Patent Grant
7355660
This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-381480 filed on Nov. 11, 2003, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device and a gaming machine.
2. Related Background of the Invention
Generally, various types of gaming machines are known concerning a mode of a game and a cabinet incorporating a gaming device implementing such a game. For example, slot machines which are known as a kind of gaming machines include a type on which a player plays a game while sitting (a so-called slant-type) as disclosed in Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-67810, and a type on which a player plays a game while standing (a so-called upright-type) as disclosed in Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-198265.
Such a slot machine generally comprises a gaming device including a reel unit composed of a plurality of rotation reels arranged side by side in a line to be rotatable on each of which symbols are drawn; and a cabinet incorporating the gaming device therein. Further, the cabinet is provided with a display section allowing the rotation reels to be viewed, and an operation section arranged on the lower front side (the player's side) of the display section and having various operation buttons required for playing games and a coin slot.
Incidentally, some of the above-described slot machines have a transmissive liquid crystal display device as the display section attachably/detachably attached to the cabinet. In that case, it is conceivable that the display section (the liquid crystal display device) is shared between the above-described slant-type slot machine and the above-described upright-type slot machine which have similar internal structures.
In
The liquid crystal panel holder 160 is composed of a main body 160A disposed on the back side of the reflector plate 138 (the opposite side to the player) and having an IC drive 152 for driving the liquid crystal panel 134 mounted on back side thereof; a holding frame 160B in a rectangular frame shape which is disposed on the front side of the liquid crystal panel unit 150 (the front side of the protective glass 132), and surrounds a front peripheral portion and peripheral side portion of the liquid crystal panel unit 150 to hold it and is assembled to the main body 160A; and an attachment member 160C fixed to the holding frame 160B and for attaching to the machine body of the slot machine the liquid crystal panel holder 160 which holds the liquid crystal panel unit 150.
Note that the plurality of reels (not shown) on each of which the symbols are drawn are disposed on the back side of the main body 160A and the attachment member 160C. Further, a wiring cable 134a which is to be electrically connected to the IC drive 152 extends from the liquid crystal panel 134.
Further, light sources 137a and 137b are disposed along an upper and a lower end face of the light guide plate 136. These light sources 137a and 137b are for emitting light into the light guide plate 136 and thus constitutes a backlight for the liquid crystal panel 134 in cooperation with the light guide plate 136. Furthermore, the reflector plate 138 is provided with three respective symbol viewing regions 138a, 138b, and 138c which transmit the symbols formed on the respective reels so as to allow the player to view the symbols. In this case, the symbol viewing regions 138a, 138b, and 138c are formed as open windows created by cutting them out from the reflector plate 138. Further, the main body 160A of the liquid crystal panel holder 160 and the diffuser plate 135 are also provided with open windows 160a, 160b, and 160c; and 135a, 135b, and 135c corresponding to the symbol viewing regions 138a, 138b, and 138c.
In the case in which the display section is constituted as the liquid crystal display device as described above to transmit the symbols on the reels through the liquid crystal screen so as to display them, a symbol display region where the symbols on the reels are transmission-displayed and a effect display region where a effect image, information and so on are displayed are generally provided on the liquid crystal screen. In addition, in this case, even when the symbols on the reels are viewable (when the symbol display region is separately set as described above, though the whole display section may be used as the performance display region), the symbol display region may be disposed, for example, to the upper side of the liquid crystal screen and a large effect display region may be ensured on the lower side of the liquid crystal screen in order to ensure efficiently as much as possible the size of the effect display region. Accordingly, in such a case, the symbol viewing regions 138a, 138b, and 138c in the reflector plate 138, the open windows 160a, 160b, and 160c in the main body 160A of the liquid crystal panel holder 160, and the open windows 135a, 135b, and 135c in the diffuser plate 135 corresponding to the symbol display region will be necessarily formed to the upper side as shown in
However, the symbol viewing regions 138a, 138b, and 138c in the reflector plate 138, the open windows 160a, 160b, and 160c in the main body 160A of the liquid crystal panel holder 160, and the open windows 135a, 135b, and 135c in the diffuser plate 135 formed to one side (the upper side) causes, in conjunction with characteristics of the viewing angle of the liquid crystal panel 134, following problems in sharing the display portion (the liquid crystal display device) between the above-described slant-type slot machine and the above-described upright-type slot machine.
