The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 16, 1993
Filed:
Jun. 24, 1991
R David Jones, Fort Worth, TX (US);
Arthur F Sweeney, Dallas, TX (US);
Progressive Concepts, Inc., Fort Worth, TX (US);
Abstract
An automatic timing and scoring system equips vehicles with transmitters and places the receiving antenna on the track used by the vehicles. Each vehicle transmitter has a unique frequency. The receiving antenna is located so that the transmitters pass adjacent thereto. The receiving antenna is coupled to a receiver. The receiver has an amplifier and bandpass filters. The bandpass filters pass all of the transmitter frequencies, while rejecting much of the noise. The signal that is received by the receiving antennas is amplified and then limited to a predetermined amplitude. Then, the received signal is shifted in frequency to an intermediate frequency. The intermediate frequency signal is passed through a narrow bandpass filter that rejects all transmitter frequencies but the transmitter frequency of interest. Then, the intermediate frequency signal goes to a tone decoder, which detects signals having predetermined minimum durations. The detected signal is then sent to a computer that records the presence of the signal and the time of occurrence of the signal. The computer tracks the laps of each vehicle as well as elapsed time of each vehicle.