Systems, methods and articles to facilitate playing card games with intermediary playing card receiver

• US 20070057462A1
• Filed: 06/29/2006
• Published: 03/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sg Gaming, Inc. (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Bally Gaming Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Fleckenstein, Allen
• Granted Patent: US 8,342,932 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 273/274
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/00 Card games aspects of games using an electronically generated display having two or more dimensions showing representations related to the game A63F13/00; card games played on a gaming machine G07F17/32
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/10 Card holders
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/12 Card shufflers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/14 Card dealers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/18 Score computers; Miscellaneous indicators time-testing devices G07C

Abstract

An inventory sensor is positioned and configured to identify playing cards stored in compartments of one or more intermediary playing card receivers. The intermediary playing card receivers may be positioned in a card transport path between an input and an output receiver. The inventory sensor allows an inventory of playing cards to be performed, for example, in response to a possibly anomalous condition or in response to a user request. Playing cards may be transferred back to the intermediary playing card receiver from the output receiver before inventorying. A new randomized set of playing cards can be created at the output receiver after inventorying.

Claims

1. A playing card handling system, comprising:

an intermediary playing card receiver comprising a plurality of playing card receiving compartments sized to at least partially receive playing cards therein;

a sensor configured to sense an identifier from each of a number of playing cards while the playing cards are at least partially received in the playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver; and

a processor configured to process the sensed identifiers.

2. The playing card handling system of claim 1, further comprising:

a drive mechanism coupled to move playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver with respect to the sensor.

3. The playing card handling system of claim 1 wherein the intermediary playing card receiver takes the form of a carousel mounted for rotation about an axis.

4. The playing card handling system of claim 3 wherein the carousel comprises an endless array of the playing card receiving compartments, each of the playing card receiving compartments having an opening, the openings distributed about a periphery of the carousel.

5. The playing card handling system of claim 3, further comprising:

a motor having a shaft physically coupled to pivot the intermediary playing card receiver about a horizontal axis.

6. The playing card handling system of claim 3, further comprising:

a motor having a shaft physically coupled to pivot the intermediary playing card receiver about a vertical axis.

7. The playing card handling system of claim 3, further comprising:

a stepper motor having a shaft physically coupled to bi-directionally pivot the intermediary playing card receiver about an axis.

8. The playing card handling system of claim 1 wherein the intermediary playing card receiver takes the form of a linear array of the playing card receiving compartments mounted for translation along an axis.

9. The playing card handling system of claim 1 wherein the sensor is an optical sensor having a field-of-view encompassing a portion of at least one of the playing card receiving compartments.

10. The playing card handling system of claim 9 wherein the optical sensor is one of an image sensor or a scan sensor.

11. The playing card handling system of claim 1, further comprising:

a playing card output receiver positioned to receive playing cards from the intermediary playing card receiver, wherein the playing cards are not randomized until transferred from the intermediary playing card receiver to the playing card output receiver.

12. A playing card handling system, comprising:

a playing card input receiver;

a playing card output receiver;

at least one playing card transport path extending between the playing card input receiver and the playing card output receiver;

a first intermediary playing card receiver disposed between the playing card input receiver and the playing card output receiver in the at least one playing card transport path, the first intermediary playing card receiver comprising a plurality of playing card receiving compartments, the plurality of playing card receiving compartments of the first intermediary playing card receiver physically coupled for movement together;

a second intermediary playing card receiver disposed between the playing card input receiver and the playing card output receiver in the at least one playing card transport path, the second intermediary playing card receiver comprising a plurality of playing card receiving compartments, the plurality of playing card receiving compartments of the second intermediary playing card receiver physically coupled for movement together;

an inventory optical sensor having a field-of-view that encompasses a portion of the second intermediary playing card receiver, and operable to capture identifying information from a number of playing cards at least partially received in the playing card receiving compartments of the second intermediary playing card receiver; and

a control subsystem configured to control a transfer of a plurality of playing cards from the input playing card receiver to the first and the second intermediary playing card receivers.

13. The playing card handling system of claim 12, further comprising:

an input optical sensor having a field-of-view encompassing a portion of the at least one playing card transport path between the playing card input receiver and at least one of the first and the second intermediary playing card receivers, the input optical sensor operable to capture identifying information from playing cards at a position along the at least one playing card transport path.

