Abstract
An automatic card handling apparatus for use in casino card games possesses a card deck intake portal and a card deck discharge portal which are both accessible by a dealer. The apparatus allows two fully-shuffled, but separated, card decks to be ready for play simultaneously. A first shuffled card deck is independently supported in the card deck discharge portal by a retractable support structure while a second shuffled card deck remains ready for play while independently supported by a slot-less elevator within the footprint of the first shuffled deck. Three separated decks can be automatically routed through the apparatus in order to sustain uninterrupted card play. Also disclosed is a method of randomizing a group of playing cards.
Claims
1. A card handling apparatus for randomizing and/or verifying the integrity of at least a first individual deck of playing cards, the card handling apparatus comprising: a housing adaptable to be mounted onto a surface of a casino table or into an opening within the surface of a casino playing table; a card intake portal accessible by a dealer for receiving unshuffled cards; a card deck discharge portal accessible by a dealer for receiving shuffled and properly verified cards from within the apparatus; a control panel for indicating a status of at least the first individual deck of playing cards; an optical recognition sensor configured to individually read a rank and a suit of each card within the playing cards of the card intake portal; the housing defining a randomizing chamber and the card deck discharge portal, the housing having an opening for receiving each individual card of the first individual deck of playing cards from the intake portal; one slot-less elevator aligned with the randomizing chamber having elevator arms movable along an axis of and within the randomizing chamber and configured to relocate once for each and every card of an unshuffled card deck during a randomizing cycle; a retractable support structure located within the discharge portal, having a first position in which the retractable support structure projects into the discharge portal housing and a second position in which the retractable support structure is capable of moving through an opening in a wall of the discharge portal housing to achieve the first position; a gripper mechanism located in the randomizing chamber and movable in an arcuate motion relative to the randomizing chamber axis; at least one microcontroller for directing the verification and transport of the playing cards and providing status to a card handler operator; and wherein the microcontroller initiates a first randomizing cycle of the at least first individual deck of playing cards, such that individual cards of the at least first individual deck of cards from the card intake portal are interrogated by an optical recognition sensor and moved to the one slot-less elevator configured to locate every individual card of the at least first individual deck of cards from the card intake portal to randomize an order of the individual cards within the at least first individual deck of cards to provide a first shuffled and verified deck of cards, the first shuffled and verified deck of cards transferred from the elevator arms to the retractable support structure within the card deck discharge portal by the one slot-less elevator at completion of the first randomizing cycle.
2. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein a second individual deck of playing cards is received within the card intake portal and the microcontroller initiates a second randomizing cycle of the second individual deck of playing cards, such that individual cards of the second individual deck of playing cards are interrogated by the optical recognition sensor and moved to the one slot-less elevator to provide a second shuffled and verified deck of cards, the second shuffled and verified deck of cards remaining supported upon the arms of the one slot-less elevator at completion of the second randomizing cycle and held in a position adjacent to the card discharge portal and the first individual deck of playing cards.
3. The card handling apparatus of claim 2, wherein removal of the first shuffled deck from the card discharge portal initiates the microcontroller to interrogate an encoder status of the slot-less elevator indicative of position of the slot-less elevator and for a presence of a second shuffled and verified deck of cards on the slot-less elevator.
4. The card handling apparatus of claim 3, wherein when the encoder status is indicative of the presence of the second shuffled deck of cards, the microcontroller initiating movement of the slot-less elevator to move the second shuffled deck of cards to the card discharge portal after the first shuffled deck of cards is removed from the card discharge portal.
5. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein actuation of the retractable support structure is dependent only upon the relative position of the slot-less elevator.
6. The card handling apparatus of claim 5, wherein the retractable support structure is not motorized.
7. The card handling apparatus of claim 5, wherein the retractable support structure is motorized.
8. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first shuffled deck of cards is transferred from the slot-less elevator to the retractable support structure by a downward movement of the slot-less elevator away from a plane that defines a discharge portal entrance.
9. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first shuffled deck of cards is transferred from the slot-less elevator to the retractable support structure by an upward movement of the retractable support structure toward the plane that defines the discharge portal entrance.
10. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the retractable support structure comprises a pair of retractable support members.
11. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the retractable support structure is collapsible by the first shuffled deck of cards.
12. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the retractable support structure comprises at least one movable blade.
13. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the retractable support structure comprises at least one movable fork-shaped member.
14. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the slot-less elevator is fork-shaped.
15. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the randomizing chamber is devoid of compartments, card slots, combs, racks, carousels or ejector blades.
16. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a randomizing mechanism comprising the gripper mechanism configured to grip and raise at least one individual card of the first individual deck of cards through an arc to create a wedge-shaped, position-tolerant opening between two stacks of the first shuffled deck of cards.
17. The card handling apparatus of claim 16, wherein the microcontroller utilizes a random number generator in real time for each and every card of the first individual deck of cards to determine a random separation level of the first individual deck of cards for receiving each card into the randomizing chamber.
18. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller verifies a proper number of cards within the first individual deck of cards using the optical recognition sensor.
19. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the microcontroller verifies a rank and suit of each card of the first individual deck of cards using the optical recognition sensor.
20. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control panel further comprises a means to alert a dealer that a faulty card deck has been prepared for future use.
21. The card handling apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control panel further comprises a display to alert a dealer to a verification status of a card deck that is being processed for future use.
22. The apparatus of claim 2 whereupon three separated card decks may coexist at discrete positions within the apparatus.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) FIG. 1 shows a prior art example of a shuffling machine console which includes a card receiving intake portal and a shuffled card discharge portal.
(2) FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a prior art carousel-type automatic shuffler that utilizes an optical reader to verify the composition and completeness of a set of playing cards during the randomizing process.
(3) FIG. 3 shows alternative arrangements of a prior art digital camera configured to verify a stack of cards by using optical recognition to inspect rank and suit of each card as a machine passes each playing card from one stack to another.
