1298 results about "Playing card" patented technology

The present invention is directed to a playing card dispensing shoe apparatus, system and method wherein the shoe has a card scanner which scans the indicia on a playing card as the card moves along and out of a chute of the shoe by operation of the dealer. The scanner comprises an optical-sensor used in combination with a neural network which is trained using error back-propagation to recognize the card suits and card values of the playing cards as they are moved past the scanner. The scanning process in combination with a central processing unit (CPU) determines the progress of the play of the game and, by identifying card counting systems or basic playing strategies in use by the players of the game, provides means to limit or prevent casino losses and calculate the Theoretical Win of the casino, thus also providing an accurate quality method of the amount of comps to be given a particular player. The shoe is also provided with additional devices which make it simple and easy to access, record and display other data relevant to the play of the game. These include means for acconunodating a "customer-tracking card" which reads each player's account information from a magnetic stripe on the card, thus providing access to the player's customer data file stored on the casino's computer system, and one or more alpha-numeric keyboards and LCD displays used to enter and retrieve player and game information. Also included are keyboards on the game table so that each player can individually select various playing or wagering options using their own keyboard.

A system automatically monitors playing of a game and gathers data in real time. An overhead imaging system automatically images the game table and provides an overhead view of the game table and/or the dealer's chip tray. A lateral imaging system images the gaming area, especially the wagering regions, to provide a lateral view of the chips on the table. An automatic card shoe system dispenses cards and automatically images at least one card immediately prior to its withdrawal from the shoe. A positioning module processes images from the overhead imaging system to automatically track the position of gaming objects such as for example playing cards, chips, currency bills on the gaming table. An identity module processes images from the overhead imaging system to automatically track the identity of gaming objects on the gaming table. A chip identity module processes overhead images of the chip tray and lateral images of the gaming region to automatically determine, the identity and position of gaming chips. A card-shoe software associated with the automatic card shoe system processes signals from the automatic card shoe system to automatically identify the game related value of at least one card immediately prior to its withdrawal from the shoe by a dealer.

The present invention provides an apparatus and method for moving playing cards from a first group of cards into plural hands of cards, wherein each of the hands contains a random arrangement of the same quantity of cards. The apparatus comprises a card receiver for receiving the first group of cards, a single stack of card-receiving compartments generally adjacent to the card receiver, the stack generally vertically movable, an elevator for moving the stack, a card-moving mechanism between the card receiver and the stack, and a microprocessor that controls the card-moving mechanism and the elevator so that an individual card is moved into an identified compartment. The number of compartments receiving cards and the number of cards moved to each compartment may be selected.

A system for determining the skill of a player eliminates the element of chance by comparing players who have the same initial position. In the case of cards, the initial position is the hand dealt to the player and in tile games, it is the initial distribution and arrangement of tiles. A player with a less than advantageous initial position may win a game over an opponent having a better initial position. It cannot conclusively be said whether this win is due to the good play of the winner or the bad play of the loser. However, it can clearly be said that the winning player has a higher skill level than the losing player.

Physical objects may be employed with a virtual game layout to enhance wager and non-wagered based gaming. Displays subsystems may provide a changeable or selectable virtual game layout with demarcations appropriate to a selected game. A sensor subsystem may detect physical aspects of game related pieces (e.g., playing cards, chips, markers, dice, spinners, tokens, tiles) as well as media (e.g., identity media, financial media). All gaming functions may occur through interaction with a playing surface, as well as functions such as order food, beverages and services. Automated tracking of players, dealers and games may be realized along with bonusing and promotions.

A playing card integrity checker utilises a blue light source to illuminate the playing face of each card to use template matching to identify the value and suit of each card based on stored templates from cards of the same card manufacturer. This information and the number of cards counted is matched against the cards needed for a predetermined game. The absence of required cards or the presence of superfluous cards is reported. Cards that have their faces reversed or appear marked are also reported.

A card inspection device 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 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.

