CARD SHUFFLING APPARATUS AND CARD HANDLING DEVICE

• US 20180256967A1
• Filed: 03/02/2018
• Published: 09/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LNW Gaming Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Bally Gaming Incorporated (Scientific Games Corporation)
• Inventors: Downs, III, Justin G., Zvercov, Vladislav, Roberts, James R., Kulakkunnath, Kapilkumar N.
• Granted Patent: US 10,576,363 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 2009/2425 Scanners, e.g. for scanning regular characters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 25/76 Addressed sensors, e.g. MOS or CMOS sensors

Abstract

A device for forming a random set of playing cards comprises a card in-feed area, a shuffling system, a card removal area, and a card reading system located within the device, the card reading system employing a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor and a hardware component, the hardware component capable of converting signals from the CMOS sensor into vector sets and comparing the vector sets to known vectors to determine rank and suit.

Claims

1. A card-reading module for a card-handling apparatus, comprising:

an illuminator configured to illuminate faces of playing cards with electromagnetic radiation;

a two-dimensional, image-array sensor configured to receive reflected electromagnetic radiation from the faces to generate card face data;

logic circuitry operatively connectable to the sensor, the logic circuitry configured to convert the card face data into binary values; and

a nontransitory memory device operatively connectable to the logic circuitry, the nontransitory memory device storing templates for at least one of a rank and suit of each expected card for comparison to the binary values of the card face data;

wherein the logic circuitry is configured to compare the binary values from generated card face data to the templates to determine at least one of the rank and suit of a given playing card.

2. The card-reading module of claim 1, wherein the two-dimensional, image-array sensor comprises a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor.

3. The card-reading module of claim 2, wherein the CMOS image sensor is configured to generate the card face data as a vector set.

4. The card-reading module of claim 2, wherein the CMOS image sensor comprises a black and white CMOS image sensor.

5. The card-reading module of claim 4, wherein the black and white CMOS image sensor is configured to output grayscale values.

6. The card-reading module of claim 5, wherein the black and white CMOS image sensor is configured to output the grayscale values in at least one of an 8 and 16 bit format.

7. The card-reading module of claim 2, wherein the CMOS image sensor is a color CMOS image sensor.

8. The card-reading module of claim 1, wherein the illuminator is configured such that at least a portion of light emitted by the illuminator is green.

9. The card-reading module of claim 8, wherein the illuminator is configured such that at least 40% of a total fluence emitted by the illuminator comprises green light.

10. The card-reading module of claim 9, wherein the illuminator is configured such that between 50% and 100% of the total fluence emitted by the illuminator when the illuminator is activated comprises green light.

11. The card-reading module of claim 1, wherein the illuminator is configured such that between 60% and 90% of the total fluence emitted by the illuminator when the illuminator is activated comprises green light.

12. The card-reading module of claim 1, wherein the logic circuitry comprises at least one of a field-programmable gate array (FGPA) and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).

13. The card-reading module of claim 1, wherein the illuminator comprises a light-emitting diode (LED).

14. A method of configuring a card-reading module for use with a card-handling apparatus, comprising:

providing an illuminator configured to illuminate faces of playing cards with electromagnetic radiation;

providing a two-dimensional, image-array sensor configured to receive reflected electromagnetic radiation from the faces of the playing cards;

operatively connecting logic circuitry to the two-dimensional, image-array sensor, the logic circuitry configured to convert the card face data into binary values;

operatively connecting a nontransitory memory device to the logic circuitry, the nontransitory memo device storing templates for at least one of a rank and suit of each expected card for comparison to the binary value values of the card face data; and

configuring the logic circuitry to compare the binary values from generated card face data to the templates to determine at least one of the rank and suit of a given playing card.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein providing the two-dimensional, image-array sensor comprises providing a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein providing the CMOS image sensor comprises providing a black and white CMOS image sensor.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein operatively connecting the logic circuitry to the two-dimensional, image-array sensor comprises operatively connecting at least one of a field-programmable gate array (FGPA) and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to the two-dimensional, image-array sensor.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein providing the illuminator comprises selecting the illuminator to emit at least some green light.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein selecting the illuminator to emit the at least some green light comprises selecting the illuminator to emit green light in at least 40% of a total fluence emittable by the illuminator.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein selecting the illuminator to emit green light in at least 40% of the total fluence emittable by the illuminator comprises selecting the illuminator to emit green light in between 50% and 100% of the total fluence emittable by the illuminator.