Sensor with a plurality of transmission and reception lines for

Details Sensor with a plurality of transmission and reception lines for Sensor with a plurality of transmission and reception lines for

1994-05-19

1996-12-10

O'Shea, Sandra L.

Electricity: measuring and testing

Magnetic

Displacement

324243, 324260, 273239, 273121A, H01F 500, A63F 702

Patent

active

055834353

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a sensor for detecting the position of a metal object and in particular to a sensor appropriate for detecting the position of a metal object in a space sandwiched between parallel planes, for example.


TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

Devices requiring a sensor for detecting the position of a metal object include metal detectors, game machines, etc. For example, with some game machines, a player moves a metal object, such as a metal ball, in a specific space set within the game machine and may or may not win the play depending on the destination of the metal ball. Pinball machines are typical of such game machines; with a pinball machine, a player plays a game by dropping a pinball (a metal ball) in a space sandwiched between parallel planes in which a large number of obstacles are located.
The pinball machine has a board face for providing a space required to move pinballs, a glass plate spaced from the board face at a given interval to cover the board face, and a propelling mechanism for propelling pinballs to the top of the board face. The pinball machine is set up so that the board face becomes substantially parallel to the vertical direction. The board face is formed with a plurality of safe holes, into which the player attempts to cause a pinball to enter for a winning play (hit), in response to which the pinball is discharged from the board face, and an out hole into which pinballs not entered in the safe holes are finally collected for discharging the pinballs from the board face.
A large number of pins (nails) are set up substantially vertical to the board face in a state in which they project from the board face as far as the diameter of a pinball as obstacles with which pinballs dropping along the board face frequently collide for causing the motion direction thereof to fluctuate. The pins are located on the board face with a distribution determined so as to guide pinballs colliding with the pins toward or away from the safe holes while causing the motion directions of the pinballs to fluctuate.
Since the pinball machines have such a structure, some pinball machines may easily register hits and some may be caused to hit only with difficulty, depending on a slight difference in pin layout or inclination. Also, at a single machine, some safe holes may be high in hit average and some may be low; the hit average difference among the safe holes varies from one machine to another.
At game houses, etc., having a large number of such game machines, it is important on management such as profit management and customer management for personnel of the game house to know the characters of the respective game machines. For example, if many machines are easy to hit, the game house suffers a loss; if most machines are hard to hit, the customers lose interest in play and the game house will lose business. Therefore, personnel need to know the characters of the respective game machines installed in the house and take action accordingly.
To this end, a passage of a pinball is detected in pinball machines. As a sensor used for this purpose, a sensor provided with an upper sheet and a lower sheet forming contact pairs is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 64-3506, for example. In the art described here, a pinball is placed on the upper sheet and presses it, whereby contact pairs contact in sequence as the pinball passes for detecting the of the pinball.
However, since the conventional sensor has the contact pairs, a layout of the sheets is limited; the sheets can be laid out only along passages of pinballs. Thus, the sensor cannot detect pinball motion from the viewpoint of seeing the entire board face. Thus, it is difficult for the sensor to determine how pinballs enter the save holes and the out hole.
Since a pinball is detected by physical contact of the contact pairs, pressure against the sheet may become weak depending on the pinball motion state, in which case some contact pairs cannot contact and the pinball may be unable to be detected. Also, a conta

REFERENCES:
patent: 4605898 (1986-08-01), Aittoniemi et al.
patent: 4733023 (1988-03-01), Tamaru et al.
patent: 5013047 (1991-05-01), Schwab
patent: 5082286 (1992-01-01), Ryan et al.
patent: 5405143 (1995-04-01), Takemoto et al.

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