An apparatus and a method enabled by the apparatus perform a method of measuring wagering activity on a gaming table. The method comprises providing at least one grid of sensors positioned over an area defined by the surface of a gaming table to sense the presence or absence of gaming elements on the gaming table surface. The sensors sense gaming elements (e.g., playing cards, gaming chips, tokens, player cards, etc.) on the gaming table surface. Signals are sent from the sensors (preferably to a logic control device) indicating the presence or absence of the gaming elements. The logic control device sends signals to a processor in response to receiving the signals from the sensors, and the processor storing information from said signals from the logic control system indicating the presence or absence of gaming elements on the casino table surface.

Methods and systems for intelligent tracking and/or play and/or management of card gaming use an intelligent card distribution or holding device with detectors for determining the value and unique identity of individual cards and for recording card play. Playing cards are equipped with a read/write data storage connected to a transponder and/or incorporated into electromagnetic writable particles or smart particles (smart dust). A system of the invention records various game play events on the playing cards themselves during game play and optionally also in a database on the system. In specific embodiments, the principal scanning and writing elements and electronic and optical interfaces are embodied into a hand-held card holder (HHCH). In specific embodiments, the system utilizes various types of sensors and/or indicators and/or and electronic circuits and software to scan, track, monitor, compute, and interface with electronic devices, to enable the automatic operation of Casino table games. The system can scan playing cards, scan gaming chips, indicate a players win/loss/draw, increase or decrease player betting positions, compute awards to players based on their playing activity, photograph individual players, and transmit player's images to casino security/surveillance departments and or other authorized casino personnel. The system may activate table displays that indicate each player's win/loss/draw of their bets, and/or dealers card count, indicate in the game of blackjack when a dealer has blackjack, or any other significant event that occurs such as indicating when a player has a winning/loss/draw on specific card combinations.

A video poker game that uses additional cards to enhance the value of some or all winning card combinations (“Reward Cards”). In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, two Reward Cards are added the traditional fifty-two card deck of playing cards. These Reward Cards do not help form any winning poker hands, but only enhance the value of some or all of the winning poker hands formed using the traditional fifty-two cards in the deck. A single Reward Card would double the payouts; two Reward Cards would quadruple the payouts. As a result, a preferred embodiment offers awards up to four times the traditional awards; maintains the full values of the underlying pay table; minimally impacts traditional poker strategy; and results in an overall return to the player of 99.2948% using a preferred pay table.

The gaming method or system has at least two different games and a participating progressive jackpot. The progressive jackpot is the same for some or all games within the gaming system. For example, if a given gaming system has two different games, a player can win the progressive jackpot while playing either of the two games. More than two games and more than one progressive jackpot can utilized within the gaming system described herein. Almost any game can be used in the gaming method and system. It is generally preferred that the games be games of skill and/or chance such as playing card games, high/low card games, twenty-one card games, poker card games, dice games, slot machine casino style games, lottery, pull tab, keno, bingo type games or any other suitable game (i.e. having table fixed jackpots and/or progressive jackpots). All games included within the gaming system utilize at least one progressive jackpot as a prize but may also provide smaller win amounts like table jackpots or a one game jackpot or a one-machine jackpot. The games may be played in whole or in part electronically.

A sensing system for determining the rank and suit of playing cards is disclosed. The system includes a sensing module capable of reading a line of data from a printed image, a position sensor and a hardware component that combines the signals from the sensing module and position sensor, converts the signal to binary values and compares the converted signal to stored signals. The comparisons are correlated to identify card rank and Suit. The system can be used in a playing card delivery shoe used to control the game of baccarat. The shoe may be a customary dealing shoe equipped with a sensing module, or may be a mechanized shoe. The mechanized shoe may comprise a) an area for receiving a first set of playing cards useful in the play of the casino table card game of baccarat; b) first card mover that moves playing cards from the first set to a playing card staging area wherein at least one playing card is staged in an order by which playing cards are removed from the first set of and moved to the playing card staging area; c) second playing card mover that moves playing cards from the playing card staging area to a delivery area wherein playing cards removed from the staging area to the delivery shoe are moved in the same order by which playing cards were removed from the first set of playing cards and moved to the playing card staging area; and d) playing card reading sensors that read at least one playing card value of each playing card separately after each playing card has been removed from the area for receiving the first set of playing cards and before removal from the playing card delivery area One exemplary sensing system is a CIS line scanning system with an associated card position sensor and a FPGA hardware element.

