US3651328A

US3651328A - Bowling pin detector

Info

Publication number: US3651328A
Application number: US111606A
Authority: US
Inventors: Edgar Hutto Jr; James P Mahoney
Original assignee: RCA Corp
Current assignee: RCA Corp
Priority date: 1971-02-11
Filing date: 1971-02-11
Publication date: 1972-03-21
Anticipated expiration: 1989-03-21

Abstract

An apparatus is disclosed for noting the number of pins that are standing on a bowling alley and thereby indicating how many pins have been knocked down, the apparatus including alternate lighting of adjacent zones including the pins and an array of light sensitive means to note whether respective pins are standing or are down. To prevent false indications, any indication of a standing pin in an unlighted zone may be blocked.

Description

United States Patent Hutto, Jr. et ai. [45] Mar. 21, 1972 BOWLING PIN DETECTOR [56] References Cited [72] Inventors: Edgar Hutto, Jr., Cherry Hill; James P. UNITED STATES PATENTS Mammy 3,140,872 7/1964 Bolger ..273 54 [73] Assignee: RCA Corporation 3,307,848 3/1967 Brackett .250/222 X 3,309,086 3/1967 Viets ..250/222 X [22] Filed: Feb. 11,1971

Primary Examiner-James W. Lawrence [2H Appl' 111,606 Assistant Examiner-D. C. Nelms Related U.S. Application Data y-" Norton [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 809,663, Mar. 24, 1969, 5 ABSTRACT abandoned.

An apparatus is disclosed for noting the number of pins that 52 U.S.Cl. ..250/222 R, 250 227, 273 54 c, are Standing on a bowling alley and by indicating how 273/54 E many pins have been knocked down, the apparatus including 511 im. Cl. ..G06m 11/00 alternate lighting adjacent induding Pins and [58] Field of Search ..250 220 209 222 227- array light Sensitive means to t ther respective pins 273/46, 54 C, 54 E; 350/96 B; l78/7.2

are standing or are down. To prevent false indications, any indication of a standing pin in an unlighted zone may be PAIENTEDMARN 1972 3,651,328

SHEET 1 [IF 3 v HVVE/V E06 u'r'ro. Jame MAHOMEY TORUKY- PAIENTEUMARH I972 SHEET 3 BF 3 I HVVE/VTOR Evbnn. Hurmlm James P.MAHOM EY M Wf Q' d ORNEY BOWLING PIN DETECTOR This is a continuation of Ser. No. 809,663 filed Mar. 24, 1969, now abandoned.

This invention relates to apparatus for indicating which pinsare standing after a ball has been rolled in the game of bowling.

In automatic scoring of bowling games, it is necessary to know how many pins are standing after the first ball is rolled and how many pins are standing after the second ball is rolled, whereby the number of pins knocked down by the several balls may be determined. Also, it is convenient to indicate which pins are still standing after a ball is rolled as by a display which is visible to the bowler.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved indicator which will indicate how many pins have been knocked down after a ball has been rolled in the game of bowling.

In accordance with this invention, a plurality of lighting means are provided which are aimed to illuminate the tips of pins that may be standing on a bowling lane, each lighting element lighting up a zone containing at least one pin and less than all the pins, and each lighting element illuminating, as nearly as is practical, only one zone. The lighting elements are alternately energized and deenergized after each ball is rolled whereby all the zones are illuminated, but no two adjacent zonesare illuminated simultaneously. An array of photosensitive elements are provided having as many photosensitive elements as the maximum number of pins standing at the beginning of the game. The light reflected from the tops of the standing pins is applied either directly or indirectly, as by fiber optics bundles, on respective light sensitive elements. The condition of conductivity of a light sensitive element is determined by the presence or absence of reflection from the head of a standing pin, whereby an indication is produced to indicate whether a particular pin or pins are still standing or are down. To prevent false indication any signal from a photosensitive element that receives light from an unlighted zone is blocked. The indications that pins are standing may be counted by any known counting apparatus which may include for example a data storage register and an inversely counting counter. The indications may also be applied to a display to indicate the corresponding pins which are still standing.

