JPS63220892A - Ball catching apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a ball catching device suitable for pitching practice, etc., and in particular, it is capable of easily determining whether a pitched ball is a hit or a hit. This article relates to a new ball catching device that can be used.

(Prior Art and its Problems) Conventionally, when practicing baseball pitching, at least two people face each other from a distance and take turns throwing the ball at each other.

However, the conventional interpersonal pitching method described above requires at least two people, making it difficult to practice casually. I had no choice but to practice.

In this way, when practicing pitching in person, while it is convenient, it is difficult to objectively determine whether the pitched ball is a strike or not, so it is insufficient as a pitching practice, and it is also difficult to practice pitching. had the problem that it became monotonous and interest was halved.

This invention was devised in view of the current situation, and its purpose is to enable even people to easily practice pitching, and to easily determine whether a pitched ball is a strike or not. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a completely new ball catching device that is suitable for practicing control and can greatly increase interest in pitching practice.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, the configuration of the ball catching device includes a mat body having a flat portion of an appropriate size, and a ball catching device formed on the mat body. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a strike zone portion and a detection means for detecting the position of a ball thrown into the first portion of the strike zone.

(Function) Therefore, in the ball catching device according to the present invention, the thrown ball collides with the mat body, and the collision position is detected by the detection means, so that the pitcher can see the thrown ball. It can tell you whether it's a strike or not.

(Examples) Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on examples shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a ball catching position according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and this ball catching device is.

It is comprised of a mat body 1, a strike zone section 2, a detection means 3, and a display means 4.

The mat body l is arranged on a net stretched over a support member 5, and specifically, it is held on a net 51 stretched on a support frame 50 of a pipe assembly type installed on the ground surface A, etc. , ball B, which has come off the mat body L, is in the net 51
It is configured so that the ball can be caught by a portion of the ball.

In addition, this mat body l has a flat part lO formed in a flexible structure with an appropriate width, and when the ball B collides with the ball B, it buffers the impact force of the ball B, and no impact noise is generated. This is taken into consideration.

Incidentally, the above-mentioned mat body l is formed on a regular plate 1 as shown in FIG.
A cushioning material 12 having an appropriate thickness is disposed on the front side of the cushioning material 1, and a body 13 having durability against impact is disposed on the front side of the cushioning material 12.

The regular plate 11 may be formed of a plate made of wood or the like, or a painted iron plate, or may be a molded plastic plate for weight reduction.

Further, the cushion material 12 is made of cotton, for example.

It can be constructed from a pannier, soft porous plastic, straw, etc. Furthermore, it may be a so-called air bag structure.

The covering body 13 can be made of, for example, synthetic leather, natural leather, etc., and if the device is used only indoors, it can be made of a relatively thick cloth material (for example, jeans fabric). be able to. Incidentally, the covering body 13 forms a strike zone portion 2, which will be described later.

Since the mat body l is constructed as described above, even if the ball B collides with the flat part lO, the impact force and impact sound are absorbed by the cushioning material 12, so that the ball catching device can be easily operated. There is no risk of damage or noise generation.

The manner in which the mat body 1 is held on the support member 5 is not limited to that described above.

As shown in FIG. 3, it may be held by a panel-shaped support frame 52, and this support frame 52 may be supported by a base 53 installed on the ground surface A, etc. The frame 52 may be supported by a columnar support part 54 erected on the ground surface A or the like, or may be supported by support legs 55.

The strike zone portion 2 is formed in an appropriate range at the center of the plane 11110, and forms a so-called strike zone in a baseball game.

This strike zone portion 2 is formed on the covering body 13, and specifically, a plurality of (four in the illustrated example) vertical strike zones 2 are formed in the cover 13. 1120 and a plurality of horizontal lines 21 (four in the illustrated example), each block is divided into blocks, and each block allows the thrown ball B to pass through, as shown in FIG. It is configured to have a cavity 22 as shown in FIG. In addition, as a means of dividing the above-mentioned strike zone,
The plurality of vertical lines 20. 1 instead of horizontal MA21, for example,
It can be constructed by extending a plurality of elastic linear bodies 23 such as rubber strings in the vertical and horizontal directions.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the strike zone section 2. As shown in FIG.

