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:
Sep. 21, 1999
Filed:
Jan. 13, 1998
Don L Lin, Neshanic Station, NJ (US);
Lucent Technologies, Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
An automated method and apparatus for determining whether a ball in a sport has contacted the ground in or out of bounds as well as where along the boundary the impact occurred. A pair of conductors run adjacent to and beneath the boundary lines of the sport court or field. The two conductors are electrically separated by an insulator, but will contact each other at the point of impact and thereby create an electrical short when a force, such as is caused by the impact of a ball, is applied to the boundary line. The short causes two counter-propagating voltage pulses to travel out from the location of the short towards a detector which detects the pulses and the time delay between receipt of the pulses. The fact of whether pulses were detected is indicative of whether the ball was in or out of bounds, while the time delay between the pulses is indicative of the location along the boundary line where the ball struck the ground.