DE29901234U1 - Device for entering, calculating and displaying a score of a tennis game - Google Patents

Description

RICHTER, WERU-^FiMANHVl & GiEFteXULET

EUROPEAN PATENT ATTORNEYS · PATENT ATTORNEYS

EUROPEAN TRADEMARK ATTORNEYS

HAMBURG ■ BERLIN DIPL.-ING. JOACHIM RICHTER ■ BERLIN

DIPL.-ING. HANNES GERBAULET · HAMBURG DIPL.-ING. FRANZ WERDERMANN - - 1986

NEW WALL IO KURFURSTENDAMM

2O354 HAMBURG IO71 9 BERLIN

S (O4O) 34 00 45/34 OO 56 S? (O3O) 8 82 74 31 FAX (040) 35 24 I5 FAX (030) 8 82 32

IN COOPERATION WITH MAINITZ & MAINITZ LAWYERS · NOTARIES

oursign HAMBURG

YOUR FILE OUR FILE

W 98603 III 5890 06.04.1999

Applicant: Dr. Rainer Wittenbecher

Corten wipe 5d
D-22397 Hamburg (DE)

Title: Device for input, calculation and display

a score of a tennis match

Description

The invention relates to a device for entering, calculating and displaying a score of a tennis game, according to the preamble of claim 1.

During a tennis match, many players concentrate so much on the execution of the game, such as executing the shots, considering the game tactics, observing the opponent's movements, etc., that they lose track of the score.

cannot follow the game carefully and soon no longer know who is in the lead and by how many points. It is not without reason that there is a referee to take this task off the players' hands. But a referee is only available at important tournaments. In most cases, especially in all friendly matches, the players have to take on this task themselves, which often leads to disagreements, especially among children and young people.

It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved device of the above-mentioned type, which eliminates the above-mentioned disadvantages, whereby clarity about the current score is always present, help with the game progress is available and discrepancies about the score can be traced back.

This object is achieved by a device of the above-mentioned type with the features characterized in claim 1.

For this purpose, the invention provides for a device of the above-mentioned type to be designed so that it can be worn on the wrist of a user with a housing and a bracelet and to have a first display device in the form of a tennis court with two halves of the game and two separate, manually operable actuating means, each of which is assigned to a half of the game and, when actuated, assigns a point to the player or, in the case of a doubles game, to the players of the corresponding half of the game to which the actuating means is assigned, and updates the displayed score accordingly.

This has the advantage that a player or a spectator can follow a tennis match or its score without having to do their own calculations or recording

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and can find out the current score at a glance at any time. The device automatically takes into account the corresponding calculation rules for the score, so that the tennis player or spectator does not have to worry about these rules either. Since one of the actuating devices only has to be operated manually sequentially after a point has been played and everything else is done automatically by the device, the player or spectator can concentrate fully on the tennis game without losing sight of the current score. The advantage achieved with the device according to the invention lies not only in the corresponding visualization of the result using a large display board to which the data is transmitted, but also in the fact that the display board only changes the score if it receives the same information from both players. A differing assessment of the score by the two players must therefore be corrected immediately.

Preferably further developments of the device are described in claims 2 to 12.

The halves of the playing field of the first display device are expediently designed in such a way that the states of a current game "0", "15", "30", "40", "advantage" can be displayed on them, depending on the score.

To display the results of completed sets and/or a set currently being played, the first display device between the two halves of the playing field is designed in the form of a table with two rows and five columns. To display which player is currently in the lead, a fifth display device is assigned to each row of the table.

To prevent confusion and to ensure that the actuating means are clearly assigned to the respective halves of the game, the actuating means are arranged at two opposite corners of the housing.

In order to provide an acoustic indication as confirmation of the manual actuation of one of the actuating means and/or as an acoustic indication of a particular game situation, such as "game", "set", "win", "tie-break", "game ball", "set ball", "match ball", a loudspeaker, in particular a loudspeaker membrane, is provided.

For further functionality of the device, it has a digital clock and a second display device associated with this digital clock for displaying the time, date, stopwatch and/or timer. In this case, second operating buttons are advantageously provided for operating and setting the digital clock.

First actuation buttons are provided in a particularly advantageous manner for operating, setting or changing a score display.

To show the current score of a set currently being played, two third display devices are provided.

To indicate which player is serving at which location, four fourth indicators are provided at corresponding locations adjacent to the first indicator, where these locations correspond to corresponding serving locations in the two halves of the game.

In a preferred embodiment, the housing has a width of 2 cm to 6 cm, in particular 3.5 cm, and a height of 2 cm to 6 cm, in particular 5 cm.

In a method of the above-mentioned type, the invention provides that after each point is won, the actuating means assigned to the half of the game on which the party that won the point is standing is manually actuated, whereby the display of the score is recalculated and displayed based on this actuation.

For practical purposes, special game situations such as "game", "set", "win", "tie-break", "game ball", "set ball", "match ball" are additionally calculated, displayed and/or announced acoustically.

The invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawing. The only figure showing a preferred embodiment of a device according to the invention is Fig. 1.

The preferred embodiment of a device 100 according to the invention shown in Fig. 1 comprises a wristwatch-like housing 10 with a wristband 12. The housing 10 is equipped with a first display device 14, which depicts a tennis court with two court halves 16 and 18. This first display device serves to display the current score of a respective game, in the example shown this is 30:15. Between the court halves 16, 18 the first display device 14 is formed with a table-like display 20, with two rows and five columns for displaying the result of sets that have already been completed.

The device 100 according to the invention is worn on the wrist like a wristwatch and is approximately the size of a large wristwatch. The first display device 14 shows the score of the current game with large

Numbers that are clearly legible. According to the top view, it follows logically that the upper half of the playing field 18 in the figure shows the opponent's score and the lower half of the playing field 16 in the figure shows the score of the player who is wearing the device 100 on his wrist.

