Coded playing cards and apparatus for dealing a set of cards

[54] CODED PLAYING CARDS AND APPARATUS FOR DEALING A SET OF CARDS

[75] Inventors: Jack A. Soules, Shaker Heights;

Bryan D. Carpenter, Cleveland, both of Ohio

[73] Assignee: Technical Systems Corp., Cleveland, Ohio

[21] Appl. No.: 501,148

[22] Filed: Mar. 29, 1990

[51] Int. Q.5 A63F 1/14

[52] U.S. CI 273/149 P

[58] Field of Search 273/149 P, 292, 296,

273/304, DIG. 24; 283/901, 75, 87, 88, 89;

434/331

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

3,640,009 2/1972 Komiyama 283/88

4,534,562 8/1985 Cuffetal 273/149 P

4,662,637 5/1987 Pfeiffer 273/149 P

4,889,367 12/1989 Miller 283/88

Primary Examiner—William H. Grieb
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Alfred D. Lobo

[57] ABSTRACT

A deck of cards is coded by marking each card on its face with a bar code which is essentially invisible to the human eye, but can be read by a detector matched to the source of wavelength of the light used to irradiate each card as it is passed over the surface of a portable housing which houses the detector and the associated reading means. Appropriate hardware is also housed in the housing to process the coded information read. The software provided stores a number of predetermined "hands" which are to be dealt. It can also deal a random deal, more random than can be dealt by human shuffling of the deck. A method is provided to deal a preselected "deal" to a chosen number of players, typically four, the apparatus indicating to the human dealer to which location each card is to be dealt.

9 Claims, 6 Drawing Sheets