumping Chip, a chip “jumps” from one stack of chips to another. In Twirl Flick, the chip is tossed or “flicked” over the hand, across the body, and caught with the opposite hand. In Bounce Back, a chip is thrown up into the air with backspin. Once the chip bounces on a soft surface it then bounces back and is caught next to the other chips. In Drifter, a chip is slammed onto a surface so that it runs forward and the backspin created brings the chip back. In Lift Twirl, a chip is lifted onto the top of the index finger and then twirled. When the twirl is completed, the chip is lowered from the top of the index finger back down next to the other chips. 
     There are many other chip tricks, and also many tricks for other game components. What is needed is a way to enjoy these tricks on a digital electronic betting game platform. 
     SUMMARY 
     Entertaining visual tricks for electronic betting games are described. In one implementation, a system receives gesture input, such as finger motions, from a user interface of a player at an electronic game table. The system maps the gesture input to known tricks and maneuvers to animate the virtual game components used in the electronic betting game, such as virtual playing cards, betting chips, dice, dice cups, tiles, and so forth. In one mode, the system divides the gesture input into segments and maps each segment to movement information for the virtual game component, enabling the player to record a custom visual trick. A motion synthesizer can apply kinematics to impart realistic or imaginary motion to the virtual game components, which can then be displayed across one or more video displays. 
     This summary section is not intended to give a full description of the visual tricks for electronic betting games, or to provide a list of features and elements. A detailed description of example embodiments of the electronic gaming system follows. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a top view of a multiplayer electronic game table that includes an exemplary visual trick engine. 
         FIG. 2  is a top view of another multiplayer electronic game table that includes the exemplary visual trick engine. 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram of an exemplary game processing system, including an exemplary visual trick engine. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an exemplary networked game processing system, including the exemplary visual trick engine. 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram of another exemplary networked game processing system, including the exemplary visual trick engine, in which each network node may be a multi-player electronic game. 
         FIG. 6  is a block diagram of the exemplary visual trick engine of  FIGS. 1-5 , in greater detail. 
         FIG. 7  is a block diagram of an alternative component of the exemplary visual trick engine. 
         FIG. 8  is a diagram of an example database of gesture inputs. 
         FIG. 9  is a diagram of an example mapping of gesture inputs to pre-packaged visual tricks. 
         FIG. 10  is a diagram of an example sequence of video frames for displaying a visual trick. 
         FIG. 11  is a diagram of an example single touch user input on a touch screen user interface. 
         FIG. 12  is a diagram of an example stroke movement user input on a touch screen user interface. 
         FIG. 13  is a diagram of exemplary kinematics applied to motion of virtual game components in a visual trick. 
         FIG. 14  is a diagram of kinematic effects applied to a visual trick that is executed across multiple video displays. 
         FIG. 15  is a flow diagram of an exemplary method of performing a visual trick for an electronic betting game 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Overview 
     This disclosure describes entertaining visual tricks for electronic betting games. As used herein, a visual trick is a movement of an image or video object virtually representing a physical artifact that would be used in non-electronic versions of a particular electronic betting game. For example, the physical artifact may be betting chips and the corresponding video object is then a digital image of the betting chips, or “virtual betting chips.” Generically, these video images of the physical artifacts used in a game are referred to herein as “virtual game components.” The movement of the image or video object—i.e., the virtual game component—can have a practical purpose, an entertaining purpose, or both. 
     During conventional game play, it is not uncommon for poker players and many other types of gamers and gamblers to manipulate gaming components—the physical artifacts used in non-electronic versions of the game—in an artful and skillful manner. Experienced players may perform skillful and entertaining maneuvers of the playing cards (“card tricks”), the betting chips (“chip tricks”), the dice (“dice tricks”), the tiles (“tile tricks”), and so forth to pass the time, relieve tension, impress onlookers, distract the opponents, demonstrate bravado, crush opponents&#39; confidence, and to generate luck. For some, skillfully manipulating cards or chips with the fingers of one hand or two during a round of play is similar to doodling in order to pass the time, while others have developed the tricks to the point of a fine art, which provides a provocative sideshow to complement the main action of the betting game. Sometimes clever maneuvers reveal the player&#39;s hidden cards to the player—for a brief peek. In some localities it is even acceptable or at least tolerable for players to modify a game piece, such as tearing a playing card in half upon significantly losing or missing an opportunity in the game. 
