Electronic bag toss game with light-activated detection

Abstract

An automated bag toss game, having a game board surface, with holes formed therein. Items are provided for being tossed toward and into the holes, and the game automatically keeps track of and displays running scores based on which holes the bags fall into. In some embodiments the items are bags containing pellets, 'bean bags', and at least some of the pellets have magnetic properties. A wire coil is provided for each hole, disposed beneath the surface, for sensing the passage of the bag into one of the holes and producing a signal corresponding to that hole. An electronic circuit is provided for calculating and displaying a score based upon those signals. The electronic circuit includes a portion for a display for showing the current scores, a display driver portion for controlling the display, and a processor for receiving a signal from the receiving portion corresponding to a predetermined score value of holes in the game board and producing a signal for causing the display driver to show at least a cumulative score corresponding to the holes into which the bags have fallen. One such embodiment is based on the coils not being energized, and the bags containing magnetic pellets. A second embodiment is based on the coils being continually energized with a selected frequency signal, and the bags containing ferromagnetic pellets. A third embodiment is based on a light source and a light sensor being placed under the holes, rather than a wire coil, resulting in the detection of the thrown item being light-activated, rather than magnetically activated.