CPC A63F 1/12 (2013.01) [A63F 1/10 (2013.01); A63F 1/14 (2013.01)] | 13 Claims |
1. A method of altering an orientation of cards being shuffled in an automatic card shuffler, comprising:
providing an automatic card shuffler with a user display; a card intake, a card outlet, a card shuffling apparatus, a card path between the card intake and the card outlet, a card-imaging system, at least one processor configured to control the card-imaging system, the user display, and to operate the card shuffler, wherein the card shuffling apparatus comprises multiple compartments;
receiving a plurality of cards in the card intake, the cards arranged in a stack wherein cards are arranged with card faces in a face to back orientation;
automatically feeding each card individually from the stack along the card path and inserting the card into one of the multiple compartments of the card shuffling apparatus;
reading card face information of each card as the card is being fed with the card-imaging system;
identifying unreadable cards, wherein unreadable cards include cards that lack card face information from the card-imaging system;
inserting the unreadable cards into at least one designated compartment in the card shuffling apparatus;
randomly inserting each card not identified as unreadable into a randomly selected compartment;
unloading all cards except the cards in the at least one designed compartment into the card outlet, forming a stack of cards, wherein each card in the stack of cards is oriented in the face-to-back orientation;
unloading the unreadable cards from the at least one designated compartment and adding the unreadable cards to an end of the stack after unloading all other cards;
causing the user display to display an alert indicating that at least one card in the outlet requires at least one of inspection or reorientation;
accepting at least one reoriented card from the card outlet in the card intake;
automatically feeding each card of the at least one reoriented card in the card intake into the card shuffler;
unloading the at least one reoriented card in the card shuffler to the card outlet; and
combining the at least one reoriented card with the stack of cards in the card outlet to form a shuffled set of cards in the face-to-back orientation.
|