     Exemplary systems and methods described herein digitally simulate live casino game play, and simulate player or host interactions with the physical artifacts that constitute betting game components. That is, an exemplary system simulates interactions with virtual betting chips, virtual dice, virtual balls, virtual dice cups, virtual playing cards, virtual game tiles, and so forth. An exemplary system can simulate simple movements and elegant tricks for player-die interactions, such as rolling the dice; shaking, throwing, and setting of a single die or multiple dice; player-chip interactions, such as placing or removing bets, throwing/tossing chips, and performing chip tricks; player-card interactions such as card peeking, tearing, bending, folding, and mucking of the cards; player-tile interactions such as placing or removing tiles, re-orienting tiles, spinning or flipping the tiles, etc. 
     The exemplary system can simulate the physical interactions that a player would perform and experience at a live casino gaming table, i.e., rendered in a digital electronic environment. Thus, via animation, the exemplary system simulates the feel of live game play on a digital platform. 
     An exemplary visual trick engine synthesizes both movements and tricks of the virtual game components, such as cards, chips, dice, tiles, etc. Such a visual trick engine creates 3-dimensional (3D) graphics on a 2-dimensional (2D) display or on a 3D display, if available. Audio effects, such as live game sounds including voices, in mono, stereo, and surround-sound, may accompany the visual tricks and image movements. 
     In one implementation or mode, the visual trick engine translates a user&#39;s gestures that are input via a user interface such as a touch screen display into simple movements and known tricks that are applied to the virtual game component. 
     In another or the same implementation, the visual trick engine enables the player to leverage some skill on the available user interfaces to invent and record new tricks for a given virtual game component. 
     In yet another or the same implementation, the visual trick engine applies the laws of kinematics—the branch of physics or mechanics that deals with objects in motion—to digitally simulate the touch, speed, direction, momentum, rotation, drag, friction, and collisions experienced by the real physical counterparts of the virtual game components. Such kinematic effects and trajectories, which may also be exaggerated or imaginary, can then be executed by the visual trick engine across one or more video displays of an electronic game platform. This can give the entertaining appearance, e.g., of sliding virtual playing cards all the way across a table, even though a single video display does not cover the entire tabletop. 
     The visual movement of a given virtual game component can be initiated by player, host, or combined player-host interaction with sensors or with images of the game components on a video display, e.g., via touch screen, mechanical button, or other input device (e.g., touching, dragging, mouse gesture, etc.). Or, the visual movement can be triggered by a computer-initiated sequence based on a random event, a fixed or random timer, game state, or game sequence. 
     The animations mapped from a player&#39;s input can be displayed through various mechanisms, such as linking to or synthesizing a video frame sequence that virtually emulates at least one virtual kinematic maneuver of the represented virtual game component to provide an entertaining visual effect. In the same or another implementation, the animations mapped from a player&#39;s input can be displayed by applying one or more mathematical operations to a model of a 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional physical artifact. Another animation mechanism includes applying one or more mathematical operations to one or more images of a 3-dimensional physical artifact, e.g., from a single camera directed toward the 3-dimensional artifact, or via stereo images obtained in real-time from one or more pairs of cameras directed toward the 3-dimensional artifact. Thus, animation can be via a stock video clip of an entire trick; and/or stock video clips of movements that can be combined on the fly to create tricks; and/or real-time mathematical modeling of 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional objects, including application of 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional kinematics to the animated motion of the portrayed objects. The kinematic formulas applied can be leveraged to create realistic motion or imaginary motion that is physically impossible but entertaining nonetheless. 
     The exemplary visual tricks engine to be described below may be included in electronic games, such as electronic game tables at which card games and casino games are played. For example, the games may include electronic poker, Blackjack, Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, craps, roulette, and many other games, as played around an electronic game table in a card room or casino. 
     Exemplary Systems 
     The exemplary visual trick systems and methods to be described below can be used with wagering games, such as those games that are playable on multi-participant electronic game tables. For example, the exemplary visual trick systems and methods described herein can be used on table game platforms such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,766 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,934,998 to Forte et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,069, U.S. Pat. No. 7,048,629, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,255,642 to Sines et al., each of these incorporated herein by reference. 
       FIG. 1  shows an example layout of an electronic game table  100 . The illustrated example game table  100  has an arbitrary size that in shown version seats eight participants maximum. Other implementations can seat a different number of participants. The game table  100  has a user interface for each participant, i.e., participant user interfaces  102 ,  104 ,  106 ,  108 ,  110 ,  112 ,  114 , and  116 . A participant&#39;s user interface  102  may consist of an electronic display for presenting visual images and may further consist of a touch screen display for interactive capability. Depending upon implementation, each participant user interface  102  may also include various other forms of interactive interface, such as pointing devices, light sensors, wagering chip sensors, audio speakers, etc. 
