ECE 110/120 Honors Lab Section : Big Blind (Card Shuffler)

By Evan Lindquist (evanl3 - 120), Atahan Inanc (ainanc2 - 110), and Ritvik Avancha (rra2 - 120)

6:00 PM Thursday's

Statement of Purpose:

Create a machine that improves the poker playing experience by shuffling (priority 1) and dealing a deck of cards (priority 2) while also keeping track of chip counts (priority 3). We believe this project is useful to improve the speed of the game while avoiding bent cards. More importantly, it can help prevent cheating.

Background Research:

We are interested in this topic because many poker players enjoy playing the game, but not the monotony of shuffling and dealing the cards. Our invention will also minimize the time spent organizing chip piles which is another tedious task during poker games. While researching the idea, we watched videos of existing card shufflers from major playing card companies and casinos.

The General Idea:

The user splits a deck of cards into two equal piles that are placed horizontally onto opposite sides of a 3D printed enclosure. An Arduino with sensors will activate a motor under each half deck that will shoot the cards randomly together into a combined pile in the middle. The user may then retrieve the cards or have them dealt into "any" number of piles.

Block Diagram:

Materials List:

• An Arduino
• Multicolored LEDs
• Five Motors
• Servos
• Springs
• Flip Switches
• Photoresistors
• Assorted Logic Gates
• Decks of Cards
• 3D Printing Filament
  • Access to a 3D printer (OpenLab?)
• Set of Poker Chips

Challenges:

The biggest problem with the card shuffler will be consistency of the quality of the shuffle; some factors in this are the speed of the shuffle as well as evenly blending each of the half decks while maintaining randomness. Other possible problems are the cards flipping face side up, getting stuck within the pre-shuffle bay, or getting damaged. Some problems for the dealer are launching the cards a sufficient distance without sacrificing too much accuracy and the amount of time it will take to deal. One major problem with the chip counter will be identifying the types of chips used as well as returning them to the proper player.

References: 

Simon Lucas Bridge Supplies LTD (2013). Automatic Card Shuffler. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Xy6wd5cno [Accessed 28 Jan. 2019].