U.S. patent application number 11/220061 was filed with the patent office on 2007-03-08 for radio frequency identification (rfid) poker table.
Invention is credited to Harris Jeremy Galatan.
Application Number | 20070052167 11/220061 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 37829347 |
Filed Date | 2007-03-08 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070052167 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Galatan; Harris Jeremy |
March 8, 2007 |
Radio frequency identification (RFID) poker table
Abstract
Unique application of existing technology where a poker
tournament is displayed to an audience using a tournament table
having stations for receiving information about each player's down
or hole card(s) through the use of non-electronic-optical means.
Specifically through the use of Radio Frequency IDentification
(RFID) tags embedded within or printed upon the playing cards.
Inventors: |
Galatan; Harris Jeremy;
(Rancho Santa Margarita, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
HARRIS J. GALATAN
15 VIA BELMONTE
RANCHO SANTA MARG
CA
92688
US
|
Family ID: |
37829347 |
Appl. No.: |
11/220061 |
Filed: |
September 6, 2005 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
273/148R ;
463/40 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A63F 1/00 20130101; A63F
1/06 20130101; A63F 2009/2429 20130101; A63F 2009/2489 20130101;
A63F 3/00157 20130101; A63F 2003/00164 20130101; A63F 2001/022
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
273/148.00R ;
463/040 |
International
Class: |
A63F 9/00 20060101
A63F009/00 |
Claims
1. A way to capture real-time information about a card tournament
comprising: a playing table having a plurality of playing stations.
a deck of playing cards with ranks and suits used for playing the
range of games commonly referred to as poker, each card containing
a unique passive RFID tag embedded within or imprinted upon each
playing card. a RFID antenna/transceiver at each of said playing
stations with the ability to receive and send information about the
said playing cards.
2. A method of using apparatus as specified in claim 1 to read said
playing card information to `rabbit hunt`, or view playing cards
not dealt during a hand but which may have had an impact on the
result of any played hand had those unseen cards been exposed.
3. Apparatus as specified in claim 1 wherein said card reading
information is transmitted to other devices for display.
Description
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
[0001] The presentation or exhibition of a card tournament,
particularly a poker tournament, heretofore, card tournament, is an
extremely popular spectator event. Live tournaments are often taped
for later broadcast (via television, internet, and other media).
Card tournaments have gained in popularity with the application of
methods to display to the audience the "down cards" of the players.
This allows spectators to observe strategy and better understand
the progress of the game.
[0002] However, the currently utilized methods for displaying "down
cards" have several drawbacks which interfere with the ability of
spectators to obtain and observe information. Current methods
utilize electronic-optical means to view down cards via "lipstick"
cameras placed along the inside edge of the table, or by "under
table/through table" cameras placed underneath the table with the
cameras observing the "down cards" through a clear pane of glass or
plastic. Both these methods require players to place their "down
cards" in specific locations in order to allow the cameras to
obtain an adequate image. These images can be obscured by items
placed on the table, such as chips, card caps, or anything else a
player may have near his cards. Furthermore, a player may "cup" or
"cover" his cards while looking at the cards which can reduce the
light available for the electronic-optical image. Lastly, a player
may intentionally or accidentally forget to expose their cards to
the camera, resulting in no image what-so-ever.
[0003] RFID stands for Radio-Frequency IDentification. The acronym
refers to small electronic devices that consist of a small chip and
an antenna. The RFID device serves the same purpose as a bar code
or a magnetic strip on the back of a credit card; it provides a
unique identifier for that object. In this case, the identifier can
be the rank and suit of any playing card as well as a method to
differentiate one deck of cards from another.
[0004] Just as a bar code or magnetic strip must be scanned to get
the information, the RFID device must be scanned to retrieve the
identifying information. A radio-frequency identification system
has three parts: [0005] A scanning antenna [0006] A transceiver
with a decoder to interpret the data [0007] A transponder--the
radio-frequency tag--that has been programmed with information
[0008] The scanning antenna puts out radio-frequency signals in a
relatively short range. The RF radiation does two things; it
provides a means of communicating with the transponder tag (the
RFID chip) and (in the case of passive RFID tags) it provides the
RFID device with the energy to communicate. The RFID tags are
extremely small and can either be embedded within a standard
playing card or even printed upon a card with no noticeable change
to the size or `feel` of the card. The scanning antennas can be
affixed to a surface, such as underneath a poker table, and can
take whatever shape is needed. When an RFID tag passes through the
field of the scanning antenna, it detects the activation signal
from the antenna.
[0009] That "wakes up" the RFID chip, and it transmits the
information on its microchip to be picked up by the scanning
antenna.
[0010] "Rabbit Hunting" or "To Rabbit Hunt" are terms commonly used
by poker players and refers to a desire to have the dealer expose
community cards that would have come out after the action of the
current hand has ended. It allows players to know `what would have
happened` if a hand was played to a final `showdown`. Generally
speaking, rabbit hunting is not allowed during tournaments, but it
is often information desired by the audience.