     The illustrated example game table  100  also includes a common display  118  in the center of the game table  100 , for presenting visual information to all participants. The common display(s)  118  may present general information redundantly in two, four, or more visual orientations so that the displayed information is oriented correctly for each participant. 
     The example electronic game table  100  of  FIG. 1  has an example layout that is useful for unhosted card games, although using a live dealer at game table  100  is not ruled out. The example game table  100  as shown typically uses virtual playing cards and virtual chips. However, the game table  100  can be configured to use any combination of real playing cards, virtual playing cards, real wagering chips, and/or virtual gaming chips. When real playing cards are used, a live shoe that reads the identity of each card sends the card identity information to the electronic processor (not shown) that runs the game. When real wagering chips are used, light sensors, optical sensors, scanning technology, weigh cells, RFID technology, etc., may be used with specially constructed chips or conventional standard chips to sense chip presence and chip values. 
     In  FIG. 1 , an exemplary visual trick engine  120  is located in or under the electronic game table  100  in the electronics of the game table  100 . The visual trick engine  120  enables visual effects to be applied to virtual game components. The visual trick engine  120  is not limited to being in or under a table, such as the electronic game table  100 . The visual trick engine  120  can be located in an arbitrary location, remote from the electronic game table. For example, the visual trick engine  120  can be remotely located via a network, for example, in a different location in the same building, or in a different building, or even in a different geographical region or country. A distributed version of the visual trick engine  120  may have its components spread across multiple different locations. 
     Likewise, in one implementation the visual trick engine  120  is not a discrete component or separate engine as shown in  FIG. 1 , but is integrated as part of a player&#39;s user interface (e.g., user interface  102 ) and is not necessarily physically separate hardware, software, or processes. That is, the hardware components and software processes that constitute the visual trick engine  120  may be part of the fabric of the hardware and software of the electronic game table  100  itself. However, the exemplary visual trick engine  120  in  FIG. 1  is shown as an identifiable component ( 120 ) for the sake of description. 
       FIG. 2  shows another example layout of an electronic game table  200 . In the illustrated example game table  200 , multiple user interfaces  202 ,  204 ,  206 ,  208 ,  210 , and  212  form a semi-circular array for seating participants. The participant user interfaces may consist of electronic visual displays with touch screen capability or other forms of user interface. The example game table  200  is shaped to accommodate a live dealer on the opposing side of the semi-circular array, but using a live dealer or host is not required. When the example game table  200  is not hosted, a common display  214  can be included on the side opposing the participants&#39; semi-circle. 
     In  FIG. 2 , the exemplary visual trick engine  120  is located in or under the electronic game table  200  in the electronics of the game table  200 . The visual trick engine  120  enables visual effects to be applied to virtual game components. 
       FIG. 3  shows an example game processing system  300  that can be included in game tables, such as electronic game tables  100  and  200 . The game processing system  300  includes the exemplary visual trick engine  120 . The illustrated configuration of the exemplary game processing system  300  is meant to provide only one example arrangement for the sake of overview. Many other arrangements of the illustrated components, or similar components, are possible within the scope of the subject matter. Such an exemplary game processing system  300  can be executed in hardware, or combinations of hardware, software, firmware, etc. 
     The exemplary game processing system  300  includes a computing device  302 , which may be a desktop, server, or notebook style computer, or other device that has processor, memory, and data storage. The computing device  302  thus includes a processor  304 , memory  306 , data storage  308 ; and interface(s)  310  to communicatively couple with the participant “ 1 ” user interface  102 , the participant “ 2 ” user interface  104 , . . . , and the participant “N” user interface  312 . The game processing system  300  includes a gaming engine  314 , game rules  316 , and the exemplary visual trick engine  120 , shown as software loaded into memory  306 . 
     The interfaces  310  can be one or more hardware components that drive the visual displays and communicate with the interactive components, e.g., touch screen displays, of the multiple participant user interfaces  102 ,  104 , . . . ,  312 . 
       FIG. 4  shows another example game processing system  400  that can be included in the game tables, such as electronic game tables  100  and  200 , or that can be implemented as a network of individual playing stations. The game processing system  400  includes the exemplary visual trick engine  120 . The illustrated configuration of the exemplary game processing system  400  is meant to provide only one example arrangement for the sake of overview. Many other arrangements of the illustrated components, or similar components, are possible within the scope of the subject matter, e.g., that shown in  FIG. 3 . In  FIG. 4 , such an exemplary game processing system  400  can be executed in hardware, or combinations of hardware, software, firmware, etc. 
