JP4549311B2 - Ball position detection device for roulette game machine - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a roulette game machine in which a ball can be enjoyed by releasing a ball from a ball launching device, orbiting the field, and dropping the ball into the exit area. The present invention relates to a ball position detecting device in a roulette game machine that can control a desired outcome by detecting a ball position and predicting a ball falling position.

  A conventional roulette game machine uses a plurality of sensors to detect a ball orbiting the board surface. By detecting the ball with these multiple sensors, it is judged that the game is progressing normally, or the time and position of falling in the pocket of the wheel in the center are predicted and the rotation speed of the wheel is changed. It was difficult for the player to predict the outcome.

  Patent Document 1 is a roulette game machine proposed by the applicant of the present application, in which a large number of ball turn detection optical sensors are provided around a field, and ball detection information is obtained from each optical sensor. The speed of the circular motion of the ball is accurately controlled by controlling the magnetic force of the many accelerating magnets and decelerating magnets provided at the lower part of the field surface based on this detection information. As a result, it is possible to slightly suppress the winning position for the player to vote when the winning probability is high based on the past winning data, and to increase the winning probability when the winning probability is low.

Patent Document 1 is a configuration in which a wheel is controlled by inferring a position and time falling in a pocket only by detecting the ball position of the circulating portion by each optical sensor as described above. Since the pin for changing the fall trajectory is arranged and the control accuracy is considered to be low, it is possible to actively control the acceleration electromagnets and deceleration electromagnets arranged along the field from the detected ball position information. I'm trying to increase the accuracy of the falling position.
By the way, in order to further improve the ball position detection accuracy, it is necessary to increase the number of the rotation detection sensors, and there is a problem that the manufacturing cost increases.
JP 2005-211199 A JP 2002-17943 A

Therefore, it is conceivable that the ball drop position can be controlled with higher accuracy by continuously detecting the ball position on the field.
The applicant of the present application considered that the entire ballet is not captured by an individual rotation detection sensor, but the entire roulette wheel is captured as an image and the image is analyzed to continuously detect the ball position and predict the ball drop position.
Patent Document 2 discloses a configuration for recognizing a position using a camera. This is a technique for reading a roulette roll and a card value by a CCD camera, and is used for detecting a ball position and speed. It is not what you have.

An object of the present invention, a camera installed in the roulette wheel top, ball shot the entire field surface circling, the photographed image is divided into squares to extract different portions of the image of each frame in each frame throat A ball in a roulette game machine that can accurately predict the position where the ball on the inner periphery of the field falls and the time of dropping the ball by detecting the position of the ball and calculating the speed by determining whether a ball exists in the grid. The object is to provide a position detection device.

In order to achieve the above object, a ball position detecting device in a roulette game machine according to the present invention is a roulette game machine that releases a ball from a ball launcher, circulates on a field, and drops the ball to a starting area. a video imaging apparatus for capturing an image of the entire roulette wheel field having to divide the roulette wheel field into a number of squares, analyzes the image of each frame of the video ball photographed by the image photographing device, the acquired frame When a ball position detecting means for detecting the ball position on the field to identify the squares of the ball is present by detecting the differentiated squares portion of at least two exposures subsequently acquired,
Time and during the second frame of the first frame and squares position with the ball has been identified that squares the position where the ball is identified, the first identified squares and a second of the frame A ball speed calculating means for calculating a ball speed from a distance between the meshes of the specified area of the heel, and the ball when calculated at the predetermined speed at which the ball is separated from the circumferential wall on the field by the ball speed calculating means. Storage means for storing the ball position by the output of the position detection means, the ball falling position at the inner periphery of the field from the time when the ball reaches the inner peripheral edge of the field, and the actual measurement value of the drop time required for the ball dropping; The ball drop position on the field stored in the storage means at the same position as or close to the ball position when the ball reaches the predetermined speed and the ball drop are required. By referring to the drop time, characterized by comprising a prediction means for predicting the falling time and the ball drop position of this ball.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the ball is dropped in a desired pocket of the ball area in advance from the ball drop position predicted by the predicting means and the drop time required for the ball drop. And a wheel speed control means for controlling a wheel speed for rotating the wheel.

