WO2008096207A1

WO2008096207A1 - Method and system for detecting and blocking non human players in a gaming system

Info

Publication number: WO2008096207A1
Application number: PCT/IB2007/050402
Authority: WO
Inventors: Avi Lior; Idan Losica
Original assignee: Playtech Software Limited
Priority date: 2007-02-07
Filing date: 2007-02-07
Publication date: 2008-08-14

Abstract

In a virtual gaming environment, a method for detecting and blocking non human players, the method including the steps of, presenting during game play at least one type of a verification request to a player, checking the players response to the at least one type of verification request, and blocking players that fail to fulfill the at least one type of verification request; wherein the verification can easily be supplied by a human player but is not easily supplied by a non-human player.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETECTING AND BLOCKING NON HUMAN PLAYERS IN A GAMING SYSTEM

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to the field of detecting and blocking unauthorized participants of gaming sessions over the internet and more particularly to a method and system for detecting and blocking non human participants in gaming sessions over the internet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There is continuous growth of gaming environments that are activated over the internet, for example chess, poker and dicing games. While some of the gaming environments over the internet enable participants to win money according to their scores, there are many cases where non human participants - e.g. software programs, enjoy an unfair advantage over human participants. Also in the cases that the game is played against the environments program, non human players may enjoy advantages which the environment is not ready to compete with.

There are common methods to detect and block non human participants. One common method is to trace the players screen for automatic player applications; another method is to trace the running programs on the players' computer and to identify an automatic player application however the last method is typically considered illegal as collecting info about other programs that are running on a user's machine is at least violating the user's privacy. These known methods suffer some severe drawbacks. Tracing either the screen or the computer itself is quite a complicate task which also does not guarantee success. While software applications are getting continuously more sophisticated, the non human participant becomes more difficult to be identified. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for detecting and blocking non human players that try to participate in a gaming session over the internet. It is another object of the present invention to provide a system for detecting and blocking non human players wherein the system is configurable and enables adjustment according to the players' response.

It is further an object of the present invention to provide a system for detecting and blocking non human players wherein the system enables a predefined level of activity according to a player classification.

There is thus provided according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention, in a virtual gaming environment, a method for detecting and blocking non human players, the method comprising the steps of, presenting during game play at least one type of a verification request to a player, checking the players response to the at least one type of verification request, and blocking players that fail to fulfill the at least one type of verification request; wherein the verification can easily be supplied by a human player but is not easily supplied by a non- human player. Optionally, the at least one type of a verification request includes a request to recognize a set of characters presented unclearly in an image and to type them on a keyboard. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the at least one type of a verification request includes a request to provide an audio stream. Optionally, the at least one type of a verification request includes a request to provide a specific audio stream. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the at least one type of a verification request includes a request to provide a biometric feedback. Optionally, the at least one type of a verification request includes a request to provide a fingerprint of the player. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the at least one type of a verification request includes a request to provide a retinal print of the player's eye. Optionally, presenting at least one type of a verification request to a player is performed at a predefined timing. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, presenting at least one type of a verification request to a player is performed at a predefined timing that is modified in response to the players response. Optionally, the at least one type of a verification request includes a response time limit, wherein fulfilling the verification is subject to providing the players response within the time limit. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, the time limit is programmable. Optionally, the time limit is modified dynamically according to the player's parameters.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will be understood and appreciated more fully from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a schematic illustration of a display view, requesting letters input, according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention; Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration of a display view, requesting an audio input, according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 3 is a schematic illustration of a display view, requesting a fingerprint input, according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention; and Fig. 4 is a flow chart describing an application method of operation, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In order to understand the invention three exemplary embodiments according to the present invention are described with reference to Fig. 1 - 3. AU these three embodiments are based on the theme that in a certain point in time the system according to the present invention activates a pop-up message that requests (referred to as "verification request") the player's response. The verification request is formulated in a manner that makes it difficult to fulfill the verification request by a non human participant. As shall be further described, the system may present different combinations of verification requests, wherein the period between the activation of these verification requests is programmable.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic view of a PC display 100. On the display 100 there are cards 110 of a certain game, e.g. a poker game. During the game the application according to present invention activates a pop-up message 120, requesting the player to type in a string of characters 115 which are displayed in a format that makes it very unlikely to be recognized by an automatic software application. Further more the appearance of pop-up message 120 itself may be displayed in a graphic format which makes it also very much unlikely to be interpreted by a software application. The application according to the present invention displays a pop-up blank rectangle 125 where it expects the player to type in the string of characters 115. The player is expected to detect the appearance of the pop-up message 120, move the computers mouse to the pop-up blank rectangle 125 and type in the string of characters 115.

The application according to embodiment that is described in Fig. 1 may limit the time frame in which a valid response is expected. Limiting the time frame is effective against a combination of human supervisor that could be placed to support a plurality of non human players. The popup will be on top of all the application modal in a way that will allow the player to keep playing, the player has a certain time to punch in the text

Fig. 2 shows another exemplary embodiment according to the present invention. A PC display 200 shows a certain card position 210. At a certain point in time during a game, a pop-up message 220 is activated and the player is requested to provide an audio message, using a microphone 230 that is connected to the game application. The message 220 may include a request to provide just an unspecified audio stream or a request to provide his name or any other specific audio stream, for example to announce a specific number. It should be noted that a request to provide an unspecified audio stream might be easily satisfied by a software application, while the request to provide a specific stream provides far higher confidence that the player is human - especially in the case that the message 220 is a graphic message.

