METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING A GAME PIECE

• US 20090309303A1
• Filed: 06/15/2009
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Imagination LLC
• Original Assignee: Pure Imagination LLC
• Inventors: Odom, Philip Trevor, Wallace, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,104,688 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 273/237
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 1/121 by printing code marks applying code marks to labels B65C9/46; marking or coding completed packages B65B61/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/067 Record carriers with conductive marks, printed circuits or semiconductor circuit elements, e.g. credit or identity cards also with resonating or responding marks without active components
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/08 by means detecting the change of an electrostatic or magnetic field, e.g. by detecting change of capacitance between electrodes

Abstract

A method and system for determining the presence and identity of a game piece placed at a sensing location by attaching one or more conductive rings at fixed concentric locations on the bottom of the game piece and sensing the presence or absence of the conductive rings by means of sensors that are insensitive to the rotational orientation of the game piece.

Claims

1. A method for encoding and decoding a numerical value on an object comprising:

defining at least two concentric fixed positions on the object; and

placing an annular indicium over at least one of the at least two fixed positions.

3. The method for encoding a numerical value on an object of claim 1 further comprising:

decoding the numeric value on the object by placing the object over a sensor assembly with sensors underlying the at least two fixed positions, whereby the response of said sensors to said indicia is insensitive to the rotational orientation of the object over the sensor assembly, where said indicia are conductive annuli of fixed width, the sensors are capacitance sensors, and the numerical value is decoded by sensing the presence or absence of said indicia at the multiplicity of sensor locations.

4. The method for encoding a numerical value on an object of claim 1 further comprising:

decoding the numeric value on the object by placing the object over a sensor assembly with sensors underlying the at least two fixed positions, whereby the response of said sensors to said indicia is insensitive to the rotational orientation of the object over the sensor assembly, where said indicia are conductive annuli with widths selected from a multiplicity of fixed widths, the sensors are capacitance sensors, and the numerical value is decoded by interpreting the magnitude of sensor responses at the multiplicity of sensor locations.

2. The method for encoding and decoding a numerical value on an object of claim further comprising:

decoding the numeric value on the object by placing the object over a sensor assembly with sensors underlying the at least two fixed positions, whereby the response of said sensors to said indicia is insensitive to the rotational orientation of the object over the sensor assembly.

5. A system comprising:

an object including a base, the base including at least one conductive annulus; and

a sensor assembly including at least one capacitance sensor to detect the presence or absence of the object based at least on the capacitance of the at least one conductive annulus, wherein the sensor assembly is substantially insensitive to the rotational orientation of the object over the sensor assembly.

6. The system of claim 5, the base further comprising a plurality of conductive annuli each with a substantially fixed width.

7. The system of claim 5, the object further comprising a game piece.

8. The system of claim 5, the sensor assembly further comprising a game board.

9. A gaming system comprising:

one or more game pieces, each game piece including a substantially circular base; and

at least one annular indicium coupled to each substantially circular base to encode a numeric value for each game piece.

10. The gaming system of claim 9, each annular indicium further comprising at least one conductive annular indicium.

11. The gaming system claim 9 further comprising a plurality of conductive annular indicia, each conductive annular indicium having substantially the same annular width.

12. The gaming system of claim 9 further comprising a gaming board, the gaming board including at least one sensor to couple to the substantially circular base of the game piece to detect the numeric value for the game piece.

13. The gaming system of claim 12, the sensor further comprising a capacitance sensor to detect the numeric value for the game piece based on at least the capacitance of the at least one annular indicium.

14. The gaming system of claim 13 wherein the sensor is substantially insensitive to the rotational orientation of the game piece.