[0011] It is therefore an object of the present invention to
provide an apparatus and method to obtain "down card" information
of a card tournament in a manner that the audience, but not the
players, can observe the unseen cards, including rabbit hunting,
through the use of RFID tags, eliminating many of the drawbacks of
electronic-optical means.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] In accordance with the invention there is provided an
apparatus and a method to obtain real time information about the
"down cards" of a card tournament for exhibition to an audience.
The apparatus includes a playing table having a plurality of
playing positions, a deck of playing cards with passive RFID tags
embedded within or imprinted upon each card, each playing position
having a RFID antenna/transceiver to identify the cards placed face
down at the table, a separate location for rabbit hunting of
un-played cards, an apparatus to transmit the information collected
by the RFID antenna/transceiver to other devices for display.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] FIG. 1 is an under-table view incorporating apparatus in
accordance with the present invention.
[0014] FIG. 2 is an overhead view of the table of FIG. 1.
[0015] FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective of the RFID
antenna/transceiver
[0016] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the information generated by
the apparatus and its interaction with other display devices.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0017] In accordance with the invention there is provided an
apparatus and a method to obtain real time information about the
"down cards" of a card tournament for exhibition to an audience.
The apparatus includes a playing table having a plurality of
playing positions, a deck of playing cards with passive RFID tags
embedded within or imprinted upon each card, each playing position
having a RFID antenna/transceiver to identify the cards placed face
down at the station, a separate station for rabbit hunting of
un-played cards, an apparatus to transmit the information collected
by the RFID antenna/transceiver to other devices for display.
[0018] It is assumed that play of the card tournament takes place
in a controlled environment where measures are taken to prevent
players from receiving messages from outside the room and where
radio signals that might interfere with the RFID
antenna/transceiver are prevented.
[0019] The playing cards (1 of FIG. 1) consists of a 52 playing
card deck used for poker tournaments. The deck is divided into 4
suits (commonly referred to as Spades, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds).
Each suit contacts 13 ranks of cards (numbers 2 through 10, Jack,
Queen, King, Ace). The deck may also contain additional cards such
as one or more Jokers that are used in certain variations of the
game. Each playing card has a passive RFID tag either embedded into
the card or printed directly onto the card. This RFID tag contains
information that uniquely identifies that card, what deck of cards
it belongs to, its suit and rank.
[0020] The table (6 of FIG. 1) is configured for seven players, but
a greater or lesser number can be accommodated by re-configuring
the table. The table includes positions A to G at which the players
are to be seated. Additionally position X is available for an
optional, non-playing dealer. Each position is provided with a
RFID-reading RFID antenna/transceiver base hereafter referred to as
a BASE (2 of FIG. 1).
[0021] Each BASE (2 of FIG. 1) contains an antenna (2(a) of FIG.
3), transceiver (2(b) of FIG. 3) and a power source (2(c) of FIG.
3). While the antenna is shown as a trapezoidal shape in the
illustration, the antenna can be any shape necessary to meet the
specific configuration of a given table. The power source can be
either battery powered or hard-wired electrical. The transceiver
receives "down card" information through radio waves (wireless) and
can communicate that information to a central receiving unit (3 of
FIG. 1) via either wireless or hard-wired communication. The
central receiving unit stores all information received from the
each BASE in addition to time-code information to identify each
specific hand. This information is then transferred through
hard-wired or wireless communication (4 of FIG. 1) to other display
units (5 of FIG. 1) for further viewing or editing.
[0022] The scanning area of the BASE is localized to a small area
of the table (7a-7g of FIG. 2) so one player's "down cards" are not
received by another BASE, nor will they interfere with (8 of FIG.
2) the area reserved for community cards in play during a hand. The
"Rabbit Hole" (2(x) of FIG. 1) operates in the same manner of all
other BASE locations, but is reserved for the non-playing dealer to
"rabbit hunt". This is achieved by having the dealer place the
appropriate cards over the "rabbit hole" area (7x of FIG. 2).
[0023] The pentagon shapes shown for 7a-7g and 7x do not represent
the actual shape of the radio field, but generally demonstrate the
localized range of the RFID antenna. They also represent one of any
number of shapes that may be printed on to the table top to
designate the general area which each player should place his "down
cards".
[0024] FIG. 4 demonstrates how the information collected (9 of FIG.
4) by each BASE and stored in the central receiving unit is time
synchronized (10 of FIG. 4) to accurately track each played hand.
That information can then be combined with other optical/video or
graphic information (12 of FIG. 4) edited (11 of FIG. 4) in a
manner commonly used for broadcasting of poker tournaments.
[0025] While there has been here described what is believed to be a
preferred embodiment of the invention, those skilled in the art
will recognize that modification may be made thereto without
departing from the spirit of the invention and its indented claim.
All such modifications fall within the scope of the invention.
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