Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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MANUAL DEALING SHOE WITH CARD FEED LIMITER
RELATED APPLICATION DATA
This application is a continuation-in-part of pending U.S. Application Serial
No. 11/152,475, filed June 13, 2005. The content of this application is
incorporated
by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of gaming, the filed of casino
table
card gaming, the play of baccarat at a casino card table, and the use of
equipment for
the delivery of playing cards.
2. Background of the Art
Cards are ordinarily provided to players in casino table card games either
directly from a deck held in the dealer's hands or with cards removed by the
dealer
from a dealing shoe or dealing rack. The original dealing racks were little
more than
trays that supported the deck(s) of cards and allowed the dealer to remove the
front
card (with its back facing the table to hide the rank of the card) and deliver
it to a
player. Over the years, both stylistic and functional changes have been made
to
dealing shoes, which have been used for blackjack, poker, baccarat and other
casino
table card games.
U.S. Patent No. 6,585,586; 6,582,302; and 6,293,864 (ROMERO) describe a
gaming assembly to play a variation of the game of baccarat, the gaming
assembly
including a computer processor assembly, a display assembly and at least one
user
actuatable selector assembly. The computer processor assembly is structured to
generate a player's hand and a banker's hand in accordance with rules of
baccarat, one
of those hands being designated the user's hand. Further, the computer
processor
assembly is structured to determine a winning hand in accordance with the
rules of
baccarat, designating the user as a winner if the user's hand is also the
winning hand.
Additionally, the computer processor assembly is structured to monitor
consecutive
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ones of the user's hands and to indicate a bonus payout to the user in the
event that
consecutive ones of the user's hands have a final number count equal to a
natural nine.
U.S. Patent No. 4,667,959 (PFEIFFER) describes a card apparatus having a
card hopper adapted to hold from one to at least 104 cards, a card carousel
having
slots for holding cards, an injector for sequentially loading cards from the
hopper into
the carousel, multiple output ports, ejectors for delivering cards from the
carousel to
any one of the multiple output ports, and a control board and sensors, all
housed in a
housing. The apparatus is also capable of communicating wit11 selectors which
are
adjustable for malcing card selections. The injector has three rollers driven
by a motor
via a worin gear. A spring loaded lever keeps cards in the hopper pressed
against the
first roller. The ejectors are pivotally mounted to the base of the housing
beneath the
carousel and comprise a roller driven by a motor via gears and a centripetal
clutch. A
control board keeps track of the identity of cards in each slot, card
selections, and the
carousel position. Cards may be ordinary playing cards or other cards witli
bar codes
added for card identification by the apparatus.
U.S. Patent No. 4,750,743 (NICOLETTI) describes the use of a mechanical
card dispensing means to advance cards at least part way out of the shoe. The
described invention is for a dispenser for playing cards comprising: a shoe
adapted to
contain a plurality of stacked playing cards, the playing cards including a
leading card
and a trailing card; the shoe including a back wall, first and second side
walls, a front
wall, a base, and an inclined floor extending from the back wall to proximate
the front
wall and adapted to support the playing cards; the floor being inclined
downwardly
from the back wall to the front wall; the front wall having an opening and
otherwise
being adapted to conceal the leading card; and the front wall, side walls,
base and
floor enclosing a slot positioned adjacent the floor, the slot being sized to
permit a
playing card to pass through the slot; card advancing means contacting the
trailing
card and adapted to urge the stacked cards down the inclined floor; card
dispensing
means positioned proximate the front wall and adapted to dispense a single
card at a
time, the card dispensing means including leading card contact means adapted
for
rotation about an axis parallel to the leading card, whereby rotation of the
leading card
contact means displaces the leading card relative to the card stack and into a
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predetermined position extending out of the shoe from the slot; and an endless
belt
located in the opening in the front wall for rotating the leading card contact
means, the
endless belt having an exterior surface securely engaging the leading card
contact
means and being adapted to be displaced by an operator.
U.S. Patent No. 5,779,546 (MEISSNER) describes a method and apparatus to
enable a game to be played based upon a plurality of cards. An automated
dealing
shoe dispenses each of the cards and recognizes each of the cards as each of
the cards
is dispensed. Player stations are also included. Each player station enables a
player to
enter a bet, request that a card be dispensed or not dispensed, and to convert
each bet
into a win or a loss based upon the cards that are dispensed by the automated
dealing
shoe.
U.S. Patent No. 5,989,122 (ROBLEJO) relates to an apparatus for
randomizing and verifying sets of playing cards. Also, the invention relates
to a
process of providing such an apparatus; feeding to the apparatus one or more
cards
either after they have been played in a game or from an unrandomized or
unverified
set of cards; and manually retrieving a verified true set of cards from the
apparatus.
Also, the invention relates to a process of playing in a casino setting or
simulated
casino setting, a card game comprising providing such an apparatus, feeding
unverified sets of playing cards to the apparatus, and recovering verified
true sets of
cards from the apparatus.
U.S. Patent No. 5,374,061 (Albrecht) discloses a dealing shoe that uses a
specially coded deck of cards indicating the value and suit of the card or a
value
related to the count of the card. The shoe also determines whether the card
belongs to
a particular set of cards. A code is sensed on the card and sends the detected
signal to
a processor. The processor determines a running count, a betting count, a true
count or
other information related to the profitability of a particular wager or
particular action,
such as an insurance bet as well as an indication of whether the card belongs
to the
particular set of cards assigned to the table. The counts are displayed
centrally and/or
remotely from the shoe that dispenses the cards. The electronics for the
system may
be internally included as part of the shoe or externally included as a
separate unit in
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which the shoe is secured. The reading head is provided on the floor of the
exit end
of the shoe.
U.S. Patent Nos. 5,605,334; 6,093,103 and 6,117,012 (McCREA) disclose
apparatus for use in a security system for card games. A secure game table
system
comprises: a shoe for holding each card from said at least one deck before
being dealt
by said dealer in said hand, said shoe having a detector for reading at least
the value
and the suit of said each card.
U.S. Patent No. 6,250,632 (ALBRECHT) describes an apparatus and method
for sorting cards into a predetermined sequence. One embodiment provides a
deck
holding area in which cards are held for presenting a card to a reading head
for
reading the characters on the face of the card. The apparatus also has a tray
having a
sequence of slots and a card moving mechanism for moving the presented card
from
the deck holding area into one of the slots. The tray is connected to a tray
positioning
mechanism for selectively positioning the tray to receive a card in one of the
slots
from the card moving mechanism. A controller is connected to the read head,
the card
moving mechanism, and the tray positioning mechanism. The controller controls
the
reading of each of the cards by the read head and identifies the value of each
card
read, and also controls the card moving mechanism to move each of the cards to
a slot
of the tray positioned by the tray positioning mecha.nism according to the
predetermined sequence of values.
U.S. Patent No. 6,267,648 (JOHNSON) describes a collation and/or sorting
apparatus for groups of articles that is exemplified by a sorting and/or
shuffling
device for playing cards. The apparatus comprises a sensor (15) to identify
articles for
collation and/or sorting, feeding means to feed cards from a stack (11) past
the sensor
(15) to a delivery means (14) adapted to deliver cards individually to a
preselected
one of a storing means (24) in an indexable magazine (20). A microprocessor
(16)
coupled to the feed means (14), delivery means (18), sensor (15) and magazine
(20)
determines according to a preprogrammed routine whether cards identified by
sensor
(15) are collated in the magazine (20) as an ordered deck of cards or a
randomly
ordered or "shuffled" deck.
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U.S. Patent No. 6,403,908 (STARDUST) describes an automated method and
apparatus for sequencing and/or inspecting decks of playing cards. The method
and
apparatus utilizes pattern recognition technology or other image comparison
technology to compare one or more images of a card with memory containing
known
good images of a complete deck of playing cards to identify each card as it
passes
through the apparatus. Once the card is identified, it is temporarily stored
in a location
corresponding to or identified according to its position in a properly
sequenced deck
of playing cards. If a playing card has not been rejected based upon improper
color of
the back of the card, the embedded processor then detennines the rank and suit
(position) of the card in a properly sequenced deck of cards, using digital
image
processing to compare the digital images obtained from that specific playing
card
against the plurality of stored card images which comprise a complete 52-card
deck.