According to the above configuration, it is possible to accurately predict the position of the ball falling to the peripheral side of the circle from the position and speed of the ball while the ball is circling on the field. It is possible to control the drop of the ball into the desired pocket by adjusting the rotation speed of the. Therefore, the control accuracy of the outcome is increased and the payout adjustment can be performed accurately.
In addition, since it is not necessary to incorporate a large number of detection sensors in the roulette wheel field, it can be manufactured at a lower cost than in the prior art. In addition, since it is not configured to incorporate a large number of detection sensors in the roulette board field, the degree of freedom in designing the board surface is improved.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an appearance of a roulette game machine to which a ball position detecting device according to the present invention is applied.
The roulette game machine 1 has six touch panels 3a to 3f that can be played by a maximum of six players, and the player can vote (designate) the winning of the roulette bet on each touch panel. A roulette wheel 5 having a roulette wheel grid (roulette wheel pocket) 2 is arranged in the center. A camera 15 that puts the entire roulette wheel 5 into the field of view is installed on the upper part of the roulette wheel 5. The player can participate in the lottery by inserting medals into the medal insertion unit 4. After the ball is fired on the field, the camera 15 captures a moving image by shooting the ball that orbits the roulette wheel. By analyzing the image of each eyelid of the camera 15, it is possible to detect the position of the roulette wheel of the ball that changes from moment to moment and to calculate its speed.

FIG. 2 is a plan view and a sectional view showing an embodiment of a roulette wheel of the roulette game machine according to the present invention.
In the center of the roulette wheel, a wheel 14 that is rotationally controlled by the motor 6 is disposed. A roulette wheel pocket 2 is provided in the periphery of the wheel 14, and a pocket number display portion 13 for displaying individual pocket numbers is displayed on the outside of the pocket 2. The pockets are numbered 1-38 in total.
In the field surface 10, vertical diamond blocks 11a to 11d oriented in the circumferential direction are arranged at equal intervals, and horizontal diamond blocks 12a to 12d oriented in the radial direction are arranged at equal intervals between the vertical diamond blocks 11a to 11d. Is arranged in.

  The image input device (camera) 15 has an angle of view that covers the entire field surface, and immediately after the ball is launched, the ball rotates around the outer circumferential wall 7a of the field surface (position of the circumference A), When the speed decreases due to contact resistance or the like, the field surface is dropped in a spiral manner, and finally reaches the portion of the pocket number display portion 13 of the pocket 2 of the wheel 14 (position of turn B) and falls into one of the pockets. The camera 15 is controlled so as to capture at least a moving image from when the ball starts to go around until it falls into the pocket.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a circuit of a roulette game machine to which the ball position detecting device according to the present invention is applied.
The operation unit 23 is an input unit including the touch panels 3 a to 3 e, and an input signal operated by the operation unit 23 is transmitted to the CPU 17 through the input control unit 24.
The ROM 18 stores a program for controlling the roulette game and data necessary for executing the program.
The CPU 17 reads out the roulette game control program from the ROM 18, and controls the entire roulette game machine by executing this program. The roulette control unit 17a, the video analysis unit 17b, the ball position / speed calculation unit 17c and the wheel rotation control unit 17d Each function is realized.