(4) FIG. 4 illustrates a classic prior art shuffling apparatus which unloads cards from an unshuffled deck into the individual slots of a carousel, randomly rotates the carousel, and then unloads cards from a randomly-chosen slot and into a discharge portal.
(5) FIG. 5 illustrates a similar prior art shuffling machine which unloads cards from an unshuffled deck into the individual slots of a vertical rack, randomly elevates the vertical rack, and then unloads cards from each slot and into a discharge portal.
(6) FIG. 6 illustrates a prior art randomizing mechanism which utilizes a vertically moving comb with narrow card slots.
(7) FIG. 7 illustrates a prior art randomizing mechanism which utilizes a mechanical gripper to separate a card stack at random positions, thus enabling the insertion of an individual card which is being moved from an unshuffled deck residing within an intake portal.
(8) FIG. 8A illustrates the insertion of a “cut card” into a card stack by a dealer, which is emulated by the prior art mechanical gripper mechanism of FIG. 7.
(9) FIGS. 8B and 8C illustrate a first method of splitting a card stack with a gripper and inserting a card as taught by the prior art.
(10) FIGS. 8D and 8E illustrate a second method of splitting a card stack with a gripper and inserting a card as taught by the prior art.
(11) FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the card shuffling and verification apparatus being described herein.
(12) FIG. 10 is a view of the console control panel of the apparatus in FIG. 10, as viewed by the dealer.
(13) FIG. 11 is a side elevational section view of the apparatus herein.
(14) FIGS. 12A and 12B are side elevational views of the apparatus which stepwise illustrate the migration of playing cards as they move through the apparatus.
(15) FIG. 13 is an isometric view of the elevator module of the present invention.
(16) FIG. 14 is an isometric view of the elevator module showing the position of a subset of randomized cards.
(17) FIG. 15 is an isometric view of the of the gripper mechanism which is used to grasp and raise a sub-stack of randomized cards.
(18) FIG. 16 is a planar view of the gripper mechanism used to randomize cards.
(19) FIG. 17 is an isometric view of the gripper mechanism while grasping a stack of cards.
(20) FIG. 18 is an isometric view of the gripper mechanism creating a random wedge-shaped opening between two sub-stacks of cards.
(21) FIG. 19 is a cutaway side view of the randomizing apparatus showing a card being inserted into a randomly-created wedge-shaped opening in the receiving card stack.
(22) FIG. 20 is a side elevational section view of the randomizing apparatus showing the receiving card stack after the upper sub-stack has been lowered onto the newly inserted card by the gripper mechanism.
(23) FIG. 21 is an isometric view of the shuffled card stack being raised to the card deck discharge portal.
(24) FIG. 22 is an isometric view of a retractable support structure within the card deck discharge portal.
(25) FIG. 23 is a cutaway isometric view showing the processed card stack being raised to the card deck discharge portal.
(26) FIGS. 24A, 24B, 24C and 24D are step wise illustrations showing the sequence used to transfer a “reserve deck” from the elevator to the retractable support structure of the preferred embodiment.
(27) FIGS. 25A, 25B, and 25C are cutaway isometric views showing a sequence of operations performed by a first alternate embodiment of a retractable support structure in the card deck discharge portal in the absence of a card deck.
(28) FIGS. 26A, 26B and 26C show a sequence of operations performed by a first alternate embodiment of a retractable support structure in the card deck discharge portal when transferring a card deck from the elevator to the retractable support structure.
(29) FIG. 27A is a cutaway view showing a second alternate embodiment of a retractable support structure that positions a play ready card deck in the card deck discharge portal.
(30) FIG. 27B is a cutaway view showing a third alternate embodiment of a retractable support structure that positions a play-ready card deck in the card deck discharge portal.
(31) FIG. 28 shows an isometric view of the elevator with its incremental encoder.
(32) FIGS. 29A and 29B show two exemplary illustrations of the receiving card stack numbering sequence utilized by the randomizing method.
(33) FIG. 30 shows a section view of the apparatus whereupon a first “ready deck” is positioned in the card deck discharge portal and a second “reserve deck” is positioned in its footprint while both are ready for game table play. A third unshuffled deck is awaiting randomization while positioned in the card intake portal.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
(34) A card handling apparatus for automatically shuffling and verifying multiple decks of playing cards is described for use in casino card games such as blackjack or twenty-one which are hosted by a card dealer at a casino table, although the card handling apparatus can be used with other card games played in a casino without departing from scope of the invention.
(35) For purposes of this explanation, the term “spent deck” is defined as a deck of cards having been used in a card game previously and in need of being shuffled and verified. The term “processed deck” is defined as a deck of cards that has been transformed from a “spent deck” into a shuffled (randomized) deck, and has additionally been interrogated by the apparatus described herein. The term “card intake portal” is defined as the depository cavity within the housing of the invention whereupon a new or spent deck is deposited by the dealer for the purpose of being transformed into a processed (shuffled and verified) deck. The term “card deck discharge portal” is defined as the cavity within the apparatus housing where the processed decks are deposited by the apparatus for removal by a dealer.
(36) An isometric view of the mechanical shuffling apparatus 100 is shown in FIG. 9. The apparatus 100 comprises a control console 105 which includes a recessed card intake portal 120 for receiving a new or spent (unshuffled) deck of playing cards from a dealer, and a recessed card deck discharge portal 130 for receiving a processed deck of playing cards from the randomizing mechanism that resides below. The recessed portal 130 includes a retractable support structure 131 whose purpose is to support a deck of cards. Frames 180 and 190 support the mechanism of the apparatus and mount to the underside of the control console 105.
(37) The apparatus 100 may be inserted into a cavity in a casino table surface such that only the control console 105 is visible to the dealer and the casino players. Alternatively, the apparatus 100 may reside on the top surface of a casino table, supported by rubber feet 110 (see FIG. 9). A housing (not shown) would be added for the tabletop application. In the embedded table configuration, the lip 112 is intended to rest upon the table surface, thus supporting the apparatus 100 which is placed near the dealer within arm's reach, such that the dealer may easily insert and withdraw card decks from the recessed portals 120, 130. When mounted into the casino table, the table surface will completely or partially surround the periphery of control console 105. The apparatus additionally possesses rubber feet 110 which support the apparatus 100 when removed from the casino table for service or maintenance.
