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:
Feb. 15, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 31, 1997
John R Coffee, Gilbert, AZ (US);
Leading Edge Technologies, Inc., Chandler, AZ (US);
Abstract
A method for calibrating and updating a golf course position, yardage and measurement system for golf carts that utilize dead reckoning navigation, to avoid gradual buildup of error from components of the dead reckoning system as the golf cart is being driven on the course during play, for the purpose of aiding golfers in playing the course by displaying distance measurements between the golf cart and various course features of interest. In one embodiment, the method includes storing a map of the course golf cart path in the database of the cart navigation system, determining from a comparison of the golf cart position in the dead reckoning navigation system and the stored golf cart path whether the golf cart is on the cart path during at least a part of the play of each hole; and, if so, calibrating and updating the dead reckoning navigation system according to a correction of error in the indicated position of an icon representing the golf cart relative to the cart path on a display screen in the cart to restore the icon to the cart path. In another embodiment, the travel of the cart is compared to the meanderings of the cart path on the stored map by comparing the dead reckoning trajectory of the cart to sequences of segments along the cart path until a pathway trajectory is found that closely matches the trajectory of the golf cart; and then correcting the indicated position of the golf cart accordingly, by which to calibrate and update the dead reckoning navigation system.