The roulette controller 17a controls the drive circuit 20 to drive the ball injection blower 21 to inject the ball into the field from the ball field delivery port on the roulette board field surface. The wheel rotation control unit 17d drives the wheel driving circuit 22 to rotate the motor 6 and controls the rotation of the wheel 14 having the pocket 15 around it.
The camera control circuit 16 performs drive control of the camera 15 by a command from the roulette control unit 17a, and performs control to start shooting of the field surface, end of shooting, and pass the captured moving image to the video analysis unit 17b.
The video analysis unit 17b analyzes the region of the video change portion by comparing each of the captured moving images (for example, 30 frames). With ball position detection and speed calculation unit 17c detects whether there is a ball from the analysis data in which position the field plane for each frame, from (about 33ms is 30 frames) ball position and time change before and after the frame Calculate the ball speed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a grid for determining the ball position on the field surface.
With respect to the field plane, the horizontal axis is x and the vertical axis is y. By dividing in this way, each position on the field plane can be represented by (x _n , y _n ). The video analysis unit 17b compares the videos of the respective wings of the moving image, and searches for different divided areas in the videos of the respective wings . The different sections region, since at the point the ball of each frame is present, ball position detection and speed calculating unit 17c can be identified in the present position of the ball of each frame (x _n, y _n) to obtain the amount of movement of the ball position relative time difference of each frame from the ball position in each frame, it is possible to calculate the speed of the ball circulating on the field. The smaller the interval between the cells formed by the division, the more accurately the ball position can be detected.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a state where the ball falls on the field surface in a spiral locus.
Among the images (including the position of the ball A drawn by a two-dot chain line) and the next heel image (for example, including the position of the ball B drawn by a two-dot chain line) of the timing at which the speed of the ball is reduced and begins to leave the circumferential wall 7a, By detecting different video areas of the subdivided areas, it is possible to calculate the speed at which the ball leaves the circumferential wall 7a (speed that becomes a predetermined value).

FIG. 6 shows an example in which the relationship between the ball position at a predetermined speed, the ball drop position, and the drop time is measured. This is measured in advance with this roulette board game machine to obtain data and stored in the storage unit 19. Because the installation state and the field surface state of the rouled board game machine are different, the falling time and the falling position are different for each rouled board game machine even if the ball is in the same direction and speed at the same field surface position. come.
For example, in this example, when the ball speed is v ₁ at the position (x ₄ , y ₁₆ ), the ball field circumference fall position is (x ₁₉ , y ₄₀ ), and the fall time is t _1. In the case of a board game machine, the measured values of the fall position and fall time of the field circle edge are different.
In this way, the past position and fall time of the field circle periphery for each position _and speed of the field surface of the ball are written, and the wheel is controlled by predicting the field circle periphery fall position and fall time from this data. . Further, the actual ball drop position and time are confirmed (measured) and stored in the storage unit 19.

7, the ball falls into the pocket from the ball firing is a flowchart for explaining a flow in until storing the data.
Ball is fired (step (hereinafter referred to as "S") 001), the video analysis unit 17b analyzes the differentiated region by comparing the image between the frame of the moving image to be captured from the camera. The ball position detection / velocity calculation unit 17c detects the current position x, y from the analysis result and calculates the speed of the ball at that time. The position of the ball that circulates by repeating such an operation and the speed of the position are output one after another.
The roulette control unit 17a monitors whether or not the ball position output from the ball position detection / speed calculation unit 17c circulates in a state of being in contact with the circumferential wall 7a (whether or not it is on the circumference A) (S002). ). Whether or not it is on the circumference A can be determined from the detected ball x and y position information.

  When the ball starts to descend from the orbit A position, the roulette control unit 17a monitors whether or not the speed falls below a predetermined value based on the output of the ball position detection / speed calculation unit 17c (S003). When the value falls below a predetermined value, the ball position and speed at that time are compared with the past measurement data stored in the storage unit 19, and the field inner periphery falling position and the data of the falling time for the same ball position and speed are obtained. The read data is predicted to be the drop position and the drop time of the currently circulating ball (S004). If there is no past measurement data with the same ball position and velocity, the closest ball position and velocity field inner periphery fall position and its fall time data are selected.

When the roulette control unit 17a obtains the expected value, it instructs the wheel rotation control unit 17d to change the rotation speed of the motor. The wheel rotation control unit 17d controls the rotation speed so that the pocket in which the ball is to be placed reaches the predicted falling position of the inner periphery of the ball after the predicted falling time of the ball so that the pocket is positioned at the predicted value. . At this time, the speed is changed gradually and continuously so that the player does not find any unnaturalness (S005). When the roulette control unit 17a confirms that the ball has dropped based on the ball position information from the ball position detection / speed calculation unit 17c (S006), the field inner peripheral ball position (x _n , y _n ) where the ball has dropped and a predetermined value are determined. The drop time obtained by calculating the time from the ball position at the time of speed to the ball position at the inner periphery of the field is stored in the storage unit 19 (S007).