(38) A goal of the apparatus 100 is to prepare card decks for play by shuffling those decks (randomizing) and interrogating those decks for irregularities such as missing cards or unreadable cards, and to thereafter make those decks available to the dealer. A further goal is to provide a “ready deck” in the card deck discharge portal and another play-ready “reserve deck” in a location below the “ready deck”, such that both are available when the dealer retires a new or spent deck to the card intake portal. The apparatus 100 signals the dealer if the “Ready Deck” or “Reserve Deck” have been found to be faulty, such that the dealer may immediately discard the faulty deck. The apparatus 100 additionally allows the dealer to queue up three decks at the beginning of a card game or shift.
(39) FIG. 10 shows one embodiment of a console and its controls as viewed from above by a dealer. In front of the two recessed portals 120, 130 are various indicators and buttons 107, 108, 111, 113, 114, 115 used to control the apparatus 100. A “push switch” 111 is located at the lower right of the console and is used to set the “mode” of the shuffling apparatus. The “mode” establishes the parameters for different card games or different activities. For example, “MODE 3” might be the mode for establishing the parameters for a blackjack game which instructs the apparatus that each deck must possess 52 cards, no jokers, and that each deck must be randomized. As another example, “MODE 4” might be a mode that instructs the machine to process a deck to verify the integrity of a 52 card deck without randomizing. The digit display on a “push switch” is incremented by pushing either the plus or minus button which reside above and below the numerical digit readout of the push switch 111.
(40) The control console 105 additionally possesses a SHUFFLE button 115 which is used by the dealer to commence operation of the apparatus, and an ABORT button 113 which is used to stop the operation of the apparatus in the case of a failure. A 2×16 character display 114 displays fault messages to the dealer. Examples of such display messages are “READY DECK IS VERIFIED”, “RESERVE DECK TOO MANY SPADES” or “RESERVE DECK UNREADABLE CARD”.
(41) The control console 105 additionally possesses two status LED's 107 and 108 that indicate the status of the “Ready Deck” and “Reserve Deck”. The indicators are bi-color LED's which may show either red or green lighting. A green light indicates that a given deck is verified, randomized and ready for play, while a red light indicates that the deck has been found to be faulty. The purpose of these indicators is to allow the dealer to “look ahead” for the status of the “Reserve Deck” when the dealer removes the “Ready Deck” from the deck discharge portal 130. Other LED colors may be utilized. Although not shown, the deck discharge portal 130 may have a hinged cover to prevent viewability of the cards contained within that recess, as taught by the prior art.
(42) FIG. 30 shows the “Ready Deck” 630(1) residing in the discharge portal 130, with the “Reserve Deck” 630(2) residing just below. The process of removing the “Ready Deck” from the portal 130 triggers a sensor which instructs the microcontroller to immediately relocate the “Reserve Deck” to the deck discharge portal 130. The dealer can then discard that “Reserve Deck” if it was found to be faulty, while continuing game play with the “Ready Deck”. While the table game continues, the previously played unshuffled deck can undergo processing.
(43) The anatomy of the apparatus 100 is briefly explained by the section view shown in FIG. 11 which is devoid of any card decks or stacks. This view is looking into the apparatus 100 from the side of the casino table players. The card intake portal 120 is shown near the top left of the view. Feed rolls 162, 166 and 164 are utilized to move individual cards past an optical recognition sensor 196, and additional feed rolls 168 and 169 move individual cards into the randomizing chamber 186. After the deck is randomized, an elevator assembly 300 lifts the processed deck to a retractable support structure 131 which is located in the card deck discharge portal 130. The “processed deck” nomenclature reflects the fact that card decks which are delivered to the portal 130 have been processed both by optical interrogation and randomization. In the description that follows, it is apparent that the apparatus 100 may also be used to optically interrogate (verify) card decks without utilizing the randomization cycle, as described by the function of the mode switch 111 setting above.
(44) A more detailed explanation can be observed from FIGS. 12A and 12B, which explain the movement of a single card deck within the apparatus 100. FIG. 12A shows a new or spent deck 600 (unshuffled) located in the card intake portal 120. The cards 600 are supported by a shelf 128 and roller 162 that are located at the base of the intake portal. When the dealer activates the SHUFFLE button 115, a microcontroller (not shown) interrogates sensor 129 to determine if any card is present in the portal 120. Sensor 138 (see FIG. 24A) senses the absence or presence of a “Ready Deck” at card discharge portal 130. Elevator encoder 310 (see FIG. 28) is utilized to determine if the elevator is holding a processed deck in the “Reserve Deck” position. If a card is detected by the sensor 129 and either of the “ready deck” or “reserve deck” positions are vacant as determined by the sensor 138 or encoder 310, the microcontroller (not shown) will activate motors (not shown) that rotate feed rolls 162, 166 and 164 until the leading edge of a card is detected by optical recognition sensor 196.
(45) In FIG. 12A, an unshuffled card is moving past the optical recognition sensor 196 and into the randomizing chamber 186, where the card stack 620 is supported by elevator arms 307 of the elevator assembly 300. The microcontroller activates a motor (not shown) to rotate feed rolls 168 and 169 which feed the card into the randomizing chamber 186 through a slot 170 (see FIG. 11) in the housing 133. The optical recognition sensor 196 is utilized to read the rank and suit of each card, in addition to counting the cards in the deck. The sensor 196 may be any optical recognition sensor as taught in the prior art, including a digital camera, CMOS camera, color pixel sensor or a CCD image sensor. In the preferred embodiment, the sensor 196 is a color pixel sensor and is used to read the rank and suit in the upper right corner of each card. This optical recognition process will continue until sensor 129 signals that no more cards are available in the portal 120. Upon completion of the deck insertion into the randomizing chamber 186, the microcontroller will determine if any fault condition exists, including card shortages, extra cards, flipped cards or unreadable cards.
