Golf course yardage and information system

• US 5,878,369 A
• Filed: 05/15/1997
• Issued: 03/02/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: GPS Industries LLC (Ingersoll Rand, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Let Leading Edge Technologies Limited
• Inventors: Bingeman, Kirk, Pham, Tuan, Rudow, Richard W., Lecker, Douglas L., Coffee, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Cuchlinski, Jr., William A.
• Application Number:
  US08/856,599
• Time in Patent Office: 656 Days
• Field of Search: 701/215, 701/213, 701/214, 701/208, 701/212, 364/410, 342/357, 342/457, 340/989, 340/990
• US Class Current: 701/215
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0025 Tracking the path or location of one or more users, e.g. players of a game
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2024/0056 for statistical or strategic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2071/0691 Maps, e.g. yardage maps or electronic maps
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2102/32 Golf
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/12 Absolute positions, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/13 Relative positions
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/14 Geo-tagging, e.g. for correlating route or track location data with specific information related to that specific location
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/20 Distances or displacements
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/62 Time or time measurement used for time reference, time stamp, master time or clock signal
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2220/836 Sensors arranged on the body of the user
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/50 Wireless data transmission, e.g. by radio transmitters or telemetry
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 2225/54 Transponders, e.g. RFID
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 24/0021 Tracking a path or terminating locations
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 55/60 Wheeled carriers specially adapted for golf bags
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 55/61 motorised
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/06 Indicating or scoring devices for games or players , or for other sports activities
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 22/004 for golf carts
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/071 DGPS corrections
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0054 of actual mobile position, i.e. position calculation on base station
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/009 Transmission of differential positioning data to mobile

Abstract

A player position determining and course management system for a golf course having a plurality of roving units for use by players in playing the course is disclosed. Each roving unit includes a central processing unit (CPU) including a data processor for executing various tasks ranging from fastest execution of a task to slowest execution of a task on a schedule of priorities of task completion, a real-time means for controlling the processor to give the tasks priority ranging from fastest execution of a task with highest priority to slowest execution of a task with lowest priority, and a means for precisely timing functions of the system including modulating means utilizing a common digital modulation technique for digitally modulating data transmitted to and from all of the roving units. Each of the roving units include a monitor for displaying the golf course including each of the holes with its tee box, fairway, green, cup and hazards, as well as the position of the roving unit on the course in real time. Additionally, the system includes a course management base station for transmitting and receiving information to the roving units and a monitor for displaying the the location of each roving unit on the golf course in real time.

Claims

1. A player position determining and course management system for a golf course, having a plurality of roving units for use by players in playing the course, each roving unit having a differential global positioning system (DGPS) RF transmitter/receiver (transceiver) for operation in conjunction with a land-based stationary DGPS receiver and with a plurality of GPS satellites continuously orbiting the earth and transmitting GPS satellite signal information for use in determining the relative position of and distance between objects on the earth, said system comprising:

in each roving unit DGPS RF transceiver;

a central processing unit (CPU) including a data processor for executing various tasks ranging from fastest execution of a task to slowest execution of a task on a schedule of priorities of task completion,

real-time means for controlling the processor to give the tasks priority ranging from fastest execution of a task with highest priority to slowest execution of a task with lowest priority, and if CPU throughput remains available after the lowest priority task is executed by the processor, for causing the processor to execute remaining tasks pending receipt of a task interrupt, and

means for precisely timing functions of said system including modulating means utilizing a common digital modulation technique for digitally modulating data transmitted to and from all of the roving DGPS RF transceivers of the system in a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized frequency spectrum.

2. The system of claim 1, in which:

said modulating means utilizes phase shift keying (PSK).

3. The system of claim 1, in which:

said modulating means utilizes frequency shift keying (FSK).

4. The system of claim 1, in which:

said roving DGPS RF transceivers of the system utilize a variable length network.

