Station for reading and/or writing in electronic gaming chips

• US 7,883,408 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2003
• Issued: 02/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Gaming Partners International Corporation
• Original Assignee: Gaming Partners International Corporation
• Inventors: Gelinotte, Emmanuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Coburn; Corbett B
• Application Number:
  US10/631,730
• Publication Number:
  US 20040229682A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,748 Days
• Field of Search: 348/67, 347/42, 40/275, 463/25, 463/29
• US Class Current: 463/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0008 General problems related to the reading of electronic memory record carriers, independent of its reading method, e.g. power transfer
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10336 the antenna being of the near field type, inductive coil
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements

Abstract

Station for reading and/or writing in a memory of a token having an electronic circuit, wherein the station includes a token storing system. An antenna arrangement includes antennas. At least two antennas include antenna loops that are disposed adjacently and at least partly superposed on each other so as to define an enlarged reading and/or writing area in which transmission quality is substantially homogeneous. A communication unit is adapted to exchange information with the memory via the antenna arrangement when the token is arranged in the token storing system in an orientation that allows for communication.

Claims

1. A station for reading and/or writing in a memory of a token having an electronic circuit, said token being arranged in a stack of two or more tokens, said station comprising:

a token storing system;

an antenna arrangement comprising first and second antennas;

at least one of the first and second antennas comprising antenna loops disposed adjacently and being at least partly superposed on each other so as to define an enlarged reading and/or writing area in which transmission quality is substantially homogeneous, each antenna loop delimiting an interior surface located substantially within a single plane when active; and

a communication unit adapted to exchange information with the memory via the antenna arrangement when said token is arranged in the token storing system in an orientation that allows for communication, said communication unit adapted to select one of said antennas in said antenna arrangement to be active, said communication unit configured to selectively communicate with the memory of each token in said stack of two or more tokens in said enlarged reading and/or writing area associated with said active antenna,

wherein the station is structured and arranged to discriminate between two tokens or among more than two tokens when stacked.

2. The station of claim 1, wherein the token comprises a gaming chip.

3. The station of claim 1, wherein the first and second antennas each comprise respective first and second loops.

4. The station of claim 1, wherein the first and second antennas each comprise an upper loop and a lower loop at least partly superposed on each other and electrically connected in parallel.

5. The station of claim 4, wherein each upper loop and each lower loop lie in two substantially parallel planes and face each other.

6. The station of claim 1, further comprising at least one area of overlap between the antenna loops.

7. The station of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first and second antennas includes a plurality of contiguous superposed turns.

8. The station of claim 7, wherein said plurality of contiguous superposed turns are superposed to a height in the range of between 4 mm and 10 mm.

9. The station of claim 1, wherein the token storage system comprises a storage tray.

10. The station of claim 1, wherein the token storage system comprises substantially parallel upper and lower walls serving as supports for the first and second antennas.

11. The station of claim 10, wherein the first and second antennas are arranged to allow the communication unit to exchange said information with said token regardless of a position of said token in the token storage system and provided that said token is substantially parallel to said upper and lower walls.

12. The station of claim 1, wherein the first and second antennas respectively comprise first and second antenna loops having areas of overlap.

13. The station of claim 12, wherein the token storage system comprises substantially parallel upper and lower walls serving as supports for the first and second loops.

14. The station of claim 1, wherein said communication unit includes a chip discriminating system.

15. The station of claim 1, wherein said communication unit includes a duplicate elimination system.

16. The station of claim 1, wherein said communication unit includes a chip discriminator.

17. The station of claim 1, wherein said communication unit includes a duplicate eliminator.

18. The station of claim 1, wherein said communication unit includes a system for sequential selection of said first and second antennas.

19. The station of claim 1, wherein at least one of said first and second antennas is electrically connected to said communication unit via a phase difference adjusting device.

20. The station of claim 19, wherein the phase difference adjusting device provides adjustment between an electrical voltage at terminals of said first and second antennas and an electrical current flowing in said first and second antennas.

