Patent ID: 8020869

Claim:
A card game apparatus comprising: a game execution means that initiates a game upon receiving an input; a casing; a card arrangement panel disposed at an upper part of said casing, said panel being formed of materials transparent to an invisible light with a flat surface, which constitutes a play field having an expanse enough to arrange a plurality of thinly formed cards thereon; luminous source means that is disposed inside of said casing to illuminate said panel with said invisible light from inside of said casing; an image sensor disposed such that it receives the invisible light from said panel and generates image data after receiving the light from said panel; and data recognition means configured to separate data of each card, as well as to detect positions of the cards on said panel, from the image data obtained by the image sensor and to supply the thus obtained information to said game execution means, wherein each of said plurality of thinly formed cards is printed with a game character on one of its major surfaces and formed on the other of the major surfaces with a code pattern including data relating said game character, wherein, when a set of the cards is arranged on said flat surface of the panel such that the other major surfaces face the flat surface, the other major surfaces of the cards are illuminated by the invisible light and said image sensor generates data of the overall image including the code patterns of all of the cards arranged on the panel, wherein said data recognition means separates data of each card from said data of the overall image, and detects information relating said game character printed on the one major surface of each card as well as information of a position of each card on a play field of the cards arranged on said panel, from the data of each card separated from the overall image and supplies the information thus obtained to said game execution means, wherein said game execution means executes the game initiated upon receipt of the input by the game execution means, based on the information supplied and controls progress of the game in response to manipulation of the cards by an operator.