GB2503870A

GB2503870A - Recognising gaming chips by colour

Info

Publication number: GB2503870A
Application number: GB201208308A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Richard William Cammegh; Ian Talbot
Original assignee: Cammegh Ltd
Current assignee: Cammegh Ltd
Priority date: 2012-05-11
Filing date: 2012-05-11
Publication date: 2014-01-15
Also published as: GB201208308D0

Abstract

A gaming table 2 comprises at least one bet location having a sensor 14 arranged to output a colour signal corresponding to the colour of a token or chip 4 placed thereon. A controller determines the colour of the chip and a display element, e.g. coloured LEDs 6, displays the determined colour. The sensor unit may include a white light illumination source and a plurality of colour sensors (see figure 4). Alternatively the chip may include means 12 such as an RFID tag for encoding and storing colour data, with the sensor 14 being an RFID reader or similar capable of interrogating the chip to obtain the colour data. In use, each player is provided with chips having a different colour to those of other players, such that the gaming table sensors are able to determine which player placed a wager by determining the colour of the chip. The gaming table may comprise a roulette table (see figure 6). The sensors may be used to play a side game in which roulette players 'buy' spaces on slot reels by placing chips on the sensors, and a winner is selected by spinning the reels (see figure 5).

Description

Chip Recognition The invention relates to an apparatus and method which uses chip recognition on a gaming

table.

Backci round In many casinos and gaming environments there are ways to place bets by placing a gaming chip on a specific location on a gaming table. Depending on the outcome of the game, the dealer or croupier will either take away the stake or wager that has been unsuccessful or the dealer or croupier will pay out to the player if the wager has been successful. In recent years this process has been made more sophisticated by the introduction of a sensor that can identify if a wager has been made.

A typical example of this can be found in the casino game known as Caribbean Stud Poker. In this card game a player indicates his intention to play a game by placing a wager in an ante box.

In addition to the ante box there is located a sensor designed to receive a chip; once the chip is placed on the sensor, the sensor illuminates thus identifying the player has bought into the side bet. The sensor then communicates to a CPU that a particular sensor/player has bought into the game. The dealer then removes the chip bets placed on the sensors, which remain illuminated during the game. In this particular case if the player has bought into a side bet and the player is say dealt a royal flush they can be paid a jackpot bonus prize.

Summary of Invention

According to the invention there is provided a gaming table according to claim 1.

This new innovation builds on the idea of a chip sensor but this innovation is for a chip sensor that cannot only detect a chip that has been placed on a side bet but also the colour of the chip.

Many games can use the idea of different players playing with different colour chips representing the identity of the player, for example roulette. In operation of a typical roulette game, players place chips or tokens on a betting layout located on a roulette table, then the croupier or dealer spins the roulette wheel and places the ball in motion around the circular ball track. As the ball and wheel slows the ball moves radialy inward and comes to rest in one of the pockets associated with a particular number on the rotor of the wheel. The croupier or dealer settles the various wagers placed on the table layout in accordance with predetermined rules and wager odds. The process is then repeated.

This present innovation relates to a more sophisticated means of placing bets with chips and the opportunities it creates with regards to creating side bets, buy ins" and security enhancements for gaming tables, which is done by utilizing a chip sensor that detects the colour of the chip.

Thus, the player is not required to place his or her chips on a specific sensor for that player -instead, the player places his or her chip (s) on a sensor of choice.

This allows for more sophisticated games -for example there may be a number of side bets indicated by different sensors and each player can bet on any of them, unlike the "Caribbean Stud Poker" game mentioned above where each player can only bet on a single side-bet.

A computer controlled display may be provided to display information about the game, including for example the winning number and previous winning numbers.

Brief Description of Drawings

For a better understanding of the invention embodiments will now be described, purely by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figures ito 3 are perspective views of different embodiments of a gaming table and sensor(s); Figure 4 is a top view of a sensor according to a specific embodiment; Figure 5 illustrates a display used when playing the game; and Figure 6 illustrates a gaming table and the location of sensors.

