System and method for augmented reality gaming

1. A method of enabling an augmented reality interaction system and a mobile device to overlay a virtual 3D component over a physical 3D component with which the virtual 3D component interacts, the method comprising:

controlling a camera on the mobile device using the augmented reality interaction system;

enabling a user to capture a live camera image of a gaming machine cabinet via the camera;

determining if there are image tags on the gaming machine cabinet in the live camera image;

in response to identifying the image tags on the gaming machine cabinet, producing a virtual rendering of the gaming machine cabinet;

determining virtual 3D components to be displayed over an image of a virtual gaming machine cabinet, wherein the virtual 3D components include a plurality of elements each having a depth value and the virtual gaming machine cabinet includes a different plurality of elements each having a different depth value;

comparing a virtual depth rendering of the virtual 3D components to a virtual depth rendering of the virtual gaming machine cabinet;

in response to the comparison, subtracting the elements of the virtual 3D components that have a lower depth value than the elements of the virtual gaming machine cabinet at corresponding spatial positions; and

overlaying the virtual 3D components without the subtracted elements onto a live camera image of the virtual gaming machine cabinet on a display of the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: using a depth buffer to determine which elements of a 3D rendering are visible to a virtual camera.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising: comparing a z-value of each element against an existing depth buffer z-value at a same screen coordinate, wherein if the existing z-value is greater, a pixel is drawn, and wherein if the existing z-value is less than the existing depth buffer z-value at the same screen co-ordinate, then the pixel is discarded.

4. The method of claim 2 , further comprising: rendering the virtual gaming machine cabinet by mapping image tag co-ordinates to gaming machine cabinet co-ordinates using vector subtraction.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising: combining a camera video image with the rendering of an additional virtual 3D component minus the virtual gaming machine cabinet.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a CAD model having spatial parameters is associated with an image tag.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual rendering of the gaming machine cabinet is a virtual depth-only rendering of the gaming machine cabinet.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein an object recognition system of an augmented reality gaming assistance component establishes a communication channel between an augmented reality component and a gaming machine enabling additional elements of a game to be augmented on the mobile device, and elements of game content to be influenced by an augmented state.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein an augmented reality translation system of an augmented reality assistance component extracts a first language from a display of a gaming machine and translates the first language into a second language that is visible to the user in place of the first language.

10. A method of enabling an augmented reality interaction system and a mobile device to overlay a virtual 3D component over a physical 3D component with which the virtual 3D component interacts, the method comprising:

enabling a user to capture a live camera image of a 3D object via a camera on the mobile device;

determining if there are image tags on the 3D object in the live camera image;

in response to identifying the image tags on the 3D object, producing a virtual rendering of the 3D object;

determining virtual 3D components to be displayed over an image of the 3D object, wherein the virtual 3D components include a plurality of elements each having a depth value and a virtual 3D object includes a different plurality of elements each having a different depth value;

comparing a virtual depth rendering of the virtual 3D components to a virtual depth rendering of the virtual 3D object;

in response to the comparison, subtracting the elements of the virtual 3D components that have a lower depth value than elements of the virtual 3D object at corresponding spatial positions; and

overlaying virtual 3D components without the subtracted elements onto the live camera image of the virtual 3D object on a display of the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: using a depth buffer to determine which plurality of elements of a 3D rendering are visible to a virtual camera.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising: comparing a z-value of each element against an existing depth buffer z-value at a same screen coordinate, wherein if an existing z-value is greater, a pixel is drawn, and wherein if the existing z-value is less than the existing depth buffer z-value at the same screen co-ordinate, then the pixel is discarded.

13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising: rendering the virtual 3D object by mapping a image tag co-ordinates to a 3D object co-ordinates using vector subtraction.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising: combining a camera video image with the rendering of an additional virtual 3D component minus the virtual 3D object.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein a CAD model having spatial parameters is associated with the image tags.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the virtual rendering of the 3D object is a virtual depth-only rendering of the 3D object.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein virtual rendering of the 3D object extracts 2D information from a display of a gaming machine to produce a 3D image of the gaming machine.

18. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: overlaying virtual graphics in a position within 3D space on the display of the mobile device that augment a display of a gaming machine with 3D to create complex augmented reality.

19. The method of claim 10 , wherein an object recognition system of an augmented reality gaming assistance component establishes a communication channel between a augmented reality component and a gaming machine enabling additional elements of a game to be augmented on the mobile device, and elements of a game content to be influenced by the an augmented state.

20. The method of claim 10 , wherein an augmented reality translation system of an augmented reality assistance component extracts a first language from a display of a gaming machine and translates the first language into a second language that is visible to the user in place of the first language.