The strike zone section 2 according to this embodiment is as follows.

As in the previous embodiment, the ball B is formed to pass through the strike zone section 2 defined by the elastic linear body 23, and the peripheral portions of the strike zone section 2 (the upper, lower, left and right ends in the figure). The outer block) is used as a so-called ball zone, and a mitt body 6'ft is disposed on the front side or the back side of one elastic linear body 23.

This mitt body 6 is composed of a so-called catcher mitt body, or a shape and design imitating the catcher mitt body, and can be placed at any vertical or horizontal position in the strike zone portion 2, as shown by the arrows in the figure. It is attached to the tip of a support shaft 60 extending from below so as to be movable.

The vertical movement of the support shaft 60 is performed by a known transfer mechanism such as an x-y direction movement mechanism or a link mechanism.

The drive is controlled so that it is set at a predetermined position in front or behind each of the gaps 22. This transfer mechanism can be controlled by a pitching practitioner, for example, by remote control of a controller switch 61 as shown in FIG. 6 to move the pitching body 6 to a desired position.

Therefore, by throwing the ball B aiming at the moved body 6 and having the ball B hit the body 6, it is possible to practice pitching in a practical manner.

The detection means 3 detects the passing position of the ball B thrown into the strike zone section 2, and as shown in FIG. They are embedded at predetermined intervals along the inner circumferential wall of the gap of the mat body 1 so as to pass through the central axis.

In addition, the ball B thrown to the strike zone section 2
When detecting the position δ using the collision force of the ball B, the detection means 3 is replaced with a pressure switch 3 as shown in FIG.
Can be configured with 0.

The pressure switch 30 is composed of a microskin 31 disposed adjacent to the back surface of the covering 13 and a signal bar 32 disposed adjacent to the back surface of the microskin 31. When the ball B collides with the cover 13 of the strike zone section 2, the ball B
The impact pressure causes the micro skin 31 to collide with the signal bar 32.
The ball B is pressed against the ball B, and the position of the thrown ball B is detected.

The display means 4 is for displaying the detection results of the detection means 3, and is composed of, for example, two display lamps 40, and
By applying colors such as red-white and yellow-green, it is configured so that it is easy to identify whether it is a strike or not.

An example of the display mode by the display means 4 will be explained based on FIG. 3. When the ball B collides with the strike zone section 2 at position a, the red display lamp 40 lights up, indicating that the pitch is a so-called strike ball in the middle. When the ball B collides with the periphery of the strike zone 2 at the position i, the white indicator lamp 40 is turned on to indicate whether the ball is moving towards the outside, towards the inside, or towards the inside. It can be configured so that it can be visually recognized as either a high strike or a low strike. Of course, more detailed information can be provided to pitching practitioners by configuring different lamps for outside or inside and high or low eyes, and lighting them in combination in accordance with the collision position. Can be done.

1. On the other side of the display means 4, a display panel 41 may be used (see FIG. 3). 2. In this case, the display panel 41 may display characters (
For example, it can be configured to display characters such as "strike" and "ball", or it can be configured to display blocks of the same or similar shape to the strike zone section 2, as shown in FIG. However, the position of the ball B detected by the detection means 3 can be displayed by lighting. Furthermore, the display means 4 can be performed by a sound emitted by a known generating circuit, in which case "strike" or "
The sense of realism can be heightened by the sound of the name "Ball". Note that the operating time of the 1 indicator lamp 40 and the display panel 41 is controlled by a timer or the like.

FIG. 8 shows a ball catching device according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and the ball catching device according to this embodiment is constructed in a so-called portable type.

That is, the ball catching device according to this embodiment includes a box-shaped support frame 56 erected at the center in the longitudinal direction of the base 53;
Other than being composed of the mat body l disposed at the front opening position of the support frame 56 and the ball return device 7, the other structural functions are the same as those of the ball catching device according to the previous embodiment. , a detailed explanation thereof will be omitted here.

