Hi everyone, i'm working on an automatic shuffle machine for regular poker decks. Aside from the shuffle, i'd like it to count how many cards there are in the stacked deck to check if anything is missing.
the problem is that i cannot figure an easy way to count cards without building overcomplicated mechanic (like passing cards one by one through a photointerrupter, or making slotted wheels like money counting machines).
measuring the height of the stacked deck is prone to errors due to the precision needed, even a slightly bent card would screw everything.
another approach i was thinking about, is to make some kind of marks with ir/uv ink on the side of the deck so that it could be detected by the machine without visibly marking the cards (i play with good friends, we're not concerned about someone cheating with polarized lens or shit like that), but even that way, after the shuffle i'll have a sort of QR code made by randomly distributed dots that i don't know how to count.
does someone of you guys have any idea how to approach the problem?