(46) The randomizing cycle will be explained below. After the randomizing cycle is completed, a processed card deck will reside upon elevator arms 307 within the chamber 186. The elevator arms 307 will thereafter raise the randomized (shuffled) card deck 630 to the card deck discharge portal 130 as shown in FIG. 12B, and transfer the randomized (shuffled) card deck 630 to the retractable support structure 131. The first processed deck placed into this position upon the retractable support structure 131 is designated as the “ready deck”. The green indicator LED 117 will be activated if that deck has no faults. The elevator arms 307 will then withdraw to the randomizing chamber 186 such that another unshuffled deck can be processed while the “ready deck” is available in the card deck discharge portal 130.
(47) The randomizing cycle comprises a series of motions performed by the apparatus 100 to sort the individual cards into a randomly arranged deck within the randomizing chamber 186. The randomizing cycle will automatically start when the dealer activates the “Shuffle” command button 112 as shown in FIG. 10, as long as sensor 129 detects the presence of a card and the count of the elevator encoder 310 (see FIG. 28) indicates that the elevator is available for randomizing. Referring to FIG. 12A, a series of feed rolls 162, 166, and 164 strip the bottom card from the stack and move that card past the optical recognition sensor 196. The optical recognition sensor 196 acts in concert with the microcontroller to count each card, and to identify the rank and suit of each card which passes between feed roll 166 and feed roll 169. Feed rolls 168 and 169 then inject each card into the randomizing chamber 186, whereupon each card is inserted into a growing card stack.
(48) The randomizing chamber 186 possesses an elevator surface which is defined by support arms 307 which support the card stack during randomization, and moves the card stack with oscillation motion in the vertical direction within the randomizing chamber 186 (FIG. 12A). The structure of the elevator assembly 300, its elevator arms 307 and its associated motor 312 is shown in FIG. 13.
(49) An elevator support surface consists of two fork-shaped elevator arms 307, which are moved vertically by motion of a lead screw 304. The elevator arms 307 possess flat surfaces 307A and 307B which support card stacks. Guide shafts 324 and 322 prevent torsional movement of the elevator arms 307, and are attached to platform 318 to which a stepper motor 312 is mounted on one side and a bracket 320 on the other side. The stepper motor 312 rotates the lead screw 304 by means of a timing belt 308. The orientation of a card stack 620 is shown when in transit on the elevator in FIG. 14. As shown in FIG. 12A, the two elevator arms 307 of the elevator assembly 300 penetrate the randomizing chamber 186 through access slots (see 835 in FIG. 27A) in the wall of the randomizing chamber 186, such that the elevator arms 307 may move freely in the vertical direction. At the same time, the card stack on the elevator arms 307 is constrained on four sides by walls 133A, 133B 133C and 133D (see FIG. 22) of randomizing chamber 186.
(50) The elevator arm 307 movement is controlled in very fine increments by the step motor 312 in conjunction with an incremental encoder 310 which is mounted to the lead screw 304 as shown in FIG. 28. An encoder disc of the incremental encoder 310 has 200 increments per revolution which corresponds to each step of a 200 step per revolution step motor. The ratio of the lead screw 304 rotation to the elevator arm 307 vertical motion is 4 millimeters per turn. The step motor 312 can therefore control the vertical elevator motion in increments of 20 microns, where 1 micron equals one-millionth of a meter. The thickness of a typical playing card is approximately 300 microns. Thus, the step motor 312 can therefore move the elevator arms 307 with the precision of 1/15th of the card thickness. In other words, 15 motor steps moves the elevator arms 307 one card thickness. This high ratio makes the elevator arms 307 controllable in fine increments, thus intolerant to positional error. Upon initial powering of the apparatus 100, the microcontroller moves the elevator arms 307 down to a home position and sets the encoder count to zero. Thereafter, the encoder count is used by the microcontroller as a position sensor to check the elevation state of the elevator arms 307. For example, the microcontroller uses the encoder count to detect the state where the elevator is parked in the “reserve deck” position.
(51) A gripper assembly 200 performs the function of the human hand to grasp a card stack 620 as shown in FIG. 17. A gripper portion of the gripper assembly 200 is shown in FIG. 16. Two gripper pads 202 are mounted on the terminal ends of a first gripper arm 203 and a second gripper arm 204, which each pivot upon pivot screws 206. The two arms are actuated by two small solenoids 207 and 208 which are mounted on the gripper frame 210. When the solenoids are activated, the arms 203, 204 and their associated pads 202 move in the direction of the arrows to pinch the lateral surfaces of a card stack. Upon deactivation of the solenoids 207, 208, the two arms 203, 204 are moved in the reverse direction by spring 212, which relaxes the grip and releases the card stack 620. In the relaxed position, there exists only slight clearance between the gripper pads 202 and the lateral surface of card stack 620.
(52) The complete gripper assembly 200 is shown in FIG. 15 where the gripper assembly 200 is pivotally mounted on a shaft 209. The pivotal mount allows the gripper frame 210, including gripper arms 203 and 204, to move in an arc after the gripper solenoids 207, 208 have been activated. A cam follower roll 222 is mounted to the follower mount 218 which is rigidly attached to the gripper frame 210. During the gripping cycle, at least one card of the card stack 620 is grasped by the gripper arms 203 and 204, and thereafter lifted by the cam 220 to move an upper sub-stack of cards 620U upward through an arc and separates the cards into an upper sub-stack 620U and a lower sub-stack 620L as shown in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19.
