GB2265139A - Card dealer / shuffler - Google Patents

Abstract

A card dispenser comprises a body 11 having a compartment 13 open from below for accommodating at least the upper portion of a stack of cards 14 and having at least one side outlet 17 through which cards are dispensed one by one, the body 11 being arranged to act upon said stack 14 under the action of gravity. In use, the body 11 will move gradually downwards as the cards are dispensed. Delivery means 18-29 delivers successive uppermost cards of the stack towards the outlet(s) and is controlled by electronics 30 to deliver to various locations in a random order and thereby effectively shuffle the cards. With several (e.g. four) outlets 17, these are simply selected in a random order. With a single outlet, the dispenser is rotatably indexed in a random fashion. <IMAGE>

Description

CARD DISPEoSER The present invention relates to a card dispenser, particularly but not exclusively, for playing cards.

Cards can be used, for example, for games or fortune telling. It is usually necessary to deal or distribute a stack of cards in a particular manner before the game or fortune telling can start. Card shuffling before dealing may also be required. However, it takes time and effort or skill manually to deal the cards in a neat manner and/or shuffle them thoroughly, which are rather tedious and time consuming.

According to the invention, there is provided a card dispenser which comprises a body having a compartment open from below for accommodating at least the upper portion of a stack of cards and having at least one side outlet through which cards accommodated in the compartment can be dispensed one by one, said body being arranged to act upon said stack of cards under the action of gravity, and delivery means provided within the body for delivering the uppermost card of said stack so accommodated towards the said or one of said at least one side outlet for card dispensing.

In a preferred embodiment, the card dispenser further comprises a base which is arranged to engage with the body against any sideward movement relative thereto.

It is preferred that the base has an upper portion arranged to be received within the open end of the compartment and to engage therewith against any sideward movement of the body relative to the base.

Advantageously, the upper portion of the base has a vertical dimension which is at least the same as the depth of the compartment.

In a preferred embodiment, the card dispenser further comprises random means arranged to cause the cards to be dispensed one by one to a plurality of predetermined locations around the body in a random order.

Preferably, the body has four side outlets, and said random means is arranged to control said delivery means to deliver the uppermost card from said stack towards one of the side outlets at random.

In a different embodiment, the card dispenser includes rotation means provided underneath the base, and the body has one side outlet and said random means is arranged to control the rotation of the body and base to cause the cards to be dispensed through the outlet in different directions at random corresponding to the predetermined locations.

It is advantageous for the card dispenser to have a tray immediately outside the said or one of said at least one side outlet for holding the card or cards dispensed therethrough.

The invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a card dispenser in accordance with the invention, showing its external appearance; Figure 2 is a perspective view of the card dispenser of Figure 1, showing its internal construction; Figure 3 is a perspective view of the card dispenser of Figure 1, showing the card dispenser in use with a stack of cards; and Figure 4 is a cross-sectional side view of the card dispenser of Figure 3, showing the operation of the card dispenser on the stack of cards.

Referring to the drawings, there is shown a card dispenser 10 which is formed by a cubical body 11 and a base 12. The body 11 has a rectangular compartment 13 which is open from below for accommodating a stack of cards 14 placed on a central raised portion 15 of the base 12. The raised portion 15 has a horizontal outline generally identical with that of the cards 14, and the size of the compartment 13 is slightly larger than the outline of the raised portion 15 and cards 14. As shown in Figure 4, the stack of cards 14 is in use received in the compartment 13 and so is the upper end of the raised portion 15 which thereby engages with the body 11 against any sideward displacement relative to the base 12.

Four horizontal inner slots 16 are formed in the corresponding sides of the compartment 13, immediately underneath a top wall 13' thereof and at the same level as an uppermost card 14' , through any one of which the uppermost card 14' can pass. At the same level as each inner slot 16, a horizontal outer slot 17 is formed in the corresponding external wall of the body 11. Between each pair of slots 16 and 17, there is provided a pair of horizontal upper and lower delivery rollers 18 and 19 which are slightly spaced apart at the same level as the adjacent slots 16 and 17.