More specifically, the liquid crystal panel 134 of the liquid crystal display device 131 mounted on the slot machine generally has the viewing angle on the upper side different from the viewing angle on the lower side. In the upright-type slot machine, the liquid crystal panel 134 is mounted in such an orientation that the viewing angle on the upper side is wider because the viewpoint of a player is located at a position where the player looks down to the cabinet (the liquid crystal panel 134) or the front face of the cabinet. On the other hand, in the slant-type slot machine, the liquid crystal panel 134 is mounted in such an orientation that the viewing angle on the lower side is wider because the viewpoint of the player is located at a position where the player looks up to the cabinet (the liquid crystal panel 134). Therefore, when the liquid crystal display device 131 is shared between the slant-type slot machine and the upright-type slant machine, the liquid crystal panel 134 needs to be mounted with the upper and lower portions thereof interchanged (rotated 180°) so that the viewing angles on the upper and lower sides are inverted (in this case, the screen display is vertically and horizontally inverted).
Further, when the liquid crystal panel 134 is mounted with the upper and lower portions thereof interchanged, the main body 160A of the liquid crystal panel holder 160 having thereon the IC drive 152 for driving the liquid crystal panel 134 and so on (actually including the holding frame 160B and the attachment member 160C) also needs to be mounted with the upper and lower portions thereof interchanged in accordance therewith. This is for consistency in mechanical and electrical positional relation between the IC drive 152 and so on electrically connected to the liquid crystal panel 134 and the liquid crystal panel 134. This is also because the wiring cable 134a becomes deficient in length unless the upper and lower portions of the main body 160A of the liquid crystal panel holder 160 are interchanged accompanying the interchange of the upper and lower portions of the liquid crystal panel 134, possibly causing a physical restraint such as impossibility of connection between the IC drive 152 and so on to the liquid crystal panel 134.
However, if the liquid crystal panel 134 is mounted with the upper and lower portions of the main body 160A of the liquid crystal panel holder 160 also interchanged, the symbol viewing regions 138a, 138b, and 138c in the reflector plate 138 and the open windows 135a, 135b, and 135c in the diffuser plate 135 become inconsistent in positional relation with the open windows 160a, 160b, and 160c in the main body 160A of the liquid crystal panel holder 160. More specifically, for example, if the upper and lower portions of the liquid crystal panel 134 and the main body 160A of the liquid crystal panel holder 160 are interchanged from the state in
The present invention has developed focusing on the above-described situation, and its object is to provide a gaming machine in which all parts of a liquid crystal display device including a liquid crystal panel having different viewing angles on one side and on the other side can be shared between different types of machines having different player's viewpoint positions on the liquid crystal screen which are on one side or on the other side. In other words, an object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal display device having a liquid crystal panel capable of being shared between gaming machines having different player's viewpoint positions, and a gaming machine including the liquid crystal display device.
A liquid crystal display device of the present invention comprises a liquid crystal panel unit having a liquid crystal panel; and a support member supporting the liquid crystal panel unit from a back side of the liquid crystal panel unit, wherein a center axis of a viewing angle in the liquid crystal panel unit is not parallel to a normal line of a surface of the liquid crystal panel, the support member is provided with an opening portion transmitting light from the back side thereof toward the liquid crystal panel unit, and the opening portion is arranged so as to have a region which is point symmetry with respect to a center of the supporting member In the present invention, the opening portion can be substantially symmetrical with respect to the center of the supporting member.
Further, a gaming machine of the present invention comprises: the liquid crystal display device of the present invention; and a discrimination information display device for variably displaying discrimination information for a game at a position deviated to one side of the liquid crystal display device, the discrimination display device being provided on a back side of the liquid crystal display device.
According to the liquid crystal display device of the present invention, since the opening portion is provided in the support member as described above, light on the back side of the support member can pass through the support member even if the support member and the liquid crystal panel are inverted. Therefore, this liquid crystal display device can be shared between the upright-type gaming machine and the slant-type gaming machine.
Specifically, one gaming machine of the present invention is a slant-type gaming machine in which the liquid crystal display device is provided such that the liquid crystal panel slants downward from a back side to a front side of the gaming machine. In this gaming machine, the liquid crystal display device is mounted such that the center axis of the viewing angle is located below the normal line of the liquid crystal panel
Alternatively, another gaming machine of the present invention is an upright-type gaming machine in which the liquid crystal display device is provided such that the liquid crystal panel is along a vertical surface. In this gaming machine, the liquid crystal display device is mounted such that the center axis of the viewing angle is located above the normal line of the liquid crystal panel.