5. The system of claim 1, in which:

said means for precisely timing functions includes means in said roving DGPS RF transceivers of the system employing, with the stationary DGPS receiver, a pulse-per-second output to inform a user that a measurement of the user'"'"'s transceiver position is valid.

6. The system of claim 5, in which:

said means in said roving DGPS RF transceivers of the system includes means for receiving a pulse-per-second output from the stationary DGPS receiver as an interrupt into said processor to inform the system as to when time commenced for a valid measurement of a user'"'"'s transceiver position.

7. The system of claim 1, in which:

each of said roving units is a golf cart.

8. The system of claim 1, in which:

each of said roving units is a hand-held unit.

9. In a ball position determining and course management system for a golf course, including a base station for course management and a plurality of roving units for golfers during play of the course, each of the base station and the roving units being adapted to operate on a differential global positioning system (DGPS) with RF transmitter/receivers (transceivers) in conjunction with a plurality of earth-orbiting GPS satellites that transmit GPS satellite signal information for use in determining the relative position of and distance between objects on the earth, the improvement in said system comprising:

timing means in said base station and each of said roving units for precisely timing the functions of said system, said timing means including transmitting means in the base station for transmitting a pulse per second (pps) signal to each roving unit, said timing means also including interrupt means in each roving unit responsive to receipt of the pps signal transmitted by said transmitting means for resetting a real-time clock interrupt counter in the respective roving unit.

10. The system of claim 9, in which:

said interrupt means is responsive to receipt of the pps signal to reset the real-time clock interrupt counter to 1 in a count of 2ⁿ where n is an integer at least equal to 8, whereby a real-time clock interrupt runs asynchronously with the pps signal so that 2ⁿ interrupts occur every second.

11. The system of claim 10, in which:

said interrupt means includes system timing means with said real-time clock responsive to said interrupts from the pps signal for indicating when the next time message is valid, for counting the number of 2ⁿ task interrupts received up to the point in time that the time message containing the valid time is received to obtain a count, and for incrementing from that count to maintain precise timekeeping in the system.

12. The system of claim 9, in which:

said timing means includes

message means at the base station for creating a message to indicate a time at which a given pps of the pps signal was valid, together with range and range rate differential correction information, and

said interrupt means at each roving unit includes

means for receiving said message to indicate the precise GPS time that was valid when the given pps occurred, and

means for counting the number of 2ⁿ interrupts received since the given pps occurred to synchronize the system to that time, so that time is maintained accurate to 1/2ⁿ second.

13. The system of claim 9, in which:

said timing means includes means for synchronizing the base station and all roving units to GPS time within an interval on the order of microseconds, to dispense with direct base synchronization, whereby all roving units on a network comprising the system require initialization only to indicate when they are allowed to transmit, and thereafter, each may transmit in its own unique, specific time slot asynchronous of direct base timing control.

14. The system of claim 13, in which:

means are provided for eliminating the need for the pps signal from the GPS receiver at the base station to be synchronized to GPS time in integer seconds, by maintaining the accuracy of the pps to the millisecond level despite the system only requiring timing to about one thousandth of a second, so that it is immaterial to proper operation that synchronization exists on some GPS receivers and not on others.

15. The system of claim 9, further including:

variable length network means having a circular frame cycle with a predetermined number of frames of message packets, the number of frames being set by the base station according to system network load demand, so that when relatively few roving units are on the course only a relatively small number of unique frames need be maintained by the base station to provide a higher update rate of roving unit state message packets to the base station, attributable to a need for fewer unique frames to be transmitted before the network returns to frame 0.

16. The system of claim 15, in which:

the variable length network means includes mean for quantizing a predetermined number of additional roving units that may be accommodated by an increase in the network size, with only integer frames allowed to be added or subtracted.

