Patent ID: 6616530
Filing Date: 2003-09-09
Classification: A63F,G07F

Abstract:
A system for detecting a winning number in a roulette game played on a roulette wheel having a rim, a cylinder carrying pockets for receiving a roulette ball and pocket number regions corresponding to respective ones of said pockets, each colored pocket number region having a characteristic color, including at least one colored pocket number region having a characteristic index color, arranged in a known sequence thereon, comprising:a video camera mounted on the rim of said roulette wheel so as to image only a section of said roulette wheel, and wherein said video camera is adapted to generate color video data comprising a video image of a region of said roulette wheel through which said pockets and said corresponding colored pocket number regions pass when the cylinder of said roulette wheel is spun; a first sampler for sampling said video data at an array of points in a first specified area of said video image corresponding to a region of said roulette wheel through which said colored pocket number regions will pass when the cylinder of said roulette wheel is spun; an identifier for identifying said colored pocket number region in said first specified area using said sampled video data provided by said first sampler based on the color of said colored number pocket region and said known sequence of colored pocket number regions; a second sampler for sampling said video data at a plurality of points in a second specified area of said video image corresponding to a region in which said ball can be expected to be present when said ball is in the pocket corresponding to said identified colored pocket number region; a first determiner for determining whether said ball is in the pocket corresponding to said identified colored pocket number region using said sampled video data provided by said second sampler; and an output for outputting the identity of said identified colored pocket number region as the winning number if said ball is determined to be in said corresponding pocket by said first determiner.