This step either comprises an application of pattern recognition technology or
other
image comparison technology.
U.S. Patent No. 6, 217,447 (LOFINK) describes a method and system
for generating displays related to the play of Baccarat. Cards dealt to each
of the
Banker's and Player's hands are identified as by scanning and data signals are
generated. The card identification data signals are processed to determine the
outcome
of the hand. Displays in various formats to be used by bettors are created
from the
processed identification signals including the cards of the hand played,
historical
records of outcomes and the like. The display can also show bettors expected
outcomes and historical bests. Bettors can refer to the display in making
betting
decisions.
U.S. Patent No. 6,582,301; 6,299,536; 6,039,650; and 5,722,893 (HILL)
describes a dealing shoe that has a card scanner that scans indicia on a
playing card as
the card moves along and out of a chute by manual direction by the dealer. The
scanner can be one of several different types of devices that will sense each
card as it
is moved downwardly and out of the shoe. A feed forward neural-network is
trained,
using error back-propagation to recognize all possible card suits and card
values
sensed by the scanner.
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U.S. Patent No. 6,126,166 (LORSON) describes a system for monitoring
play of a card game between a dealer and one or more players at a playing
table,
comprising:
(a) a card-dispensing shoe comprising one or more active card-recognition
sensors
positioned to generate signals corresponding to transitions between
substantially light
background and dark pip areas as standard playing cards are dispensed from the
card-
dispensing shoe, without generating a bit-mapped image of each dispensed
standard
playing card; and (b) a signal processing subsystem.
U.S. Patent No. 5,941,769 (ORDER) describes a device for professional use in
table games of chance with playing cards and gaming chips (jettons), in
particular the
game of "Black Jack." An automatically working apparatus is provided which
will
register and evaluate all phases of the run of the game automatically. This is
achieved
by a card shoe with an integrated device for recognition of the value of the
drawn
cards using an optical recognition device and mirroring into a CCD-image
converter.
U.S. Patent No. 6,460,848 (SOLTYS) - MindPlay LLC U.S. Patent describes
a system that automatically monitors playing and wagering of a game, including
the
gaming habits of players and the performance of employees. A card deck reader
automatically reads a symbol from each card in a deck of cards before a first
one of
the cards is removed. The symbol identifies a respective rank and suit of the
card.
There are numerous other patents assigned to MindPlay LLC, including at this
time
U.S. Patent Nos. 6,712,696; 6,688,979; 6,685,568; 6,663,490; 6,652,379;
6,638,161;
6,595,857; 6,579,181; 6,579,180; 6,533,662; 6,533,276; 6,530,837; 6,530,836;
6,527,271; 6,520,857; 6,517,436; and 6,517,435.
WO 00/51076 and U.S. Patent No. 6,629,894 (PURTON) disclose a card
inspection device that includes a first loading area adapted to receive one or
more
decks of playing cards. A drive roller is located adjacent the loading area
and
positioned to impinge on a card if a card were present in the loading area.
The
loading area has an exit through which cards are urged, one at a time, by a
feed roller.
A transport path extends from the loading area exit to a card accumulation
area. The
transport path is further defined by two pairs of transport rollers, one
roller of each
pair above the transport path and one roller of each pair below the transport
path. A
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camera is located between the two pairs of transport rollers, and a processor
governs
the operation of a digital camera and the rollers. A printer produces a record
of the
device's operation based on an output of the processor, and a portion of the
transport
path is illuminated by one or more blue LEDs.
Existing card recognition technology used in card handling equipment tends to
be bullcy and expensive. Current systems require excessive amounts of
computing
power and yet these systems show significant problems in the consistency of
card
reading capability. Significant computing power in lcnown systems resides
outside of
the shoe.
Each of the references identified in the Background of the Art and the
remainder of the specification are incorporated herein by reference in their
entirety as
part of the enabling disclosure for such elements as apparatus, methods,
hardware and
software.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
An improved system for obtaining information on the rank and suit of cards
from standard symbols on playing cards focuses on using:
1) a simple shoe design or a mechanized shoe design;
2) small spaced line scans;
3) a position sensor to trigger a line scan;
4) binary data sets;
5) generating a series of binary values from the scanner output so that
more sophisticated shading or optical density readings are unnecessary;
6) simple template matching without image extraction;
7) complex data analysis techniques;
8) a novel card feed limiting device to prevent more than one card
from passing over the card reading system at one time; and
9) a monochromatic light source for the imager.
One preferred construction embodying these objectives uses a contact image
sensor (CIS) module incorporated into a card dealing shoe. The CIS module is
used
to output acquired signal data from the sensor as a vector, and hardware (such
as
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ASIC or preferably an FPGA) compares the acquired signal data to stored signal
data
in order to determine rank and suit information. This is done by comparing the
acquired vector data (or a signal vector) with known (high quality) vectors,
and the
known vector with the highest correlation to the signal vector identifies suit
and rank
and this data is then sent to a data storage medium or a processor.
The proposed device can also be used as a stand-alone image reading device
for playing cards and it can replace camera/imaging/processor systems
presently used
in mechanized card delivery shoes, in discard racks, in deck verification
devices, on
card tables, in card sorters and in shufflers with card reading capacity.
Additional features proposed by the inventors enable reading of card images
even when the cards are slightly misaligned or the print on the card is not in
the
expected location. This is accomplished by using column sums of selected
indices of
signals, and extracting the location of symbols on the cards as they move over
the CIS
sensor.
An optical position sensor is provided on the CIS module carrying the CIS
sensor to perform two distinct functions: 1) sense the distance that the card
moves;
and 2) sense the presence (or absence) of a card. The sensor continuously
provides
signal output to the FPGA regarding changes in the card's position.
Communication
in one example of the invention is through a digital I/O port.
The CIS sensor in one form of the invention is 1-dimensional line sensor and
can be triggered to read a line when the card moves at least a predetermined
distance
or at a time interval when the card is moving. Alternatively, when the card
reading
system is incorporated into a mechanized shoe, the line sensor senses cards
when the
card is stationary. Stationary reading typically requires a card moving
mechanism.
The line scan information can be provided as a string of binary numbers
corresponding to the various voltages output in response to scanning each
segment of
the scanned line, as opposed to providing detailed image data on the line. For
example, a line scan can provide voltage output that can be classified as
having a gray
scale values between 0 (white) and 255 (black) or any other linear or
exponential
scale. Each line would be represented by a single value between 0 and 255, for
example. This information is converted to binary values either before or after
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delivery to the FPGA. For example, a voltage corresponding to a white value of
10 is
converted to a zero, and a black value of 180 is converted into a value of 1.
Vectors
(multiple line scan values) taken from a single card are correlated with known
scan
line vectors tlirough the hardware (e.g., ASIC or FPGA) and the closest
correlation
results in identification of the suit and rank of the card.
The use of a physical device or component on an interior surface of the exit
port of the delivery shoe assists in limiting the number of cards that can be
pulled at
one time from the shoe. For example, a card dealing shoe is provided with a
declining
card support surface and two opposing side walls for retaining a group of pre-
shuffled
cards. The dealing shoe has an exit end with an opening for the manual removal
of
individual cards. Located proximate the exit end of the shoe is a CIS sensor
and
associated position sensor. Each card is individually scanned as the card is
removed
manually from the shoe. A preferred physical device is a card feed limiter.
The card
feed limiter is provided to assure that only a single card exits the shoe at
one time, and
that the printed material on the card comes into close proximity to the CIS
sensor, and
preferably into contact with the CIS sensor, facilitating the scanning of the
card
markings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 is a perspective view of an example of a shoe that includes a CIS
scanner and card feed limiter.
Figure 2 is a side elevational view of the shoe.
Figure 3 is a top plan view of the simple shoe, showing the location of the
CIS
scanner proximate a card removal end of the shoe.
Figure 4 is a side cross-sectional view taken along line A-A as shown in
Figure 2.
Figure 5 is an expanded view of the card removal end, with an upper cover
removed.
Figure 6 is an expanded view of the card removal end of the shoe, as shown in
Figure 4. Figure 7 shows a cutaway view of the side of a mechanized dealing
shoe
according to the invention.