The respective score is updated or triggered by manually operating one of the two actuating devices 22 and 24 arranged on the housing 10, which are referred to below as triggers 22, 24. Both triggers 22, 24 are large and easy to grip and allow easy "blind" actuation with a fingertip. The position of the triggers 22, 24 is chosen in such a way that confusion is impossible. Furthermore, the triggers 22, 24 are located on opposite sides of the device 100. They are actuated with different fingers and triggered by different movements. The lower trigger 22 in the figure, adjacent to the "own" half of the playing field 16, is expediently actuated by pressing with the tip of the thumb to the left in the figure. The upper trigger 24 in the figure, adjacent to the "other" half of the playing field 18, is expediently actuated by pulling with the tip of the index finger to the right in the figure.

The user of the device 100 changes the score displayed on the device 100 by manually operating the respective trigger 22 or 24, without having to look at the device 100. The calculated, changed score is then displayed in the first display device 14, whereby the known rules of the game of tennis are observed.

Feedback on the manual actuation of a trigger 22, 24 is preferably provided for "own" and "ohter" with a different beep tone, via a loudspeaker membrane 26 arranged in the housing 10. For "same"

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stand" or in any other special game situation, such as "match point", "advantage", "tie-break" etc., a predetermined acoustic signal is emitted. In this way, the user is acoustically informed about a special game situation without having to look at the display. Alternatively, an announcement can also be made by an electronically generated voice, for example.

By means of fourth display devices 28 arranged next to the first display device 14, which point to predetermined positions of the playing field halves 16, 18, it is shown who is currently serving. In this case, one of the fourth display devices 28 flashes, which simultaneously signals from which position the serve must be made. This information is particularly helpful in "tie-break" situations. The device 100 automatically takes into account that the score is counted differently during the "tie-break".

Third display devices 30 are arranged on opposite sides of the first display device 14 at a distance from it and show the current score of the set currently being played. As an example, the score 5:3 is shown in Fig. 1. The score of the entire match is shown with the table-like representation 20 in a middle field of the first display device 14. As an example, the scores 6:1, 6:4, 5:7 and 2:6 are shown here.

To arbitrarily change the score, for example after inadvertently operating the triggers 22, 24, actuation buttons 32 are provided.

Above the first display device 14 there is a second display device 34 which, like a normal digital clock, displays the time, calendar and other options. A "stop watch" function is provided for tennis games to display the playing time of a game. Control buttons 36 are provided for setting and operating the digital clock.

In the event that, in the heat of the battle, the points gained and lost are interpreted and entered differently by both playing parties, which leads to different displays of the score in the display device, a memory function is provided that allows the manual actuations of the triggers 22, 24 to be run backwards step by step in order to determine in which game situation the players triggered their respective devices 100 differently. If the playing parties have agreed on what the score should have been in this game situation, an appropriate correction can be made using the triggers 22, 24 and the starting position with the corrected values can be set again using the actuation buttons 32.

Each row of the table 20 is also assigned a fifth display device 38, which shows which player is currently in the lead in the overall match.

Both the entered data and the recorded data are stored in a designated storage device; the data are transmitted to a central display board, for example, by means of a suitable remote data transmission device, e.g. by radio or infrared.

Claims (12)

Expectations 1. Device (100) for entering, calculating and displaying a score of a tennis match, characterized, that it is designed to be worn on the wrist of a user with a housing (10) and a bracelet (12) and has a first display device (14) in the form of a tennis court with two halves of the playing field (16, 18) and two separate, manually operable actuating means (22, 24), which are each assigned to a half of the playing field (16, 18) and when actuated, assigns a point to the player or, in the case of a doubles game, to the players of the corresponding half of the playing field (16, 18) to which the actuating means (22, 24) is assigned and updates the displayed score accordingly. 2. Device (100) according to claim 1,
characterized, that the playing field halves (18, 20) of the first display device (14) are designed such that the states of a current game ¹¹⁰ ", "15", "30", "40", "advantage" can be displayed thereon, depending on the score. 3. Device (100) according to claim 1 or 2,
characterized, that the first display device (14) between the playing field halves (16, 18) is designed in the form of a table (20) with two rows and five columns for displaying the results of correspondingly completed sets and/or a currently played set. 4. Device (100) according to claim 3, characterized in that each row of the table is assigned a fifth display device (38), wherein each of the fifth display devices (38) indicates which player is in the lead. 5. Device (100) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the actuating means (22, 24) are arranged at two opposite corners of the housing (10). 6. Device (100) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a loudspeaker (26), in particular a loudspeaker membrane, is provided for acoustically confirming a manual actuation of one of the actuating means (22, 24) and/or for acoustically indicating a particular game situation, such as "game", "set", "win", "tie-break", "game ball", "set ball", "match ball". 7. Device (100) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it has a digital clock and a second display device (34) associated with this digital clock for displaying time, date, stop watch and/or timer. 8. Device (100) according to claim 7, characterized in that second operating buttons (36) are provided for operating and setting the digital clock. 9. Device (100) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that first operating buttons (32) are provided for operating, setting or changing a score display (14, 28, 30, 34, 38). 10. Device (100) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that two third display devices (30) are provided for displaying a current score of a set currently being played. 11. Device (100) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that four fourth display devices (28) are provided at corresponding locations adjacent to the first display device (14), wherein these locations correspond to corresponding serving locations of the two halves of the playing field (16, 18), wherein one of the fourth display devices (28) in each case indicates which player is serving at which location. 12. Device (100) according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the housing (10) has a width of 2 cm to 6 cm, in particular 3.5 cm, and a height of 2 cm to 6 cm, in particular 5 cm.