17. The system of claim 16, in which:

the variable length network means includes a variable length structure of the packets for setting the number of frames at 16 to continually enhance network efficiency, and to quantize at 16 the number of additional roving units that may be accommodated by an increase in the network size, whereby, with only integer frames allowed to be added or subtracted, the fastest unique roving unit position updates are provided to the base station every second when not more than 16 roving units are on the course, and the slowest updates are given every 16 seconds when more than 240 roving units are on the course.

18. The system of claim 9, in which:

each of said roving units is a golf cart.

19. The system of claim 9, in which:

each of said roving units is a hand-held unit.

20. The system of claim 9, in which:

errors in the real-time clock are calibrated despite drift in a crystal oscillator of the base station and each roving unit attributable to temperature differences, by commencing said count each time a pps is received at the respective roving unit, up to 2ⁿ counts until the next pps is received, with the real-time clock running at 2ⁿ Hertz, to indicate whether the clock is running slow or fast and the amount by which it is slow or fast according to the count reached when the next pps is received, to permit precise calibration of the base station to the roving unit real-time clock every second, to maintain one millisecond timing accuracy of the system.

21. A system for determining the location of each of a plurality of dispersed objects in transit, and for administering the disposition of each of said objects, said system including a base station for administration and a plurality of remote stations associated with said objects while in transit, each of the base station and the remote stations being adapted to operate on a differential global positioning system (DGPS) with RF transmitter/receivers (transceivers) in conjunction with a plurality of earth-orbiting GPS satellites that transmit GPS satellite signal information for use in determining the relative position of and distance between targeted points on the earth, said system comprising:

timing means in said base station and each of said remote stations for precisely timing the functions of said system including transmitting means in the base station for transmitting a pulse per second (PPS) signal to the remote stations, said timing means further including interrupt means in each remote station responsive to receipt of the PPS signal transmitted by the base station transmitting means for resetting a real-time clock interrupt counter in the respective remote station, whereby to synchronize the timing between the base station and the remote stations and to dispense with the need for direct base synchronization such that all remote stations on the system require initialization only to indicate when they are allowed to transmit in a specific time slot asynchronous of direct base station timing control.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the base station includes a monitor for displaying the location of all remote stations in real time such that the remote stations can be observed while in transit.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein said monitor is a high resolution color graphic monitor capable of displaying full-color advertisements.

24. The system of claim 21 wherein the base station includes means for transmitting a text message to selected remote stations thereby providing information to said remote stations.

25. The system of claim 21 wherein each of said remote stations includes a monitor for displaying the distance from its respective remote station to a specified location marked on the display of the remote station monitor.

26. In a ball position determining and course management system for a golf course, including a base station for course management and a plurality of roving units for use by golfers during play of the course, each of the base station and the roving units being adapted to operate with a satellite-based navigation system for determining the relative position of and distance between objects on the earth, a system network for broadcast communications between the base station and the roving units using message packets, comprising:

variable length network means having a circular frame cycle with a predetermined number of frames of message packets, the number of frames being set by the base station according to system network load demand, so that when relatively few roving units are operating on the system only a relatively small number of frames uniquely identifying the respective roving units need be maintained by the base station to provide a higher update rate of roving unit message packets to the base station, attributable to fewer unique frames needed to be transmitted before the network returns to an initial frame, whereby to enhance the efficiency of the system network.

27. The system of claim 26, including:

timing means in the base station and each of the roving units for precisely timing the functions thereof, the timing means including means for synchronizing the timing of broadcast communications between the base station and all roving units within a predetermined interval to eliminate a need for direct base synchronization thereof, each roving unit having its own unique, specific time slot for broadcast communications to the base station, whereby all roving units on the system network require initialization only to indicate when they are allowed to transmit, and thereafter, each may transmit in the unique, specific time slot allocated thereto, asynchronous of direct base station timing control.

28. The system of claim 26, including:

means enabling roving units that are currently non-operative within the system to enter and operate in the system at will, including arbitration means for minimizing the probability that two or more roving units are attempting to enter the system simultaneously.