Shuffled playing cards and manufacturing method thereof

Abstract

Systems and methods for monitoring shuffled playing cards. A shuffled card ID is associated with the one or more shuffled decks of playing cards. Each card delivered by a card feeder from the one or more shuffled decks of playing cards is inspected. It is determined whether there is a defect in the arrangement of the one or more shuffled decks of playing cards. Upon a condition that a shuffled deck of playing cards is determined to be defective, at least one of discarding the defective shuffled deck of playing cards or preventing a recurrence of a defect found within the defective shuffled deck of playing cards.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A card shuffling device comprising:
 a plurality of compartments; and   a card feeder that includes a surface on which a stack of cards can be held;   wherein the device is configured to:
 on a random basis, shift the surface of the card feeder to be positioned at positions corresponding to different respective ones of the plurality of compartments; 
 at each of the positions, feed a card from the stack that is on the surface into the respective compartment to which the respective surface position corresponds; and 
 combine all of the cards of the stack of cards that had been held on the surface of the card feeder and had been transferred to the plurality of compartments into a single shuffled stack. 
   
     
     
         2 . The device of  claim 1 , further comprising a respective movable partition between each pair of immediately adjacent ones of the plurality of compartments, wherein, for the combining of the all of the cards into the single shuffled stack, the device is configured to move the partitions so that they do not separate the cards in the respective pairs of compartments to which the respective partitions correspond. 
     
     
         3 . The device of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a sensor that scans each of the cards fed from the card feeder to the plurality of compartments; and   a processor, wherein the processor is configured to:
 obtain scan data generated by the sensor; 
 based on the scan data, determine whether the generated single shuffled stack is defective; and 
 responsive to a result of the determination being that the single shuffled stack is defective, produce a corresponding output. 
   
     
     
         4 . The device of  claim 2 , wherein the producing of the corresponding output includes triggering discard of the single shuffled stack. 
     
     
         5 . The device of  claim 2 , wherein the sensor includes a camera. 
     
     
         6 . The device of  claim 5 , further comprising a mirror positioned opposite the camera so that respective first faces of the cards that face the camera are directly detectable by the camera and respective second faces of the cards that face away from the camera are detectable by the camera via reflections by the mirror. 
     
     
         7 . The device of  claim 2 , wherein the sensor includes:
 a first sensor facing in a first direction, thereby being positioned to capture respective first faces of the cards; and   a second sensor facing in a second direction that is approximately opposite the first direction, thereby being positioned to capture respective second faces of the cards.   
     
     
         8 . The device of  claim 7 , wherein each of the first and second directions is approximately perpendicular to the surface of the card reader, the first and second sensors being positioned to perform their respective capturing as the cards are fed from the card feeder to the plurality of compartments. 
     
     
         9 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the device is configured to re-shuffle the single shuffled stack into a second single shuffled stack. 
     
     
         10 . The device of  claim 9 , wherein the re-shuffling is performed by randomly distributing the single shuffled stack into a second plurality of compartments from which the cards are combined to form the second single shuffled stack. 
     
     
         11 . A card shuffling system comprising:
 a card shuffler that includes a feeder from which the card shuffler is configured to feed cards of a first stack, in a random order, into a single shuffled stack, wherein the cards of the first stack include a plurality of different card types;   a sensor arranged to detect information on each of the cards fed into the single shuffled stack;   a processor, wherein the processor is configured to:
 obtain the information from the sensor; 
 identify the respective card types of each of the cards of the single shuffled stack based on the information obtained from the sensor; 
 determine whether the single shuffled stack is defective based on the identified card types; and 
 responsive to a result of the determination being that the single shuffled stack is defective, produce a corresponding output. 
   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the corresponding output includes outputting an error signal. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the information includes a respective combination of respective suit and respective rank. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the determination of whether the single shuffled stack is defective includes determining whether the single shuffled stack includes different amounts of any two of the ranks. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the determination of whether the single shuffled stack is defective includes determining whether the single shuffled stack includes different amounts of any two of the suits. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the determination of whether the single shuffled stack is defective includes determining whether, for any of the suits, the single shuffled stack includes at least a predetermined number of consecutive cards that are all of the respective suit and that, in a particular direction extending from a first one of the predetermined number of consecutive card to a last one of the predetermined number of consecutive cards, all either ascend by one for each pair of immediately adjacent ones of the predetermined number of consecutive cards or descend by one for each of the pairs of immediately adjacent ones of the predetermined number of consecutive cards. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the determination of whether the single shuffled stack is defective includes determining whether, for any of the ranks, the single shuffled stack includes at least a predetermined number of consecutive cards that are all of the respective rank. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 13 , wherein the determination of whether the single shuffled stack is defective includes determining whether, for any of the suits, the single shuffled stack includes at least a predetermined number of consecutive cards that are all of the respective suit. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein:
 the single shuffled stack includes two or more card sets that each includes a same number of cards whose respective card types each differ from the respective card types of each other card of the respective card set; and   the determination of whether the single shuffled stack is defective includes determining whether the single shuffled stack includes, offset from each other by a multiple of the same number, two sets of cards that each includes a predefined number of cards that are in a same sequence of the types.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein each of the types is a respective combination of rank and suit. 
     
