Collating and sorting apparatus

• US 6,676,127 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2001
• Issued: 01/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sg Gaming, Inc. (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Original Assignee: SHFL Entertainment Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Johnson, Rodney George, Piacun, Mark William
• Primary Examiner(s): Walsh, Donald P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Beauchaine, Mark J
• Application Number:
  US09/919,596
• Publication Number:
  US 20020017481A1
• Time in Patent Office: 896 Days
• Field of Search: 273/149.R, 273/149.P, 270/52.01, 270/52.02, 270/58.01, 270/58.18, 270/58.33, 270/58.34, 271/1, 271/109, 271/110, 271/111
• US Class Current: 273/149.00R
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/06 Card games appurtenances
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/12 Card shufflers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/14 Card dealers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2419 Optical
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2009/2458 LCD's
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 5/34 Sorting according to other particular properties material testing per se G01N; quality control G07C3/14
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2405/352 in closed loop

Abstract

A card handling device having either a vertical stack of compartments or a carousel of compartments is used to receive individual cards from a card supply. The compartments may be moved relative to the card supply, preferably in two different directions, such as up and down or clockwise and counterclockwise. The card handling may include shuffling, sorting, validation, and other playing card processes.

Claims

1. An apparatus for automatically shuffling cards, comprising:

a card feed station;

a multi-compartment mixing chamber, the mixing chamber having a plurality of card receiving compartments extending radially from a ventral rotational axis;

a horizontally disposed drive shaft;

a drive mechanism coupled to the drive shaft controlling rotation of the mixing chamber;

a microprocessor for randomly assigning cards being fed into the card receiving compartments and for controlling the operation of the card shuffler;

a card delivery tray for receiving groups of cards radially removed from the card receiving compartments, wherein the card delivery tray is positioned such that cards are delivered into the card receiving tray face-down;

a card feed mechanism that radially feeds cards individually from the card feed station into a card receiving compartment, wherein the card feed mechanism is positioned such that only card backs are in view of players and or the dealer.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein a sensor is present to indicate the movement or position of cards.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the sensor means includes means to identify one or more physical attributes of an article.

4. An apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the sensor means includes means to identify indicia on a surface of an article.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein the sensor means is selected from the group consisting of an optical reader and a video camera.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the feed means is adapted to withdraw individual cards from a group of cards and to feed the individual cards sequentially past the sensor means.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the storage assembly is a carousel.

8. An apparatus for arranging playing cards in a desired order, said apparatus including:

a housing;

a sensor to sense playing cards prior to arranging;

a playing card feeder for feeding said playing cards sequentially past the sensor;

a storage assembly having a plurality of storage locations in which playing cards may be arranged in groups in a desired order, wherein the storage assembly is adapted for relative vertical movement with respect to the playing card feeder in at least two directions during shuffling;

a selectively programmable computer coupled to said sensor and to said storage assembly to assemble in said storage assembly groups of playing cards in a desired order;

a delivery mechanism for selectively delivering playing cards located in selected storage locations of the storage assembly; and

a collector for collecting arranged groups of playing cards.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein the collector includes a playing card extractor to assist in extraction of playing cards from respective individual storage spaces.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the storage assembly comprises a stack that moves vertically with respect to the delivery mechanism.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the storage assembly comprises at least eight adjacent magazines that move vertically with respect to the delivery mechanism.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the feeder comprises a conveyor.

13. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the desired order is a random order of cards.

14. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the desired order is a preselected order of cards.

15. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the sensor senses only the presence of a card.

16. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the sensor senses the value of the card.

17. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the sensor is an optical reader.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the storage assembly is a vertical rack.

19. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the feeder is capable of withdrawing individual playing cards from the group of playing cards and feed individual playing cards sequentially past the sensor.

20. A method for sorting a pack of playing cards, said method comprising:

feeding individual cards from a card feeder past a sensor to determine suit and value of individual cards and transmitting sensor signal data to a computer;

computing sensor signal data for each respective card and allocating thereto a predetermined value corresponding to the order of a particular card in a sorted pack;

delivering sensed cards to a collator having an individual storage space allocated to a card of predetermined suit and value, the collator moving relatively vertically with respect to the card feeder;

indexing said collator with a delivery mechanism to deliver each said sensed card to a respective storage space of said collator; and

sequentially removing said cards from said collator to form a sorted pack of playing cards.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the collator moves relatively in two different directions during a period when the sorted pack of playing cards is formed.

22. A method of shuffling a pack of cards, said method comprising the steps of:

feeding cards by means of a card delivery mechanism individually past a sensor to determine the presence of each card and transmitting sensor signal data to a computer;

computing sensor signal data for each respective card and allocating thereto a value generated by a random number generator corresponding to a storage space in a collator;

delivering sensed cards to a collator having a plurality of storage spaces;

indexing said collator with a card delivery mechanism to deliver each said card to the corresponding storage space of said collator, wherein relative motion between the collator and card feeder is both vertical and in at least two directions during shuffling; and

collecting cards from said collator to form a randomly ordered pack of playing cards.

