Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-13
2002-09-03
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location
Navigation
Employing position determining equipment
C701S216000, C701S217000, C701S213000, C342S357490, C342S106000, C342S107000, C342S137000, C342S457000, C180S167000, C180S168000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06446005
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to improved position, distance measuring, navigation, and information systems for use on golf courses, and more particularly to improved components for a golf navigation system utilizing dead reckoning.
In golf, players are more comfortable and more likely to excel on courses with which they are familiar. It is customary for a golfer on a new or little-played course to seek to gain at least some familiarity with the layout of each hole before starting play. Armed with this information, the golfer can approach each tee box during play of the course, knowing, for example, whether the particular hole is a ‘dog leg left’, a ‘dog leg right’, or straight; the general locations of hazards, such as sand traps, bunkers, and water traps on the hole; and locations of range postings, if any, for calculating yardage from the golfer's location to the front and rear of the green, the pin (cup), a hazard, and a desired lay up position for the green approach shot.
Golf courses have traditionally made available course layout and feature information booklets in the pro shop, for just such purposes. Yardage markers typically are placed at sprinkler heads along each hole, to provide range information from that point to the center of the green. These serve as aids to the player, but they also contribute to slowing the pace of play of the course. Slow play has an adverse effect on the courses daily revenue, as well as on other golfers' enjoyment of the game.
Proposals made to improve golf course information systems include use of buried electrical wires in various layouts on the course for interaction with mobile overland components (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. (USPN) 5,044,634 (“the '634 patent”); and use of radio direction finding or triangulation techniques (e.g., USPN 4,703,444 (“he '444 patent”) and USPN 5,056,106).
More than twenty years ago, the U.S. government established a Global Positioning System (GPS) that uses space satellites and ground based stations to determine distance, range, and position, primarily for defense purposes, but which has found many uses for such information in various industrial and commercial applications. Earth-orbiting satellites provide reference points from which to determine the position of a point on or near the earth, using ground-based receivers. The satellite orbits are monitored by the ground station GPS receivers, and the travel times of signals received from the satellites are used to measure distance to each satellite. Each signal from a satellite is coded to permit the receiver to determine the elapsed time between transmission of the signal from the respective satellite and reception at the GPS receiver antenna, and thereby to calculate the distance as the product of elapsed time and speed of light. Receivers are not restricted to large ground stations, but may be portable, mobile and hand-held units for a multitude of private navigation, position and distance-measuring systems.
Distance measurements to three GPS satellites are used to accurately define the position of an object such as a GPS receiver, which may be stationary or moving, on or near the earth's surface. A fourth satellite enables verification of clock timing in the GPS system. With several satellites in “view” (i.e., line-of-sight, or LOS), and using a computer, distances between objects can theoretically be measured almost instantaneously with great accuracy. But as a practical matter even small errors that typically occur in the calculated measurement of satellite signal travel time from system and natural phenomena can substantially reduce the accuracy of the distance and position calculations. Error causing phenomena include atmospheric propagation, receiver contributions, satellite ephemeris, and satellite clock. Errors have been purposely introduced in the satellite signals by the government to deny civilian users full accuracy. The combined effect of these errors can be as high as 100 meters or so.
In co-pending patent application Ser. Nos. 08/423,295 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,431) and 08/525,905, filed Apr. 18, 1995 and Sep. 8, 1995, respectively, assigned to the same assignee as the present application (“The '295 and '905 applications”), improvements are disclosed in golf course positioning and yardage measuring systems utilizing differential GPS (DGPS) (see, for example, Blackwell, “Overview of Differential GPS Methods”,
Global Positioning System,
vol. 3, pp. 89-100, The Institute of Navigation, Washington, D.C. (1986)). With DGPS, errors in distance measuring applications are reduced by broadcasting error correction information from a ground receiver of known location in the vicinity of the user. The difference between a known fixed position of a GPS receiver and its position calculated from the satellite GPS signal fixes the error in the signal, and a continuous correction is provided for all other receivers, fixed or mobile, in the reception area. Knowing the error allows all distance and position calculations at the user's receiver to be corrected.
The golf course positioning and yardage measuring systems of the '295 and '905 applications use unique filtering algorithms, among other things, to offer much greater accuracy and reliability than are found with conventional DGPS systems. An efficient, yet inexpensive communications network is used for data transmission between a base station and golf carts, with a variable length communication network that allows golf carts to be readily added or removed from the network. Other advantages include detecting when the golf cart is within predetermined zones or regions of the course for use in unique features such as automatic display of the current hole on the cart monitor, measuring the pace of play for each hole, and providing automatic pop-up golf tips and advertisements on the cart monitor as the cart transitions from one hole to the next. The monitor is mounted in the roof of the cart in a way that gives the user excellent color readability in sunlight.
The PROLINK™ yardage and course management system disclosed in the '295 and '905 applications (PROLINK is a trademark of PROLINK, INC. of Chandler, Ariz., the assignee of the invention disclosed herein and in the '295 and '905 applications) includes a golf cart-based subsystem (or, alternatively, a hand-held or other roving unit) that uses state-of-the-art DGPS technology, coupled with specialized hardware and software. The system creates, stores, and displays a color graphical representation or map of the golf course on a video monitor or liquid crystal display (LCD) in the cart. Each hole of the course is selectively displayed with all of its hazards and features, with an icon representing the fixed or changing position of the roving unit superimposed in real time on the map of the hole being played. The golfer is provided by the system with an accurate measurement of the distance from the current position of the cart (e.g., at the tee box or other location on the hole) to the current pin placement, a hazard, or any other feature of the hole.
The PROLINK system provides many advantages to the golfer without burdening or significantly changing the way the course or any particular hole is played, or how business is conducted by course management—advantages such as real-time, accurate indications of distance (typically within two meters) from the cart to significant course features —green, pin, hazards on fairway, etc.; a relatively large, high resolution, color display with the capability for selection of a map of the entire course or any individual hole or other detailed feature; and a capability of individualized communications and messaging to and from the cart. The hole display and yardage functions in the cart system are activated automatically as the cart approaches the tee box at commencement of play of each hole. A movable cursor on the display allows the player to point to any feature on the displayed map to obtain a precise yardage measu
Bingeman Kirk
Tekniepe William
Velasquez Richard
Blank Rome Comisky & McCauley LLP
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Prolink, Inc.
To Tuan C
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