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System for monitoring tennis court boundary lines

  • US 4,365,805 A
  • Filed: 12/17/1980
  • Issued: 12/28/1982
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/17/1980
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A system for aiding a person in determining whether a ball has struck one of a plurality of boundary lines of a playing court, comprising:

  • a plurality of switches extending along the boundary lines of the court, each switch including a perforated insulative layer sandwiched between upper and lower conductive layers, at least some of the layers being resilient and compressible to permit a switch closure in the form of a momentary contact between the conductive layers upon being impacted by the ball during play;

    means for determining whether a switch closure resulted from a ball impacting one of the switches or from oscillations of the conductive layers of the switch toward and away from each other resulting from a foot kicking the switch, the determining means determines whether a switch closure under examination resulted from a ball impacting one of the switches by determining that the duration of the switch closure under examination is greater than a predetermined minimum duration and less than a predetermined maximum duration, and by further determining that no other switch closure occurred during predetermined time intervals before and after the switch closure under examination;

    means for providing a predetermined minimum and maximum duration; and

    means for providing an indication to the person if a ball has struck the boundary line associated with the switch.

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