Further, to solve the above problem, a gaming machine of the present invention includes: a liquid crystal panel unit having a liquid crystal panel displaying an image associated with a game, the liquid crystal panel having different viewing angles on one side and on another side on a display screen thereof; a discrimination display device for variably displaying discrimination information required for the game at a position deviated to the one side on the display screen of the liquid crystal panel; and a retainer retaining the liquid crystal panel unit on a back side thereof, the retainer being provided with a driver for driving the liquid crystal panel and an opening portion for exposing the discrimination information on the discrimination display device toward the liquid crystal panel, the retainer having a first state in which the discrimination information on the discrimination display device is exposed toward the liquid crystal panel through the opening portion, and a second state created by rotating the retainer 180° around a center of the retainer from the first state, and the opening portion, also in the second state, being open in a size capable of exposing the discrimination information on the discrimination display device toward the liquid crystal panel.
According to this gaming machine, the opening portion in the retainer can expose the discrimination information on the discrimination display device toward the liquid crystal panel, both in the first state and the second state which have such a relationship that they are rotated 180° from each other, and therefore even when, for example, the liquid crystal panel is rotated 180° to interchange its upper and lower positions and the retainer is rotated 180° in accordance therewith in a slot machine to share the liquid crystal panel unit between the slant-type slot machine and the upright-type slot machine having different player's viewpoint positions which are on the upper side or on the lower side, the discrimination information on the discrimination display device can be exposed toward the liquid crystal panel through the opening portion in the retainer. Therefore, the retainer can be shared between the slant-type slot machine and the upright-type slot machine, resulting in that the whole liquid crystal display device composed of the retainer and the liquid crystal panel unit can be shared between the slant-type slot machine and the upright-type slot machine. As a matter of course, such a shared form can be realized not only between the slot machines but also among various gaming machines having different player's viewpoint positions on the liquid crystal screen which are on one side or on the other side.
Note that it is desirable that, in the above-described configuration, the opening portion is open, forming a substantially symmetrical shape with respect to a center line passing through the center of the retainer.
Further, a gaming machine of the present invention includes: a liquid crystal panel unit having a liquid crystal panel displaying an image associated with a game, the liquid crystal panel having different viewing angles on one side and on the other side along a predetermined direction on a display screen thereof; a discrimination display device for variably displaying discrimination information required for the game at a position deviated to the one side on the display screen of the liquid crystal panel; and a retainer retaining the liquid crystal panel unit on a back side thereof, the retainer being provided with a driver for driving the liquid crystal panel and an opening portion for exposing the discrimination information on the discrimination display device toward the liquid crystal panel, the opening portion being open, forming a substantially symmetrical shape with respect to a center line passing through the center of the retainer.
According to this gaming machine, the opening portion is open, forming a substantially symmetrical shape with respect to a center line passing through the center of the retainer, and therefore even when the retainer is rotated 180° about its center from the state in which the discrimination information on the discrimination display device is exposed toward the liquid crystal panel through the opening portion, the opening portion in the retainer can still expose the discrimination information on the discrimination display device toward the liquid crystal panel. Accordingly, the operation and effect similar to those of the above-described gaming machine can be obtained.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be concretely described below with reference to the drawings.
A slant-type slot machine is shown in
The cabinet 10 comprises a door 11 openable from/closable to the cabinet 10. This door 11, in a closed position, slants such that it rises on a rear side with respect to the horizontal direction. In other words, in the slant-type slot machine 1, the door 11 in a closed state slants downward such that it falls from a back side to a front side of the slot machine 1.
This door 11 includes a frame 12 provided with an opening. The opening in the frame 12 is provided to allow a player to view a screen of a liquid crystal display device 31 and the symbols on the rotation reels 3L, 3C, and 3R with the door 11 closed. To the frame 12, the liquid crystal display device 31 is attached. More specifically, as shown in
As shown in
The cabinet 10 has a base portion (operation portion) 15 having a slant face gentler than the door 11 on the lower front side (player's side) of the door 11. On the base portion 15, game buttons 16 (a BET button, a reel rotation button, a reel stop button, and so on) as various kinds of operation means required for playing games, a slot 17 into which coins are thrown, and so on are formed.
On the front side of the base portion 15, an armrest 20 including a substantially flat surface is provided adjacent thereto. Provision of the armrest 20 allows the player to easily operate without fatigue the various kinds of game buttons 16 provided on the base portion 15 while sitting on a not-shown chair with his or her arms rested on the armrest 20.
