Card shuffling apparatus and card handling device
A device for forming a random set of playing cards comprises a card in-feed area, a shuffling system, a card removal area, and a card reading system located within the device, the card reading system employing a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor and a hardware component, the hardware component capable of converting signals from the CMOS sensor into vector sets and comparing the vector sets to known vectors to determine rank and suit.
1. A card-reading module for a card-handling apparatus, comprising:
an illuminator configured to illuminate faces of playing cards with electromagnetic radiation;
a two-dimensional, image-array sensor configured to receive reflected electromagnetic radiation from the faces to generate card face data;
logic circuitry operatively connectable to the sensor, the logic circuitry configured to convert the card face data into binary values; and
a nontransitory memory device operatively connectable to the logic circuitry, the nontransitory memory device storing templates for at least one of a rank and suit of each expected card for comparison to the binary values of the card face data;
wherein the logic circuitry is configured to compare the binary values from generated card face data to the templates to determine at least one of the rank and suit of a given playing card.
2. The card-reading module of claim 1 , wherein the two-dimensional, image-array sensor comprises a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor.
3. The card-reading module of claim 2 , wherein the CMOS image sensor is configured to generate the card face data as a vector set.
4. The card-reading module of claim 2 , wherein the CMOS image sensor comprises a black and white CMOS image sensor.
5. The card-reading module of claim 4 , wherein the black and white CMOS image sensor is configured to output grayscale values.
6. The card-reading module of claim 5 , wherein the black and white CMOS image sensor is configured to output the grayscale values in at least one of an 8 and 16 bit format.
7. The card-reading module of claim 2 , wherein the CMOS image sensor is a color CMOS image sensor.
8. The card-reading module of claim 1 , wherein the illuminator is configured such that at least a portion of light emitted by the illuminator is green.
9. The card-reading module of claim 8 , wherein the illuminator is configured such that at least 40% of a total fluence emitted by the illuminator comprises green light.
10. The card-reading module of claim 9 , wherein the illuminator is configured such that between 50% and 100% of the total fluence emitted by the illuminator when the illuminator is activated comprises green light.
11. The card-reading module of claim 1 , wherein the illuminator is configured such that between 60% and 90% of the total fluence emitted by the illuminator when the illuminator is activated comprises green light.
12. The card-reading module of claim 1 , wherein the logic circuitry comprises at least one of a field-programmable gate array (FGPA) and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
13. The card-reading module of claim 1 , wherein the illuminator comprises a light-emitting diode (LED).
14. A method of configuring a card-reading module for use with a card-handling apparatus, comprising:
providing an illuminator configured to illuminate faces of playing cards with electromagnetic radiation;
providing a two-dimensional, image-array sensor configured to receive reflected electromagnetic radiation from the faces of the playing cards;
operatively connecting logic circuitry to the two-dimensional, image-array sensor, the logic circuitry configured to convert the card face data into binary values;
operatively connecting a nontransitory memory device to the logic circuitry, the nontransitory memory device storing templates for at least one of a rank and suit of each expected card for comparison to the binary value values of the card face data; and
configuring the logic circuitry to compare the binary values from generated card face data to the templates to determine at least one of the rank and suit of a given playing card.
15. The method of claim 14 , wherein providing the two-dimensional, image-array sensor comprises providing a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein providing the CMOS image sensor comprises providing a black and white CMOS image sensor.
17. The method of claim 14 , wherein operatively connecting the logic circuitry to the two-dimensional, image-array sensor comprises operatively connecting at least one of a field-programmable gate array (FGPA) and an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) to the two-dimensional, image-array sensor.
18. The method of claim 14 , wherein providing the illuminator comprises selecting the illuminator to emit at least some green light.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein selecting the illuminator to emit the at least some green light comprises selecting the illuminator to emit green light in at least 40% of a total fluence emittable by the illuminator.
20. The method of claim 19 , wherein selecting the illuminator to emit green light in at least 40% of the total fluence emittable by the illuminator comprises selecting the illuminator to emit green light in between 50% and 100% of the total fluence emittable by the illuminator.