Automated game monitoring

• US 7,901,285 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2005
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Image Fidelity LLC
• Original Assignee: Image Fidelity LLC
• Inventors: Banh, Nam, Tran, Louis
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis; David L
• Assistant Examiner(s): DEODHAR, OMKAR A
• Application Number:
  US11/052,941
• Publication Number:
  US 20050272501A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,219 Days
• Field of Search: 463/29, 463/25, 463/30, 463/12, 273/148.R, 273/309, 348/143, 348/159, 348/207.1, 348/207.11
• US Class Current: 463/25
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/32 for games, toys, sports, or amusements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3232 wherein the operator is informed
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/3241 Security aspects of a gaming system, e.g. detecting cheating, device integrity, surveillance computer security G06F21/00

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for monitoring players in a game, extracting player and game operator data, and processing the data. In one embodiment, the present invention captures the relevant actions and/or the results of relevant actions of one or more players and one or more game operators in a game, such as a casino game. The system and methods are flexible in that they do not require special gaming pieces to collect data. Rather, the present invention is calibrated to the particular gaming pieces and environment already in use in the game. The data extracted can be processed and presented to aid in game security, player and game operator progress and history, determining trends, maximizing the integrity and draw of casino games, and a wide variety of other areas. The data is generally retrieved through a series of cameras that capture images of game play from different angles.

Claims

1. A method for recognizing a game element in a game environment, comprising:

(a) capturing an initial calibration image of a game environment background surface associated with an expected location of a gaming piece;

(b) capturing a reference image of a background surface within a game environment;

(c) storing the reference image of the background surface within the game environment;

(d) detecting by the computing device a start of a game within the game environment;

(e) capturing a current image of the background surface within the game environment after the game has started;

(f) detecting by the computing device the presence of a gaming card by comparing the reference image and the current image to identify differences between the reference image and the current image, the differences associated with the presence of the gaming card;

(g) comparing by the computing device a portion of the initial calibration image of the game environment background surface to a corresponding portion of the current image of the game environment background surface, the portion associated with the game environment background surface;

(h) detecting change in pixel intensity values for the for the portion associated with the background surface of the game environment, the current image of the game environment captured of the game environment during a game;

(i) capturing a second calibration image of the background surface with an updated camera setting in response to the illumination detected change in pixel intensity values determined by comparing the reference image of the game environment to the current image of the game environment captured during a game, the detected change in illumination triggering a calibration event which triggered the capturing of the second calibration image, the camera setting updated based on the illumination change;

(j) storing the second calibration image; and

(k) repeating the steps (e) through (j) based on the second calibration image and a second current image.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

capturing a second reference image of a game environment by a second camera, the first reference image captured by a first camera positioned over the game environment;

mapping the position of one or more game objects in the first reference image to the position of the one or more game objects in the second reference image; and

storing position mapping data for the one or more game objects based on said step of mapping the position of the one or more game objects, said step of comparing including,

calculating the difference image from the reference image and the current captured image of the game environment during a game,

applying a threshold to the difference image to identify pixels that satisfy a threshold,

identifying sets of neighboring pixels that satisfy the threshold into one or more groups,

determining geometric features of the one or more groups, and

comparing the said geometric features of the one or more groups to stored calibration data.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

capturing a first chip reference image by a second camera, the second camera positioned to capture a side view of a stack of one or more chips placed in the game environment;

capturing a second chip reference image by the second camera;

storing the first chip reference image and second chip reference image as a template; and

deriving chip statistics for the chips in the stack of one or more chips from the stored template.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a calibration task in response to triggering a calibration event during game play, the calibration task including storing an image associated with a subset of the background surface of the gaming environment, the calibration event associated with the determined illumination change.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dividing the image into an array of regions, each region encompassing a portion of the background surface of the game environment; and

generating image calibration information from image data for each array region, the image data derived from the image of the game environment.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the image calibration information for each array region includes localized parameters for each array region for one or more cards, chips or a gaming surface for the particular array region.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the image calibration information for each array region includes localized color space information for one or more cards, chips or a gaming surface.