Entertainment device using cards
AssigneeSSD Company Limited
InventorsHiromu Ueshima, Shuhei Kato, Mark Kim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A card game apparatus 12 includes an image sensor 54. The image sensor photographs a design (31: FIG. 2) printed on a card 30. A photographic signal from the image sensor is sampled by a game processor 64, and is further re-sampled to form a photographic pixel data array. A ROM 66 is provided with a database (67A: FIG. 7) which is assigned a comparison data array and a card ID for each entry. By searching the database based on the photographic pixel data array, the processor 64 obtains one card ID and displays card data of the card identified by the card ID on a television monitor.
Claims17
An entertainment apparatus using cards for obtaining inputs from a plurality of cards on each of which a visually human-identifiable design is printed and performing information processing in accordance with the inputs, comprising:
- a photographing means for photographing said design of said card and fetching a photographic pixel data array;
- a database including a plurality of entries individually corresponding to said plurality of cards, each of the entries including a pair of a card ID and a comparison data array;
- a card identification means for searching said database for a specific comparison data array based on said photographic pixel data array and obtaining a card ID pairing up with the specific comparison data array;
- and
- an information processing means for performing said information processing with said card ID obtained by said card identification means as an input.
An entertainment apparatus using cards, which obtains inputs from a plurality of cards on each of which a visually human-identifiable design is printed and performs information processing according to the inputs, comprising:
- a photographing means for photographing said design of said card and fetching a photographic pixel data array;
- a card identification means for obtaining a data string corresponding to the design from said photographic pixel data array;
- and
- an information processing means for performing said information processing with said data string obtained by said card identification means as an input.
A method of identifying a card by photographing a plurality of cards on each of which a visually human-identifiable design is printed, including steps of:
- (a) preparing a database including a plurality of entries individually corresponding to said plurality of cards, each of the entries including a pair of a card ID and a comparison data array;
- (b) photographing said design by an image sensor and obtaining a photographic signal;
- (c) sampling said photographic signal at a first resolution and forming a data array;
- (d) re-sampling said data array at a second resolution which is lower than said first resolution and forming photographic pixel data array;
- and
- (e) searching said database for a specific comparison data array based on said photographic pixel data array and obtaining the card ID pairing up with the specific comparison data array.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.