Games using tangible projectile – Golf
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-13
2002-02-19
Harrison, Jessica J. (Department: 3713)
Games using tangible projectile
Golf
C473S140000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06348007
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a golf cart location display device that locates golf carts on a golf course.
2. Discussion of the Background
Recently, there are golf courses where a player plays golf while he moves a golf cart by himself.
In the case of the self-playing, the golf manager cannot grasp the crowded degree of a course and a delay in playing until a player returns to a clubhouse from the start tee. To avoid such situation, some golf courses have course guides posted every several holes to accelerate golf playing. The problem is that personnel expenses increase.
For example, Japanese Laid-open patent publication TOKKAI-HEI No. 9-31855 or 10-28504, previously filed by the present applicant, discloses the system consisting of means mounted on a golf cart, for transmitting and receiving cart identification signals such as cart Ids; sensors placed along the golf course being a golf cart route (near to e.g. tee ground, fairway, green and the like); and a management office which manages cart identification signals detected by a sensor.
The operation status of a golf cart on a golf course can be grasped by managing the current location of each cart, for example, the time detected by the sensor, based on cart identification signals and sensor identification signals, and then displaying it on a desired display.
In such operation, the location and the operation time of a golf cart can be grasped. However, the display mode of management data may be considered as follows:
FIG. 12
illustrates a window system wherein an operation status table is displayed on a display device of a personal computer.
On the window
70
, golf cart numbers on a current course are shown in the cart number columns
71
. The starting order of golf carts is vertically arranged.
The time display areas
72
a
,
72
b
,
72
c
, . . . are prepared. The time at which the sensor situated on a hole detects a golf cart, that is, the operation status thereof is displayed in each column. In the time display area
72
(
a, b, c, . . .
), “T” (tee ground) is the time at which the sensor situated near the tee ground detects a golf cart; “F (Fairway)” is the time at which the sensor situated near the fairway detects a golf cart; and “G (Green)” is the time at which the sensor situated near the green detects a golf cart. For example, “8:35” represents the time at which the No. 9 golf cart passed the fairway F near to No. 2 hole. The time display area
72
c
shows that the No. 9 golf cart has been currently detected on the green G of No. 3 hole.
The window shows that the No. 9 golf cart is engaged to a golfer playing on the green G of No. 3 hole or is on the way toward the tee ground of No. 4 hole after a completion of playing on the green of No. 3 hole.
As described above, since each of the golfs cart displays the time detected by the sensor corresponding to the tee ground T, fairway F or green G of each hole, the manager can grasp the play progress of a party using the golf cart.
The operation status of golf carts behind the No. 38 golf cart can be displayed on the window
70
by clicking the mouse and scrolling the display area.
The display area is scrolled downward or upward by selecting and clicking the scroll key
73
a
or
73
b
(not shown) on the scroll bar
73
. For example, when you want to know the operation status of a golf cart advancing behind the No. 38 golf cart, the display area is scrolled down with the scroll key
73
b
. This scroll operation may be done by dragging upward or downward the scroll box
73
c
along the scroll bar
73
.
The status of holes behind No. 4 hole can be selectively displayed by scrolling the display area leftward or rightward with the scroll keys
74
a
and
74
b
or the scroll box
73
c
on the scroll bar
74
.
It is assumed that
FIG. 12
illustrates the case where the window
70
displays the operation status of one course. However, an actual golf ground has plural courses. Regarding another displaying mode,
FIG. 13
illustrates the display mode in which plural pieces of information corresponding to the plural courses are selectively displayed.
FIG. 13
shows the window
80
employing the so-called folder display mode. The operation status of a desired course can be displayed by selecting the tag
80
a
,
80
b
or
80
c
through a predetermined operation of a mouse. The window
80
of
FIG. 13
is identical to the window
70
of FIG.
12
. The active window shows, for example, the operations status of “OUT course”. When the tag
80
b
is selected, the window
80
displays the operation status of “IN course”. If the tag
80
c
is selected, the window
80
displays the operation course of “xx course”.
In addition to the above numerical displaying method, it may be considered that the layout of golf courses in a golf ground are displayed as computer-graphics on the window
90
and that the locations of golf carts (represented with black dots) are displayed near a hole, as shown in FIG.
14
. The relationships between locations of golf carts on each course can be easily grasped at a glance. In order to monitor the situation of holes other than the currently displayed holes, the corresponding display area is selected using the scroll bars
91
and
92
. Regarding the scroll bars
91
and
92
and the scroll bars
73
and
74
, the same numerical subscript represents the same function.
The case where operation information is displayed on the display of a computer has been described by referring to
FIGS. 12
,
13
and
14
. Moreover, it may be considered that a relative large display
110
such as a liquid-crystal panel, as shown in
FIG. 1
, displays the image corresponding to the course layout and operation status created by the computer
100
. This example has the advantage in that plural users can monitor the entire golf ground at the same time.
Most golf grounds generally contain 18 holes (2 courses), 28 holes (3 courses) and 36 holes (4 courses), in 9 hole-units. In the examples shown in
FIGS. 12
,
13
and
14
, in order to simultaneously monitor the operation status of the entire courses of the golf ground, a desired operation status is displayed by selecting operating the scroll bars
73
,
73
,
91
and
92
or the tags
80
a
,
80
b
and
80
c
. For that reason, it has been difficult to the entire operation information on the same screen.
Moreover, in an operation of displaying the operation information of a golf course, it is difficult to display the operation information for nine holes including the No. 1 to No. 9 holes on the same screen. This requires the scroll operation.
That is, in the operation status monitoring operation, the selective manipulation of the scroll bars
73
,
73
,
79
and
79
or the tags
80
a
,
80
b
and
80
c
impairs the immediacy thus resulting in poor usability. This problem causes the golf ground administrator to involve in the operation management much time, thus delaying other work.
When the course layout of a golf ground is constructed as shown in
FIG. 14
, the relationships between cart locations can be easily grasped. However, the operation management system producer must develop the course layout to be suitable for each golf ground. Many efforts are required to deal with many golf grounds. Like the examples shown in
FIGS. 12 and 13
, when the layout of the golf ground is displayed on the monitor of a computer, as shown in
FIG. 14
, the volume of information to be displayed is confined.
The example shown in
FIG. 5
enables to obtain a great volume of information from the same screen. However, the problem is that a special installation place is required to enlarge the display device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made to solve the above-mentioned problems.
Moreover, the objective of the invention is to provide a golf cart location display device that can more schematically display the operation status of golf carts using predetermined graphic information.
The objective of the present invention is achieved by a golf cart location display device, compris
Akiba Nobuo
Kawasaki Hiroaki
Yoshino Hiroshi
Futaba Denshi Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Harrison Jessica J.
Nguyen Kim T.
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