21. The station of claim 19, wherein the phase difference adjusting device is electrically connected to terminals of said antenna arrangement in an immediate vicinity thereof.

22. The station of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a gaming table, a change table, a cash table, and a chip sorting device.

23. The station of claim 22, further comprising of plurality of antennas partially or wholly integrated into at least one of the gaming table, the change table, the cash table, and the chip sorting device.

26. The station of claim 1, wherein said communication unit is further configured to selectively deactivate each token in said stack of two or more tokens in said enlarged reading and/or writing area associated with said active antenna so that information is exchanged with the memory of each token a single time each time said antenna is activated.

27. The station of claim 26, wherein said communication unit is further configured to send a command to each token in said stack of two or more tokens to remove the deactivate command after the memory of each token within said enlarged reading and/or writing area associated with said active antenna has been communicated with to exchange information.

24. The station of claim is 1, wherein the token storage system comprises one of a portable storage device, a removable storage device, a chip rack, a mobile tray, and a box.

25. The station of claim 24, further comprising a plurality of antennas partially or wholly integrated into at least one of the portable storage device, the removable storage device, the chip rack, the mobile tray, and the box.

28. A station for reading and/or writing in a memory of a token having an electronic circuit, said token being arranged in a stack of two or more tokens, said station comprising:

a token storing system;

an antenna arrangement comprising first and second antennas;

at least one of the first and second antennas comprising antenna loops disposed adjacently and being at least partly superposed on each other so as to define an enlarged reading and/or writing area in which transmission quality is substantially homogeneous; and

a communication unit adapted to exchange information with the memory via the antenna arrangement when said token is arranged in the token storing system in an orientation that allows for communication, said communication unit further comprising,

a multiplexing card coupled to said first and second antennas, said multiplexing card being configured for receiving inputs from said first and second antennas and transmitting an output from either said first or second antenna in response to a command,

a read/write unit coupled to said multiplexing card, said read/write unit being configured to selectively exchange information with the memory of any token in said stack of two or more tokens by selecting one of said first or second antenna in said antenna arrangement, and

a processor communicatively coupled to said read/write unit and said multiplexing card, said processor being configured to generate commands and communicate said commands and other information to said read/write unit, said processor also being configured to generate said command for controlling the output of said multiplexing card based on selecting said first or second antenna,

wherein the station is structured and arranged to discriminate between two tokens or among more than two tokens when stacked.

29. A station for reading a memory of a token having an electronic circuit, said token being arranged in a stack of two or more tokens, said station comprising:

a token storing system;

an antenna arrangement comprising first and second antennas;

at least one of the first and second antennas comprising antenna loops disposed adjacently and being at least partly superposed on each other so as to define an enlarged reading area in which transmission quality is substantially homogeneous; and

a communication unit adapted to read information from the memory via the antenna arrangement when said token is arranged in the token storing system in an orientation that allows for communication, said communication unit further comprising,

a multiplexing card coupled to said first and second antennas, said multiplexing card being configured for receiving inputs from said first and second antennas and transmitting an output from either said first or second antenna in response to a processor command,

a read unit coupled to said multiplexing card, said read unit being configured to selectively read information from the memory of any token in said stack of two or more tokens by selecting one of said first or second antenna, said read unit being configured to capture the identity of each token in said stack of said two or more tokens, perform a read operation on the memory of each token in said stack of said two or more tokens, and deactivating each token that was accounted for in said stack of said two or more tokens during said read operation by transmitting a standby command to the memory of said token so that said token is not read a second time, and

a processor communicatively coupled to said read unit and said multiplexing card, said processor being configured to generate commands and communicate said commands and other information to said read unit, said processor also being configured to generate said processor command for controlling the output of said multiplexing card based on selecting said first or second antenna,

wherein the station is structured and arranged to discriminate between two tokens or among more than two tokens when stacked.