Smart discard rack for playing cards

Abstract

A discard rack moves and reads suit and rank of individual cards. The cards are provided to a card in-feed area and moved to a card collection area. Both suit and rank of each card is read in the card in-feed area or between the card in-feed area and the card collection area. The discard rack comprises a) a card in-feed area with card moving elements that move only a bottom card from a set of cards in the card in-feed area, b) a card collection area that receives cards from the card moving area in the same sense as cards are received in the card in-feed area, c) an image capture device that captures data from a card while the card is between the card in-feed area and the card collection area, d) preferably a communication port to send out captured data to a processor, and e) an elevator that lowers to maintain a level at which cards are received in the card collection area.

1 . A discard rack that moves and reads suit and rank of individual cards between a card in-feed area and a card collection area, the discard rack comprising:
 a card in-feed area with card moving elements that move individual cards from a set of cards in the card in-feed area,   a card collection area that receives cards from the card moving area in the same order as cards are received in the card in-feed area,   an image capture device that captures data from a card before the card is received in the card collection area,   a communication port to send out captured data to a processor, and   an elevator that lowers to maintain a level at which cards are received in the card collection area.