Mechanized playing card dealing shoe with automatic jam recovery
View Patent ↗A distinct dealing shoe having no shuffling functionality receives a shuffled, randomized or ordered group of cards. The cards may be mechanically moved one at a time from a receiving area for the deck to a buffer area where more than one card is temporarily stored. The cards in the buffer area are then mechanically moved to a card delivery area where the cards may be manually removed, one at a time, by a dealer. The cards are read one at a time inside of the dealing shoe, either before the buffer area or after leaving the buffer area, but preferably before the cards are being manually removed from a card delivery area. Information from the card reading may be used for game tracking, hand tracking, player information, and other security issues at casino table card games.
1. A mechanized playing card delivery shoe comprising:
a. A card in-feed area;
b. At least one card mover that mechanically moves cards individually from the card in-feed area to a card delivery area;
c. At least one sensor capable of sensing at least the presence of a card in a card location within the card delivery shoe; and
d. A microprocessor for controlling the operation of the card delivery shoe, wherein the microprocessor receives a signal from the at least one sensor and determines if the signal indicates a jam has occurred, and is programmed to cause the at least one card mover to alter a direction of movement of a card to recover from a jam.
2. The card delivery shoe of claim 1 , wherein the at least one card mover comprises at least one pick-off roller.
3. The card delivery shoe of claim 1 , wherein the at least one pick-off roller moves cards individually out of the card in-feed area.
4. The card delivery shoe of claim 1 , further comprising a card-reading sensor located within the card delivery shoe for sensing card information.
5. The card delivery shoe of claim 4 , wherein the information comprises at least one of rank and suit.
6. The card delivery shoe of claim 1 , wherein the at least one card mover comprises at least one pair of brake rollers.
7. The card delivery shoe of claim 6 , wherein the at least one pair of brake rollers are capable of becoming free-turning while the microprocessor is directing the card delivery shoe to recover from a card jam.
8. The card delivery shoe of claim 1 , and further comprising a card path between the card in-feed area and the card delivery area
9. The card delivery shoe of claim 8 , wherein the at least one card mover comprises a speed-up rollers located along the card path.
10. The card delivery shoe of claim 8 , wherein the at least one sensor comprises multiple sensors located along the card path, and wherein the microprocessor is programmed to initiate an automatic jam recovery routine upon receiving a signal from at least one of the sensors indicating a jam has occurred.
11. The card delivery shoe of claim 10 , wherein the jam recovery routine is initiated by either manual or automatic activation.
12. The card delivery shoe of claim 1 , wherein the card delivery area comprises a slot adapted for manual removal of individual cards.
13. The card delivery shoe of claim 12 , wherein the slot is positioned at an angle with respect to the horizontal, wherein the angle is less than 90 degrees.
14. A method of recovering from a card jam in a card delivery shoe, comprising:
a. Providing a shoe with:
i. a card in-feed area for receiving a group of cards used in a card game;
ii. at least one card moving mechanism that moves cards individually out of the card in-feed area and into a card delivery area;
iii. a card delivery area adapted for manual removal of individual cards;
iv. a drive system for causing the card-moving mechanism to move cards;
v. a sensor capable of sensing a card jam; and
vi. a microprocessor that controls the operation of the shoe;
b. Loading a group of cards into the shoe;
c. Receiving an activation signal to activate the card-moving mechanism to move cards;
d. Moving cards individually from the card in-feed area to the card delivery area; and
e. Wherein the microprocessor causes the drive system to alter normal card movement to automatically recover from a jam when a signal is received from the sensor indicating the occurrence of a jam.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the group of cards received in the shoe loaded comprises multiple decks of cards.
16. The method of claim 14 , wherein the step of moving cards individually comprises moving cards past a card-reading station to determine rank and suit.
17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the step of automatically recovering from a jam comprises reversing a direction of movement of a card.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the step of automatically recovering from a jam comprises resuming a direction of movement of a card after reversing a direction of movement of a card.
19. The method of claim 14 , wherein automatically recovering from a jam comprises halting a direction of movement of a card and then resuming the direction of movement of the card.