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Figure 8 shows a schematic section of the dealing shoe having alternate card
reading and buffer areas.
Figure 9 shows a top cutaway view of one embodiment of a dealing shoe of
Figure 7 according to the present invention.
Figures l OA-D show various views of the interior face of an exit plate having
a card limiter attached thereto.
Figure 11 shows a schematic view of an exemplary card identification module.
Figure 12 shows a schematic diagram of a card being scanned.
Figure 13 is a schematic diagram illustrating unmatched areas of shapes.
Figure 14 is a schematic diagram of a card identification module of a dealing
shoe of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a novel apparatus for delivering cards to a card
game.
Although the card handling device can take on a number of forms useful for
shuffling,
card verification, card delivery and/or card storage, one preferred form of
the
invention is a dealing shoe incorporating a novel card reading system.
Example 1
In a first example of the invention, a dealing shoe such as the one
illustrated in
Figure 1 is provided. The dealing shoe 300 has a generally rectangular shape
and is
sloped from the rear 301 to the front 302. The shoe can be constructed of a
rigid
plastic or other durable material. Cards are shuffled prior to insertion into
the shoe.
Cards may be inserted from above, and are manually removed by pressing
downwardly on an outer surface of a card through an inverted U-shaped opening
304
in the front end 302.
On a near side 306 of the shoe is an outwardly protruding control pane1308
that contains a plurality of buttons 310 and a display 312. This control panel
308 is
useful for a dealer who would use the equipment to deliver cards to a casino-
style
card game. The display in one example of the invention is a LED display and
displays a variety of information to the dealer, such as banker and player
hand
composition, game outcome, jam detection, cut card presence, the presence of a
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from an unauthorized deck, the presence of a card from an unauthorized casino,
a
marked card, and the like.
An upper surface of the shoe contains additional controls 314. The controls
314 may additionally be backlit to convey additional information to the
dealer. The
shoe also contains a lid 316 which covers the cards once the cards are placed
in the
shoe. Figure 2 is a side elevational view of the shoe, showing the same
features in
more detail. The cover 318 in this embodiment is removable such that newly
shuffled
cards may be inserted from above and or removed. In other embodiments of the
invention, a rigid cover is provided and cards are loaded from a side of the
shoe
opposite the exit end.
Figure 3 is a top plan view of an example of a dealing shoe of the present
invention. The front end is comprised of a top plate 320 bearing the inverted
U-
shaped opening 304, as is typical of a conventional dealing shoe. The plate
320
slopes downwardly and is substantially parallel at a lower end to a lower base
plate
322 at the card exit 324. A CIS line sensor 326 is positioned within the base
plate 322
perpendicular to a direction of travel 328 of the card exiting the shoe.
Figure 4 is a side cross-sectional view of an exemplary shoe, taken along line
A-A as shown in Figure 3. The shoe 300 has a declining card support surface
330
for supporting a plurality of cards, positioned in a stacked relationship
witli long
edges in contact with the card support surface 330. A movable sliding block
332
travels along a path shown as arrow 334 within the shoe. The sliding block 332
is
positioned between the cards and a rear wall of the shoe, and functions to
force the
cards towards the exit opening. A rotatable wheel 336 reduces frictional
contact
between the block 332 and the declining surface 330, allowing the weight of
the block
to urge the cards present (not shown) to press against an inside surface of
the front
plate 320. A card stop 338 prevents cards being urged upwardly along the
inside
surface of front plate 320.
Support plate 322 serves a nuinber of functions. Near the front end 302 of the
machine, the support plate 322 houses the card sensing devices 340 and
associated
circuitry, as will be discussed in more detail below, and a game control board
342.
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A top plan view of the front end of support plate 322 (with the cover 320
removed) is shown in Figure 5. Support plate 322 has a longitudinal recess
containing contact image sensor 326. A position sensor 346 is also provided in
the
support plate spaced slightly from the contact image sensor. A leading edge of
a card
being removed will pass over position sensor 346 before that same leading edge
reaches CIS sensor 326. When this sensor 346 senses that a card is present,
and that
the card has advanced a defined amount, the CIS sensor is triggered to scan
the card.
Additionally, a shoe empty sensor 348 is provided in the support plate 322 to
sense
when the shoe is empty. A signal may be generated by the shoe empty sensor
that
causes the internal processor to display an "empty shoe" signal on the dealing
shoe
display.
An expanded view of the front end 332 of the shoe along line A-A from
Figure 3 is shown in Figure 6. As shown in this Figure, all of the sensing
elements
are contained within area 340. A CIS sensing module 350 is located within a
recess
in support plate 322, as well as the position sensor 346 with associated diode
352.
The position sensor 346 is in communication witli associated position sensing
circuit
board 356.
One aspect of this example of the invention is that a card feed limiter 354 is
positioned beneath the upper plate 320, near the exit end 302 of the shoe. The
function of the feed limiter 354 is to prevent more than one card from exiting
the shoe
at a time, and to bring the card into close proximity to the CIS sensing array
350 such
that the accuracy of the data acquired from the scan is maximized. Since the
CIS
(contact image sensor) typically needs to be in contact with the surface being
scanned,
the card face must either contact or nearly contact the sensor during
scanning. In one
example of the invention, the card feed limiter 354 narrows the gap in which
cards
pass to a thickness of slightly greater than the thickness of the card, but is
less than the
thickness of two cards. In another form of the invention, the card feed
limiter 354 can
be adjusted in a direction represented by arrow 358 in order to account for
different
card thicknesses. A typical card thickness (paper cards) is between about
approximately 0.010 and 0.040 inches, and an appropriate gap width would be
approximately 0.005 inch greater than the thickness of the card...
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In another form of the invention, a mechanized shoe is provided for use in the
play of certain casino table games, especially blackjack (or Twenty-One). The
mechanized shoe provides a variety of functions without greatly increasing the
space
on the casino table top used by the non-mechanized dealing shoe described
above.
The shoe provides cards securely to a delivery area and can read the cards in
one or
more various positions within the shoe, including, but not exclusively a) as
they are
withdrawn, b) before they are actually nested in the card delivery area, or c)
when
they are first nested in the card delivery area. A CIS sensing module would
preferably be located near an exit end 36 of the shoe to read cards as they
are
manually removed, but can be located in other areas within the shoe.
Specifically, a
CIS sensor can be used to read cards in a stationary position within the shoe.
Collected card reading information is either stored and processed locally or
transferred to a central computer for storage and/or evaluation. The cards may
be, but
are not required to be mechanically transferred from a point of entry into the
dealing
shoe to the card delivery area, with a buffer area in the path where at least
some cards
are actually held for a period of time. With the improved methodology of
reading
provided in the present technology, advantages are provided even in completely
manually delivered shoes with the reading technology described herein. In the
mechanically driven mode, the cards are preferably read before they are
delivered into
the card delivery area, such as at point 37 in Figure 7.
One aspect of technology that is beneficial to all card reading systems that
is
not known to have been provided before is the use of spaced line scans.
Previous
systems that read conventional playing cards without special markings or
machine
readable codes thereon have basically taken full images of the rank and suit
indicia
(e.g., 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K or A and 4, V, = or +,
respectively), and the
entire image was compared to prerecorded or stored images to determine the
rank and
suit. This required significant data carrying and more computing power than
should
have been needed, and also could allow for little tolerance in the comparison
of
images. As is described herein, only spaced line scans need be used in
detecting suit
and rank from scanning of the normal suit and rank indicators on playing
cards.
Multiple well positioned line scans on the suit symbols can absolutely
distinguish
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among the four suits, and multiple well-positioned symbols can also
distinguish
among all 13 of the rank symbols. It is therefore feasible to provide an
accurate
reading of suit and rank symbols with line scans, rather than scanning the
entire suit
symbol and the entire ranlc symbol. Although just a few line scans per symbol
can
theoretically provide an accurate identification of suit and rank, greater
numbers of
spaced line scans (for example, between 2 and 10) are used in practice to
insure the
accuracy of the ranlc and suit identification.
