Billiard table lighting and game play monitor

• US 9,827,483 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2016
• Issued: 11/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smart Billiard Lighting LLC
• Original Assignee: Smart Billiard Lighting LLC
• Inventors: Bacus, James W., Bacus, James V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Haque, Md
• Application Number:
  US15/046,067
• Publication Number:
  US 20160249023A1
• Time in Patent Office: 650 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63D 15/00 Billiards, e.g. carom billiards or pocket billiards; Billiard tables bagatelle A63D13/00
• CPC Class Codes: A63D 15/20 Scoring or registering devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/56 provided with illuminating means
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/90 Arrangement of cameras or camera modules, e.g. multiple cameras in TV studios or sports stadiums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8211 the additional signal being a sound signal H04N9/835 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/115 by determining the presence or movement of objects or living beings
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/12 by detecting audible sound
• CPC Class Codes: H05B 47/125 by using cameras
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 20/40 Control techniques providing energy savings, e.g. smart controller or presence detection

Abstract

A billiard table top lighting apparatus provides substantially uniform lighting across the surface of a billiard table surface. The frame may support one or more cameras, one or more motion sensors, one or more microphones, and/or one or more computing devices to enable any of a variety of innovative features. Such features could include automatic game play recording from one or more perspectives, merged video track storage for replay, review, and analysis, automatic lighting and dimming control, control of the apparatus from any mobile device, automatic provision of a shot clock, and the like.

Claims

1. A method of creating a video of billiard game play captured simultaneously from multiple video cameras, the method comprising:

operating multiple independent image capture threads individually associated with separate cameras asynchronously in a same time interval, wherein the multiple independent image capture threads use a shared memory resources and event done flags to communicate with each other;

capturing individual image frames from the separate cameras with the multiple independent threads asynchronously;

performing image analysis of the captured individual image frames from the separate cameras to compare the individual image frames from a given camera of the separate cameras to determine which of the individual image frames are recording motion in the respective sequence of recordings from the respective ones of the separate cameras;

choosing, displaying, and saving in a single video memory chosen frames based on which of the separate cameras is recording motion;

performing image analysis of captured individual image frames from a camera of the separate cameras disposed to capture a whole of a billiard table surface to compare the individual image frames from the camera to detect ball motion on the billiard table surface;

setting a ball motion flag based on detection of the ball motion from the image analysis;

starting a shot clock based on the ball motion flag indicating detection of no ball motion;

overlaying a value for the shot clock on the chosen frames in the single video memory when the ball motion flag indicates detection of no ball motion;

while the ball motion flag indicates detection of no ball motion, performing image analysis of the captured individual image frames from the camera of the separate cameras disposed to capture the whole of the billiard table surface to compare the individual image frames from the camera to detect motion of detected cue ball candidates on the billiard table surface;

stopping the shot clock and changing the ball motion flag to indicate ball motion in response to detecting motion of one of the detected cue ball candidates.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the choosing, displaying, and saving in the single video memory the chosen frames comprises, in response to determining motion captured by the camera disposed to capture the whole of the billiard table surface, choosing, displaying, and saving only image frames from the camera.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the choosing, displaying, and saving in the single video memory the chosen frames comprises, in response to determining no motion of billiard balls captured by the camera disposed to capture the whole of the billiard table surface, choosing, displaying, and saving image frames from a side/end camera configured to capture a view of at least a portion of the billiard table surface and an area surrounding a portion of the billiard table surface as reduced size picture in picture images together with images from the camera.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the choosing, displaying, and saving in the single video memory the chosen frames comprises, in response to determining more motion captured by one of two or more side/end cameras each configured to capture a view of at least a portion of the billiard table surface and a different area surrounding a portion of the billiard table surface, choosing, displaying, and saving image frames from a side/end camera capturing more motion as reduced size picture in picture images together with images from the camera.