Bet sensing apparatuses and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017193735-A1
Application number	US-201614988533-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 5, 2016
Priority date	Jan 11, 2013
Publication date	Jul 6, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A bet sensor for sensing values of gaming tokens may include a bet placement surface configured and oriented to support a stack of gaming tokens thereon and an image sensor located and oriented to capture an image of a lateral side surface of at least one gaming token located on the bet placement surface. The image may depict the lateral side surface in a radial format. The bet sensor may include a processor operably coupled with the image sensor. The processor is configured to acquire image data from the image sensor and determine a wager value of the at least one gaming token by projecting at least one circle onto the image data that corresponds with a transition in the image data associated with the at least one gaming token. A gaming table may include such a bet sensor. The disclosure includes methods of operating such a bet sensor.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A bet sensor for sensing values of multiple gaming tokens, comprising:
a bet placement surface configured and oriented to support a stack of gaming tokens thereon; an image sensor located and oriented to capture an image of a lateral side surface of at least one gaming token located on the bet placement surface, wherein the image depicting the lateral side surface is in a radial format; and a processor operably coupled with the image sensor, the processor configured to acquire image data from the image and analyze the image data to determine a wager value of the at least one gaming token by projecting at least one circle onto the image data that corresponds with a transition in the image data associated with the at least one gaming token.

2 . The bet sensor of claim 1 , further comprising memory associated with the processor, the memory containing a plurality of known patterns associated with gaming tokens, wherein the processor is configured to analyze color content between the projected circles and compare the color content with the known patterns to determine the wager value of the at least one gaming token.

3 . The bet sensor of claim 2 , wherein the at least one gaming token comprises a plurality of gaming tokens arranged in a stack located on the bet placement surface, and the processor is configured to project a plurality of circles onto the image data that corresponds with a plurality of transitions in the image data associated with the plurality of gaming tokens.

4 . The bet sensor of claim 3 , wherein the processor is configured to project a plurality of circles onto the image data by defining a plurality of key points in the image data corresponding to edges identified in the image data, and by fitting the plurality of circles based on the key points.

5 . The bet sensor of claim 4 , wherein the processor is further configured to discard excess circles projected onto the image data based on predetermined criteria.

6 . The bet sensor of claim 5 , wherein the predetermined criteria includes at least one of a radius size of a circle, a center location of a circle, a color analysis of transitions for a circle in the image data, and a location of an arc of the circle.

7 . The bet sensor of claim 1 , wherein the transition is associated with an intermediate transition between two gaming tokens of a stack of gaming tokens.

8 . The bet sensor of claim 1 , wherein the transition is associated with an outer edge of a top gaming token of a stack of gaming tokens.

9 . A gaming table, comprising:
at least one bet sensor located proximate a surface of the gaming table, the at least one bet sensor including:
a bet placement surface configured and oriented to support a stack of gaming tokens thereon;
an image sensor located and oriented to capture an image of a lateral side surface of gaming tokens located on the bet placement surface, the image depicting the lateral side surface of the gaming tokens in a radial format; and
a processor in communication with the image sensor, the processor configured to acquire image data from the image and project a plurality of circles on the image data to identify at least one boundary in the image data to determine a wager value of the gaming tokens.

10 . The gaming table of claim 9 , further comprising memory associated with the processor, the memory including information associated with a plurality of known color patterns for different values of gaming tokens, wherein the processor is configured to determine the wager value by comparing color content of the image data between the projected circles with the known color patterns.

11 . The gaming table of claim 10 , wherein the color content is stored as color indexes, wherein the processor is configured to generate the color indexes from a larger range of colors.

12 . The gaming table of claim 9 , further comprising memory associated with the processor, the memory including radius information for an outermost boundary in the image data for a plurality of different sizes of stacks of gaming tokens permitted to be wagered at the gaming table.

13 . A method of operating a bet sensor for determining a wager value of a plurality of gaming tokens, the method comprising:
capturing, with an image sensor, image data of a lateral side surface of a plurality of gaming tokens on a bet placement surface, wherein the lateral side surface is depicted in a radial format; processing, with a processor, the image data including projecting a plurality of circles on the image data approximately at at least one transition in the image data corresponding to the plurality of gaming tokens; and determining a wager value of the plurality of gaming tokens based on characteristics of the plurality of circles.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein determining a wager value of the plurality of gaming tokens is based on color content of the image data between the plurality of circles.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein determining a wager value of the plurality of gaming tokens based on color content of the image data between the plurality of circles includes comparing the color content of the image data between the plurality of circles with known patterns of color content associated with individual wager values of individual gaming tokens.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein determining a wager value of the plurality of gaming tokens is based on a radii-based characterization of the plurality of circles for an outermost edge of the image data.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein determining a wager value is further based solely on a single value of gaming token multiplied by a number of gaming tokens determined by the radii-based characterization.

18 . The method of claim 13 , wherein processing the image data further includes discarding circles that do not meet predetermined criteria.

19 . The method of claim 18 , discarding circles that do not meet predetermined criteria includes discarding circles that satisfy at least one of the following predetermined criteria:
a radius of the circle is less than a lower threshold; a radius of the circle is greater than an upper threshold; a ratio of circle areas; a location of a center of the circle is outside of a predefined range; an arc of the circle is located in a background area of the image data; at least a portion of the circle extends outside of a boundary range for the image data; and a color pattern in the image data along the circle does not match a known patterns of color content associated with individual wager values of individual gaming tokens.

20 . The method of claim 13 , wherein processing the image data further includes performing a color classification on each pixel of the image data by translating a pixel value to a color index associated with a broader range of colors.

Assignees

• Bally Gaming Inc

Inventors

• Mandava Ajay Kumar
• Bemaras Jaime

Classifications

• G07F17/3225

  Data transfer within a gaming system, e.g. data sent between gaming machines and users · CPC title

• Y10T29/49826

  Assembling or joining · CPC title

• H04N23/90

  Arrangement of cameras or camera modules, e.g. multiple cameras in TV studios or sports stadiums · CPC title

• G07F17/3232

  wherein the operator is informed · CPC title

• G07F17/3204

  Player-machine interfaces · CPC title