USING REAL PLAYING CARDS FOR ONLINE GAMING

• US 20110079959A1
• Filed: 10/05/2010
• Published: 04/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Peter Hartley
• Original Assignee: Peter Hartley
• Inventors: HARTLEY, PETER
• Granted Patent: US 9,153,093 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 273/292
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3223 Architectural aspects of a gaming system, e.g. internal configuration, master/slave, wireless communication
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3293 Card games, e.g. poker, canasta, black jack

Abstract

On or more apparatuses, systems, and methods are disclosed for playing an online card game using real cards. Real playing cards are transferred from a deck of playing cards to a card holding position in a card holder, such as for a sufficient number of players for a game. From an appropriate card viewing position, an actual image of the card (either front or back) is captured, such as by a video camera. The captured image of the card is used to display to an online player, who is playing a virtual card game, such as poker, where the online player may be locally or remotely connected. The image of the card is used in lieu of a virtual image in the virtual representation of an online card game.

Claims

1. An apparatus for playing an online card game using real cards, comprising:

a card holding component configured to hold a playing card that allows the playing card to be viewed from a first view position during a card game comprising a sufficient number of card holding positions for playing a desired card game with a desired number of players;

a card image capture component configured to capture an image of the playing card from the first view position, where the image can be displayed to a player of the card game; and

a card delivery component configured to transfer the playing card from a deck of playing cards to the card holding position.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a card retrieval component configured to collect the card when discarded from the card holding position for reorganization into a deck.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a card evaluation component configured to evaluate a deck of playing cards to determine whether the deck is suitable for use in a game.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a card shuffling component configured to shuffle the deck of playing cards prior to using the deck in the card game.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, the card delivery component comprising a card dealing component configured to remove the playing card from a top of the deck to be delivered to the card holding position.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, the card delivery component configured to move to respective card holding positions of the card holding component to deliver playing cards from the deck.

7. The system of claim 1, the card holding component comprising a discard component associated with respective card holding positions and configured to release the playing card from the card holding position to a card retrieval component for reorganization into a deck of playing cards.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a code scanning component configured to read a code on the playing card from the first view position to determine one or more of:

a value of the playing card; and

security information for the playing card.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a game image capture component configured to capture one or more images of the card playing apparatus during the card game from one or more second viewing positions, the one or more images from the one or more second viewing positions comprising the playing cards handled by respective components of the apparatus.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a control component configured to provide control commands to operate one or more of:

the card image capture component;

the card delivery component;

the card holding component;

a card evaluation component;

a code scanning component;

a card retrieval component;

a game image capture component;

a card shuffling component; and

a card dealing component.

11. A system for providing an online card game using real cards, comprising:

a real card playing component configured to;

automatically deal playing cards from a deck of real playing cards to a card holding component for respective cards dealt during the card game;

capture an image of the respective playing cards in the card holding component during the card game; and

automatically capture and arrange discarded playing cards for arrangement into the deck of real playing cards;

a card display component operably coupled with the real card playing component and configured to display the image of respective playing cards as one or more played cards to one or more players of the card game during the card game; and

a control component configured to control an operation of the real card playing component in response to one or more of;

an action of a player of the card game; and

appropriate game flow of the card game.

12. The system of claim 11, the real-card playing component comprising a game viewing component configured to:

capture an image of the real card playing component comprising the playing cards handled by the real card playing component; and

display the image of the real card playing component to one or more players.

13. The system of claim 11, real card playing component comprising a card shuffling component configured to automatically shuffle the deck of real playing cards prior to the cards being dealt for the card game.

14. The system of claim 11, the card display component configured to:

display a face of a player dealt card merely to the player dealt the card;

display a face of a common playing card to respective players of the card game; and

display a back of a down or discard playing card to respective players of the card game.

15. The system of claim 11, comprising a card game operating component configured to:

provide a user interface to a player to play the online card game;

operate a flow of the online card game for one or more respective players; and

activate actions in the real card playing component to accommodate the flow of the online card game.

16. The system of claim 11, comprising an integration component configured to integrate the one or more images of the one or more playing cards into a virtual display of the card game.

17. The system of claim 11, comprising a security component configured to perform one or more of:

mitigate unauthorized access to the system;

mitigate unauthorized manipulation of the real card playing component; and

mitigate unauthorized access to one or more images of the playing card or real-card playing component.

18. A method for providing an online card game using real cards, comprising:

automatically preparing a deck of playing cards for use in the card game;

automatically dealing a playing card to a card viewing position from the deck of playing cards;

capturing an image of the dealt playing card from the card viewing position;

displaying the image of the dealt playing card to an online player of the card game in a virtual display of one or more portions of the card game; and

manipulating the playing card in response to one or more actions from the online player.

19. The method of claim 18,

capturing an image of the dealt playing card comprising capturing live video of the dealt playing card;

and

displaying the image of the dealt playing card to the online player comprising displaying the live video of the dealt card to the online player.

20. The method of claim 18, manipulating the playing card in response to one or more actions from one or more online players comprising one of more of:

removing an out-of-play playing card to an automatic card collector when the one or more online players indicate a removal action for the out-of-play playing card;

transferring a dealt card from the deck of playing cards to an online player'"'"'s card viewing position when the one or more online players indicate a deal action for the dealt card; and

displaying a face value of a revealed playing card when the one or more online players indicate a display action for the revealed playing card.