(53) The elevator assembly 300 is used to position a card stack relative to the gripper mechanism 200, in order to allow the gripper assembly 200 to split the card stack into two sub-stacks, 620U, 620L. The orientation between the elevated, upper sub-stack 620U, the gripper assembly 200, the lower sub-stack 620L, and the elevator assembly 300 is shown in FIG. 18. A lower card sub-stack 620L is shown supported by the elevator arms 307, while an upper card sub-stack 620U is shown lifted in an arc about pivot P1 which is locationally fixed to the frame of apparatus 100. The vertical position of the split 326 between the upper sub-stack 620U and the lower sub-stack 620L is determined by the microcontroller which relocates the elevator arms 307 just prior to the gripping cycle. As shown in FIG. 18 and FIG. 19, the elevator arms 307 position a card stack 620 in a randomly selected vertical elevation and the gripper assembly 200 thereafter splits the cards stack through an arc at that random location. The lower sub-stack 620L is held stationary by the elevator arms 307 while the gripper arms 203, 204 rotates the upper sub-stack 620U, and while a new card 622 is inserted into the wedge-shaped opening 326. The purpose of the arcuate movement of the gripper assembly 200 is to create a wedge-shaped opening 326 which is tolerant to curved or bent cards.
(54) The wedge-shaped opening 326 shown in FIG. 18 is created for the purpose of injecting a card from the unshuffled stack as shown in the side view of the randomizing chamber 186 in FIG. 19. The purpose of the wedge-shaped opening 326 is to provide a tolerant gap for warped cards such as card 622 as shown in FIG. 18. The injected card is stripped from the bottom of the unshuffled card deck as shown in FIG. 12A. Feed rolls 168 and 169 as shown in FIG. 19 move the stripped card into the wedge-shaped opening 326. In FIG. 20, the gripper pads 202 are deactivated, after the gripper assembly 200 has been lowered, allowing the upper sub-stack 620U to rest upon the newly inserted card. The feed rolls 168 and 169 are shown isometrically in FIG. 15, where they are shown controlled by stepper motor 250 via pinions 246 and 248. The feeding motion of the unshuffled card into the chamber 186 is synchronized with the cam-actuated creation of the wedge-shaped opening 326 by means of the timing belt 230 and the twin gears 237 and 238. Feed rolls 169 are fixedly attached to shaft 234, which is rotationally driven by pinions 238 and 237 and ultimately driven by motor pinion 248 of step motor 250. Timing belt pulley 232 is fixedly attached to shaft 234 and rotationally drives cam 220 via timing belt 230 such that the motion of cam 220 is synchronized with the rotation of feed rolls 168 and 169.
(55) The purpose of the cam 220 is twofold. Firstly, it is designed to create a large wedge-shaped opening 326 for insertion of an unshuffled card that can accommodate bent or warped cards as illustrated by the warped card 622 in FIG. 18. The large wedge-shaped opening 326 overcomes the jamming problem exhibited by narrow slot carousel and prior art comb shuffling devices shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 5 and FIG. 6. Secondly, the cam 220 is designed to alleviate the cyclic life burden on the components of the elevator assembly 300. The prior art devices that utilized gripper mechanisms (see prior art FIGS. 8B-8E) required three elevator motions for each card insertion: a first elevator motion to arrive at the splitting plane; a second elevator motion to split the deck into two sub-stacks; and a third elevator motion to merge the two sub-stacks together after each card insertion. For one deck of 52 cards, for example, the prior art elevators must shuttle through 156 (3×52) motion cycles. In contrast, the elevator assembly 300 of an embodiment of the present invention herein shuttles just once during each card insertion cycle, thereby extending the service life of the elevator assembly 300 as compared to the prior art.
(56) The previously described grasp-elevate-insert-release cycle is repeated for each of the cards in an unshuffled deck until all cards have been transferred to the card stack 620 in the randomizing chamber 186. The card stack 620 thus begins with one card and builds to a full deck of 52 cards in the case that 52 cards is the desired deck size. Each new card is inserted into the card stack 620 at randomly-chosen vertical positions by the microcontroller, which utilizes a depletion algorithm in real time to determine a plane between two adjacent cards within the receiving card stack 620.
(57) The depletion algorithm is based upon a physically-generated index that is derived from the optical recognition sensor 196. That optical recognition sensor 196 detects the trailing edge of each card and triggers the controller to increment a count that indicates the number of cards that have been depleted from the card intake portal 120. The depletion count is a physically detected index that is used by the randomizing algorithm. The algorithm can be expressed as equation 1.1:
P=RAND[1 to D] (1.1)
Where:
P=the vertical insertion plane, and
D=the depletion number of the card being inserted, and
RAND[1 to D] is a random number from within the range between 1 and D
(58) Equation 1.1 can be understood and appreciated from viewing the examples in FIG. 29A and FIG. 29B where the numbered arrows indicate optional plane locations within a card stack. In FIG. 29A, the depleted card number is 4, which means that this is the 4th card to be removed (depleted) from the unshuffled card stack. The microcontroller will chose a plane for inserting that 4th card into the previous 3-card stack, by generating a random number in the range of 1 to 4, where the bottom of the stack is always designated as plane number 1. In other words, the microcontroller randomly chooses one of four available planes for the insertion in real time. The elevator assembly 300 then positions the stack precisely such that the gripper pads 202 can create the wedge-shaped opening 326 at the chosen plane. The card is thereafter inserted into the wedge-shaped opening 326.
(59) In FIG. 29B, the depleted card number is 9, which means that this is the 9th card to be removed (depleted) from the unshuffled card stack. The microcontroller will chose a plane for inserting that 9th card into the previous 8-card stack, by generating a random number in the range of 1 to 9, where the bottom of the stack is always designated as plane number 1. In other words, the microcontroller randomly chooses one of nine available planes for the insertion in real time. The elevator then positions the stack precisely such that the gripper pads 202 can create the wedge-shaped opening 326 at the chosen plane, insert a new card, and thereafter lower than the upper sub-stack 620U onto the newly inserted card. In this way, the randomized stack is incrementally constructed.