     The exemplary game processing system  400  includes a server computing device  402 , which can be a computer or other device that has processor, memory, and data storage. The server computing device  402  thus includes a processor  404 , memory  406 , data storage  408 , and an interface, such as a network interface card (NIC)  410 , to communicatively couple over a network  412  with remote computing devices, such as computing device “ 1 ”  414  that hosts the participant “ 1 ” user interface  416 ; computing device “ 2 ”  418  that hosts the participant “ 2 ” user interface  420 ; . . . ; and computing device “N”  422  that hosts the participant “N” user interface  424 . The game processing system  400  includes a gaming engine  314 , game rules  316 , and the exemplary visual trick engine  120 , shown as software loaded into memory  406 . 
     The participant computing devices  414 ,  418 , and  422  may be desktop or notebook computers, or may be workstations or other client computing devices that have processor and memory, but may or may not have onboard data storage. Typically, a player station does not have data storage. Such modules may be “dumb” in that they have no bootable device, communicate with the game visual trick engine  120 , but generally receive images and instructions from the server  402 . Thus, in one implementation, a player computing device  414  is a visual display with graphics processing power and user interface components. 
       FIG. 5  shows another example game processing system  500 , consisting of a network of gaming machines that each may have “n” players. The game processing system  500  is similar to that shown in  FIG. 4 , except that the client nodes of the network  412  are multiplayer gaming machines (e.g.,  100  and  200 ) instead of individual gaming stations. That is, each node of the network  412  can accommodate multiple players. In another implementation, the network  412  has a mixture of client nodes consisting of individual playing stations as in  FIG. 4  and multiplayer gaming stations as in  FIG. 5 . 
     Exemplary Engines 
       FIG. 6  shows the exemplary visual trick engine  120  of  FIGS. 1-5  in greater detail. The illustrated configuration of the exemplary visual trick engine  120  is meant to provide only one example arrangement for the sake of overview. Many other arrangements of the illustrated components, or similar components, are possible within the scope of the subject matter. Such an exemplary visual trick engine  120  can be executed in hardware, or combinations of hardware, software, firmware, etc. 
     Components in the illustrated example implementation of the visual trick engine  120  include a user interfaces manager  602 , a virtual game component manager  604 , a mode selector  606 , a user interface input interpreter  608 , a database of gestures  610 , a buffer for storing a recognized gesture  612 , a mapper  614 , a database of image tricks  616 , a buffer for a mapped trick  618 , an animation engine  620 , and a display driver interface  622 . The illustrated trick engine  120  further includes a user interface input analyzer  624 , a gesture segmenting engine  626 , a segment mapper  628 , a database of image movement segments  630 , a motion synthesizer  632 , kinematic formulas  634 , a learning engine  636 , and a custom trick recorder  638 . As mentioned, the above list of components can vary and the interrelation of these components can vary depending on implementation. 
       FIG. 7  shows a variation of the components in the visual trick engine  120 . Instead of separately including the database of gestures  610  and the database of image tricks  616  as shown in  FIG. 6 , a relational database of gestures and corresponding image tricks  702  in  FIG. 7  replaces the two databases  610  and  616  in  FIG. 6 . Thus, when the user interface input interpreter  608  determines a recognized gesture  612 , (i.e., recognizes a finger gesture of a player calling for a particular trick), the image trick associated with the recognized gesture  612  is found in the relational database  702  using the recognized gesture  612  as a key. In  FIG. 6 , on the other hand, gestures and tricks are not necessarily paired or related to each other in a 1:1 manner. 
     Operation of the Exemplary Engine 
     The visual trick engine  120  can serve multiple functions, or, from another point of view, can operate in multiple modes. Thus, a mode selector  606  can direct certain lines of operation, but in one implementation the mode selector  606  changes modes on the fly, while in another implementation there is no mode selector  606 , as the various modes of operation are built into the fabric of the visual trick engine  120 . 
     In a first mode of operation, the visual trick engine  120  maps recognized finger gestures  612  to pre-packaged tricks, which may be stored as video clips representing a virtual game component undergoing the trick. 
     In a second mode of operation, there may or may not be pre-packaged tricks. Instead, the UI input analyzer  624  divides the user input into gesture segments and maps each segment to a plausible movement instruction or movement instruction segment. Thus, the player&#39;s gesture drives the motion of the virtual game component from scratch, and the custom trick recorder  638  can record an accumulation of the movement segments and store the segments as a novel trick in the database of tricks  616 . 