     
         21 . A card feeding system comprising:
 a housing in which a plurality of cards can be held;   an opening;   at least one sensor positioned to detect the cards as they are removed, one at a time, from the housing via the opening; and   a processor, wherein the processor is configured to:
 based on information from the at least one sensor regarding the detections of the cards, detect presence of an error state; and 
 respond to the detection of the presence of the error state by one or both of (a) locking the opening, thereby preventing further passage of cards through the opening, and (b) outputting an error signal. 
   
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the at least one sensor is configured to detect a direction of movement of the cards as they pass through the opening, and the processor is configured to detect the presence of the error state in response to a detection, based on the information from the at least one sensor, of a card moving in a direction towards the housing. 
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the at least one sensor is configured to detect movement of the cards as they pass through the opening, and the processor is configured to detect the presence of the error state in response to a detection, based on the information from the at least one sensor, of a card remaining in the opening for longer than a predefined amount of time. 
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the at least one sensor includes a first movement sensor and a second movement sensor arranged offset from each other in a direction in which the cards are removable from the housing via the opening. 
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein:
 the at least one sensor includes a movement sensor and a scanner;   the processor is configured to detect the presence of the error state in response to a detection by the movement sensor of a card moving out of the housing through the opening without a corresponding sensing by the scanner of predefined information on the card.   
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the at least one sensor includes a scanner configured to scan respective information of the cards as they pass through the opening, and the processor is configured to detect the presence of the error state in response to a detection by the scanner of a predefined combination of respective information of two or more of the cards passing through the opening. 
     
     
         27 . The system of  claim 26 , wherein the predefined combination of information is of more than a predefined number of the cards whose information indicates that the cards are all of a same type. 
     
     
         28 . The system of  claim 26 , wherein the predefined combination of information is of a number of the cards indicating an incorrect sequence in which the cards are held in the housing. 
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the at least one sensor includes a scanner configured to scan respective information of the cards as they pass through the opening, and the processor is configured to detect the presence of the error state in response to a detection by the scanner of information associated in a database with a predefined geographic location. 
     
     
         30 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein:
 the at least one sensor includes a movement sensor and a scanner;   the processor is configured to detect the presence of the error state based on information scanned by the scanner during a time period determined based on the movement sensor.   
     
     
         31 . The system of  claim 30 , wherein the movement sensor includes a first movement sensor and a second movement sensor that, with respect to a card flow direction from the housing and through the opening, is downstream of the first movement sensor, a detection by the first movement sensor being used to begin the time period and a detection by the second movement sensor being used to end the time period. 
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 30 , wherein a detection of movement by the movement sensor is used to begin the time period. 
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 21 , further comprising a lock member, wherein the processor is configured to respond to the detection of the presence of the error state by locking the opening by triggering the lock member to press against a card that is in the opening. 
     
     
         34 . The system of  claim 21 , further comprising a lock member, wherein the processor is configured to respond to the detection of the presence of the error state by locking the opening by triggering the lock member to block a passage through the opening. 
     
     
         35 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the at least one sensor is configured to detect movement of the cards as they pass through the opening, and the processor is configured to detect the presence of the error state in response to a detection, based on the information from the at least one sensor, of a card moving through the opening during a non-game-play time period. 
     
     
         36 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein:
 the at least one sensor includes a first scanner and one or both of a second scanner and a movement sensor; and   the processor is configured to identify information about a set of cards being held in the housing based on information scanned by the first scanner, and detect the presence of the error state responsive to information from the one or both of the second scanner and the movement sensor that is inconsistent with the information about the set of cards.   
     
     
         37 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the inconsistent information indicates presence of a card in the housing that, according to the information scanned by the first scanner, is not present in the set. 
     
     
         38 . The system of  claim 37 , wherein the scanning by the first scanner is of a label on a package in which the set is packaged. 
     
     
         39 . The system of  claim 37 , wherein the scanning by the first scanner is of a bar code or QR code. 
     
     
         40 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor is configured to identify information about a set of cards being held in the housing based on a code associated with the set, and detect the presence of the error state responsive to information from the at least one sensor that is inconsistent with the information about the set of cards.