Spaced line scan data may be compared with stored data of lines scans of
known suit and rank symbols. Alternatively, the spaced line scans may actually
be
used to provide signals indicative of the properties or attributes of the
individual line
scans. The signals from the scans may be used by either a hardware component
such
as a data transformer (e.g., ASIC or FPGA) to transform the signal to data or
by a
processor to process the signal into useful information or data. An ASIC is
Application-Specific Integrated Circuit, a chip designed for a particular
application
(as opposed to the integrated circuits that control functions such as RAM in a
PC).
ASIC circuits are very costly to produce and are appropriate only for large
scale
production. One advantage of using a FPGA's is that they are built by
connecting
existing circuit building blocks in new ways. Since the building blocks
already exist
in a library, it is much easier to produce a new FPGA than it is to design a
new chip
from scratch.
FPGAs are field programmable gated arrays, which are a type of logic chip
that can be configured for a specific application. An FPGA is similar to a
programmable logic device (PLD), but whereas PLDs are generally limited to
hundreds of gates, FPGAs support thousands of gates. They are especially
popular for
prototyping integrated circuit designs. Once the design is set, hardwired ASIC
chips
are produced to replace the FPGA's for faster performance.
The data fed into the hardware component is received directly from the CIS
scanner. The following is an explanation of how the signal is conditioned in
the
hardware component.
The output of the scan is voltage. The voltage relates to the intensity of the
light reflected from the scanned, illuminated image. Within one line scan,
multiple
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voltages will be outputted, depending on the light intensity in each of a
number of
discrete scanned areas. One area typically is approximately 7 pixels in
length. The
various voltages (vs. Y distance along the line scan) are converted into
binary values.
Looking at the four suit symbols (and scanning the symbols along lines spaced
in the X direction, extending from the top to the bottom of the image or in
the Y
direction in this example) certain attributes can be produced only by
individual
symbols or subgroups of the following symbols:
# r + A.
The spade and club can provide attributes of dense marlcings in the X
direction
approximately 2/3 from the top of the scan, extending across the entire width
of the
character. Only the heart has dense markings across the top edge. Only the
diamond
has a maximum width about 50% of the distance from the top of the character.
The
heart and diamond have the least density at a lower most edge of each
character. By
determining attributes of the images being scanned, and in the sequence in
which they
are taken from the playing cards, the suit and rank can be readily detennined
with
little to no computing power. It should also be remembered that in
conventional
playing cards, the rank symbols (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q and K) read
across the
short side of the card, and that the rank and suit are positioned on a
vertical line
parallel to the long side of the card, in a corner area. The suit symbol
always appears
beneath the rank symbol. Thus, the line scan in the corner edge regions taken
by the
scanner/imager/camera will always know that the portion of the line scans
nearest the
short side (top) of the card represents the rank. Likewise, the portion of the
scan
farther away from the short side of the card represents the suit. If a
trailing edge of
the card, or even if the entire card or other sections of the cards are
instead or
additionally read, the order of the suit and rank symbols will be known in
advance and
the scans applied (by hardware or software, or both, as indicated above) to
determine
the suit and rank of each card. Because spaced line scans are used (a spaced
line scan
is sets of at least two line scans wherein there is at least a space between
lines scanned
that is at least as thick as the scan dimension of a line itself), less than
50% of the
symbol area may actually be scanned. The speed of the card moving across the
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scanner may also vary significantly, without having any detrimental effect on
the
certainty of the suit and rank identification. Because attributes or
coinbinations of
line scans in sequence may be used to determine the suit and rank, the precise
position, shape and size of the image is not essential. For example, a card
may get
skewed by hand movement of the card, different speed, and rotational action on
the
cards by a dealer's hand, causing misalignment.
The image capture system may be any imaging device or system that can
provide line data or line images, preferably continuous line data or images,
and
provide those line data or images on demand. A preferred system is the contact
image
sensor (CIS) which is a type of optical flatbed scanner that does not use the
traditional
2-dimensional CCD arrays that rely on a system of mirrors and lenses to
project the
scanned image onto the arrays. CIS scanners gather reflected light from
monochromatic sources such as red, green and blue LEDs (which combine to
provide
white light) and direct the light at the original document being scanned.
Although
monochromatic light sources are preferred, with green light being a more
preferred
light source, white light can also be used with most playing cards made in the
United
States. When the red ink used to print the card is a true red and does not
contain any
black pigment, the white light source is less preferred than a monochromatic
light
source. A color sensitive CIS is not required, as black-and-white images of
the line
scans are sufficient to identify suits and rank, which are typically printed
with black
and red (or maroon or red/black) ink. The light that is reflected from the
original
image is gathered by a lens and directed at a line sensor that rests just
under the
document being scanned. The sensor then outputs a series of voltages
corresponding
to the intensity of light that hits each individual sensing segment within the
line
sensor. A CIS scanner is more compact than a CCD camera and can be used in
smaller products than CCD scanning technologies. Cameras typically require
longer
focal lengths in order to capture an image. CIS line scanners in contrast are
capable
of capturing data when the object being scanned is in contact with the
scanner. CIS
scanners also require less power than CCD cameras and often can run off
battery
power or the power from a USB port. CCD cameras, however, provide higher-
resolution scans. Although a focal length (from a sensing lens to the object
being
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sensed) varies by manufacturer, it is desirable for the object to either come
into
contact with or come within a few millimeters of the scanner for optimal
performance.
As previously mentioned, a preferred CIS line scanner is a black and white
scanner. It has been demonstrated that using a monochromatic light source,
such as a
green or blue LED ligllt, the quality of each line scan is improved when this
type of
scanner is used. If a color scanner was used instead, a white light source
would be
sufficient. The function of the monochromatic light source is to make the red,
maroon
or red/black images on the cards appear black to the scanner. In one form of
the
invention, a green light source having a peak wavelength of 520 nanometers is
used
for this purpose. In another form of the invention, a blue light source having
a peak
wavelength of 475 nanometers is used for this purpose. Such light sources
actually
produce a wavelength band of light, but the band width is relatively narrow.
The inventors have noted that known manual shoes prior to the present
invention suffered from card-reading inaccuracy resulting from the variability
in the
efforts of the dealer to remove cards from the shoe. The force applied by
different
dealers can vary significantly. Significant variations in force can cause more
than a
single card to be reinoved from the dealing shoe at the same time, causing a
miscount
in the number of cards delivered, and resulting in an extra card being
delivered to the
game that is not accounted for by the system. Although this may be only an
annoyance in traditional dealing shoes, the impact is far more significant and
deleterious in the operation of a dealing shoe used for the purpose of
monitoring the
composition of each card that is in play on the table. Game play monitoring
equipment inust necessarily maintain accurate card count and card
identification
information.
An intelligent dealing shoe is defined as a shoe in which information is taken
(scanned, read or imaged) from the playing card as the playing card is either
positioned within the shoe or is withdrawn from the shoe. As dealing shoes are
generally constructed so as to read only one face of the card (e.g., usually
the face
with the playing card symbols and rank displayed thereon), pulling more than a
single
card out at the same time blocks or masks the images on the upper card. When a
card-reading shoe is part of a larger game play monitoring system, any card
that is
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moved without being counted and/or read poses a security problem. As the card
reading is an essential benefit to a smart system, providing accurate records
of the
cards played, and being essential for the verification of sets of cards being
handled
and/or shuffled, hands of cards and decks of cards, the failure to identify or
see a card
could cause an entire deal, an entire deck or multiple decks of cards grouped
together
to be identified as faulty. This would lead to delays, complaints and most
importantly, loss of income to the casinos.
One additional technology provided to dealing shoes by the present disclosure
is the placement of at least one card limiting barrier on or recessed within
an interior
surface of an exit plate on an intelligent playing card delivery shoe. The
term
"inanual playing card delivery shoe" or "manual shoe" for purposes of this
disclosure
means a shoe structure that requires that cards be manually pulled out of an
exit hole
or finger accessible hole on the delivery end. The term "intelligent" means
(in the
practice of this invention, but not generally in the art) that a reader,
imager or scanner
detects the suit and/or rank of a playing card as it is being withdrawn from
the
delivery shoe. The shoe may have motorized internal movement of cards and may
deliver cards mechanically to the delivery port, but then the cards are
individually
pulled out by hand.
