CARD SHUFFLING DEVICE AND CALIBRATION METHOD

• US 20160082344A1
• Filed: 09/19/2014
• Published: 03/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LNW Gaming Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Bally Gaming Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Kelly, James V., Helgesen, James P., Zvercov, Vladislav, Bourbour, Feraidoon, Rynda, Robert J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,504,905 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/067 Tables or similar supporting structures
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/12 Card shufflers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 1/14 Card dealers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 11/0002 Dispensing or collecting devices for tokens or chips dispensers for game pieces in chain reaction games A63F9/28; coin freed apparatus for games G07F17/32

Abstract

A playing card handling device comprises an elevator platform configured to receive one or more cards from an input platform to form a shuffled set of cards, a card gripper positioned above the elevator platform, and configured to grip cards from the shuffled set of cards, and a processor configured to control the elevator platform to have a grip position for the card gripper grip the shuffled set of cards, wherein the grip position is adjusted based, at least in part, on a correction value associated with a particular card insertion. A related method includes determining a grip position of an elevator platform of a card handling device based, at least in part, on a desired insert location within a stack of shuffled cards as adjusted based on a corrective value that is different for a plurality of different insert locations.

Claims

1. A card handling device, comprising:

an input platform configured to receive an un-shuffled set of cards;

an elevator platform configured to receive one or more cards from the input platform to form a shuffled set of cards;

a card gripper positioned above the elevator platform, and configured to grip cards from the shuffled set of cards; and

a processor operably coupled to the input platform, the elevator platform, and the card gripper, wherein the processor is configured to control the elevator platform to have a grip position for the card gripper grip the shuffled set of cards, wherein the grip position is adjusted based, at least in part, on a correction value associated with a particular card insertion.

2. The card handling device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

control the elevator platform and the card gripper to create a gap in the set of shuffled playing cards at an insert location determined by a random number generator (RNG); and

control a card being insert into the gap.

3. The card handling device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to automatically create and maintain a correction table including a plurality of correction values associated with a plurality of different card insertion combinations.

4. The card handling device of claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to:

automatically create and maintain a plurality of different correction tables for different decks of cards used by the card handling device,

automatically create and maintain a zone hit counter table configured to count a number of times each correction value is adjusted; and

automatically create and maintain a zone re-grip counter table configured to count a number of times a card re-grip occurs for each different card insertion combination of the plurality.

7. The card handling device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to automatically create and maintain a deck height table configured to store data indicating a deck height for different numbers of cards stacked on the elevator platform, wherein the data indicating the deck height includes positional data for the elevator platform.

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12. A card handling device, comprising:

a card input area and a card output area configured to transform un-shuffled set of cards into a shuffled set of cards;

a card gripper configured to grip cards from the shuffled set of cards;

an elevator platform that provides a base for the shuffled set of cards during a shuffling operation; and

a processor operably coupled with the card gripper and the elevator platform, the processor configured to;

generate a virtual shuffled set of cards according to a random number generator;

control the card gripper and elevator platform to a grip position and create a gap for insertion of a card during the shuffling operation; and

adjust the grip position according to a plurality of different corrective values that are different depending on a number of cards to be gripped and a number of cards on the elevator platform.

13. The card handling device of claim 12, further comprising a top platform card sensor positioned below the card gripper and operably coupled with the processor, wherein the processor is configured to record a position of the elevator platform responsive to the top platform card sensor detecting a top card on the elevator platform.

16. The card handling device of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to adjust the plurality of different corrective values responsive to a comparison of a measured position and a reference position, the measured position indicative of a height of cards remaining on the elevator platform after a grip, and the reference position indicative of an expected height of cards remaining on the platform after the grip.

18. The card handling device of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to determine the reference position based on at least one of a one dimensional method, a two dimensional method, and a combination of the one dimensional method and two dimensional method, wherein:

the one dimensional method is based only on the height of cards on the elevator platform; and

the two dimensional method is based on a combination of a number of cards to be gripped and a number of cards on the elevator platform.

19. The card handling device of claim 18, wherein the reference position is defined as RP=½

(P1+P2)+C steps, wherein RP is the reference position, P1 is a position of the elevator platform resulting from the one dimensional method, P2 is a position of the elevator platform resulting from the two dimensional method, and C is a bias constant.

21. The card handling device of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to generate a delta value between a measured position and a reference position and determine whether to insert the card based, at least in part, on the delta, wherein the measured position is indicative of a height of cards remaining on the elevator platform after a grip, and the reference position is indicative of an expected height of cards remaining on the platform after the grip.

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22. A method of handling cards, comprising:

determining a grip position of an elevator platform of a card handling device based, at least in part, on a desired insert location within a stack of shuffled cards as adjusted based on a corrective value that is different for a plurality of different insert locations;

moving the elevator platform to the grip position;

gripping at least a portion of the stack of shuffled cards if the elevator platform is at the grip position;

moving the elevator platform away from the grip position to create a gap; and

inserting a card into the gap.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

measuring a height of cards remaining on the elevator platform after the gap is created and before inserting the card into the gap;

determining a difference between the measured height of the cards remaining on the elevator platform and a reference height for cards expected to be remaining on the elevator platform; and

adjust the correction value if the difference is greater than a pre-determined threshold.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein:

measuring the height of card remaining on the platform includes recording a measured position of the elevator platform when a top card of the cards remaining on the elevator platform is detected by a sensor positioned below a card gripper; and

determining the difference between the measured height the reference height includes subtracting the measured position from a reference position of the elevator platform for cards expected to be remaining on the elevator platform.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

determining one-dimensional positional data as cards are stacked on the elevator platform;

determining two-dimensional positional data for desired insertion locations having cards above the insertion location and below the insertion location; and

determining the reference height based on the one-dimensional positional data and the two-dimensional positional data.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein determining one-dimensional positional data as cards are stacked on the elevator platform includes:

generating position data for various numbers of cards on the elevator platform; and

averaging the position data to achieve an average value for each number of cards measured.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein averaging includes:

sorting the position data for each number of cards; and

averaging a subset of the sorted position data to achieve the average value.

30. The method of claim 22, further comprising moving a card gripper in and out to align the stack of shuffled cards prior to gripping at least a portion of the stack of shuffled cards.

31. The method of claim 22, further comprising closing a card gripper an additional distance as the elevator platform as the elevator platform is moved away from the grip position to create the gap.

32. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

if the desired insert location is determined to be directly below a top card of the stack of shuffled cards, gripping the top card by moving the elevator platform incrementally until a single card is determined to be gripped; and

if the desired insert location is determined to be directly above a bottom card of the stack of shuffled cards, gripping the stack of shuffled cards while leaving the bottom card by moving the elevator platform incrementally until a single card is determined to remain on the elevator platform.

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