The drawings are schematic and not to scale.

Detailed Description

There are a number of ways in which the colour of a chip placed on a gaming table may be achieved, as illustrated in Figures ito 3.

Figure 1 shows a gaming table 2, i.e. a table on which chips may be placed to place a bet. A chip 4 is shown placed on a particular bet location on the table indicated by light emitting diodes, LEDs 6 arranged in a ring around the particular location. In this embodiment, the chip includes a radio frequency identification,RFID, tag i2 indicating its colour and an RFID reader 14 is mounted below the gaming table at the particular location. The RFID reader 14 reads the RFID tag and so acts as a sensor to sense the colour of the chip. The RFID reader is connected to computer 10 which can carry out processing of the date. The computer is connected to display 50 (Figure 5) as will be described below.

As well as indicating the colour of the chip, the RFID tag 12 may include further information such as, for example, the value of the chip, the player of the chip, or any other information that may be considered relevant.

Figure 2 shows an alternative embodiment in which the gaming table 2 is transparent in transparent region 24 at the particular bet location within the LEDs 6 and a camera 20 is mounted beneath the gaming table. The camera 20 captures an image including the chip and passes the image to computer 10 for further processing, in particular analysing the image to detect the colour of the chip. Lights 22 are also provided below the table for providing sufficient illumination. For example, the lights 22 may be white LEDs.

In an alternative arrangement shown in Figure 3, a camera 20 is mounted above the table. This avoids the need for separate lighting.

However, image processing may be more difficult in this case since the image from the top of the table will be more complicated.

Figure 4 shows a specific embodiment in top view which uses a sensor unit 40 multiplicity of colour sensors 44 (they are like one pixel cameras) and an illumination device 42, an LED, which are under synchronized control of a control chip 46 on circuit board 48. The intensity of the illumination is varied rapidly and the gradients of the colour sensor readings correlated to identify the saturation of the various parts of the chip in a manner which is independent of the aging of the LEDS and soiling of the chip. The colour sensors and LED5 can be moved to change the regions of interest of different designs of chips, and the mask pattern between the sensors and LED5 (the black PCB sandwiched between glass and electronics) sets the size of areas over which the chip colour is to be averaged.

In the parUcular embodiment shown, a single white LED 42 is used to provide light, and five sensor elements 44 are used. The sensor elements 44 are arranged in a cross pattern with a central element and four surrounding elements. Each sensor element 44 is a single unit which contains three photodiodes and associated circuitry and which provides a digital output RGB value, which may be considered to be a (digital) colour signal. Such sensor elements implemented in CMOS are available commercially and amount, in effect, to a single pixel digital camera.

The reason for the use of five sensor elements is two-fold. Firstly, it allows the detection of the colour even if the player does not place the chip centrally on the sensor unit 40. Secondly, some chips may not be uniformly coloured. Many casinos use chips with a logo, for example, arranged in the centre of the chip, the logo being the same for each player.

In the embodiment, the white LED is operated in a sawtooth mode, ramped from off to full brightness in a linear way, and then switched off and the cycle repeated. This ensures that the LED provdes a range of brightnesses. The white LED 42 used is sufficiently bright that when a light coloured or white chip is placed on the sensor unit 40, the sensor elements can saturate.

The data is taken from the sensor elements 44. The colour reading from each sensor element may be taken, for example, from the colour at each element just before that element saturates.

If the element does not saturate, the measured colour at the maximum brightness of the LED can be used.

In the particular embodiment, the gradient of the received RGB signal (i.e. rate of change of the detected ft G, and B signals over time) is used as the output RGB signal. This gradient is more invariant under varying ambient lighting conditions than the raw detected values themselves.

In this way, the sensor unit 40 is able to cope with a wide range of colours and shades of chips.

In particular, for a dark chip, such as a brown chip, which does not reflect much light, the high brightnes of the white LED 42 ensures that sufficient light is picked up by the sensor elements 44 to distinguish the brown chip from other dark chips, such as a black chip or a dark purple chip.