Fig. 3 shows another exemplary embodiment according to the present invention 300. A PC display 300 shows a certain card position 310. At a certain point in time during a game, a pop-up message 320 is activated and the player is requested to provide a fingerprint 330 to the game application using an appropriate device 335 for obtaining a fingerprint from the player via the players computer. In another exemplary embodiment according to the present invention, the message pop-up 320 may request to provide other biometric data, for example the player's retinal print. For this type of verification request to be efficient, the environment must manage a database that contains the relevant data to enable the application to verify that the data that ϊs provided by a player really belongs to the specific player.

Fig. 4 shows a flow chart 400 that describes the process of detecting and blocking non human players from participation in a gaming environment session. The first step is configuration of the system (405). The configuration step relates to all the user-defined parameters that may be programmed before or during activation of the system. For example the system according to the present invention may divide the players to some classes, where first class players are considered to be trusted players who enjoy a full exemption from any verification procedures (referred to as VIP players). Second class players are requested to provide verification data as described in fig. 1 — i.e. character recognition. Third class players are requested to provide an audio input as described in fig. 2. Fourth class players are requested to provide a combination of at least two different types of verification data e.g. character recognition and fingerprint or retinal print.

Another parameter that may be configured is the time interval between successive verification requests that are displayed by the system. The system may dynamically change this parameter, for example suspicious indications gathered by the system regarding a certain player will result with reducing the time interval between successive requests. Suspicious indications are based on experience and may be based on the player's behavior parameters like duration and hours of play, response times, repetition of equal responses to equal game situation etc.

A further additional parameter is the time frame in which a request should be satisfied by a player. It should be noted that a problem may arise when a plurality of non human players are activated under supervision of a single person, where each time that a pop-up message 120, 220, 320 is displayed - the human supervisor handles the task of fulfilling the verification request. Reducing the time frame in which a request should be fulfilled may prevent such conspiracy or reduce its efficiency. After configuration the system starts to check each player. The first step is to find out whether a player is exempt from verification procedure (410), if the player is exempt e.g. is identified as VIP - the application ignores this specific player. If the player is not exempt the application waits until the time arrives to activate a verification request (425). The moment that the time for activating a verification request arrives, the application decides which verification request to activate (430). It should be noted that in another exemplary system, the order of steps may be reversed, i.e. first a verification request is decided and only later activation time is defined. When a verification event is defined and activated (430), a decision is made, whether the request was fulfilled or not (440). In case that a request was not fulfilled — a decision is taken whether the specific player is qualified for a second chance in the verification procedure 445. A player that was defined as not qualified for a second chance in the verification procedure is booted from the gaming environment (450). Had the player been identified as qualified for a second chance of verification, another verification request is activated (455). This time, failure to fulfill the verification request yields to booting the player out of the gaming environment (465). In the case that the verification request was fulfilled, either at the first attempt or at the second attempt, the application returns to the step of waiting to the time for activating the following verification request 425. It should be appreciated that the above described methods and environments may be varied in many ways, including omitting or adding steps, changing the order of steps and the type of devices used. It should be appreciated that different features may be combined in different ways. In particular, not all the features shown above in a particular embodiment are necessary in every embodiment of the invention. Further combinations of the above features are also considered to be within the scope of some embodiments of the invention.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to what has been particularly shown and described hereinabove. Rather the scope of the present invention is defined only by the claims, which follow.

Claims

1. In a virtual gaming environment, a method for detecting and blocking non human players, the method comprising the steps of: presenting during game play at least one type of a verification request to a player, checking the players response to said at least one type of verification request, and blocking players that fail to fulfill said at least one type of verification request; wherein said verification can easily be supplied by a human player but is not easily supplied by a non-human player.

2. The method according to claim I, wherein said at least one type of a verification request includes a request to recognize a set of characters presented unclearly in an image and to type them on a keyboard.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said at least one type of a verification request includes a request to provide an audio stream.

4. The method according to claim I₅ wherein said at least one type of a verification request includes a request to provide a specific audio stream.

5. The method according to claim I₅ wherein said at least one type of a verification request includes a request to provide a biometric feedback.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said at least one type of a verification request includes a request to provide a fingerprint of the player.

7. The method according to ciaim I₅ wherein said at least one type of a verification request includes a request to provide a retinal print of the player's eye.

8. The method according to claim I₅ wherein said presenting at least one type of a verification request to a player is performed at a predefined timing.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said presenting at least one type of a verification request to a player is performed at a predefined timing that is modified in response to said players response.

10. The method according to claim I₅ wherein said at least one type of a verification request includes a response time limit, wherein fulfilling said verification is subject to providing said players response within said time limit.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein said response time limit is programmable.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein said response time limit is modified dynamically according to the player's parameters.