Personal dGPS golf course cartographer, navigator and...

Data processing: vehicles – navigation – and relative location – Navigation – Employing position determining equipment

Reexamination Certificate

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C701S208000, C701S215000, C342S357490, C342S035000, C340S990000, C473S407000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06456938

ABSTRACT:

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Golfers naturally pursue methods and tools to help them improve their golf game. For example, learning new personal strategies for a particular course or hole on a local range or gaining additional information of a course before first playing it can provide improved results. One of the informational tools currently available to a golfer is a printed scorecard or printed graphical course yardage guide. The scorecard provides a basic score keeping function and course specifications including approximate yardage per tee box. The graphical course guide typically provides a graphical representation of the course layout. It can also provide distances to some features for each hole.
The value of an informational tool to a golfer increases as the amount and accuracy of information the tool provides increases. There are several U.S. patents which relate to Global Positioning System (GPS) which provide accurate positional information to a golfer. Many of these patents are categorizable as relating to “cart mounted inventions intended for course management communications and positional aids.” These are under the control of the course manager and are, therefore, optimized for the manager's use. Representative patents include:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,093; Golf Distance Measuring System and Method;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,081; Golf Information and Course Management System;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,786; Passive Golf Information System and Method;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,431; Golf Course Yardage and Information System; and
U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,077; Golf Round Data System.
These patents describe systems that are designed for purchase, installation, configuration and management by a golf course owner or manager. They fail to disclose a golfer owned and operated position information based system for use on any golf course by the golfer. Also, a disadvantage of course based systems is that golfers may feel continually monitored or bombarded by unwanted advertisements the course provided system creates, thus diminishing the quality of the golfing experience. Additionally, course based systems necessitate locating the GPS antenna on a self-propelled or pull-type cart which can be difficult or impossible to locate exactly where the golf ball is lying as is desirable for optimum performance.
Other systems, including various hand-held GPS based position information tools, lack many of the beneficial elements of the present invention as will be seen.
Various GPS related technologies are involved in the implementation and practice of prior systems and some embodiments of the present invention. By way of general background, a brief discussion of these technologies follows.
GPS/GLONASS
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite based navigation system operated and maintained by the U.S. Government. A constellation of 24 satellites provides worldwide, 24 hour, 3 dimensional (3-D) coverage. The determination of positions on a golf course utilizing GPS is well known in the art, and is explained in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,507,485, entitled GOLF COMPUTER AND GOLF REPLAY DEVICE which is incorporated herein by reference.
Since the GPS system was originally conceived as a military tool, the accuracy available to civilians may be degraded by the use of selective availability (SA). SA dithers the GPS signal to degrade its horizontal locational accuracy to within 100 meters 95% of the time. With SA off, as it is now, the accuracy of GPS based position information is within 12 meters, 95% of the time; and to within less than 6 meters, 50% of the time. The receipt and processing of GPS signals are now commonly accomplished using compact devices that are well known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,034, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RECEIVING AND DECODING GLOBAL POSITIONING SATELLITE SIGNALS, incorporated herein by reference, describes one such device. Most GPS receivers have from 5 to 12 channels, each channel receiving signals from a single satellite, for simultaneous line of site tracking of as many satellites as possible.
GLONASS is a Russian controlled satellite constellation providing substantially the same locational functionality as GPS. Other satellite constellations may be developed in the future that will provide adequate autonomous accuracies under 1 meter. There are numerous methods and systems of increasing the accuracy of satellite based position information, a short review of the most popular such methods follows.
Real Time Differential GPS
Differential Satellite Navigation Systems (DSNS), such as Differential GPS (dGPS) and Differential GLONASS (dGLONASS), utilize a strategy to improve the accuracy of GPS position determination information. It is based on the determination that the main sources of positional error in GPS are approximately equal over very large areas. DSNS use a comparison between the actual known position of a reference receiver and the position of the reference receiver calculated from the satellite system to determine what correction is necessary to reduce satellite system calculated position errors, known as psuedo-range errors, in the general vicinity of the reference receiver. For example, dGPS and DGLONASS systems use reference receivers at surveyed locations. These reference receivers are programed with their surveyed location information. They then receive signals from the satellites and calculate their position from that information. The reference receivers then establish the difference between their surveyed position and their calculated position (the pseudo range error) and broadcast the corrections that allow roving receivers in the region to correct their position calculations for these psuedo-range errors. This allows for the removal of the negative effects that SA, the ionosphere and troposphere and other error sources can have on positional accuracy. A common nonproprietary broadcast standard for this error-correcting information is RTCM SC-104 Version 2.
WAAS Differential
A Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) is being developed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide differential corrections on the same frequency as the GPS satellites. When operational, WAAS would eliminate the need for additional receivers currently employed for differential correction.
Marine Beacon Differential
Worldwide coastal and inland waterway navigation is aided through the use of radio beacons broadcasting differential corrections on the AM band in the frequency range of 283.5 kHz to 325 kHz. This broadcast signal has a range of a few hundred miles. As with GPS, receipt of the satellite signals is free—there is no periodic fee associated with the reception and use of this signal. This type of marine beacon radio signal encompasses the most populous golf courses in the world. Many world governments are currently expanding their radio beacon coverage areas and are planning new land-only locations. The Federal Government of the United States of America has committed, in addition to the United States Coast Guard (USCG) transmitters, to construct a National Differential GPS (NdGPS) system to provide redundant coverage of the contiguous United States. Further information can be found at the URL http://www.navcen.uscg.mil.
FM Subcarrier Differential
Differential Corrections can also be broadcast on a FM subcarrier with a range of about 30 to 50 kilometers from the transmitter. FM corrections are primarily proprietary broadcasts that have a periodic fee associated with their use.
Extended Satellite Differential (L Band)
In Extended Differential GPS systems, the differential reference stations are networked together to one or more master stations. The master station receives the error corrections from each reference station, then combines them into a differential format that will be valid over an extended range. The correction is then broadcast to users across the extended range, often via a satellite communications link. Satellite corrections are primarily proprietary broadcasts t

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