However, some casinos can use bright coloured chips of similar colour, for example peach and magnolia (pale yellow), and by using the data before saturation of the sensors good discrimination can be made between these colours.

Thus, by combining a bright white LED 42 with the ramping light intensity operation and the use of the gradient RGB values both dark and light chips can be correctly distinguished.

In the embodiment, the sensor unit 40 simply outputs five RGB values which are processed in computer 10. This allows for the use of the sensor unit 40 in a variety of different environments for different games or for different colour chips. The computer 10 can more easily be re-programmed to suit individual casinos.

The computer 10 may determine the colour in a number of ways. One way is simply to have a look up table with RGB values typically measured for different colours and the closest match (in three dimensional RGB space) used as the identified colour.

In the embodiment a more sophisticated algorithm is used, based essentially on hue. The received RGB values are converted into Hue values, as well as saturation and brightness values, and then the hue value used to distinguish the chip.

The inventors have discovered that the use of a hue value is more robust than simply using an RGB value, since in particular the hue value is the most invariant as the chip gets used, worn, or dirty. This means that the use of the hue value provides particularly good chip colour discrimination.

Other approaches to the sensor unit 40 may also be used. For example, the LED 42 may be modulated in a sine wave and the in-phase component of the detected RGB signals from sensor elements 44 used as the RGB value output to computer 10.

Alternatively, the LED 42 may be driven in a square wave, i.e. an on-off pattern, and the difference between the detected RGB values with the LED 42 on and off used as the RGB value output to computer 10.

The computer 10 drives the LED5 6 to display the detected colour of the chip. Conveniently, these LED5 6 may be mounted on the circuit board 48 of the sensor unit 40. This provides confirmation to the player that the player's bet has been successfully recognised by the computer system. In alternative arrangements the LED5 6 may be mounted directly on the table 2.

The specific example allows the detection of colour without the expense of incorporating RFI D tags into every chip used in a casino, which may be a very large number of chips, and also without the difficulty of attempting to decode a video image taken from a camera mounted

abovethetable.

The introduction of the use of sensors that can detect the colour of the playing chips, thus identifying the player, creates options for exciting side bets that are not possible without the sensor. For example mystery prizes can be awarded to players who have bought in. In this case players would place the chip or chips on the sensor. The sensor would change to the colour of the participating chip thus identifying the player. The casino could reward a mystery prize but

S

only to the player that has bought in.The colour sensitive chip sensor will tell the casino which players have bought in so can identify the winning chip sensor by the sensor flashing thus indicating a win. The indication of the winner could also be used in conjunction with a display system next to the table which also announces the winning colour and thus player.

Another example of side bets utilizing a display system is players buy into a slot reel that spins every gaitie. For example a roulette table could have a display system that shows the colour of chips being used on the table, presented as a slot reel 52 on display 50 as shown in Fig 5.

Each slot wheel 52 represents a plurality of wheels that spin with different colours or images on each of a number of locations 54. The locations have a number of different colours which is not represented in the black and white drawings.

During the game, the reels could turn under the control of computer 10 and the players who have bought into the side bet will activate the colour that is unique to them. Prizes could be awaided to the player who foi example has his chip colour cover the win line on the reel.

Additional interest may be provided by ensuring that the display of the game varies depending on the chips used to bet. For example, the reels may not display any synibols corresponding to individual players until the players place bets. Thus, for example, the reels may originally show typical fruit machine symbols such as fruit, and these are replaced with inlages of a particular coloured chip when a player places that coloured chip on the sensor. This may allow a player to purchase more of the wheel by placing chips on multiple sensor units 40.

Another use of a colour chip detector is to help the croupier in the case that different chips have different values.

For example, a further refinement provides additional information when the chip is placed, for example by flashing a number of times. This can be used to provide information either to the player or to the operator.

In roulette, different colouis can and do repiesent different values, for example a red chip could represent £1 and a blue chip could represent 50p. In this case, different players who are playing with different colours are playing for different stakes in the normal game of roulette.

