Baseball having inherent speed-measuring capabilities
First Claim
1. A speed-measuring baseball comprising:
- a solid core having a hollowed-out portion, said hollowed-out portion having a first open end substantially coplanar with the outer circumferential surface of said core, said hollowed-out portion further comprising a second closed end extending radially inwardly toward the center of said core;
a speed-measuring means mounted in said hollowed-out portion of said solid core, said speed-measuring means being a self-contained unit comprising a housing for mounting parts therein, said housing having a lower casing for positioning in said hollowed-out portion adjacent said second closed end thereof, and an upper casing positioned adjacent said first open end;
said speed-measuring means comprising means for determining the speed at which the ball is thrown; and
said speed-measuring means further comprising a piezoelectric switch means for generating an end signal upon catching the ball by a catcher, said piezoelectric switch means being coupled to said means for determining the speed and mounted in said housing, and a manually-operated start switch for actuating said speedmeasuring means mounted by said housing.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A baseball with a self-contained speed-measuring module positioned within a hollowed-out portion of the solid core of the ball, with the upper portion of the module being a display unit that indicates the speed at which the baseball was thrown over a fixed distance, the read-out of the display unit being visible from the outside to allow for the reading thereof. The module is enclosed in a single, unitary housing, and includes a computer chip. The chip includes speed-determining circuitry, and is made up of a programmable counter that counts down a plurality of times for every time interval of the flight of the thrown ball, the value representative of each time interval being loaded into the programmable counter by a programmable logic array, whose inputs are coupled to the outputs of a most-significant digit display counter of an LCD unit, the instantaneous value of which is representative of the time interval determined by the countdown rate of the programmable counter. Each time interval represents a portion of a graph of speed vs. time, with ten points in each time interval being approximated by a first-order linear approximation, with each of the ten points representing one countdown of the programmable counter. A piezoelectric stop switch is provided for stopping the counter and latching the data to indicate the speed of the thrown ball.
134 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A speed-measuring baseball comprising:
- a solid core having a hollowed-out portion, said hollowed-out portion having a first open end substantially coplanar with the outer circumferential surface of said core, said hollowed-out portion further comprising a second closed end extending radially inwardly toward the center of said core;
a speed-measuring means mounted in said hollowed-out portion of said solid core, said speed-measuring means being a self-contained unit comprising a housing for mounting parts therein, said housing having a lower casing for positioning in said hollowed-out portion adjacent said second closed end thereof, and an upper casing positioned adjacent said first open end; said speed-measuring means comprising means for determining the speed at which the ball is thrown; and said speed-measuring means further comprising a piezoelectric switch means for generating an end signal upon catching the ball by a catcher, said piezoelectric switch means being coupled to said means for determining the speed and mounted in said housing, and a manually-operated start switch for actuating said speedmeasuring means mounted by said housing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
- a solid core having a hollowed-out portion, said hollowed-out portion having a first open end substantially coplanar with the outer circumferential surface of said core, said hollowed-out portion further comprising a second closed end extending radially inwardly toward the center of said core;
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10. A baseball for measuring the speed at which it is thrown, comprising:
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a substantially solid core having a hollowed-out area; an enclosed capsule for mounting in said hollowed-out area of said substantially solid core; speed-measuring means mounted within said capsule for placement in said hollowed-out area; said speed-measuring means comprising means for determining the time of flight of the baseball over a fixed distance, means for converting the time into speed thereof, and means for visually displaying the speed; and means for generating a stop signal to said speed-measuring means upon catching the baseball. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of determining and displaying the speed at which a baseball is thrown over a fixed distance, which baseball has a specific time of flight associated therewith over the fixed distance, comprising:
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(a) dividing the time of flight into a plurality of unequal time segments; (b) dividing each of said unequal time segments into a plurality of time segments; (c) said step (b) being an approximation of a portion of a curve of speed vs. time of the baseball thrown along a fixed distance; (d) generating electronic signals corresponding to the time segments of said step (b); (e) interpreting the signals from said step (d) into an indication of the speed of the baseball; (f) indicating the speed derived from said step (e); and (g) said step (f) comprising continually decrementing the value indicated in said (f) until the baseball is caught. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A speed-determination unit for measuring the speed at which an object travels, comprising;
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means for dividing time of flight of an object over a fixed distance into a plurality of unequal time segments; means for dividing each of said unequal time segments into a plurality of equal time intervals;
said means for dividing comprising means for generating electrical signals representative of said equal time intervals; andmeans coupled to said means for generating electrical signals for converting the electrical signals to an indication of the speed of the object. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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Specification