Example 2
Reference to the remaining Figures will help in an appreciation of the nature
and structure of a second embodiment of the card delivery shoe of the
invention that
is within the generic practice of the claims and enables practice of the
claims in this
application. Figure 7 shows a mechanized card delivery shoe 2 according to the
present invention. The card delivery shoe 2 has a card infeed or card input
area 4
which is between a belt driving motor 6 and the motor 19 of speed up roller
17a. The
belt driving motor 6 drives a belt 8 that engages pick off rollers 10. These
pick off
rollers 10 pick off and move individual cards from within the card infeed area
4. A
belt driving motor 6 is shown but other motor types such as gear drives, axel
drives,
magnetic drives and the like may be alternatively used. The pick off rollers
10 drive
individual playing cards (not shown) into gap 14 having a deflector plate 15
to direct
cards individually through the gap 14 to engage brake rollers 16. The brake
rollers 16
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control the movement of individual cards from the infeed area 4 into the card
staging
area 34. The braking rollers 16 are capable of becoming free-turning rollers
during a
card jam recovery process so that little or no tension is placed on a card as
it is being
moved by the system or manually to free a jam. A simple gear release or clutch
release can affect this function. Speed up rollers 17 apply tension to a card
to move it
more deeply into the card staging area 34. The speed up rollers can and may
turn
faster then the braking rollers 16, and the speed up rollers 17 may be driven
by a
separate motor 19 and belt drive 21. A card path and direction of movement A
is
shown through the card storage area 34. As individual cards are passed along
the card
path A through the card storage area 34, there are card presence sensors 18,
20, and
221ocated at various intervals and positions to detect the presence of cards
to assure
passage of cards and/or to detect stalled or jammed cards. The path A through
the
card storage area 34 is in part defined by speed-up rollers 17 or rear guide
rollers 24
and forward guide rollers 26 which follow the brake rollers 16 and the speed
up
rollers 17. One form of a buffer area 48 is established by the storing of
cards along
card path A. As cards are withdrawn from the delivery end 36 of the delivery
shoe 2,
additional cards are individually fed from the buffer area 48 into the card
feed chute
46 and then into the delivery end 36. As noted earlier, the mechanized
delivery shoe
is preferred, but a shoe with no driven parts, such as the shoe described in
the first
example of the invention may be provided with the imager described herein and
the
signals provided therefrom sent to hardware that transforms the signals,
software that
processes the signals, intermediate storage systems and/or final storage
systems for
use at appropriate times. The description will emphasize the delivery shoe
(which
may also be the output element of a shuffler) that automatically moves and
delivers
cards, only because that is a preferred embodiment, not because that is the
only format
of shoe that can be used with the described imaging technology.
It is always possible for cards to jam, misalign or stick during internal
movement of cards through the dealing shoe. There are a number of mechanisms
that
can be used to effect jam recovery. The jam recovery may be based upon an
identified (sensed) position of jam or may be an automated sequence of events.
Where a card jam recovery is specifically identified by the sensed position of
a
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jammed card in the device (and even the number of cards jammed may be
estimated
by the dimensions of the sensed image), a jam recovery procedure may be
initiated at
that specific location. A specific location in Figure 1 within the dealing
shoe (e.g.,
between and inclusive of rollers 16 and 17 will be discussed from an exemplary
perspective, but the discussion relates to all other positions within the
device.
If a card is sensed (e.g., by sensors 18 and/or 20) as jammed between rollers
16 and 17 (e.g., ajam occurs when cards will not move out of the position
between
the rollers and cards refuse to be fed into that area), one of a various
number of
procedures may be initiated to recover or remove the jam. Among the various
procedures which are discussed by way of non-limiting examples include at
least the
following. The rear-most set of rollers (16 and 16a) may reverse direction
(e.g., 16
begins to turn clockwise and 16a begins to turn counterclockwise) to remove
the
jammed card from between the rollers (16 and 16a) and have the card extend
baclcwards into the space 14, without attempting to reinsert a card into the
stacking
area 4. The reversed rotation may be limited to assure that the card remains
in contact
with the rollers 16 and 16a, so that the card can be moved back into
progression
through the dealing shoe. An optional part of this reversal can include
allowing
rollers 17 and 17a to become free rolling to release contact and tension on
the card
during the reversal. The reversed rotation may be smoothly run or episodic,
attempting to jerlc ajammed card from its jam position. If that procedure does
not
work or as an alternative procedure, both sets of rollers 16 and 17 may
reverse at the
same time or in either sequence (e.g., 16 first or 17 first) to attempt to
free the jai11 of
a card. When one set of rollers only is turning, it is likely to be desirable
to have the
other set of rollers in the area of the jam to become free rolling. It is also
possible to
have the rollers automatically spaced further apart (e.g., by separating
roller pairs to
increase the gap in the potential nip between rollers) to relieve tension on a
card and
to facilitate its recovery from a jan1. The adjacent pairs of rollers (e.g.,
16, 16a and
17, 17a) can act in coordination, in sequence, in tandem, in order,
independently or in
any predefined manner. For example, referring to the roller sets as 16 and 17,
the
recovery process may have the rollers act as a) (16-17) at the same time in
the same
direction), b) (16-17) at the same time in the opposite directions to assist
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straightening out cards, c) (16 then 17) to have the rollers worlc
sequentially, d) (17
then 16) to have the rollers work in a different sequence, e) 16 only for an
extended
time, and then 17 operating alone or together with 16, f) 17 only for an
extended time
or extended number of individual attempts and then 16 for a prescribed time,
etc. As
noted earlier, a non-active or driven roller (one that is not attempting to
drive or align
cards) may become free-rolling during operation of another roller.
These various programs may be performed at a single jam location in series or
only a single program for jam recovery may be affected. In addition, as the
card may
have been read at the point of the jam or before the jam, the rank and value
of the card
jammed may be identified and this can be displayed on the display panel on the
dealing shoe, on the central computer or on a shuffler connected to the
dealing shoe,
and the dealer or pit boss may examine that specific card to malce certain
that no
markings or damage has occurred on that card which could either cause fiuther
problems with the dealing shoe or shuffler or could enable the card to be
identified
wlzen it is in the dealing position in the shoe at a later time. The pit crew
can then
correct any problem by replacement of that specific card, which would minimize
down time at the card table. Also, if a jam cannot be recovered, the delivery
shoe
would indicate a jam recovery failure (e.g., by a special light or
alphanumeric display)
and pit personnel would open the device and remove the jam manually.
Individual playing cards (not shown) may be read at one or more various
locations within the card delivery shoe 2. The ability to provide multiple
read
locations assures performance of the shoe, while other card delivery trays
with read
capability usually had a single reading position at the point where and when
cards
were removed from the shoe for delivery to players. For example, in the
construction
shown in Figure 1, the card presence sensors 18, 20 and 22 may also have card
reading capabilities, and other card reading sensors may be present as
elements 32, 40
and 42. Element 38 may be optionally present as another sensing element or a
card
value (and possibly suit) reading element without the presence of sensor 22 or
in
combination with sensor 22. In one form of the invention, when the sensor 38
functions as a card reading element, it should read the cards as they are
positioned
into the card pre-delivery area or card buffer area 37. In another example of
the
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invention, cards are read for example by a CIS sensor array and card present
sensor as
they are removed from the card delivery end 36. Information may be read in the
first
example by the card reading sensor 38 by either continuous reading of all
image data
in the card pre-delivery area or by triggered on-off imaging of data in a
specific
region of cards 39 as a card 41 is within the pre-delivery area 37. For
example, card
presence sensor 22 may activate sensor 38. This sensor in one example is a
camera.
A light source (not shown) may be provided to enhance the signal to the sensor
38. If
the camera is a black and white camera, it might be desirable to use a
filtered light
source, such as a green or blue light source to improve the imaging of red or
red/black
indicia on the cards. That specific region of cards is preferably a corner of
the card 41
wherein complete value information (and possibly suit information) is readable
on the
card, such as a corner with value and suit ranging symbols on the card. That
region
could also be the entire face of the card, or at lease '/2 of the card
(lengthwise divided).