(60) There is no preconceived boundary for the randomizing algorithm of equation 1.1, which depends only upon the physically detected depletion count. For example, a 65th depleted card would be randomly inserted in one of 65 randomly selected planes. This type of randomization is mathematically ideal randomization, because each and every card is randomly inserted into a growing randomly-generated card stack in real time, until the entire deck is transformed into a randomly distributed sequence. This is in contrast to several prior art shufflers that generate a virtual random insertion sequence prior to physically moving any cards.
(61) After completion of the randomizing cycle, the elevator arms 307 raise the processed card deck 630 to the card deck discharge portal 130, where the processed card deck 630 is transferred to a retractable support structure as shown in FIG. 12B. A preferred embodiment for the retractable support structure is shown by the retractable support elements or shutters 131 in FIG. 12B, FIG. 21 and FIG. 22. Referring to FIG. 22, a pair of shutters 131 are rotatably mounted to the walls of the housing 133 and rotate upon pivot shafts 134, which are held in a supporting position by torsion springs 136. Referring to FIG. 23, the two pivot shafts 134 form axes P2 and P3, about which the shutters 131 rotate. As the elevator arms 307 raise the processed card deck 630 towards the card deck discharge portal 130, the processed card deck 630 pushes against angular surfaces 131A on the underside of the shutters 131, forcing them outward. FIG. 23 shows a cutaway oblique view of a processed card deck 630 being raised by the elevator arms 307 and located just beneath the angular surface 131a of shutters 131. The card deck 630 is just about to collapse the shutters 131 in this illustration. FIGS. 24A, 24B, 24C, and 24D illustrate side elevational section views which explain the sequence of collapsing the retractable support elements or shutters 131. In FIG. 24A, a processed card deck 630 is shown in the “reserve deck” position and the “ready deck” has just been removed. The state change of sensor 138 signals the absence of the “ready deck” and triggers the microcontroller to examine the incremental encoder count of the incremental encoder 310, which shows that the elevator arms 307 being held in the “reserve deck” position. The microcontroller thus commands the elevator motor 312 to raise the processed card deck 630 to the card deck discharge portal 130. Referring to FIG. 24B, as the elevator arms 307 raise the processed card deck 630, the retractable supports 131 are pivoted outwardly away by contact between the angular surfaces 131A and the lateral surfaces of the deck 630. FIG. 24C shows that the processed card deck 630 is raised slightly above the retractable supports 131, allowing them to snap back into position as urged by torsion springs 136. In FIG. 24D, the elevator arms 307 have transferred the processed card deck 630 to the retractable supports 131, and the elevator arms 307 continue moving downward. The elevator arms 307 thus transfer the processed card deck 630 from the elevator arms 307 to the retractable supports 131 by a downward motion. The elevator arms 307 are thereafter available to participate in randomizing additional card decks within the lower portion of randomizing chamber 186.
(62) An alternate embodiment of the retractable support structure is illustrated in FIGS. 25A, and 25C where a cutaway window is illustrated in the wall of the housing 733. FIGS. 25A, and 25C illustrate the sequence of operation of a motorized retractable support structure without the presence of playing cards so that the viewer can visualize the interaction of the card support surfaces. This embodiment utilizes a DC motor 718 and a fork-shaped support 710 to support the processed card deck in the card deck discharge portal 730. FIG. 25A shows the retractable support arms 710 which pivot on shaft 712. In this figure, the support arms 710 are located in the retracted state outside of the randomizing chamber 186 where they remain during the randomizing cycle. Reflective sensor 738 is mounted in the wall of the deck discharge portal 730 for the purpose of sensing the presence of a deck of cards (the “ready deck”). A bellcrank 716 pivots upon axis P7 and possesses a segment gear 722 which is in mesh with the pinion on DC motor 718. Actuation of the DC motor 718 causes rotation of bellcrank 716, which in turn imparts rotation upon support arms 710 which pivot upon axis P6. In FIG. 25B, the retractable support arms 710 have partially rotated into the randomizing chamber 186 through slots in the wall of housing 733, but have not reached its zenith position. The motion is created by the rotation of bellcrank 716, which possesses gear segment 722 that meshes with the pinion of DC motor 718. A pin 760 on the terminal end of bellcrank 716 engages with a slot 720 in the retractable support arms 710 to rotate them about their pivot shaft 712. The retractable support arms 710 have completed their upward motion in FIG. 25C whereupon the retractable support arms 710 are located at an elevation level just above or coincident with the support surfaces 307A of elevator 307 within the card deck discharge portal 730. The retractable support arms 710 are shown located width-wise outside of the elevator arms 307 in this embodiment, but the elevator arms 307 could instead be located outside of the retractable support arms 710.
(63) FIGS. 26A, 26B, and 26C show the same sequence of mechanism movement as the previous sequence but adding in the processed card deck 630 to these views. In FIG. 26A, the randomizing cycle has been completed and the processed card deck 630 has been raised to the card deck discharge portal 730, where it is temporarily supported by the elevator arms 307. The retractable support arms 710 remain outside of the randomizing chamber 186 until the elevator arms 307 reaches its zenith. In FIG. 26B, the retractable support arms 710 have been rotated into the orientation where the bellcrank has captured the processed card deck 630 from the elevator arms 307. In FIG. 26C, the elevator arms 307 are shown moving downward after the processed card deck 630 has been transferred to the retractable support arms 710 within the card deck discharge portal 730. In this embodiment, the elevator arm zenith is slightly below the ultimate level of the retractable supports 710, such that the processed card deck 630 is raised slightly by the retractable support arms 710 as they swing upward into position. Transfer of the processed card deck 630 to the retractable support arms 710 is thus induced by upward motion of the retractable support arms 710 in this embodiment.