The measured value is stored every time the roulette wheel is rotated by the above processing. For example, if the measured value is different from the predicted value of the ball drop position and the drop time under the same ball position and ball speed condition, the predicted value is predicted. The original data (fall time and drop position) that becomes the value can be rewritten to a new measured value. In addition, if the actual ball position and ball speed condition are not the same as the expected value, but the approximate value is used, the ball drop position and drop measured according to the actual ball position and ball speed condition are used. It will add time.
In this way, by adding new data or rewriting a part thereof with a part of past actual measurement values, it is possible to improve the control so that the output can be controlled with higher accuracy.

In the above embodiment, the control method of the wheel rotation control unit has been described as an example in which the wheel rotation change control is performed so that the ball falls in a desired pocket. You may control for the purpose. For example, it is possible to control the rotation so that a specific player of a roulette game machine is less likely to vote.
Further, as a method in the embodiment is to search for a region in which the ball by analyzing the image of each frame is present, adjacent to look for different regions of the image of the frame, and the number frame apart of the two frame images The ball position may be detected by searching for a different area.

  A roulette game machine installed in an arcade center or the like.

It is a perspective view which shows the external appearance of the roulette game machine to which the ball position detection apparatus by this invention is applied. It is the top view and sectional drawing of a roulette board of a roulette game machine. It is a block diagram which shows embodiment of the circuit of the roulette game machine to which the ball position detection apparatus by this invention is applied. It is a figure which shows the example of the grid for determining the ball position of a field surface. It is a figure which shows a mode that a ball falls like a spiral on a field surface. It is the example which measured the relationship between the ball | bowl position which became predetermined speed, ball | bowl fall time, and a fall position. It is a flowchart for demonstrating a flow until a ball | bowl falls from ball launch and it stores the value.

Explanation of symbols

1 Roulette game machine
2 Roulette pocket
3a-3f Touch panel
4 medal insertion part
5 Roulette wheel
6 Motor 7 Bowl 8 Ball 10 Field surface 11a to 11d Horizontal diamond block 12a to 12d Vertical diamond block 13 Pocket number display section 14 Will 15 Camera 16 Camera control circuit 17 CPU
18 ROM
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 19 Memory | storage part 20 Drive circuit 21 Ball injection blower 22 Will drive circuit 23 Operation part 24 Input control part

Claims (2)

In the roulette game machine that releases the ball from the ball launcher, circulates on the field, and drops the ball to the exit area,
An image capturing device for capturing images of the entire roulette wheel field having a circumferential wall;
Dividing the roulette wheel field into a number of squares, the analyzing the image of each frame of the video ball shot by the image capturing device, a frame obtained, differentiated at least two exposures subsequently acquired squares A ball position detecting means for detecting a position of the ball on the field by identifying a cell in which the ball exists by detecting a portion;
Time and during the second frame of the first frame and squares position with the ball has been identified that squares the position where the ball is identified, the first identified squares and a second of the frame A ball speed calculating means for calculating the ball speed from the distance between the meshes of the specified area of the heel,
Calculated by the ball speed calculating means, and when the ball reaches a predetermined speed at which the ball leaves the circumferential wall on the field, the ball position by the output of the ball position detecting means and until the ball reaches the inner periphery of the field after reaching the predetermined speed Storage means for storing the measured value of the ball drop position and the drop time required for the ball drop at the inner periphery of the field;
By referring to the ball drop position on the field stored in the storage means at the same position as or close to the ball position when the ball reaches the predetermined speed on the field and the drop time required for the ball drop, A predicting means for predicting a ball falling time and a ball dropping position;
A ball position detecting device for a roulette game machine.   From the ball drop position predicted by the prediction means and the drop time required for the ball drop, there is a wheel speed control means for controlling a wheel speed for rotating the wheel area so that the ball falls in a desired pocket in the game area in advance. The ball position detecting device for a roulette game machine according to claim 1.

Images