The invention will be better understood upon reading the following description in connection with the accompanying drawing in which FIG. I is a diagrammatic plan view of a portion of a bowling alley showing the bowling pins in position before a ball is rolled, and showing the plan position of the light sources or illuminator and also showing the plan position of the array of light sensitive elements, in accordance with this invention,

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic side elevational view of a portion of the bowling alley of FIG. 1 showing the elevational position of the illuminator and the light sensitive array,

FIG. 3 is a broken away view of a viewer and diagrammatic view of circuitry that can be used with the disclosed bowling pin detector, and

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the viewer of FIG. 3 on line 4 4 thereof.

Turning first to FIG. 1, a portion of a bowling alley is disclosed. The pins, numbered 1 to 10 in the conventional manner, are positioned on a pin receiving portion 12 of the alley between the two

gutters

14 and 16. A pit 18 for receiving the fallen pins and the rolled balls is provided behind the pin receiving portion 12, and a cushion 20 is provided to cushion the blows by the rolled balls and by the fallen pins. A switch 22 is closed momentarily by the cushion 20 when it is hit by a ball or by pins after each ball is rolled. A pin setter 24, not indicated in FIG. 1, is indicated in FIG. 2 as being above the pins and as extending back over the pit l8 and in front of the cushion 20. An illuminator 26 is provided to illuminate the pins in alternate zones as will be explained, and a viewer 28 is provided to view the tops of the pins and to note which pins are standing. The illuminator 26 is positioned to' the side of and to the front of the pins and viewer 28 is positioned to the Mill other side of and to the front of the pins but nearer the pins than the illuminator 26. The viewer and the illuminator are tipped with respect to the alley for a purpose to be disclosed and they are supported in their fixed positions by suitable means not shown.

As shown in FIG. 3, the illuminator 26 includes four

lamps

30,32, 34 and 36 and

respective lenses

38, 40, 42 and 44. One terminal of each of the

lamps

30, 32, 34 and 36 is connected in common to a terminal of a source 46 of alternating current. The remaining terminals of the

lamps

30 and 34 are connected together and to one tenninal of a delay and switch means 48. The other terminal of the

lamps

32 and 36 are connected together and to another terminal of the delay and switch means 48, and a third terminal of the delay and switch means 48 is connected to the other terminal of the source 46. While a semiconductor delay and switch divide 48 may be used, a rotary switch having several contacts is usable in this connection. When the cushion 20 (FIGS. 1 and 3) moves back upon being hit by a ball or bya pin, the switch 22 is closed momentarily. Closing the switch 22 causes the

lights

30 and 34 to go on momentarily, the

lights

32 and 36 being off, and causes the

lights

32 and 36 to go on momentarily, the

lights

30 and 34 being off, after a delay. The purpose of the delay is to give the pins that are going to fall time to fall, before they are counted. However, the delay ends before the pin setter 24 moves down far enough to obstruct the light going from

lamps

30, 32, 34, and 36 to the pins or the reflected light going from the pins to the viewer 28.

As will be seen in FIG. 1, the light 50 from the lamp 30 illuminates a zone containing the

pins

1, 3, 6 and 10, the light 52 from the lamp 32 illuminates a zone containing the

pins

2, 5 and 9, the light 54 from the lamp 34 illuminates a zone containing the

pins

4 and 8 and the light 56 from the lamp 36 illuminates a zone containing the pin 7. The four zones do not overlap or if they do overlap they overlap as little as is reasonably possible. As will be seen from FIG. 2, the

several light beams

50, 52, 54 and 56 projected by the

lamps

30, 32, 34 and 36 illuminates the heads of the several pins and as little of the rest of the pins as is reasonably possible. As shown in FIG. 3, the

lights

30, 32, 34 and 36 are positioned progressively closer together, and the light 34 is displaced laterally from the

lights

30, 32 and 36 for the purpose of aiming the lights to illuminate their respective zones without substantial overlap.