     In a third mode of operation, a motion synthesizer  632  applies kinematic formulas  634  (laws of physics) to a mathematic model of the virtual game component undergoing a movement or trick. An initial velocity and/or momentum is typically assigned to the virtual game component based on the player&#39;s user interface input, and subsequent display of the virtual game component follows kinematic trajectories and behavior plotted by the kinematic formulas as they relate to mechanics, such as simulated interaction between a person&#39;s touch and a hypothetical surface of the modeled physical artifact; a velocity of the physical artifact, a momentum of the physical artifact, a friction acting on the physical artifact, a drag acting on the physical artifact, a gravitational force acting on the physical artifact, a rotational inertia possessed by the physical artifact, and one or more collision forces acting on the physical artifact. 
     In one implementation, an electronic game table (e.g.,  100 ) utilizing the visual trick engine  120  can recognize an extensive repertoire of gestures  610  (e.g., finger or hand gestures) made by the human player (or dealer) and the mapper  614  can relate each recognized gesture  612  to a library of preprogrammed image tricks  616  or manipulations. For example, the image manipulations may be virtual renditions of visually entertaining playing card maneuvers (e.g., a one hand shuffle); chip tricks, or sophisticated dice rolls and dice tricks. 
       FIG. 8  shows an example or sample database of gestures  610 . In  FIG. 8 , a “dot” designates the origin of a finger gesture on a touch screen display and the arrowhead represents the direction of performing the gesture. When there are two arrows shown in a particular gesture, the two parts of the gesture represented by the two arrows can be performed by two different fingers, or in some implementations by the same finger acting twice on a certain part of the display screen and within a certain time interval. The database of gestures  610  shown in  FIG. 8  is large enough to enable the visual trick engine  120  to perform  72  tricks or variations of tricks per virtual game component. The database of gestures  610  can be scaled to fit the betting game being played or the sophistication of the electronic game table  100 . 
       FIG. 9  shows a sample mapping of some of the gestures from the database of gestures  610  to movement instructions for tricks—in this case, chip tricks. For example, “9” shows the gesture  902  for the player&#39;s finger(s) to designate a “chip vortex” chip trick  904 . The chip vortex is an innovative chip trick introduced herein. Tricks executed by the visual trick engine  120  typically simulate live casino game play, but in one implementation a trick performed by the visual trick engine  120  is not required to follow the laws of physics or to be humanly performable. A virtual chip trick need only be displayable on a video display. 
     The chip vortex  904  has a gesture component  902  as shown. The trick component of the chip vortex  904  is virtually displayed as one or more stacks of virtual chips that appear to “explode” as if by an invisible bomb beneath them. None of the chips are visually destroyed, but burst out from the center in all directions of 3D space, as displayed on a 2D video display. Then, as the chips are exploding out, the chips come to a slow, smooth halt, as if an invisible vortex is pulling them back to their place of origin. When they reach the maximum explosive volume, the chips continue to rotate a little longer in 3D space, then are quickly sucked by the invisible vortex back to their starting place. 
     Other chip tricks and their variations are well-known by name. Some of these known chip tricks are described above as introductory or background material. 
     Alternatively,  FIG. 9  also shows a sample part of the relational database  702  of  FIG. 7 , which associates or pre-maps particular recognized gestures  612  with corresponding tricks  616 . In  FIG. 6 , by contrast, the mapper  614  uses the recognized gesture  612  to search for a trick, e.g., by applying a best-effort attempt to determine some similarity between the gesture and one of the stored tricks in the database of tricks  616 . However, in  FIG. 6  the number of gestures in the database of gestures  610  may be different from the number of tricks in the database of tricks  616 , so that there is not necessarily a 1:1 correspondence between a recognized gesture  612  and the trick that will be performed in association with the gesture. In  FIG. 7 , instead of a search, the recognized gesture  612  is used as a key to directly address the indexed relational database  702 . That is, the recognized gesture  612  is used as a pointer to one of the records in the relational database  702  so that if the UI input interpreter  608  finds a recognized gesture  612  then the corresponding trick exists and will be reproducibly selected and performed each time the same recognized gesture  612  is found. 
     A pre-programmed trick, e.g., a standard chip trick, may be stored in the database of tricks  616  or in the relational database  702  as one or more movement instructions for the particular virtual game component, such as virtual playing card or virtual chip. The movement instructions may be commands and screen coordinates for sequentially posting a video object in order to simulate motion, or the movement instructions may be one or more motion vectors for creating a sequence of video frames to animate the motion of the virtual game component. Or, the movement instructions may be a stored video sequence or video clip that can be played to create the visual animation that constitutes the trick. 
       FIG. 10  shows a sequence of ten video frames, a short video clip, that represents the movement instructions for the “bounce” chip trick. The video clip or a pointer to the video clip can be stored in the database of image tricks  616  or in the relational database  702 . Corresponding audio effects can be stored with each movement instruction or each trick in the database of image tricks  616  or in the relational database  702 . 