23. A card shuffling device, comprising:

a housing;

an infeed receptacle for accepting cards to be fed;

a card moving mechanism for moving cards from the infeed receptacle to a storage device;

a storage device comprising a vertical stack of a plurality of compartments for receiving cards to be sorted;

a mechanism for moving the storage device relative to the card moving mechanism to permit card placement in different compartments in the card storage device;

a card unloading device for removing cards from the compartments in the card storage device; and

a selectively programmable microprocessor for selecting a compartment in the card storage device to receive each card being moved and for changing a direction of movement of the storage device during shuffling.

24. The card shuffling device of claim 23 further comprising a sensor for sensing cards prior to insertion into compartments in the storage device.

25. The card shuffling device of claim 23 wherein the storage device is a stack of compartments.

26. The card shuffling device of claim 23 wherein the storage device is a carousel.

27. The card shuffling device of claim 23 wherein each compartment in the card storage device receives only a single card.

28. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 27 wherein the sensor is adapted to detect electromagnetic signals reflected and/or transmitted by a playing card.

29. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 27, wherein the sensor includes means to identify the presence of a playing card.

30. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 29 wherein the sensor is adapted to identify one or more physical attributes of a playing card.

31. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 30 wherein the sensor is adapted to identify indicia on a playing card.

32. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 29 wherein said programmable computing means includes data memory and data storage capacity to store data relating to each individual playing card sensed by the sensor.

33. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 32 including a random number generator for randomly allocating playing cards to said storage assembly.

34. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 33 wherein said pack of cards comprises one or more decks of cards.

35. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 34 wherein said pack comprises one or more decks of cards.

36. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 35 wherein said sensor is adapted to determine the suit and/or value of individual cards.

37. The card shuffling device of claim 23 wherein at least some compartments in the card storage device receives more than one card.

38. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 23 wherein the feeder is adapted to withdraw individual playing cards from a group of playing cards and feed said individual playing cards sequentially past the sensor.

39. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 38 wherein the feeder includes a conveyor.

40. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 23 wherein the sensor comprises a scanning device.

41. The card shuttling device as claimed in claim 23 wherein the storage assembly comprises one or more storage magazines each having a plurality of storage spaces.

42. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 41 wherein said one or more storage magazines each include a predetermined number of individual storage spaces corresponding to the number of playing cards in a pack.

43. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 42 wherein individual storage spaces are selectively indexable with said delivery system.

44. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 43 storage assembly comprises spaced storage spaces displaceable along an upright axis relative to said delivery mechanism.

45. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 43 wherein said delivery assembly comprises a conveyor.

46. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 45 wherein the delivery assembly is displaceable between adjacent storage magazines.

47. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 46 including at least two delivery assemblies.

48. The card shuffling device as claimed in claim 41 wherein said collector is adapted to collect a collated group of playing cards.

49. A card handling device, comprising:

a housing having a forward side and a rearward side;

an infeed receptacle on the forward side of the housing for accepting cards to be fed;

a card moving mechanism for moving cards from the infeed receptacle to a storage device;

a storage device comprising a vertical stack of a plurality of compartments for receiving cards;

a mechanism for moving the storage device relative to the card moving mechanism to permit card placement in different compartments in the card storage device;

a card unloading device for removing cards from the compartments in the card storage device from the forward side of the housing; and

a selectively programmable microprocessor for selecting a compartment in the card storage device to receive each card being moved and for changing a direction of movement of the storage device during shuffling.

50. The card handling device of claim 49 wherein the vertical stack of compartments for receiving cards moves vertically relative to the card moving mechanism.

51. A card handling device, comprising:

a housing having a forward side and a rearward side;

an infeed receptacle on the forward side of the housing for accepting cards to be fed;

a card moving mechanism for moving cards from to infeed receptacle to a storage device;

a storage device comprising a carousel of a plurality of compartments for receiving cards;

a mechanism for moving the storage device relative to the card moving mechanism to permit card placement in different compartments in the card storage device;

a card unloading device for removing cards from the compartments in the card storage device from the forward side of the housing; and

a selectively programmable microprocessor for selecting a compartment in the card storage device to receive each card being moved and for changing a direction of movement of the storage device during shuffling.

52. The card handling apparatus of claim 51 wherein the change of directions is a change between clockwise and counterclockwise movement of the carousel.

53. A playing card shuffling device, comprising:

a housing;

an infeed receptacle for accepting cards to be fed;

a card moving mechanism for moving cards from the infeed receptacle to a storage device;

the storage device comprising a vertical stack of a plurality of compartments for receiving cards to be shuffled;

a mechanism for relatively moving the storage device with respect to the card moving mechanism to permit card placement in different compartments in the card storage device;

a card unloading device for removing cards from the compartments in the card storage device to form a random set of cards; and

a selectively programmable microprocessor for selecting a compartment in the card storage device to receive each card being moved and for changing a direction of movement of the storage device during shuffling of the cards,

the card shuffling device having a sensor for sensing cards prior to insertion into compartments in the storage device.

54. The card shuffling device of claim 53 wherein the sensor identifies the presence of a card and compartments accept more than one card at a time and where a random number generator allocates playing cards to compartments in the card storage device.

55. The card shuffling device of claim 54 wherein the programmable microprocessor includes data memory and data storage capacity to store data relating to each playing card sensed by the sensor.