Two electric motors 20 and 21 are provided within the bod 11, supported on the top wall 13' of the compartment 13, for driving corresponding pairs of parallel delivery rollers 18 on opposite sides within the body 11 by means of respective gear trains 22 and 23 and respective pairs of belts 24 and 25. The two gear trains 22 and 23 are generally the same but provided in mutually perpendicular orientation. Each motor 20 or 21 is located on one corresponding side within the body 11 and its drive is transmitted to the opposite side (for the opposite delivery roller 18) by means of a rod 26. Each said pair of delivery rollers 18 is arranged to be driven in the same angular direction.

The motor 20 serves also to drive a pair of rubber cam rollers 27, by means of the gear train 22, to rotate in synchronism but at a speed slower than the associated pair of delivery rollers 18. The cam rollers 27 are supported for off-centre rotation about the same axis, and between which there is provided a third rubber cam roller 28 supported for off-centre rotation about an axis pedicular to the first said axis. The cam roller 28 is arranged to be driven by the motor 21 by means of the gear train 23, generally at the same speed as the pair of cam rollers 27.

Directly underneath each cam roller 27 or 28, there is provided a corresponding aperture 29 in the top wall 13' of the compartment 13, through which aperture 29 the roller 27 or 28 is arranged to rotate slightly into the compartment 13 in a cyclic manner.

A micro-switch 37 having a pair of normally-closed contacts 38 is located immediately outside each outer slot 17, for a purpose as described below. A tray 36 is provided outside each outer slot 17 for holding cards 14 dispensed there-through.

The operation of the motors 20 and 21 is controlled by a microprocessor-based electronic circuit 39 supported on a printed circuit board 30 located across the rear side of the body 11. A battery compartment 31 is provided directly above the printed circuit board 30 for accommodating four battery cells 32 which are replaceable through a lid 33 on the body 11. The top side of the body 11 provides a central control panel 34 by means of which a user can control the operation of the card dispenser 10. The control panel 34 has an ON/OFF button 40, a mode button 41 and a START button 42.

In use, a stack of cards 14 is firstly placed on the raised portion 15 of the base 12, and the body 11 is then placed over the cards 14, thereby receiving the cards 14 and the upper end of the raised portion 15 in the compartment 13.

In this arrangement, the bod 11 sits on the stack of cards 14, with the underside of the top wall 13' of the compartment 13 bearing against the uppermost cards 14' under the action of gravity.

The card dispenser 10 is initially turned on by sliding the ON/OFF slide knob 40 on the control panel 34. With the use of the mode button 41, the desired card-dispensing mode is then entered, such as dealing four hands for a bridge game.

Upon pressing of the START button 42, card dispensing will be commenced from the uppermost card 14' of the stack 14 one by one downwards.

The microprocessor of the electronic circuit 39 is programmed to in effect shuffle the cards 14 at the same time as they are dispensed by dispensing them individually to any one of the four possible directions through the corresponding outlets formed by the pairs of slots 16 and 17 at random or in a random order. The program is designed such that, in this particular card dispensing mode, four hands of thirteen cards will eventually be dispensed to the corresponding trays 36.

In the case where the uppermost card 14' is to be dispensed to the tray 36 on the right hand side of the card dispenser body 11 (in the direction of Arrow A?, the motor 21 is to be energised. This results in the cam roller 28 and the corresponding pair of delivering rollers 18 (ahead and trailing in the direction of Arrow A) rotating in the same angular direction (Arrow B). As soon as the cam roller 28 rotates into the compartment 13 through the associated aperture 29, the uppermost card 14' will be slid forwards (Arrow A) by reason of frictional engagement with the cam roller 28 until the card 14' passes through the inner slot 16 and reaches between the pair of rollers 18 and 19 ahead.

This roller pair is arranged to grip the card 14' more strongly than the cam roller 28, and thereby immediately takes over the delivery of the card 14'. The card 14' is delivered quickly out of the body 11 through the corresponding outer slot 17 and the switch contacts 38 of the micro-switch 37 on the outside and finally into the tray 36 ahead.

