PROCESS AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING A BOWLING CENTRE

• US 20140200088A1
• Filed: 11/21/2013
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qubicaamf Europe S.P.A. (QubicaAMF Worldwide LLC)
• Original Assignee: Qubicaamf Europe S.P.A. (QubicaAMF Worldwide LLC)
• Inventors: VAIOLI, ROBERTO, BARALDI, MASSIMO, FERGACICH, DARIO, MAI, DANILO, PANCALDI, STEFANO
• Granted Patent: US 9,457,261 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 473/70
• CPC Class Codes: A63D 1/00 Installations for bowling games, e.g. bowling-alleys or bocce courts bowling greens A63C19/00
• CPC Class Codes: A63D 5/04 Indicating devices

Abstract

A process and a system for managing a bowling centre, which includes one or more bowling lanes along which a bowl is rolled, one or more pin setting up machines at one end of the lane and one or more bowlers'"'"' bays at the opposite end of the lane, one or more overhead monitors or videos above the lane, one or more consoles or keyboards located at the one or more lanes, respectively, and allowing a user to enter data, an electronic control system set up to manage the bowling centre, and in particular, a score program which calculates the score of the games played at the bowling centre and displays the score, in particular at the respective overhead monitor. A visual signal is emitted at the respective lane to indicate that the lane is open and waiting for users.

Claims

1. A process for managing a bowling center comprising:

correlating a sequence of pictorial representations of a video game to a score of a game in which bowling pins are knocked down by a bowler of the game; and

displaying the sequence of pictorial representations on a monitor associated with the game.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein the sequence of pictorial representations are provided on same hardware which runs scoring software for the game and the sequence of pictorial representations are a sequence of events controlled by a ball throw in the game and which is detected by the scoring program.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein the sequence of pictorial representations are correlated with any of:

a number of pins knocked down, arrangement of the bowling pins knocked down, speed of a bowling ball which knocks down the bowling pins and skill level declared by a bowler or derived automatically from a game performance of the bowler.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein the sequence of pictorial representations involves hitting a numbered target with an arrow propelled by a bow.

5. The process of claim 4, wherein after each throw of the bowling ball, each bowler is presented with a respective target which summarizes the bowler'"'"'s throws represented by the arrow which hits a respective numbered score zone of the target.

6. The process of claim 1, wherein the sequence of pictorial representations involves building a character.

7. The process of claim 6, wherein a number of pins knocked down is correlated with a part to be added to the character.

8. The process of claim 7, wherein a set of parts available for each throw of the bowling ball is variable and a particular part is added to the character based on the number of pins knocked down.

9. The process of claim 6, further comprising at least one of:

printing the character after a game, providing the character to the bowler in electronic format and posting the character to an account of the bowler.

10. The process of claim 6, wherein the character is a monster or representation of a female or male.

11. The process of claim 1, wherein the sequence of pictorial representations includes a representative construction of a structure assigned to a bowler or team.

12. The process of claim 11, wherein the sequence of pictorial representations is representative of destroying the structure of an opposing bowler or team.

13. The process of claim 1, wherein the sequence of pictorial representations is a non-numerical representation which is representative of the score, which would otherwise be a numerical score associated with the number of bowling pins knocked down.

14. A process for managing a bowling center comprising:

generating a non-numerical representation of a score of a game using a sequence of graphics which are different than a numerical score of a number of bowling pins knocked down by a bowler of the game; and

displaying the sequence of graphics on a monitor associated with the game.

15. The process of claim 14, wherein the sequence of graphics are provided on same hardware which runs scoring software for the game and the sequence of graphics are controlled by a ball throw in the game and which is detected by the scoring program.

16. The process of claim 14, wherein the sequence of graphics are correlated with at least one of:

a number of pins knocked down, arrangement of the bowling pins knocked down, speed of a bowling ball which knocks down the bowling pins and skill level declared by a bowler or derived automatically from a game performance of the bowler.

17. The process of claim 14, wherein:

the sequence of graphics involves hitting a numbered target with an arrow propelled by a bow; and

after each throw of the bowling ball, each bowler is presented with a respective target which summarizes the bowler'"'"'s throws represented by the arrow which hits a respective numbered score zone of the target.

18. The process of claim 14, wherein the sequence of graphics involves building a character, wherein a number of pins knocked down is correlated with a part to be added to the character.

19. The process of claim 14, wherein the sequence of graphics is representative of destroying a structure of an opposing bowler or team.

20. A system for managing a bowling center comprising:

a centralized management system having a processor and a database storing bowling lane information; and

a scoring system provided at one or bowling lanes comprising a processor, the scoring system configured to;

run scoring software for the game which is based on a number of bowling pins which are knocked down by a bowler of the game;

correlate a sequence of pictorial representations of a video game to the game in which the bowling pins are knocked down by the bowler; and

display the sequence of pictorial representations on a monitor of the scoring system associated with the game,

wherein the score of a game is the pictorial representations which are different than the number of bowling pins knocked down by the bowler.