(64) A third embodiment of a retractable support structure for the card deck discharge portal is shown in FIG. 27A. In this embodiment, a blade-like retractable support 810 is retracted in planar fashion (see arrows) by a DC motor 818 via a pinion and a rack which is located on the underside of the blade (not shown). The blade-like retractable support 810 is normally retracted from the interior of the housing 833 during randomization. When randomization is completed, the elevator arms 307 raise the processed card deck 630 to a level just above the height of the blade-like retractable support 810. Thereafter, the blade-like retractable support 810 is injected into the card deck discharge portal 830 and the elevator arms 307 lower the processed card deck 630 onto the blade-like retractable support 810. The elevator arms 307 are then lowered to a position where randomization of another deck of cards can commence. In this embodiment, transfer of the processed card deck 630 to the blade-like retractable support 810 is induced by downward motion of the elevator arms 307.
(65) A fourth embodiment of the retractable support structure utilizes a non-motorized blade-like retractable support element 910 as shown in FIG. 27B. In this embodiment, the dealer slides a retractable support element 910 into place after the elevator arms 307 have completed the upward movement to the card deck discharge portal 930. The plane of the retractable support element 910 is slightly lower than the elevator support arms 307 such that the processed card deck 630 will be transferred to the retractable support element 910 when the elevator arms are lowered. If the dealer wants to process a “Reserve Deck” while a “Ready Deck” is held in the card deck discharge portal 930, then the dealer can manually slide the retractable support element 910 into the position shown in FIG. 27B. The manual movement of the retractable support element 910 is detected by a reflective sensor 920 which is utilized by the microcontroller to monitor the position of the retractable support element 910. As the retractable support element 910 is slid rightward relative to the housing 933, the reflective sensor 920 will be triggered by lost reflectance, thus signaling the microcontroller to lower the elevator arms 307 to where the elevator arms 307 can participate in randomizing another card deck. As the elevator arms 307 are lowered, the processed card deck 630 is transferred to the retractable support 910.
(66) Termination of the randomizing cycle is detected by the microcontroller via sensor 129 (FIG. 12A). Upon termination of the randomizing cycle, the microcontroller will check the status of the sensor 138 (FIGS. 24A & 24B) which detects presence of a “ready deck”. If no “ready deck” is detected, the microcontroller will commence the cycle of transferring the processed card deck to the retractable supports 131 in the card deck discharge portal 130. If a “ready deck” is present, then the microcontroller will command the elevator arms 307 to move to the footprint position and hold the processed card deck 630 (2) in the “reserve deck” position as shown in FIG. 30. The microcontroller detects the presence of a processed card deck 630(2) in the “reserve deck” position by utilizing the cumulative count of the incremental encoder 310 which keeps track of the elevator arm 307 height in terms of encoder register counts. For example, an encoder count of 3490 represents the elevator arm 307 height at the footprint position, and an encoder count of 5340 represents the zenith of the elevator arms 307 just prior to transferring a processed card deck 630 to the retractable support structure 131. If the microcontroller detects that the elevator arms 307 are stationed at the “reserve deck” position, then no action will be taken when a card deck is inserted at the card intake portal 120.
(67) The astute casino card dealer will utilize the apparatus 100 of the present invention to sustain the rate of table play by maintaining a three-deck rotation as illustrated by the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 30. This figure illustrates the configuration of the apparatus 100 as properly prepared by the dealer at the start of a card game or beginning of a shift. In this figure, the dealer has just inserted a new deck 600 into the card intake portal 120. The “ready deck” 630(1) resides in the card deck discharge portal 130 as supported by the retractable supports 131 and the “reserve deck” 630(2) resides in the footprint position as supported by the elevator arms 307. While placing the spent deck 600 into the card intake portal 120, the dealer will the observe the status indicators 116 and 117 (FIG. 10) to discern if either the “ready deck” or the “reserve deck” is faulty.
(68) If no faults are indicated, the dealer removes the “ready deck” 630(1) to the table and starts or continues game play. Thereafter, the apparatus 100 responds automatically. The removal of the “ready deck” changes the state of sensor 138 (FIG. 22) and triggers the microcontroller to move the “reserve deck” 630(2) upward and transfer that deck to retractable supports 131. The “reserve deck” 630(2) then becomes the “ready deck” 630(1) and the elevator arms 307 thereafter move downward to a position ready for randomizing another card deck.
(69) The action of transferring the “reserve deck” 630(2) to the card deck discharge portal 130 also triggers the microcontroller to interrogate the condition of the card intake portal 120 by checking the state of sensor 129 (FIG. 12A) and sensor 138 (FIG. 22). When sensor 129 detects the presence of a card, then the apparatus 100 will commence the processing cycle by verifying and randomizing the previously spent deck. When that randomizing cycle is completed, the elevator arms 307 will raise the processed deck to the footprint position (see position of cards 630(2) as shown in FIG. 30).
(70) Normally, the dealer will not encounter a faulty “ready deck” because the dealer had previously “looked ahead” to the status of the “reserve deck” while having removed the previous “ready deck”. If having observed a faulty “reserve deck” via status indicator 116, the dealer will remove the “ready deck” to the playing table surface for play, and thereafter wait a few seconds for the apparatus to elevate the “reserve deck” to the card deck discharge portal 130. The dealer can then discard the faulty “reserve deck” or take whatever other action is mandated by casino policy.
(71) In the event that a faulty deck needs to be removed, the normal three-deck rotation will be disturbed, leaving only two decks. The dealer can remedy that situation by adding a new deck in between hands of his card game after observing an audible alarm from the shuffling apparatus 100.
(72) When the faulty “reserve deck” is being removed from the card deck discharge portal 130, the “ready deck” will have been removed to the playing table and a new deck or previously spent deck will have been placed into the card intake portal 120. After activating the SHUFFLE button 115, the previously spent deck will be randomized and transferred to the card deck discharge portal 130 as the “ready deck”, because no “reserve deck” is present. At that time, the card intake portal 120 will be vacant and the microcontroller will signal this condition to the dealer with a subtle audible tone. During the interval between hands, the dealer may then take remedial action to restore the three-deck rotation by introducing a new deck 600 into the card intake portal 120, and the apparatus 100 will process that deck automatically as explained above.