By increasing the area of the region read more processing and memory is
required,
but accuracy is also increased. Accuracy could alternatively be increased, by
providing some redundancy. For example, reading the underside of the upper
right
hand corner of the card and then an underside of the lower left hand corner
could be
done, since both of those locations contain the rank and suit of the card. By
reading 2
locations on the card, readings can be compared and then confirmed. By using
on-off
or single shot imaging of each card 41, the data flow from the sensor/card
reading
element 38 is minimized and the need for larger memory and data transmission
capability is reduced in the system. Information may be transferred from the
card
reading elements (e.g., 32) from a communication port or wire 44 shown for
sensor/reading element 32. Cards may be buffered or staged at various points
within
the dealing shoe 2, such as where restrained by rollers 26 so that cards
partially extend
towards the chute 46 past the rollers 28 on plate 43, or staged between
rollers 24 and
26, between rollers 17 and 24, between rollers 16 and 17 and the like. Cards
may
partially overlap in buffering as long as two or more cards are not present
between a
single set of nip rollers (e.g., 26 and 27) where nip forces may drive both
cards
forward at the same time.
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Other variations are available and within the skill of the artisan. For
example,
rear pane112 may have a display panel thereon for displaying information or
data,
particularly to the dealer (which information would be shielded from players
as the
rear panel 12 would primarily face the dealer and be shielded from players'
view. A
more ergonomic and aesthetic rear surface 50 is shown having a display 52 that
is
capably of providing alphanumeric (letters and numbers) or analog or digital
images
of shapes and figures in black-and-white or color. For example, the display
may give
messages as to the state of the shoe, time to number of cards dealt, the
number of
deals left before a cut card or virtual cut card is reached (e.g., the dealing
shoe
identifies that two decks are present, malces a virtual cut at 60 cards, and
based on
data input of the number of players at the table, identifies when the next
deal will be
the last deal with the cards in the shoe), identify any problems with the shoe
(e.g., low
power, card jam, where a card is jammed, misalignment of cards by rollers, and
failed
element such as a sensor), player hands, card rank/suit dispensed, and the
like. Also
on the rear surface 50 are two lights 54 and 56, which are used to show that
the shoe
is ready for dealing (e.g., 54 is a green light) or that there is a problem
with the
dealing capability of the shoe (e.g., 56 is a red light). The memory board 58
for the
card reading sensor 38 is shown with its information outlet or port 44 shown.
There are significant technical and ergonomic advantages to the present
structure. By having the card infeed area 4 provide the cards in at least a
relatively
vertical stack (e.g., with less then a 60 slope of the edges of the cards
away from
horizontal), length of the delivery shoe 2 is reduced to enable the motor
driven
delivery and reading capability of the shoe in a moderate space. No other card
delivery shoes are known to combine vertical card infeed, horizontal (or
approximately horizontal +40 slope or +30 slope away from horizontal) card
movement from the infeed area to the delivery area, with mechanized delivery
between infeed and delivery. The motor drive feed from the vertical infeed
also
reduces the need for dealers to have to jiggle the card tray to keep cards
from
jamming, slipping to undesirable angles on the chutes, and otherwise having to
manually adjust the infeed cards, which can lead to card spillage or exposure
as well
as delaying the game.
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Example 3
Figure 8 shows a schematic diagram of an alternate embodiment for internal
card buffering and card moving elements of the card delivery tray 100. A card
infeed
area 102 is provided for cards 104 that sit between walls 111 and 112 on
elevator or
stationary plate 106 which moves vertically along path B. A pick-off roller
108
drives cards one-at-a-time from the bottom of the stack of cards 104 through
opening
110 which is spaced to allow only one card at a time to pass through the hole
110.
Elevator 106 is raised (moving in the direction represented by arrow B) such
that a
bottom card on the upper surface is aligned horizontally with speed control
roller pair
116. The individual cards are fed horizontally into the nip area 114 of the
first speed
control or guide rollers 116 and then into the second set of speed control or
guide
rollers 118. The cards (one-at-a-time) passing through rollers 118 are shown
to
deflect against plate 120 so that cards flare up as they pass into opening 122
and will
overlay any cards (not shown) in card buffer area 124. A second pick-off
roller 126 is
shown within the buffer area 124 to drive cards one-at-a-time through opening
128.
The individual cards are again deflected by a plate 130 to pass into guide
rollers 132
which propels the cards into the delivery area (not shown) similar to the
delivery area
36 in Figure 1. Card reading elements may be positioned at any convenient
point
within the card delivery element 100 shown in Figure 2, with card reading
elements
134 and 136 shown as exemplary convenient locations.
Figure 9 shows a top cutaway view of the mechanized dealing shoe 200 of the
second example of the present invention. A flip up door 202 allows cards to be
manually inserted into the card input area 204. The sets of pick-off rollers
208 and
210 are shown in the card input area 204. The position of the sensors 218a and
218b
and 220a and 220b are shown outwardly from the sets of five brake rollers 216
and
five speed up rollers 217. The sensors are shown in sets of two sensors, which
is an
optional construction and single sensors may be used. The dual set of sensors
(as in
220a and 220b) are provided with the outermost sensor 220b providing simply
sensing card presence ability and the inner innermost sensor 220a reads the
presence
of card to trigger the operation of the camera card reading sensor 238 that
reads at
least value, and optionally rank, and suit of cards. The sensor 220a
alternatively may
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be a single sensor used as a trigger to time the image sensing or card reading
performed by camera 238 as well as sensing the presence of a card. An LED
light
panel 243 or other light providing system is shown present as a clearly
optional
feature. A sensor 246 at the card removal end 236 of the shoe 200 is provided.
The
finger slot 260 is shown at the card delivery area 236 of the shoe 200. The
lowest
portion 262 of the finger slot 260 is narrower then the top portion 264 of the
finger
slot. The walls 266 of the finger slot may also be sloped inwardly to the shoe
and
outwardly towards the opening 260 to provide an ergonomic feature to the
finger slot
260. A CIS sensing array (not shown) may be alternatively positioned within
the shoe
or near the exit end of the shoe.
Figures I OA through 10D show various views of a front plate 400 that is
positionable on the front or delivery end of a manual playing card delivery
shoe
(described in Example 1). The front plate 400 is shown with its interior face
402
(which faces the playing cards as they move through the shoe) exposed. The
front
plate has about three different gross features incorporated in its shape. The
three
features are the interior face 42, the top glide face 406 and the exit guide
face 408.
The top glideface 406 directs playing cards towards the downward glide area
that is
covered by the interior face 302. Card stops 403 prevent cards from sliding
up. The
interior face 402 guides the cards downward at the front of the delivery shoe
towards
the exit glide face 408. There is an opening 404 through which a dealer's
finger(s) is
positioned to manually pull playing cards downward and out of the delivery
shoe.
The opening extends from the interior face 402 through the exit glide face
408. It is
in this last region against the front plate 400 that more than one card can be
drawn out
at a time, prior to the present invention. To assist in controlling the
dimension of the
opening between the front plate 400 and a bottom guide plate (not shown)
approximately where the reading/imaging system is located (shown in Figure 4),
at
least one (one is shown) physical partial barrier 412 is provided. The barrier
restricts
the pathway between front plate 400 and the support surface (not shown) in the
delivery shoe. The physical partial barriers assist in defining the pathway to
a
dimension that can be controlled to minimally exceed the thickness of a single
playing
card. For example, a card thickness of 0.010 to 0.014 would require another
0.005
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inches for adequate clearance. By rising above the surface of the exit glide
face 408,
the leading edges 418 of the partial barrier 412 do not impact a leading edge
of a top
card being pulled through the opening 404, but merely limits the size of the
opening.
The limiter also advantageously brings the card face into contact or near
contact with
the CIS sensor. The leading edge 418 may be flat and perpendicular to the
surface of
the partial barrier 412, may be beveled, may be curved (as shown in Figure
10D), or
any other shape as long as the total dimension of the pathway created between
the
front plate 400 and a bottom guide plate (not shown) is more accurately
controlled
than by generic manufacture of a dealing shoe. One additional reason that
generic
manufacture of the dimension of the pathway allows the problem of multiple
card
pull-tlirough is the fact that not all playing cards (especially from
differing card
manufacturers or because of humidity and swelling) have the same thickness.