If the buy in for the side bet is £2 the following would happen. In the case of the player putting down a red chip on the sensor, the sensor would know it is a led chip and that the red chips only value £1. The sensors would flash twice telling the dealer that the player needs to put down two chips. In the case of the blue chip, the sensor would flash four times indicating to the dealer that 4 chips are required for the buy in. Once the dealer is satisfied the correct amount has been paid, the dealer can accept the bet.

Alternatively, the number of flashes can be used to indicate some other property or parameter of the game.

Due to the sensors' ability to detect the colour of the chip the player is free to place bets on any of the sensors thus can move around the roulette table at will. An example of how the layout 60 could look with the location of sensors 8 is shown in Fig 6.

For ease of the operator of the table, and to create more excitement, the bet locations may be located within the layout grid of the roulette game, or other main game, allowing the players to easily bet on the side bets offered by the placing bets on the bet locations. The operator may more easily collect the bets after the game with this layout, since Secondly due to the sensor's ability to recognize the colour players would be free to increase the stake they wish to place on the wager, thus for example buying more win lines on a slot reel.

During the spin the sensors are connected through computer 10 to a secondary device capable of determining a no more bets position' during the spin of the ball i.e the point during the game where no more bets will be accepted on the table. In this scenario the sensor will not react to the presence of a chip after this point is reached.

As well as conventional casino chips, alternative forms of token may be used.

Claims

CLAIMS1. Gaming apparatus comprising: a gaming table (2) having at least one bet location to receive a token (4) indicating a bet; at least one sensor (44) arranged to output a colour signal corresponding to the colour of a token (4) on the sensor; and control apparatus (10) connected to the sensor arranged to determine the colour of the token (4) from the colour signal.
2. Gaming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a display element arranged at the bet location, wherein the detection apparatus is arranged to indicate the determined colour on the display element.
3. Gaming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display element is a plurality of colour LED5 arranged around the bet location.
4. Gaming apparatus according to claim 2 or 3 wherein the control apparatus (10) is arranged to determine an integer number dependent on the determined colour of the token and to control the display element to flash the determined integer number of times.
5. Gaming apparatus according to any preceding claim comprising at least one sensor unit (40) having at least one white light illumination source (42), at least one sensor (44), and a control circuit (46).
6. Gaming apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the control circuit (46) is arranged to modulate the at least one white light illumination source (42) to output a range of intensities of white light, and to output as a colour signal to the detection apparatus a measure of the changing signal detected by the at least one sensor (44) as the intensity changes.
7. Gaming apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the control circuit (46) is arranged to ramp the intensity of the white light illumination source and to output the rate of change of red, R, green, G, and blue, B, signals detected by the at least one sensor (44) as the colour signal output to the control apparatus (10).
8. Gaming apparatus according to any of claims 5, 6 or 7 wherein the sensor unit comprises a plurality of sensors (44) arranged across the bet location.S
9. Gaming apparatus according to any of claims 5 to 8 comprising a plurality of sensor units (40).
10. Gaming apparatus according to any preceding claim further comprising a display connected to the control apparatus (10).
11. Gaming apparatus according to claim 10 wherein the control apparatus is arranged to display which players have placed a token on the bet location based on the determined colour to signify which players have bought in to a side bet indicated by the bet location.
12. Gaming apparatus according to claim 10 or 11 wherein the display changes to indicate a change to the game depending on the determined colour.
13. Gaming apparatus according to claim 10, 11 or 12 wherein the display displays a plurality of wheels, each wheel having a plurality of symbols or images, wherein the control apparatus is arranged to change some of the symbols or images to correspond to the determined colour when a token is placed in the bet location.
14. Gaming apparatus according to any preceding claim, further comprising a layout grid for a main game on the table, wherein the at least one sensor is arranged within the layout grid.
15. Gaming apparatus according to claim 14 wherein the layout grid is a roulette layout.