The pin detector 28 is shown in greater detail in FIG. 3. A housing 60 is provided having two coaxial cylindrical portions 62 and 64 joined by an annular portion 66. A lens 68 is positioned in the free end of the portion 62 and the lens 68 causes focusing of light reflected from the several pins 1 to 10 on the ends 70 (see FIG. 4) of fiber glass optical bundles 72. The ends 70 are positioned in an array corresponding to the positions of the pins and the ends are held in such a position by a holder 74. The ends 70 of the fiber glass bundles are spread out as illustrated in FIG. 4 to receive all the light reflected from respective pins and focused by the lens 68. In FIG. 4 each fiber bundle end 70 has a number l-l0 placed thereon to indicate that a certain bundle end 70 receives light from the pin referred to by the corresponding number. The fiber optic bundles 72 apply light to respective photosensitive cells 76 which are held in position in the larger cylindrical portion 64 by means of a holder 78. While there are 10 optical bundles and 10 photocells 76, less are shown in FIG. 3 for clarity of illustration. The wires leading from the individual photocells 76 extend to one input of respective AND-

circuits

86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102 and 104. The other input terminals of the AND-

circuits

86, 90, 92, 96, 100 and 104 to which information as to

pins

1, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 10 is sent are connected together and to an output of a monostable multivibrator 106. The other input terminals of the AND-

circuits

83, 94, 98 and 102 to which information as to

pins

2, 5, 7 and 9 is sent are connected together and to the other output of the multivibrator 106. The outputs of the several ANDS 86-104 extend to a data storage device and inverse counter 80. The storage device and counter and the multivibrator 106, after each ball is rolled, have applied thereto a pulse due to the momentary closing of the switch 22, a delay circuit 77 being included in the path of the pulse from the switch 22 to the counter 80. The multivibrator 106 has a high voltage on one of its outputs and a low on the other, and each time a pulse is applied to the multivibrator the voltages of the outputs interchange momentarily and then return to their original voltages. The count stored in the device 80 is passed on to an electronic scorer 82. The second pulse applied to the storage and counter device 80 sets the inverse counter to zero if after the second ball the inverse counter is not at zero. The scorer 82 indicates the bowling score after each frame. if desired, the AND-circuits 86-104 may be connected to a standing pin indicator 84 to indicate which pins are still standing;

While a fiber optic system has been disclosed, the images of the heads of the pins may be focused directly on respective photosensitive devices if so desired.

A disclosed pin detector system operates as follows: A ball has been rolled and certain pins have fallen. The switch 22 is closed momentarily, which, after a short delay,causes the

lights

30 and 34 to go on while the

lights

32 and 36 are ofi; A pulse is applied to the multivibrator 106. However, due to a built-in delay, the multivibrator 106 continues to apply gate opening potential to the AND-

gates

86, 90, 92, 96, 100 and 104 to which informations as to the position of the

pins

1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10, which are lit up by the

lights

30 and 34 arrive.

The heads of the pins standing in the zone containing the

pins

1, 3, 4, 6, 8 and are illuminated. Since the heads of the pins in the other zones are not illuminated no light is reflected therefrom and no false indication will be given thereby. However, to make sure that no information as to the pins in the zones that are not illuminated get through to the data storage and inverse counter 80, a gate closing potential is applied to the

gates

88, 94, 98 and 102 to which information concerning the

pins

2, 5, 7 and 9 that are not in the lit zones arrive, while the

lights

30 and 34 are one. The images of the heads of the standing pins in the lit zones are focused by the lens 68 on the ends 70 of the fiber optic bundles 72. The light is transferred by the fiber bundle 72 to respective photocells 76 and the resulting electrical signals are applied to the storage and counter device 80 by way of the gates 86-104 (as explained above) and also to the standing pin indicator 84. Almost immediately thereafter, the