With
an adjustable partial barrier, the pathway dimensions may be tailored for
different
cards, conditions and manufacturers. The partial barrier 410 may be made
adjustable
(either the entire plate or only the front edge 419 of the partial barrier
310) by a
mechanical adjustment 413 that can be performed on the partial barrier 410.
The
simplest mechanical control would be a screw assembly, such as the screw shown
positioned through the thickness of partial barrier 412. The rotation of the
screw or
bolt can elevate or lower (to a limit of the surface of the exit glide face
408) the partial
barrier 412. A threaded female receptor (not shown, but merely an embedded
tube or
cylinder with internal threads may be embedded in the front plate 400 to
securely
receive the bolt or screw 413. The trailing edge 419 of the partial barrier
412 may be
flat, beveled or rounded. It should be noted that it appear counterintuitive
that the
partial barrier is placed on the interior surface of the front plate, as the
partial barrier
would appear to impact the top card (the next card to be delivered) in the set
of cards
in the delivery shoe. In fact, the partial barrier must be on the top, as even
though a
barrier on the rear opposed surface would catch the second card, that second
card
would remain backed or caught against the partial barrier and would have to be
lifted
over the leading edge when that card is next to be removed from the delivery
shoe.
This is because the partial barrier controls the dimension of the pathway and
does not
necessarily impact the leading edges of cards.
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Figure 1 OC illustrates another embodiment of the card feed limiter 420. The
card feed limiter in this instance has a front edge that extends beyond the
front edge
421 of top plate 422.
Although in the second example of the invention, a camera was disclosed for
use in imaging cards, the imaging technology of the present invention also
includes
the use of a CIS line scanning system as illustrated in the following
description,
below.
The present technology also includes an apparatus for determining the identity
of symbols on playing cards, typically at the point of being manually pulled
through
an exit chute of a dealing shoe. The shoe has a front plate with an upper
interior
surface and a lower support surface opposed to the upper interior surface, the
support
surface comprising a CIS scanner and a motion scanner to trigger the scanner,
to
provide signals derived from the scanning of inultiple, spaced apart discrete
lines
bisesecting playing card symbols passed over the imager. In one form of the
invention, a line scanner is used to scan spaced lines of an image. In another
example
of the invention, a 2D scanner (such as a CMOS array) is used to scan spaced
apart
lines bisecting the image. Either a number of lines of scan areas between the
selected
line scans comprising the CMOS array is disabled, or the data that does not
comprise
the selected spaced lines scans is filtered out and ignored. The use of a 2D
imager
would be more appropriate when the card is scanned in a stationary position.
The
disadvantage of such an imaging system is that the spaced scans would have to
fit
within the focal area of the CMOS imager. Using a moving card and a stationary
line
scanner (or a stationary card and a moving line scanner) provides the
advantage that
the image can be an infinite length in the direction of travel of the card and
still be
scanned by the system.
The upper interior surface of the front plate has a partial barrier for cards
fixed
over the interior surface. The partial barrier has an elevated surface, the
elevated
surface defining a height of a pathway for cards between the interior surface
and the
lower support surface. The CIS line scanner in a preferred form of the
invention is
embedded into the lower support surface, beneath the partial barrier. The
partial
barrier serves the dual function of preventing multiple cards from exiting the
shoe at
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WO 2006/138262 PCT/US2006/022911
one time, and positions the portion of the card face to be scanned in close
proximity
to, and preferably in contact with the scanner.
The technology also includes a method of identifying the rank and suit of a
playing card comprising manually pulling a playing card through a pathway
having an
upper plate with an interior surface to automatically take spaced line scans
of rank and
suit symbols on the playing card. The scanner in turn creates operating
signals
relating to less than all of the area of the symbols and correlating the
signals with
known signals to identify the rank and suit by closest correlation of the
operating
symbols and the known symbols, wherein a partial barrier on the interior upper
plate
controls a height of the pathway.
During initial development of the system, the inventors encountered a problem
that affected the dependability, but not operability of the system. The scan
length of
the device is relatively small compared to the long dimension of the card, yet
different
brands of cards locate the rank and suit information different distances from
the short
card edge. A decision had to be made as to where best locate the small
scanning area.
Since the location/size of the card rank and suit is not the same from brand
to brand of
cards, and since cards do not always align themselves with the scanner in a
consistent
mamier, a method was devised to look for location of the rank and suit
information by
using colurnn sums of selected indices of the signal, which can work even when
different brands of cards with different symbol images are used, without the
necessity
of retraining the system or redesigning the signal conditioning hardware
components
(such as FPGA's) to match specific symbol types. This is a distinct advantage
over
most disclosed systems that require specially marked cards or training for
each type of
card used. In addition, cards can be fed straight over the scanner or can be
skewed.
Location of the rank/suit symbols is deduced from information about where the
sums
are low (indicating an absence of a marking). This feature allows the sensed
objects
to be located in different areas in the larger sensing area and allows the
device to
successfully locate and compare the vectors.
Referring now to Figure 11, this technique may be implemented by providing
an intelligent imaging board 500 utilizing an optical position sensor 514 that
resides
on the CIS module 515. The optical position sensor 514 may have two purposes:
1)
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WO 2006/138262 PCT/US2006/022911
senses the distance that the card moves, 2) senses the presence of a card. The
sensor
may be positioned at a specific location of the device where it can detect the
card
position changes, Ax, (shown in Figure 12) as the card moves through or over
the
sensor. The sensor continuously outputs the changes of the card's position to
the
FPGA 516. In one form of the invention, the sensor communicates with the FPGA
via a digital input/output port.
The CIS sensor 512 also resides on the CIS module 515. A suitable CIS
module can be purchased by ordering part number M106-A9 from CMOS Sensor,
20045 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 1A, Cupertino, California 95014. The sensor
acts
as a line sensor (tllat is, it senses optical density of narrow sections of an
image
(essentially 1-dimensional), one line at a time), and is able to be re-
triggered to read a
new line every time the card moves certain distances or certain periods of
time during
movement, or at any other basis of providing intervals (spaced line scans)
along the
card symbol. The output voltage of each scanning segment of the CIS line
scanner
represents a shade of gray, since the exemplary system is a black and white
reading
system. This output voltage is converted to binary numbers within the CIS
module.
Output to the FPGA is a data set of binary numbers. Color scanning may be
used, but
it is essentially redundant or superfluous with respect to the needed image
content for
determining suit and rank.
The proposed system scans lines bisecting an area of the card face containing
the symbols one line at a time. The area to be scanned is defined by
coordinates X
and Y. The CIS array 512 and the optical position sensor 514 read the x and
the y
directions respectively. Figure 12 shows the coordinates of the area.
The CIS module 515 may output two signals to the FPGA: 1) the binary data
that is captured by the CIS, and 2) its related position captured by the
optical position
sensor. This output of the CIS module will be one continuous vector including
a
number of numerical values, each being either a zero or a 1. The output is a
signal
representing a linear vector, not a two-dimensional array. The CIS module
converts
the voltage signals to binary values. In alternate forms of the invention,
voltages are
converted to binary values in the FPGA or within another hardware device.
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To determine whether a card rank and suit has been scanned, the system must
first be trained or hardwired to recognize card rank and suit. To accomplish
this, a
single reference vector for each ranlc (A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3,
2) and a single
reference vector for each suit (Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds and Spades) is
generated and
saved (e.g., a lcnown vector is saved for each symbol) by acquiring a set of
signals
during a training phase, by hardwiring the system based upon a known set of
card
symbols or by using a large tolerance hardwiring for a range of symbols. The
signals
acquired during training undergo the same binary conversion and are stored in
memory of an associated processor. The data is transferred from this memory to
the
FPGA at run time. During signal processing, the reference vectors are not
converted
into images. The reference vectors are a type of abbreviated data set
(analogous to a
hash value derived from a larger data set) useful in shape matching and
advantageously are much smaller data sets requiring lower processing and
storage
capability.
During the identification process, an unknown vector is acquired when a
triggering signal is detected. This unknown vector, as indicated above, is
converted
into a binary signal. The triggering signal can take on many forms. The
triggering
mechanism can be an edge sensor (indicating that a first leading edge of a
playing
card has passed over an optical or motion sensor, a motion sensor indicating
movement of a playing card, optical sensor indicating the presence of optical
density
other than white (e.g., a card sensor) over an optical sensor, or the like.
