Black Jack table that collects game data and detects advantage play

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Submitted by rudya on Thu, 10/05/2017 - 18:45

Topic:

Idea source:

Team Name: Counter Attack

Members: Rudy Aquino (CPE), Brandt Butcher (CPE), Omer Azeemuddin (CPE)

Mentor: Pooria Yaghini

 

Goal Statement

The main purpose of this device is to monitor a game of blackjack and detect potential card counters, who might erase or negate any potential profits for the casino hosting the game. Our device carries out this process by using cameras and object recognition algorithms to detect individual chips and cards on the playing table. Once this data is captured, onboard algorithms calculate the correlation between the player’s bets and the remaining cards in the deck to calculate the likelihood that the player is counting cards with the intent of removing or reversing the house’s advantage in the game.

 

Introduction

Advantage play is defined as the act of legally exploiting procedural or structural weaknesses in some aspect of casino games or operations in a way that generates an edge over the casino. One type or advantage play is card counting. Although it is not considered to be illegal, casinos exercise countermeasures to prevent any sort of advantage play. While casino security is an extremely secretive subject, through our research we have not found any record of systems similar to ours being used by the industry. Currently, the only overhead cameras in use are monitored manually by humans, not (to our knowledge) algorithmically analyzed and stored in persistent databases.

Progress and Current Status

Currently, our system works using a single top down camera over the table.  It includes working image recognition which displays the detected cards and chips. Furthermore, it features game state processing using our card counting algorithm

 

Team Members

Brandt Bucher (Team Leader) - Computer Engineering

Brandt is working on algorithm design, due to his experience dealing with the specific problem subject matter.

 

Rudy Aquino - Computer Engineering

Rudy is working on hardware input design. Specifically, he will be working on 3D imaging research.

 

Syed Omer Azeemuddin - Computer Engineering

Syed is working on hardware input design. Specifically, he will be working on RFID research.

 

Tasks

Brandt

Rudy

Syed

1. Hardware

  

X

X

1.1 Component Research

  

X

X

1.2 3D Imaging Research

  

X

  

1.3 Cost Analysis - 3D Imaging

  

X

  

1.4 RFID Research

    

X

1.5 Cost Analysis - RFID

    

X

1.6 Hardware Testing

  

X

X

1.7 Debugging

  

X

X

2. Software

X

    

2.1 Software Architecture

X

    

2.2 Statistical

X

    

2.3 Game Modeling

X

    

2.4 Programming

X

    

2.5 Power Efficiency

   

X

2.6 Test and Debugging Code

X

    

3. Integration

X

X

X

3.1 Test system

X

X

X

3.2 Debug and Finalize System

X

X

X

3.3 Complete Final Report

X

X

X

 

Milestones

Week 9

  • Brandt - Research human I/O options (GUI / API / SMS / web / LED / etc.). Research secure networking / storage options between tables / internet.

  • Rudy - Research and test possibility of card and chip detection algorithms (table-level?).

  • Omer - Research different camera / input options available. Use existing casino infrastructure?

Week 10

  • Brandt - Research hardware processing options (tower / board / server rack / cloud services / etc.).

  • Rudy - Cost analysis. Begin looking into securing funding / grants / parts. Ask relevant profs for advice / input.

  • Omer - Cost analysis. Begin looking into securing funding / grants / parts. Ask relevant profs for advice / input.