lights

30 and 34 go off and the

lights

32 and 36 go on and the zone including the

pins

2,5 and 9 and also the zone including the pin 7 are illuminated. Also the state of the multivibrator 106 changes blocking the

gates

86, 90, 92, 96, 100 and 104 and unblocking the

gates

88, 94, 98 and 102. The standing pins standing in these two last mentioned zones cause indications which are applied to the storage and counter means 80 and to the standing pin indication 84 without false indication from any light that would be reflected from the pins in the unilluminated zones if they were illuminated. Also, the monostable multivibrator 106 returns to its stable condition as soon as all the

lights

30, 32, 34, and 36 are out, applying a gate blocking voltage to the AND-

gates

88, 94, 98 and 102 and applying a gate unblocking potential to the

gates

86, 90, 92, 96, 100 and 104, and the multivibrator 106 remains that way until time to note the pins knocked down by the second ball. At this moment, the delay circuit 77 passes on the pulse applied to it, when the switch 22 was closed, to cause the count provided by the counter to be transferred to the scorer 82. in a similar manner the pins still standing will be noted by the photocells 76 after the second ball is rolled. The counter 80 will pass on information as to which pins are standing only during the application of a pulse thereto by way of the delay circuit 77. 1

What is claimed:

1. A bowling pin detector for use in a bowling game for determining which of each of a given number of pins are standing, each of said pins corresponding individually to a discrete, separate pin location in a predetermined array; said detector comprising:

light means for illuminating the heads of each and every Standing P s imaging means disposed with respect to said predetermined array for forming a separate discrete image of each illu- .minated standing pin head and producing an image array composed of different predetermined image locations, each image location corresponding respectively to a different one of said pin locations,

an individual transducer means corresponding to each separate image location responsive to the light reflected from the respective illuminated pin heads, and

respective light guide means disposed between each image location and a respective corresponding individual transducer means for concentrating the light at each of said image locations and for transmitting said concentrated light to said individual transducer means.

2. The detector of claim 1, wherein said light guide means includes a bundle of fiber optic tubes each tube corresponding to a different one of said image locations.

3. The detector of claim 2 further including means for preventing light adjacent to and without any of said image locations from being concentrated and transmitted by one of said tubes.

4. The detector of claim 3 wherein said illuminating means includes a plurality of lighting means positioned for illuminating the heads of pins in adjacent zones, each zone including at least one pin, and

said light preventing means includes means to cause alternate energization of said illuminating means for illuminating alternate zones in succession.

5. The detector of claim 4 wherein there are at least three adjacent zones, each zone, when all pins are standing, containing at least one pin, a second of three zones being between a first and a third zone, said means to cause alternate energization illuminating the first and third zones simultaneously and while the second zone is not illuminated.

Claims

1. A bowling pin detector for use in a bowling game for determining which of each of a given number of pins are standing, each of said pins corresponding individually to a discrete, separate pin location in a predetermined array; said detector comprising: light means for illuminating the heads of each and every standing pin, imaging means disposed with respect to said predetermined array for forming a separate discrete image of each illuminated standing pin head and producing an image array composed of different predetermined image locations, each image location corresponding respectively to a different one of said pin locations, an individual transducer means corresponding to each separate image location responsive to the light reflected from the respective illuminated pin heads, and respective light guide means disposed between each image location and a respective corresponding individual transducer means for concentrating the light at each of said image locations and for transmitting said concentrated light to said individual transducer means.

4. The detector of claim 3 wherein said illuminating means includes a plurality of lighting means positioned for illuminating the heads of pins in adjacent zones, each zone including at least one pin, and said light preventing means includes means to cause alternate energization of said illuminating means for illuminating alternate zones in succession.