Upon
triggering of the spaced scan line sensor, the scanning may continue on a
timed, or
sensed (e.g., distance or speed of movement of the card, degree of variation
in the
signal from the line sensor, etc.) basis. In the preferred and most
sinlplified system, all
cards are drawn by a dealer manually; so the speed of removal of each drawn
card
(and the speed of scanning) varies. A speed sensing or variation sensing
device
would therefore be more appropriate, rather than a timed sensor. When
automated
moveinent is provided, as for example in Example 2 by feeding individual cards
into
the dealer recovery position, timed triggering may be more appropriate. The
unknown vector is then correlated with the known vectors to determine a match
and
identify the card's rank and suit. At no time are images reconstructed and
compared.
CA 02612138 2007-12-13
WO 2006/138262 PCT/US2006/022911
Instead, the abbreviated acquired data sets are compared and correlated with
stored
reference data sets to determine rank and suit.
Cross correlation of 2D discrete signals A and B may be defined as following
equation, where 'A' is the unknown signal and 'B' is the template signal.
IEA* B (1)
jZA*A*ZjB*B
Obviously this is a complex operation requiring significant computational
power.
However, for a binary signal as constrained as described, the correlation
reduces to a
simple binary AND operation and summation of the result over the entire
vector.
Then in template matching, it can be shown mathematically that for the 2D case
of
shifting the template over a 2D matrix, this concept can be transferred to a
1D vector
by shifting the order of the vector.
To match the card, a series of 'Correlators' is generated in the FPGA on power
up. The correlators are used to correlate all known rank and suit information
with the
unknown vector either sequentially, or preferably concurrently. The unknown
vector
is then shifted and a new series of correlations performed. (The term
"shifted" means
that the top two values of the series of values that constitutes the entire
vector (each
being a zero or a 1) is removed from the top of the vector and placed at the
bottom of
the vector, changing the order of the number pairs in the vector. For example,
a
simple vector might be the following order pairs:
0,0
0,1
1,1
l,l
1,0
1,0
0,0
0,1
By shifting the top pair to the bottom, the vector becomes:
0,1
1,1
1,1
1,0
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WO 2006/138262 PCT/US2006/022911
1,0
0,0
0,1
0,0
This process is continued over a wide range of shifts. The results of the
correlations are saved, compared and the maximum correlation value (with
respect to
the laiown vectors) is used to identify ranlc and suit.
The inventors originally encountered a problem in correctly identifying the
suit of the cards using the cross correlation technique: a "diamond" is read
as the
"heart". This is because the diamond shape can be fit into the heart shape,
see figure
13C for illustration. As a result, the diamond shape could have been reported
as both
heart and diamond by the FPGA Card Identification Module. To avoid this type
of
misread, the inventor uses the error correction function to compares the "un-
matched"
area 702 of the shapes. The error correction function is defined as the
following
equation:
El A*B-~~A'*B (2)
By using the technique, the device is able to detect the unmatched area (see
figure
13), therefore identifies the correct shape.
The proposed device is preferably implemented using FPGA technology
(rather than using only a microprocessor and memory) to improve the speed of
identifying cards and dramatically reduce the cost. Speed is improved because
operations are performed in real time with hardware logic circuits and not
with
software running on a processor. Costs are reduced because there is no longer
any
need for complex computational capability. Following a card identification
cycle, the
card ID data can be stored locally by a database storage system, the processor
and/or
transmitted to a remote location for storage. One proposed card delivery
device that
utilizes the simple card identification method described above is preferably a
manual
card deliver shoe as described in Example 1. The card delivery device can
deliver
single or multiple decks of cards. This is different from the intelligent Shoe
described
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in the second example above, as this first device does not necessarily have a
motor
and other mechanical elements.
An exemplary control module of the first exemplary dealing shoe is
described in more detail in Figure 14. This particular module is most suitable
for the
game of baccarat. There are two main internal hardware components: the Contact
Image Sensor Module 802 and the Logic Module 818.
The CIS module 802 is preferably located near the exit of the shoe. As
indicated above, the card reading system has applicability and utility within
the
housing of the delivery shoe or a card shuffler, such as the shuffler with
integrated
dealing shoe disclosed in U.S. Patent 6,254,096, the content of which is
hereby
incorporated by reference. This logic module 818 replaces an external mini PC
and
acts as a coinmunication channel of the device. There may be, for example, an
8-bit
microcontroller 804 and the FPGA 806 that both reside on this exemplary logic
module. There are three software modules that reside on the microcontroller
804, they
are:
= The Card-ID module 812 that reads the output of the FPGA and transmits or
saves data as appropriate per game rules. This module has associated memory
that retains the reference vector data.
= The game control module 814 that has the capabilities of reconstructing the
hands and determining the outcome of each round. This information is sent
out from the logic module as the shoe output via the TCP/IP cominunication
port.
= The game configuration module 816 with its imbedded web server gives the
user the capability to clzange the configuration of the Baccarat Hand
Reconstruction module, as well as options for the shoe from a remote location.
There are a number of independent and/or alternative characteristics of the
mechanized delivery shoe of the second Example of the invention that are
believed to
be unique in a device that does not shuffle, sort, order or randomize playing
cards.
1) Shuffled cards are inserted into the shoe for dealing and are
mechanically moved through the shoe but not necessarily
mechanically removed from the shoe.
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2) The shoe may optionally mechanically feed the cards (one at a time)
to a buffer area where one, two or more cards may be stored after
removal from a card input area (before or after reading of the cards)
and before delivery to a dealer accessible opening from which cards
may be manually removed.
3) An intermediate number of cards are positioned in a buffer zone
between the input area and the removal area to increase the overall
speed of card feeding with rank and/or suit reading and/or scanning
to the dealer.
4) Sensors indicate when the dealer accessible card delivery area is
empty and cards are automatically fed from the buffer zone (and
read then or earlier) one-at-a-time.
5) Cards are fed into the dealer shoe as a vertical stack of face-down
cards, mechanically transmitted approximately horizontally, read,
and driven into a delivery area where cards can be manually
removed.
6) Sensors detect when a card has been moved into a card reading area.
Signal sensors can be used to activate the card reading components
(e.g., the camera and even associate lights) so that the normal
symbols on the card can be accurately read.
With regard to triggering of a scanner, a triggering mechanism can be used to
set the scan at an appropriate time when the card face is expected to be in
close
proximity to the scanner. Such triggers can include one or more of the
following,
such as optical position sensors within an initial card set receiving area, an
optical
sensor and, a nip pressure sensor (not specifically shown, but which could be
within
either nip roller, edge sensor, light cover sensor, and the like). When one of
these
triggers is activated, the scanner is instructed to time its shot to the time
when the
symbol containing corner of the card is expected to be positioned within the
focal area
of the scanner. The card may be moving at this time and does not have to be
stopped.
The underlying function is to have some triggering in the device that will
indicate
with a sufficient degree of certainty when the symbol portion of a moving or
moved
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WO 2006/138262 PCT/US2006/022911
card will be with the scanner's focal area. A light associated with the
scanner may
also be triggered in tandem with the scanner so as to extend the life of the
light and
reduce energy expenditure in the system.
The above structures, materials and physical arrangements are exemplary and
are not intended to be limiting. Angles and positions in the displayed designs
and
figures may be varied according to the design and skill of the artisan. Travel
paths of
the cards need not be precisely horizontal from the card input area to the
delivery area
of the shoe, but may be slightly angled upwardly, downwardly or varied across
the
path from the card input area to the card delivery area. The cards may be
sensed
and/or read within the shoe while they are moving or when they are still at a
particular
location within the shoe.
The dealing shoes of the present invention may be integrated with other
components,
subcomponents and systems that exist on casino tables for use with casino
table
games and card games. Such elements as bet sensors, progressive jackpot
meters,
play analysis systems, wagering analysis systems, player comping systems,
player
movement analysis systems, security systems, and the like may be provided in
combination with the baccarat shoe and system described herein. Newer formats
for
providing the electronics and components may be combined with the baccarat
system.
For example, new electronic systems used on tables that provide localized
intelligence
to enable local components to function without absolute command by a central
computer are desirable.