     Returning to  FIG. 6 , the user interfaces manager  602  may multiplex input from multiple input devices of multiple players, such as the multiple video displays  102  . . .  116  of the particular electronic game table  100  in use. The user interfaces manager  602  may also track or filter which sections of a particular touch screen display can be used by the player to perform tricks and which sections are inactive or forbidden. 
     The virtual game component manager  604  may filter which user inputs correspond to particular virtual game components. That is, when a particular implementation enables visual tricks for more than one type of virtual game component. For example, a particular betting game may allow the players to perform visual tricks for both the betting chips and the playing cards. 
     The mode selector  606 , as describe above, can direct certain lines of operation. In one implementation the mode selector  606  changes modes on the fly, while in another implementation there is no mode selector  606 , as the various modes of operation can be built into the fabric of the visual trick engine  120 . The mode selector  606  can change from mapping player gestures to pre-packaged tricks, to mapping the gestures directly to movements that have some correspondence with the parts of the gestures. 
     In one implementation or mode, upon receiving user input, the user interface input interpreter  608  may consult a database of gestures  610  to attempt determination of a recognized gesture  612 . The mapper  614  aims to find a corresponding trick  618  for the recognized gesture from the database of image tricks  616 . The trick to be performed is passed to the animation engine  620 , which sends display control signals to the display driver interface  622 . 
     In another implementation or mode, the UI input analyzer  624  has a gesture segmenting engine  626  that divides the user input into gesture segments. The segment mapper  628  relates each gesture segment to a plausible movement instruction or movement instruction segment from the database of image movement segments  630 . An accumulation of these movement segments can be passed to the animation engine  620  to perform the trick. A learning engine  636  can derive an innovative new trick from the movement segments established, and/or the custom trick recorder  638  can add the novel trick to the database of gestures  610  and the database of image tricks  616 , or to the relational database  702  that relates gestures to tricks. 
     In another implementation or mode, as introduced above, the motion synthesizer  632  applies kinematic formulas  634  (laws of physics) to a mathematic model of the virtual game component undergoing a movement or trick. An initial velocity and/or momentum is typically assigned to the virtual game component based on the player&#39;s user input, and subsequent display of the virtual game component follows kinematic trajectories and behavior plotted by the kinematic formulas as they relate to mechanics, such as simulated interaction between a person&#39;s touch and a hypothetical surface of the modeled physical artifact that is the subject of the virtual game component; a velocity of the physical artifact, a momentum of the physical artifact, a friction acting on the physical artifact, a drag acting on the physical artifact, a gravitational force acting on the physical artifact, a rotational inertia possessed by the physical artifact, and one or more collision forces acting on the physical artifact. 
     A typical system has an electronic game table  100  with multiple video displays  102  . . .  116 , a visual trick engine  120  for receiving an input from a user interface (e.g.,  102 ) of the electronic game table  100 , and a mapper  614  in the visual trick engine  120  to relate the input to a movement instruction for a video object representing a physical artifact used in the betting game played on the electronic game table  100 . An animation engine  620  displays the video object in multiple video frames displayed on one or more of the multiple video displays  102  according to the movement instruction. 
     As shown in  FIG. 11 , the visual trick engine  120  may receive an input, e.g., from a touch screen display  102  of the electronic game table  100 . The mapper  614  may relate an input signal generated from a single touch  1102  of the finger  1104  on the touch screen display  102  to a motion vector for the video object. For example, in one trick, a single touch of the finger  1102  on the touch screen display  102  causes the dice  1106  and  1108  to roll or tumble from a relatively large distance away, to the place where the finger  1104  is merely touching the touch screen display  102 . 
     Or, as shown in  FIG. 12 , the mapper  614  relates an input signal generated from a moving input gesture  1202  on the touch screen display  102  to one or more motion vectors and/or tricks for the video object. Usually the motion vectors are related to the movement quality and quantity of the input gesture. For example, in one trick, a short sweep of the finger  1204  on the touch screen display  102  causes the dice  1206  and  1208  to roll or tumble from a relatively large distance away, to the place where the finger  1204  is sweeping the touch screen display  102 . 
     In one implementation, the mapper  614  matches the input to a video sequence as in  FIG. 10 , that represents the movement instruction for the video object representing the physical artifact. The video sequence may further represent a 3-dimensional movement instruction for the video object. 
