Mechanical guns and projectors – Projectile impelled by coacting wheels
Patent
1990-05-16
1992-04-28
Reese, Randolph A.
Mechanical guns and projectors
Projectile impelled by coacting wheels
273 29A, 124 81, 124 48, 124 50, A63B 6940
Patent
active
051078201
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a ball delivery apparatus, in particular for tennis balls, including a ball magazine, a ball firing system, and a feed system that removes the balls from the ball magazine one at a time and delivers them to the ball firing system, the ball firing system then fires the balls according to a pre-programmed firing setting that determines the speed, spin, and/or direction of each ball.
In known ball delivery systems, generally speaking horizontal traverse is effected automatically in order that the balls can be delivered to the player in various ways.
In order to make the game more realistic, it is known from the prior art that specific delivery settings can be programmed into the ball firing system and then called up. In general, such a delivery setting defines the speed, spin, and direction of the balls that are fired. In these known ball delivery apparatuses, the feed sequence frequency, defined so as to be regular by the feed system, and the associated frequency with which the balls are fired, which is also regular, is a disadvantage. In order to make play faster or slower, it is known that this feed frequency can be regulated. However, play can become monotonous because of the pauses between balls that are of the same length once the rate of play has been selected, and this is hardly in keeping with an actual game.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the present invention to create a ball delivery apparatus of the type described above, with which play that is more variable and realistic can be effected.
According to the present invention this has been achieved in that the variable feed sequence frequency of the feed system is controlled as a function of the firing setting of the ball firing system, a time interval scale for establishing the feed of the next ball by the feed system being associated with each of the firing settings accepted by the ball firing system for firing a ball.
The firing setting determined by the ball firing system thus always establishes the time interval after which the next ball will be moved from the magazine to the feed system.
Thus, it is possible to match the pauses between the balls that are fired to the trajectory characteristics established by the firing system so that they are in keeping with an actual game of tennis. As an example, the feed sequence frequency (and thus, of course, the firing sequence frequency) can be so selected that the pause after a low, fast ball is brief, and longer after a high ball. The apparatus according to the present invention gives the player a more pronounced feeling that he is playing not against a machine that delivers balls with a regular firing rhythm, but against a live opponent.
The fact that the next pause is always established by a firing setting is an advantage mainly if the sequence of the firing settings is produced by a random generator for then, despite the random sequence of firing settings, it is always ensured that the intervals between balls remain realistic because of the "ball and pause" units that always remain constant. Even if the programming of the sequence of firing settings is undertaken arbitrarily by the user, the intervals between balls will remain realistic.
By means of a suitable control system, the time interval scale discussed above always establishes for each firing setting when the feed system delivers the next ball. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, provision is made for the fact that an adjusting system is provided by which all the time intervals between the balls that are delivered, established in combination with the firing settings of the firing system, can be increased or decreased jointly by an adjusting factor. This means that the firing times between balls can be varied proportionally, i.e., the time intervals that are programmed differently to the individual firing settings in the form of time interval scales are all increased or decreased by the same factor. This means that play remains the same as
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Reese Randolph A.
Thompson Jeffrey L.
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