Method and apparatus for randomly positioning indica-bearing members

Claim 1

Apparatus for randomly stopping a spinnable inidicia-bearing reel, each indicium on said reel being associated with a specific numerical count and being arranged to periodically pass a reference position, comprising: (a) means for providing an essentially random number within said numbered count; (b) reel disc means arranged to spin with said reel, said reel disc means having first and second means thereon associated with said indicia, said first and second means being arranged in a periodically repeated coded pattern with respect to said indicia, said pattern presenting a different code for each indicium in any successive group of three indicia; (c) means for determining one specific angular position of said indicia-bearing reel; (d) first and second stationary sensing means adjacent said reel disc means for sensing said first and second means on said reel disc means when each indicium becomes aligned with said reference position and to provide a reel position count responsive thereto and responsive to said means for determining one specific angular position of said reel; (e) means for stopping said reel when said reel position count corresponds to said random number count; and (f) error detection means coupled to said first and second stationary sensing means to determine whether said reel actually stopped when said reel position count corresponded to said random number count as determined by the code sensed by said first and second sensing means.

Claim 6

A method of randomly stopping a spinnable indicia-bearing reel, each indicium on said reel being associated with a specific numerical count and being arranged to periodically pass a particular position, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a code comprising a number of code elements associated with the reel, the code having individual code element combinations for each indicium on the reel, said code element combinations being arranged in a pattern which is repeated around the disc, the possible number of code element combinations being less than the number of individual indicium on the reel whereby at least some code element combinations are used more than once; (b) arranging said code element combinations with respect to the indicium whereby one specific code element combination sequence occurs at only one reference region of the reel, and whereby the code element combinations associated with any at least three successive indicium are different from each other; (c) sensing said code element combinations as the reel rotates and determining angular position of the reel from the reference region as a result thereof; (d) initiating an action to stop the reel when the reel angular position corresponds with a predetermined position; and (e) detecting whether the reel actually stopped in said predetermined position by determining whether the code element combination corresponding to the actual stopping position corresponds with the predetermined position.

Claim 7

A method of randomly stopping a spinnable indicia-bearing reel, each indicium on said reel being associated with a specific numerical count and being arranged to periodically pass a particular position, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a code comprising a number of code elements associated with the reel, the code having individual code element combinations for each indicium on the reel, said code element combinations being arranged in a pattern which is repeated around the disc, the possible number of code element combinations being less than the number of individual indicium on the reel whereby at least some code element combinations are used more than once; (b) arranging said code element combinations with respect to the indicium whereby one specific code element combination sequence occurs at only one reference region of the reel, and whereby the code element combinations associated with any at least three successive indicium are different from each other; (c) sensing said code element combinations as the reel rotates and determining angular position of the reel from the reference region as a result thereof; (d) initiating an action to stop the reel when the reel angular position corresponds with a predetermined position; and (e) detecting whether the reel actually stopped in said predetermined position by determining whether the code element combination corresponding to the actual stopping position corresponds with the predetermined position.