Methods for automatically generating a card deck library and master images for a deck of cards, and a related card processing apparatus

• US 10,398,966 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2016
• Issued: 09/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LNW Gaming Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Bally Gaming Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Kelly, James V., Zvercov, Vladislav, Miller, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Deodhar, Omkar A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Williams, Ross
• Application Number:
  US15/369,312
• Publication Number:
  US 20170173449A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,002 Days
• Field of Search: 463 46, 463 47, 273149 R
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/12 Card shufflers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2425 Scanners, e.g. for scanning regular characters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/28 Determining representative reference patterns, e.g. by averaging or distorting; Generating dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/225 based on a marking or identifier characterising the area
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/507 Summing image-intensity values; Histogram projection analysis

Abstract

A method of automatically generating a calibration file for a card handling device comprises automatically generating a calibration file stored in memory of a main control system for a card handling device. Automatically generating the calibration file comprises identifying at least one parameter associated with a rank area around a rank of at least a portion of the card, identifying at least one parameter associated with a suit area around a suit of the at least a portion of the card, and storing the at least one parameter associated with the rank area and the at least one parameter associated with the suit area in the calibration file. Additionally, a method of automatically generating deck libraries for one or more decks of cards comprises automatically generating a plurality of master images for the cards of the first deck type using the parameters from the calibration file.

Claims

1. A method of automatically generating a calibration file for a card handling device, the method comprising:

capturing, with an imaging device, a raw image from at least a portion of a card passing from a card input to a card output of the card handling device; and

automatically generating and storing a calibration file during a calibration mode without user input, the calibration file being associable with the card handling device and a deck of cards that includes the card such that the card handling device is trained for the associated deck during a subsequent card recognition mode, wherein automatically generating the calibration file includes;

identifying at least one parameter associated with a rank area of the at least a portion of the card;

identifying at least one parameter associated with a suit area of the at least a portion of the card; and

storing the at least one parameter associated with the rank area and the at least one parameter associated with the suit area in the calibration file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically generating and storing the calibration file comprises identifying a location and at least one parameter associated with a region of interest that is relatively larger than the rank area and the suit area, the method further comprising storing the location and the at least one parameter associated with the region of interest in the calibration file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically generating and storing the calibration file include using a processor associated with the card handling device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein storing the calibration file includes storing the calibration file in a file system of an operating system running on the processor incorporated within the card handling device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing the raw image includes capturing a plurality of raw images from a plurality of different cards passing through the card handling device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

identifying the at least one parameter associated with the rank area includes;

identifying at least one parameter associated with a plurality of rank areas from the plurality of different cards; and

selecting the at least one parameter associated with the rank area to include a rank width parameter having a number of pixels representative of a width that is a widest dimension from the plurality of rank areas, and to include a rank depth parameter having a number of pixels representative of a depth that is a longest dimension from the plurality of rank areas; and

identifying the at least one parameter associated with the suit area includes;

identifying at least one parameter associated with a plurality of suit areas from the plurality of different cards; and

selecting at least one parameter associated with the rank area to include a suit width parameter having a number of pixels representative of a width that is a widest dimension from the plurality of suit areas, and to include a suit depth parameter having a number of pixels representative of a depth that is a longest dimension from the plurality of suit areas.

7. A method of automatically generating a deck library for tuning a card handling device to recognize cards from a deck of cards, the method comprising:

using an imaging device of a card handling device to capture raw images of playing cards passing from a card input to a card output;

using a processor to automatically generate, without user input, a first calibration file for identifying at least one parameter associated with a rank area and at least one parameter associated with a suit area from the raw images for a first deck of cards, the calibration file including the parameters associated with the rank area and the suit area;

storing, in memory, the first calibration file in a first deck library for the first deck;

using the processor to automatically generate a plurality of master images for the cards of the first deck using the parameters from the calibration file; and

storing, in memory, the plurality of master images for the cards of the first deck in the first deck library such that the card handling device is trained to the first deck for use in a subsequent card recognition mode of the card handling device.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

using the processor to automatically generate a second calibration file for a second deck of cards;

storing, in memory, the second calibration file in a second deck library for the second deck;

using the processor to automatically generate a second plurality of master images for the cards of the second deck using the parameters from the second calibration file; and

storing, in memory, the second plurality of master images for the cards of the second deck in the deck library such that the card handling device is trained to the second deck for use in a subsequent card recognition mode of the card handling device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the processor and memory are incorporated within the card handling device.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein automatically generating the plurality of master images includes receiving and cropping the raw images according to the parameters of the first calibration file to generate at least one master image for each rank and each suit of the first deck.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising linking each master image of the plurality of master images according to an expected order by the processor as the cards were read into a card handling device.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising linking each master image of the plurality of master images according to an order that is previously unknown by the processor as the cards were read into the card handling device.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein linking each master image of the plurality of master images includes performing at least one of an optical character recognition or a blob analysis on each master image.

14. The method of claim 7, further comprising linking each master image of the plurality of master images for the processor to assign an identity to each master image by comparing each master image of the plurality of master images with a set of images from a plurality of different decks.

15. The method of claim 7, further comprising linking each master image of the plurality of master images for the processor to assign an identity to each master image by comparing a normalized version of each master image of the plurality of master images with a set of normalized images from a plurality of different decks.

16. A card processing system, comprising:

a card input;

a card output;

a memory device;

an imaging device operably coupled with the memory device, the imaging device configured to capture raw images of playing cards passing from the card input to the card output for storage of the raw images in the memory device; and

a control system coupled with the imaging device, wherein the control system is configured to;

run an operating system having a file directory system configured to store a plurality of deck libraries for a plurality of different deck types;

receive the raw images from the memory device; and

automatically generate a calibration file having parameters related to a rank area and a suit area for each deck type without user input during a calibration mode.

17. The card processing system of claim 16, including a card shuffler having a common housing for each of the memory device, the imaging device, and the control system.

18. The card processing system of claim 16, wherein the control system is further configured to automatically generate a plurality of master images from the raw images according to the parameters of the calibration file.

19. The card processing system of claim 18, wherein the control system is configured to link the plurality of master images from an unsorted deck of cards with an appropriate rank and suit during the calibration mode for the control system to identify which rank and which suit corresponds to each master image.

20. The card processing system of claim 19, wherein the control system is configured to link the plurality of master images from an unsorted deck of cards with an appropriate rank and suit by:

generating a normalized version of each master image of the plurality of master images; and

comparing the normalized version of each master image of the plurality of master images with a plurality of normalized images corresponding to a plurality of different deck types.