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US 6,320,926 B1Granted
Counter for game machine
AssigneeUnirec Co., Ltd.
InventorJunichi Yamagishi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A counter is used to count tokens in a pusher-type game machine. The counter has a sensor unit (25) arranged in a path (23) through which tokens (19) fall. The sensor unit is a part of a capacitance sensor (51) for detecting a capacitance change in the path. A reference capacitance change corresponding to a single token failing through the path is stored in an MPU (47) in advance. A capacitance change detected by the capacitance sensor is compared with the reference capacitance change, to determine the number of tokens failing through the path.
Claims16
A counter comprising:
- a capacitance sensor having a sensor unit arranged in a path where uniform objects fall, for detecting a capacitance change in the path;
- memory means for storing a reference capacitance change that occurs when a single object falls through the path;
- and
- operation means for comparing a capacitance change detected by the capacitance sensor with the reference capacitance change and determining the number of objects falling through the path according to a result of the comparison.
1 more element
A counter comprising:
- a capacitance sensor having a sensor unit arranged in a path through which uniform objects fall, for detecting a capacitance change in the path;
- and
- operation means for extracting singular points from the detected capacitance change, counting the number of the extracted singular points, and determining the number of objects falling through the path according to the counted number.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.