Further, the cabinet 10 comprises a front-panel portion 21 vertically disposed on the rear side of the door 11. The front-panel portion 21 is provided with a payout table 22 displaying, for example, combinations of prize symbols, a payout table, and so on, and speakers 25L and 25R which generate effective sound for performance to increase amusement in game during play of a game, and so on.
In
The liquid crystal panel 34, which is constituted of a pair of transparent substrates (for example, glass substrates) and a liquid crystal material sandwiched therebetween, has a viewing region corresponding to the symbol display region 13 and has different viewing angles on one side and on the other side (on the upper side and on the lower side in this embodiment) of the panel region. More specifically, a center axis Y of a viewing angle in the liquid crystal panel unit 50 is not parallel to a normal line X of a surface (display surface) 34b of the liquid crystal panel 34. In this embodiment, the liquid crystal panel 34 has a viewing angle θ deviated to one side in a direction parallel to its surface (display surface) 34b. Therefore, where the viewing angle θ of the liquid crystal panel 34 is divided into a viewing angle θ1 and a viewing angle θ2 with reference to the normal line X, the viewing angle θ1 is greater than the viewing angle θ2. For example, the viewing angle θ is 150° in which the viewing angle θ1 is 80 degrees and the viewing angle θ2 is 70 degrees. It should be noted that the center axis Y of the viewing angle is generally on a center of the liquid crystal panel 34.
As shown in
Note that either a passive liquid crystal display device or an active matrix liquid crystal display device may be employed as the liquid crystal panel 34. Besides, the display mode of the liquid crystal panel 34 is preferably set to the normally white mode in which white display is performed with no voltage applied. This allows the player to view the symbols within the symbol display region 13 from the front side with no voltage applied to the liquid crystal panel 34 so that the player can continue playing the game. Further, a wiring cable 34a which is to be electrically connected to the IC drive 52 of the liquid crystal panel holder 60 extends from the liquid crystal panel 34.
On the back side (opposite side to the player) of the liquid crystal panel 34, the light guide plate 36 (for example, formed of a light transmissive material such as an acrylic resin) in a rectangular shape having the same size as that of the liquid crystal panel 34 is disposed across the diffuser plate 35. Further, the reflector plate 38 is disposed on the back side of the light guide plate 36, a main body 60A and an attachment member 60C of the liquid crystal panel holder 60 which will described later are disposed on the back side of the reflector plate 38, and the plurality of reels 3L, 3C, and 3R having the symbols drawn thereon respectively are disposed on the back side of the main body 60A and the attachment member 60C in correspondence with the symbol display region 13.
Light sources 37a and 37b are disposed along an upper and a lower end face of the light guide plate 36. These light sources 37a and 37b are for emitting light into the light guide plate 36 and thus constitute a backlight for the liquid crystal panel 34 (supply backlight to the liquid crystal panel 34) in cooperation with the light guide plate 36. Note that, as the light sources 37a and 37b, a cold-cathode tube or a fluorescent lamp may be used, or otherwise an LED may be used.
In the reflector plate 38 and the diffuser plate 35, three symbol viewing regions 38aL, 38aC, and 38aR; and 35aL, 35aC, and 35aR, respectively, which transmit the symbols formed on the respective reels 3L, 3C, and 3R to the symbol display region 13 (the liquid crystal panel 34) so as to allow the player to view the symbols are provided deviated to the upper side in a manner to correspond to the symbol display region 13. In this case, the symbol viewing regions 38aL, 38aC, and 38aR; and 35aL, 35aC, and 35aR may be open windows created by cutting them out from the reflector plate 38 and the diffuser plate 35, or may be regions formed of a light transmissive material having such a transparency as to allow the symbols to be clearly viewed rather than cut-out openings.
A deflection pattern which deflects the light entering the inside of the light guide plate 36 from the light sources 37a and 37b is formed on an opposed face of the light guide plate 36 opposed to the reflector plate 38. The light entering the upper and lower end faces of the light guide plate 36 from the light sources 37a and 37b is deflected by the deflection pattern while changing in traveling direction and exits from both surfaces of the light guide plate 36. Besides, the diffuser plate 35, normally appearing opaque white, is for diffusing light to prevent the above-described deflection pattern on the light guide plate 36 from being viewed (to make it blurry). That is the reason why the symbol viewing regions 35aL, 35aC, and 35aR are provided.