Systems and methods for playing live casino games. The systems have changeable displays which portray virtual playing cards or symbols to live participants. Shuffling, cutting, dealing and return of playing cards are accomplished using data processing functions within an electronic game processor or processors which enable these functions to be performed quickly and without manual manipulation of playing cards. The invention allows casinos to speed play and reduce the risk of cheating while maintaining the attractive ambiance of a live table game. The systems can also be multi-user slot machines using the processor to associate or assign one or more symbols either with the virtual playing cards or as slot symbols in participant subsets. The participant subsets are compared to a predetermined list so that payoffs can be awarded on the basis of winning symbols or combinations of symbols.

The present invention features a playing card shuffling device, which through the use of a small image capturing means, captures an image of the face value of each card and stores the image in memory. This image is sorted in the format of a bitmap image. The operator of the machine would be able to recall through the use of a key pad, the images of the cards that comprised the individual hands in the previous game. This feature allows for verification of a winning hand after a game has been completed. Thereby, a quick recheck of hands before paying a winning hand is performed. The face value of each card is determined by character recognition software. These card values would be stored in memory for archival access for use in monitoring the randomness of the game and determining the number of winning hands.

The present invention relates to a system and method for identifying and tracking gaming objects. The system comprises an overhead camera for capturing an image the table, a detection module for detecting a feature of the object on the image, a search module for extracting a region of interest of the image that describes the object from the feature, a search module for extracting a region of interest of the image that describes the object from the feature, a feature space module for transforming a feature space of the region of interest to obtain a transformed region of interest, and an identity module comprising a statistical classifier trained to recognize the object from the transformed region. The search module is able to extract a region of interest of an image from any detected feature indicative of its position. The system may be operated in conjunction with a card reader to provide two different sets of playing card data to a tracking module, which may reconcile the provided data in order to detect inconsistencies with respect to playing cards dealt on the table.

An interactive poker game which provides a predetermined outcome to a player. In one embodiment, the player and at least one gaming device generated competitor or dealer are provided a plurality of cards. The gaming device generated competitors then place one or more bets into a community pot, wherein if the predetermined outcome is a win associated with a value, the amount placed into the community pot equals the value associated with the win outcome. The player is enabled to replace one or more of their provided cards with new cards and based on the player's cards and the predetermined game outcome, the gaming device determines for each generated competitor which playing cards to replace and the new cards provided. The player's hand is compared to each of the dynamic gaming device generated competitors as opposed to a static paytable and the predetermined outcome is provided to the player.

An automated gaming system comprises a gaming table and an upright video display panel. The system comprises a table having an upper surface, the upper surface having a video display surface that provides a continuous field of video display and at least two different player positions. There is a processor in information communication with the upright video display panel and the video display surface. The processor directs video display on both the upright video display panel and the video display surface. The same or a separate processor provides game rules for the play of at least one casino table card game without the use of physical cards on the table. Each player position has an individual intelligent player processing board dedicated to that position. Communication between the automated gaming system and a host casino computer takes place from the intelligent player processing boards in one form of the invention.

A computationally generated playing card sequence (e.g., pseudo-random, non pseudo-random, or partially pseudo-random) allows shuffled distribution of playing cards. Playing cards may be organized into card holders by at least one or a rank and a suit, and retrieved in the computationally generated order. Alternatively, playing cards may be organized into card holders in order of a computationally generated sequence, and retrieve as necessary. Unreadable playing cards may be automatically removed from play.

Physical objects may be employed with a virtual game layout to enhance wager and non-wagered based gaming. Displays subsystems may provide a changeable or selectable virtual game layout with demarcations appropriate to a selected game. A sensor subsystem may detect physical aspects of game related pieces (e.g., playing cards, chips, markers, dice, spinners, tokens, tiles) as well as media (e.g., identity media, financial media). All gaming functions may occur through interaction with a playing surface, as well as functions such as order food, beverages and services. Automated tracking of players, dealers and games may be realized along with bonusing and promotions.