14. The playing card handling system of claim 12 wherein the control subsystem is configured to allocate the plurality of playing cards between the first and the second intermediary playing card receivers based on an order in which the playing cards will be arranged at the playing card output receiver.

15. The playing card handling system of claim 12, further comprising:

a drive system coupled to the second intermediary playing card receiver and operable to pivot the second intermediary playing card receiver about an axis.

16. The playing card handling system of claim 15 wherein the inventory optical sensor sequentially captures images of playing cards in respective ones of the playing card receiving compartments as the second intermediary playing card receiver is pivotally stepped about the axis.

17. The playing card handling system of claim 12 wherein the control subsystem is operable to perform an inventory of the second intermediary playing card receiver by sequentially moving the second intermediary playing card receiver with respect to the input optical sensor and capturing an image of playing cards in respective ones of the playing card receiving compartments at each of at least some of a plurality of respective positions of the second intermediary playing card receiver.

18. The playing card handling system of claim 12, further comprising:

a number of markings proximate each of at least some of the playing card receiving compartments of the second intermediary playing card receiver, the markings indicative of a relative position of a most proximate one of the playing card receiving compartment with respect to other of the playing card receiving compartments of the second intermediary playing card receiver.

19. A method of operating a playing card handling system, the method comprising:

storing respective playing cards in each of at least some of a plurality of playing card receiving compartments of an intermediary playing card receiver, the intermediary playing card receiver positioned along at least one playing card transport path between an inlet and an outlet of the playing card handling system;

moving the intermediary playing card receiver to successively position each of at least some of the playing card receiving compartments with respect to an inventory playing card sensor; and

successively detecting an identity of each of the playing cards with the inventory playing card sensor.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein storing respective playing cards in each of at least some of a plurality of playing card receiving compartments of an intermediary playing card receiver comprises storing the respective playing cards in each of the at least some of the plurality of playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver in a non-randomized order.

21. The method of claim 19 wherein storing respective playing cards in each of at least some of a plurality of playing card receiving compartments of an intermediary playing card receiver comprises storing playing cards that correspond to an initial subset of random virtual playing card values in the plurality of playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver.

22. The method of claim 19 wherein moving the intermediary playing card receiver to successively position each of at least some of the playing card receiving compartments with respect to an inventory playing card sensor comprises successively pivoting the intermediary playing card receiver with respect to the inventory playing card sensor.

23. The method of claim 19 wherein moving the intermediary playing card receiver to successively position each of at least some of the playing card receiving compartments with respect to an inventory playing card sensor comprises successively pivoting the intermediary playing card receiver to align each of the playing card receiving compartments with the inventory playing card sensor.

24. The method of claim 19 wherein successively detecting an identity of each of the playing cards with the inventory playing card sensor comprises capturing an image of at least one identifier on each of the playing cards received in the playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver.

25. The method of claim 19 wherein successively detecting an identity of each of the playing cards with the inventory playing card sensor comprises capturing an image of at least one identifier on each of the playing cards received in the playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver along with an image of a marking proximate the playing card receiving compartment that is indicative of a relative position of the playing card receiving compartment with respect to other ones of the playing card receiving compartments.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

successively detecting an identity of each of the playing cards between the inlet and the intermediary playing card receiver with an input playing card sensor.

27. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

detecting a possibly anomalous operating condition;

in response to the detection of the possibly anomalous operating condition, determining an identity for each playing card in each of the playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver.

28. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

in response to a user input, determining an identity for each playing card in each of the playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver.

29. A method of operating a playing card handling system, the method comprising:

detecting a possibly anomalous operating condition;

in response to the detection of the possibly anomalous operating condition, determining an identity of each playing card in each of the playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver; and

transferring playing cards from the intermediary playing card receiver to a playing card output receiver in a random order, after determining the identity of each playing card in each of the playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

transferring playing cards from the playing card output receiver to the intermediary playing card receiver before determining the identity of each playing card in each of the playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver.

31. The method of claim 29 wherein determining an identity of each playing card in each of the playing card receiving compartments of the intermediary playing card receiver comprises sequentially pivotally stepping the intermediary playing card receiver through 360 degrees, and capturing an image of a contents of the playing card receiving compartments in at least some of the steps.

32. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

pseudo-randomly generating a number of virtual playing card values that define the random order.

33. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

pseudo-randomly generating a number of virtual playing card values that define the random order, based at least in part on at least one of a selected set of house odds or a selected house advantage.