(73) The apparatus 100 of the present invention is capable of facilitating a three-deck rotation which statistically guarantees less downtime attributable to the possibility of encountering faulty decks. With a three-deck rotation, three discrete, separate card decks 600, 630(1), 630(2) may reside within the apparatus 100 at any point in time. The three-deck rotation is illustrated in FIG. 30 where the “ready deck” 630(1) is shown in the card deck discharge portal 130 and the “reserve deck” 630(2) is shown in the footprint position as supported by the elevator arms 307. When the dealer removes the “ready deck”630(1) in FIG. 30, the remaining two decks 630(2), 600 will advance through the apparatus 100 automatically and the card intake portal 120 will become vacant.
(74) The apparatus 100 herein can be utilized as a device to verify the integrity of card decks without randomizing the cards. The “verify-only” mode can be set by utilizing the push switch selector 111 on the apparatus console 105 as shown in FIG. 10. As shown in FIG. 12A, the unshuffled cards 600 may be fed past the optical recognition sensor 196 and stacked upon the elevator arms 307 within the randomizing chamber 186 without randomizing. The interrogated card deck is then transferred to the card deck discharge portal 130 as shown in FIG. 12B. If that card deck has been verified without error, then the “Ready Deck” indicator light 107 on the console 105 will be activated with green color (see FIG. 10). The time for processing a card deck in the “verify-only” mode will be somewhat shorter because no randomization cycle is needed.
(75) During the verification only mode, the elevator surfaces 307 do not relocate for each and every card insertion cycle. Instead, the elevator surfaces 307 are incrementally moved downward by the elevator mechanism 300 to accommodate the increasing thickness of the stack 620 that accumulates upon the elevator support surface (see FIG. 14). After each group of 13 cards accumulates on the elevator 307, the elevator is lowered by an amount equal to the thickness of 13 cards. This stack settling cycle is nominally performed four times during the verification of a 52-card deck. The number of cards in the stack settling cycle (13) may be modified as appropriate. The number could be as little as one, but that choice may be considered impractical by the designer of the apparatus.
(76) Also, during the verification only mode, the cam-controlled platform 210 is cycled for each and every card insertion cycle (see FIG. 15). However, the solenoids 207 and 208 that acuate gripper arms 203 and 204 are only actuated during specific insertion cycles. Prior to each incremental stack settling cycle of the elevator 307, the cam-controlled gripper arms 203 and 204 are also actuated by solenoids 207 and 208 so as to remove accumulated trapped air from within the growing stack 620. This gripper cycle takes place just prior to each of the incremental stack settling cycles of the elevator 307. The elevator 307 moves each accumulated stack to an elevation where the gripper arms 203 and 204 may grasp the bottom of the stack 620, and the gripper arms thereafter actuated by the solenoids 207 and 208. The cam-controlled gripper mechanism 200 then raises the accumulated stack 620 and thereafter releases it, allowing the accumulated stack 620 to free fall upon the elevator surface 307 to remove accumulated air from the stack. Both the elevator mechanism 300 and the gripper arms 203 and 204 are actuated during these stack settling cycles in the verification only mode.
(77) The relational geometry as shown in the figures is not limiting. For example, the axis formed by the lateral walls 133 of the randomizing chamber 186 as shown in FIG. 12A may form an oblique non-perpendicular angle with the surface of the casino table. The planes which define the openings of the card intake portal 120 and the card discharge portal 130 may be offset vertically from each other or form acute angles with the surface of the casino table. The rectangular openings of the card intake portal 120 and the card discharge portal 130 may be non-parallel with any lateral surface of the apparatus housing. Furthermore, the axis of the shuffling chamber 186 shown in FIG. 12A is not limited to a perpendicular orientation with the card intake portal 120 and the card deck discharge portal 130.
(78) Referring to FIG. 12A, the cards are transported by nip rollers 162, 164, 166, 168, and 169 in that figure. However, it is noted that the cards may be transported from the intake portal 120 to the randomizing chamber 186 by any other transport means that is known in the art. Also referring to that figure, it can be seen the optical recognition sensor 196 could also reside at the position of the card present sensor 129. Furthermore, the functions of the optical recognition sensor 196 and the card present sensor 129 could optionally be combined and reside at the position of sensor 129. Other sensor locations, other sensor types, and other optical recognition devices could be utilized as known and practiced in the art.
(79) Referring to FIG. 9, various control means on the control panel are shown implemented as push switches, push buttons, indicator lights and a 2-line LCD display. However, any other control means, or combinations of control means could be implemented to perform the status awareness functions, as is well known and practiced in the art. Those controls could also be located in different geometric orientations than shown, as for example on a control surface that is elevated or angularly re-oriented away from the surface of the card intake and discharge portals. The control region could also be located on a lateral surface of the device housing in the alternative tabletop embodiment. Moreover, the control functions could be simplified and centralized by utilizing a touch screen display. The control panel could also be removable from the apparatus housing so as to be more conveniently located by an operator. The operation of the control panel and the apparatus could also be monitored remotely over a network by casino personal or a centralized server.
(80) Referring to FIG. 13, the elevator arms 307 could be translated by devices other than the lead screw 304 and stepper motor 312. For example, toothed belts or rack and pinion gears could be utilized. Cable drives and different types of motors such as linear motors or servo motors could also be utilized, as well as any other elevator moving means and sensing means as known in the art.
(81) Referring to FIG. 15 and FIG. 16, the gripper closing function of the solenoids 207 and 208 and the return function of spring 212, could be performed by a number of alternative moving mechanisms, including servos, toothed belt drives, geared drives, rotary solenoids or any other rotatable moving means as is known and practiced in the art.
(82) Accordingly, it is to be understood that the embodiments of the invention herein described are merely illustrative of the application of the principles of the invention. Reference herein to details of the illustrated embodiments is not intended to limit the scope of the claims, which themselves recite those features regarded as essential to the invention.