As shown in
The main body 60A of the liquid crystal panel holder 60 is formed with opening portions 60aL, 60aC, and 60aR for exposing the symbols on the reels 3L, 3C, and 3R toward the liquid crystal panel 34, in correspondence with the symbol viewing regions 38aL, 38aC, and 38aR; and 35aL, 35aC, and 35aR, respectively. Each of the opening portions 60aL, 60aC, and 60aR is arranged so as to have a region which is point symmetry with respect to a center of the main body 60A. It is preferable that the opening portions 60aL, 60aC, and 60aR are openings which are completely point symmetry. However, if each of the opening portions 60aL, 60aC, and 60aR has the region which is point symmetry, the opening portions 60aL, 60aC, and 60aR may not be point symmetry. In this case, the opening portions 60aL, 60aC, and 60aR are open in a size enough to expose the symbols on the reels 3L, 3C, and 3R toward the liquid crystal panel 34 even in the state in
Specifically, the opening portions 60aL, 60aC, and 60aR extend downward to be about twice longer than the symbol viewing regions 38aL, 38aC, and 38aR, and are open, forming substantially symmetrical shapes with respect to the center line L in the top-to-bottom direction passing through the center O of the main body 60A of the liquid crystal panel holder 60 as clearly shown in
In such a configuration, when the liquid crystal display device 31 in the state in
That is, the liquid crystal panel 34 is provided in a manner to be along the vertical surface in an upright-type slot machine 1a shown in
Also in the slot machine 1a, the reels 3L, 3C, and 3R are provided at positions deviated to the upper side with respect to the liquid crystal display device 31, but the main body 60A thereof is vertically inverted with respect to the state in which it is mounted on the slot machine 1. Also in this case, since the opening portions 60aL, 60aC, and 60aR are provided so as to be point symmetry, the symbols on the reels 3L, 3C, and 3R are provided to the player through the opening portions.
As described above, in this embodiment, the main body (retainer) 60A of the liquid crystal panel holder 60 has the first state in which the symbols on the reels 3L, 3C, and 3R as the discrimination display devices are exposed toward the liquid crystal panel 34 through their opening portions 60aL, 60aC, and 60aR, and the second state created by rotating the main body 60A 180° around the center O of the liquid crystal panel holder 60 from the first state. Further, the opening portions 60aL, 60aC, and 60aR in the second state are also opened in a size capable of exposing the symbols on the reels 3L, 3C, and 3R toward the liquid crystal panel 34. Therefore, even when the liquid crystal panel 34 is rotated 180° to interchange its upper and lower positions and the main body 60A of the liquid crystal panel holder 60 is rotated 180° in accordance therewith to share the liquid crystal panel unit 50 between the slant-type slot machine and the upright-type slot machine having different player's viewpoint positions which are on the upper side or on the lower side, the symbols on the reels 3L, 3C, and 3R can be exposed toward the liquid crystal panel 34 through their opening portions 60aL, 60aC, and 60aR of the main body 60A. In other words, the whole liquid crystal panel holder 60 including the main body 60A can be shared between the slant-type slot machine and the upright-type slot machine, resulting in that the whole liquid crystal display device 31 composed of the liquid crystal panel holder 60 and the liquid crystal panel unit 50 can be shared between the slant-type slot machine and the upright-type slot machine.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, and the present invention is applicable to various gaming machines such as a pachinko (pinball) machine and so on as well as the slot machines described in the previously-described embodiments, and is effective in the case in which all the parts of the liquid crystal display device including the liquid crystal panel having different viewing angles on one side and on the other side are shared between different types of machines having different player's viewpoint positions on the liquid crystal screen which are on one side or on the other side.
As has been described, according to the gaming machine of the present invention, all the parts of the liquid crystal display device including the liquid crystal panel having different viewing angles on one side and on the other side (for example, on the upper side and on the lower side) can be shared between different types of machines having different player's viewpoint positions on the liquid crystal screen which are on one side or on the other side (for example, on the upper side or on the lower side). In other words, a liquid crystal display device which can be shared between gaming machines having different player's viewpoint positions and a gaming machine including the liquid crystal display device can be provided.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| P2003-381480 | Nov 2003 | JP | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4718672 | Okada | Jan 1988 | A |
| 5825342 | Akebi et al. | Oct 1998 | A |
| 20010031658 | Ozaki et al. | Oct 2001 | A1 |
| 20030031453 | Tsubokura et al. | Feb 2003 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 8-80364 | Mar 1996 | JP |
| 2001-198265 | Jul 2001 | JP |
| 2003-67810 | Mar 2003 | JP |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20050137019 A1 | Jun 2005 | US |