As soon as the card 14' under delivery finishes passing through between the switch contacts 38, the micro-switch 37 concerned is re-closed and this represents a signal for the motor 21 to stop. Afterwards, the next uppermost card of the stack 14 will be dispensed in a direction chosen at random by the microprocessor, which direction may be the same as the preceding one or a different one.

The operation of the motor 20 and its associated cam rollers 27 and delivery rollers 18 and 19 is identical with what is described above for the motor 21, but in a perpendicular card delivery direction. It is to be understood that the cam rollers 27 and the cam roller 28 are located in directly opposite orientation on their corresponding driving shafts such that only the carddelivering roller(s) in action will be in frictional engagement with the uppermost card 14'.

It will be appreciated that the energization of whichever one of the motors 20 and 21 in combination with the two opposite angular motor-driving directions will provide four different possible directions in which each card can be dispensed through the corresponding outlet. The random shuffling effect on the stack of cards 14 is achieved through a random order of choice of these card-dispensing directions by the microprocessor or the program contained therein.

The dispenser body 11 will move gradually downwards as the cards 14 are dispensed. The raised portion 15 of the base 12 is sufficiently tall to ensure complete dispensing of the entire stack of cards 14, and at the end it will reach the underside of the top wall 13' of the card compartment 13. The dispenser body 11 is considerably heavier than the cards 14. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that the downward force acting upon the uppermost card of the stack 14 will remain generally unchanged when the cards are dispensed, resulting in reliable control over the frictional engagement (gripping) of the cam rollers 27 and 28 with the uppermost card and in turn ensuring reliable card dispensing throughout the whole stack of cards.

In practice, the upper end of the base raised portion may not need to engage, at least initially, with the card compartment as relative sideward displacement of the dispenser body may not occur. The compartment must be sufficiently deep to receive or cover at least the second uppermost card in order to stop the dispenser body from moving when the uppermost card is being dispensed.

In a different embodiment, the dispenser body may have only one card dispensing outlet (one pair of slots 16 and 17), and rotating means may be provided underneath the dispenser base for rotating the whole assembly round to any one of a predetermined number of orientations to dispense a card in a random order or manner under microprocessor-control over the rotating motion.

Alternatively, the dispenser base may have a stationary lower part rotatably supporting an upper part on which the one-outlet dispenser body is placed, in that rotation of the upper base part and hence the dispenser body is controlled by a microprocessor in a random order or manner.

The invention has been given by way of example only, and various other modifications of and/or alterations to the described embodiment may be made by persons skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as specified in the appended claims.

Claims (9)

1. A card dispenser which comprises a body having a compartment open from below for accommodating at least the upper portion of a stack of cards and having at least one side outlet through which ards accommodated in the compartment can be dIspensed one by one, said body being arranged to act upon said stack of cards under the action of gravity, and delivery means provided within the body for delivering the uppermost card of said stack so accommodated towards the said or one of said at least one side outlet for card dispensing.

2. A card dispenser as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a base which is arranged to engage with the body against any sideward movement relative thereto.

3. A card dispenser as claimed in claim 2, wherein the base has an upper portion arranged to be received within the open end of the compartment and to engage therewith against any sideward movement of the body relative to the base.

4. A card dispenser as claimed in claim 3, wherein the upper portion of the base has a vertical dimension which is at least the same as the depth of the compartment.

5. A card dispenser as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further comprising random means arranged to cause the cards to be dispensed one by one to a plurality of predetermined locations around the body in a random order.

6. A card dispenser as claimed in claim 5, wherein the body has four side outlets, and said random means is arranged to control said delivery means to deliver the uppermost card from said stack towards one of the side outlets at random.

7. A card dispenser as claimed in claim 5 when dependent upon claim 2, further comprising rotation means provided underneath the base, and wherein the body has one side outlet and said random means is arranged to control the rotation of the body and base to cause the cards to be dispensed through the outlet in different directions at random corresponding to the predetermined locations.

8. A card dispenser as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, further comprising a tray immediately outside the said or one of said at least one side outlet for holding the card or cards dispensed there-through.

9. A card dispenser substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.