     The video object can virtually represent a playing card, a betting chip, a die, a pair of dice  1106  and  1108  as shown in  FIG. 11 , a dice cup, a ball, a game tile, a domino, slot reel, slot machine symbol, marble, spinning wheel, etc. When the video object represents a virtual betting chip, the movement instruction retrieved from the database  616  can be visual actions for performing a trick associated with the betting chip, such as a five chip coin star, an abduction, an Areat shuffle, a back spin, a bounce back, a bounce, a butterfly, a caterpillar, a caterpillar star, a chip roll, a chip vortex, a Danish twirl, a drifter, a drop bounce, a finger-to-finger twirl, a finger flip, a finger roll, a floater, a fountain, a J-factor, a Johnny Chan, a knuckle roll, a lift twirl, a lookout, a Mexican jumping chip, a moon landing, a muscle pass, a pendulum, a Phil Ivey stepup, a pick, a pickover, a reverse thumb flip, a roll down, a run around, a scissor twirl, a shuffle, a sweep, a swirl, a switch, a swivel display, a sub-zero, a thumb flip, a top spin, a twirl, a twirl hop, a twirl lift, or an unwrap-and-recapture. The visual trick engine  120  can simulate at least part of a human hand when displaying one of the tricks. 
     Likewise, the video object can represent one or more virtual playing cards, and the movement instruction retrieved from the database can comprise visual actions of a playing card maneuver for the one or more playing cards, such as shuffling the playing cards, cutting a deck of the playing cards, dealing a playing card, discarding a playing card, passing a playing card, revealing a playing card, changing a size of the playing card, or tearing a playing card. 
     The motion synthesizer  632  in the visual trick engine  120  can apply one or more laws of physics to the movement instruction. The motion synthesizer can derive a kinematic motion for the video object by applying the one or more laws of physics via kinematic formulas  634  to a mathematical model of the physical artifact represented by the video object. 
     The motion synthesizer  632  may derive the kinematic motion for the video object by applying a mathematical formula describing an interaction between a person initiating the motion and a surface of the physical artifact, a velocity, a momentum, a friction, a drag, a gravitational force, a rotational inertia, and a collision force acting on the physical artifact. For example, as shown in  FIG. 13 , gravitation, momentum, friction, and rotation dynamics are all applied to a mathematical model of the virtual dice  1302  and  1304 . The mathematical model may include the mass, size, shape, hardness, etc., of the dice  1302 ,  1304 . Thus, the virtual dice  1302  and  1304  are “cast” by the real hand  1306  of a player touching and performing a finger movement on the touch screen display  102 . One die  1304  of the pair of virtual dice  1302  and  1304  takes a “bad bounce” as modeled by the kinematic formulas  634 , at a location  1308  on the touch screen display  102  because the virtual die  1304  catches an edge or corner on the mathematical surface and the die  1304  veers off sharply. Such kinematically realistic image effects greatly add to the enjoyment of the betting game. 
     As shown in  FIG. 14 , the visual trick engine  120  can display the kinematic motion of the video object across more than one of the multiple video displays  102  . . .  116 . For example,  FIG. 14  shows a part of the tabletop of the electronic game table of  FIG. 1 . Player  3  and Player  8  have corresponding user interfaces  106  and  116 , and sit on opposite sides of a common display  118  that is positioned between the player  3  user interface  106  and the player  8  user interface  116 . When player  3  gestures for two virtual playing cards to be passed in a spinning manner to player  8 , the gesture imparts an initial linear speed to the playing cards and an initial speed of rotation. The virtual playing cards travel a path across the game table  100  appearing first on the player  3  user interface  106 , then on the common display  118 , and then on the player  8  user interface  116 , spinning as they travel. The motion synthesizer  632  applies the kinematic formulas  634  to the cards, so that the friction that would be present if the cards were physically real, decreases the speed of each virtual playing card as it travels the path, adding realism to the visual effect. Likewise, the spinning motion of each card decelerates just as physically real playing cards would decrease spinning if subjected to the same initial motions. 
     Example Method 
       FIG. 15  shows an exemplary computer-executable method  1500  of performing a visual trick for an electronic betting game. In the flow diagram, the operations are summarized in individual blocks. The exemplary method  1500  may be performed by hardware, or combinations of hardware, software, firmware, etc., for example, by components of the exemplary visual trick engine  120 . 
     At block  1502 , an input from a user interface of an electronic game table that includes one or more video displays is received. In one implementation, the method  1500  receives the input from a touch screen display of the electronic game table. The input may be one or more single touch contacts between a finger and the touch screen, and/or may be one or more movements or strokes of one or more fingers or hand parts on a given touch screen user interface. 
     At block  1504 , the input is mapped to a movement instruction for a video object representing a physical artifact used in a betting game played on the electronic game table. For example, an electronic table game system can map segments of hand gestures to segments of image movement, so that a player may perform—or attempt-a custom or new visual trick (e.g., a chip trick) in real-time. That is, the electronic table game system implements the player&#39;s arbitrary finger (hand, etc.) gestures as a custom image trick. The appeal and sophistication of the virtual image trick depends on the player&#39;s learned skill at performing the trick, for example, via the exemplary visual trick engine of the electronic table game system. In one implementation, the exemplary visual trick engine combines mouse-like macro-movement of an image (by the player) with more subtle manipulation of the moving image, based on subtle or skilled hand or finger gestures. 
     The exemplary visual trick engine may record new tricks by extending a “recording” or “recording trick” mode to the player. In such an implementation, the player can actuate a recording switch (e.g., a visual icon) and begin recording an image trick as the player performs finger and hand gestures that are translated by the visual tricks engine into visual tricks of artifacts, such as playing cards, betting chips, or dice. Once perfected, the recorded trick may be stored as a macro composed of smaller image movements and motions, stored in the player&#39;s (or the system&#39;s) collection, library, or database of tricks. 
     The method  1500  may include matching the input to a video sequence representing a 3-dimensional movement instruction for the video object representing the physical artifact. The video object can virtually represent a playing card, a betting chip, a die, a pair of dice, a dice cup, a ball, a game tile, a domino, or a slot machine symbol, etc. 
     The mapping may include searching a database of gestures for a representation of the input and retrieving a corresponding movement instruction for the video object from the database. The video object may represent one or more virtual betting chips; and then the movement instruction retrieved from the database comprises visual actions of a trick for the betting chip, such as a five chip coin star, an abduction, an Areat shuffle, a back spin, a bounce back, a bounce, a butterfly, a caterpillar, a caterpillar star, a chip roll, a Danish twirl, a drifter, a drop bounce, a finger-to-finger twirl, a finger flip, a finger roll, a floater, a fountain, a J-factor, a Johnny Chan, a knuckle roll, a lift twirl, a lookout, a Mexican jumping chip, a moon landing, a muscle pass, a pendulum, a Phil Ivey stepup, a pick, a pickover, a reverse thumb flip, a roll down, a run around, a scissor twirl, a shuffle, a sweep, a swirl, a switch, a swivel display, a sub-zero, a thumb flip, a top spin, a twirl, a twirl hop, a twirl lift, or an unwrap-and-recapture. 
     The method  1500  may include simulating at least part of a human hand for display when displaying one of the tricks. When the video object represents one or more virtual playing cards, the movement instruction retrieved from the database can be visual actions of a playing card maneuver for the one or more playing cards, such as shuffling the playing cards, cutting a deck of the playing cards, dealing a playing card, discarding a playing card, passing a playing card, revealing a playing card, changing a size of the playing card, or tearing a playing card. 
     Further, the mapping may include applying one or more laws of physics to the movement instruction. Applying a law of physics to the movement instruction can further includes deriving a kinematic motion for the video object by applying the one or more laws of physics to a mathematical model of the physical artifact represented by the video object. Mathematical formulas for imparting kinematic motion may include those for describing an interaction or touch between a person and a surface of the physical artifact, a velocity of the physical artifact, a momentum of the physical artifact, a friction acting on the physical artifact, a drag acting on the physical artifact, a gravitational force acting on the physical artifact, a rotational inertia possessed by the physical artifact, and a collision force acting on the physical artifact. 
     In one implementation, the method  1500  includes dividing the input into input gesture segments, mapping each input gesture segment to a movement instruction segment for the video object, and displaying the video object according to an accumulation of the movement instruction segments; as well as recording the input gesture segments and the accumulation of the movement instruction segments and storing the input gesture segments with the associated accumulation of the movement instruction segments in a relational database—thus creating a custom trick addressable in the relational database. 
     At block  1506 , the video object is displayed in multiple video frames displayed on one or more of the multiple video displays according to the movement instruction. The user interface for sensing player gestures, such as hand and finger motions, may be the same user interface that displays an instance of the visual trick being performed, i.e., when the display screen is also a touch screen for sensing user input. Or, the user interface for sensing player gestures may be composed of optical sensors, motion sensors, accelerometers, or even touch sensors worn on the hand like part of a glove. 
     Movement of virtual game components and visual tricks may be executed on one display, or across multiple displays. For example, a card dealer may touch a first touch screen to pass virtual playing cards from the first screen to a second screen of another card player. Likewise, a first player in a virtual dice game may touch an input device, such as a touch screen, to throw the dice from the first player&#39;s screen, across a common display positioned between all players, to a second player&#39;s display on an opposing side of the common screen. 
     CONCLUSION 
     Although exemplary systems have been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specific features and acts are disclosed as exemplary forms of implementing the claimed systems, methods, and structures.