A rotatable net frame 57 is arranged on both sides of the front side of the support frame 56 in a so-called double-door shape. Furthermore, when not in use, the net frame 57.57 is folded in front of the support frame 56 to protect the mat body l. Incidentally, when using the ball catching device according to this embodiment, each of the net frames 57 and 57 is hooked to the metal fittings 5.
8 to restrict its rotation, and its lower end is preferably connected to the base 53. In FIG. Reference numeral 59 in FIG. 9 indicates a cushion body disposed on the inner wall surface of the support frame 56.

The ball return device 7 is disposed on one side of the support frame 56, and as shown in FIG. Ball guide 7 to be guided to a predetermined position within
0a and the ball B inside the housing 70
Action arm 71 that returns the ball to the outside from the open lower 0b of
It is composed of and.

The action arm 71 has its base end pivotally connected to the housing 70 via a pin 71a, and is biased by a spring 72 to instantaneously pivot the ball receiver 71b in the counterclockwise direction in FIG. has been done. Further, the action arm 71 is configured such that its turning angle can be adjusted by a stopper 73, and this adjustment is performed by
This is done by moving the stopper 73 along an arcuate guide hole 73a bored in the housing 70.

The raising and lowering operation of the action arm 71 configured in this way is performed by a pin 75 which is held so as to be horizontally movable and retractable from the side surface of the sprocket shaft 74, and which is connected to a cam groove 76.
This is performed by an operating mechanism consisting of a cam body 76 that moves forward and backward along the direction b, and a spring 75c that biases the bin 75 toward the left side in FIG.

As is clear from FIGS. 10 and 11, the cam groove 76c of the cam body 76 allows the pin 75 to be pulled back by the urging force of the spring 75c when the pin 75 reaches position P. pin 75 and action arm 71
The pin 75 is bored so as to move forward against the biasing force of the spring 75c and engage the pin 75 and the action arm 71 when the pin 75 reaches position P. has been done.

The cam body 76 configured in this way is fixed to a support 79, and the sprocket 74 is rotatably held by the support 79 via a shaft 76a.

Further, the sprocket 74 is rotated at a predetermined timing by a belt 78 that transmits the rotational force of a drive source 77 such as an electric motor.

By the above-described operation, when the action arm 71 is completely brought down by the lever 75, the ball B is supplied from the ball guide 70a to the ball receiving portion 71a. In this case, an appropriate stopper (not shown) or the like may be provided at the end of the ball guide 70a so that the ball B is supplied to the action arm 71 after the action arm 71 has completely fallen down. can. Also,
When practicing pitching with a large number of balls B, the falling time of the balls B may be configured to match the time of one revolution of the sprocket 74.

Therefore, according to the ball return device g17, after the thrown ball B passes through the strike zone part 2, the ball B is returned in the direction of the pitching practitioner, so the ball B thrown by the pitching practitioner The effect is that there is no need to go to collect the items each time.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the ball catching device according to the present invention is configured so that the ball collides with the mat body or the passing position of the ball is detected by the detection means. However, you can easily practice pitching, and you can easily determine whether the pitched ball is a strike or not, so it is suitable for practicing control.
It has many excellent effects, such as greatly increasing interest in pitching practice.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a ball catching device according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged vertical cross-sectional view showing a mat body and a strike zone portion, and FIG. 3 is another example of the support form of the mat body. 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view showing another example of the mat body and the strike zone portion, and FIG. 5 is an enlarged pressure 1st edition showing still another example of the strike zone portion. 6 is a perspective view showing the controller of the display means; FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the controller of the display means;
8 is a perspective view showing a ball catching device according to a second embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 9 is a vertical sectional view of a box-shaped support frame; FIG. FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing the ball return device, and FIG. (Explanation of symbols) l...Matte body 2...Strike zone part 3
...Detection means 4...Display means 5...Support member 6...Mitsut body 7...Ball return device B.
... Ball Patent Applicant Hikaru Hanafusa Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 4 Figure 3 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Mouse

Claims (7)

[Claims] (1) It has a mat body having a plane part of an appropriate size, a strike zone part formed in this mat body, and a detection means for detecting the position of a ball thrown to this strike zone part. Ball catching device. (2) The ball catching device according to claim 1, wherein the mat body is held by a ball catching support member such as a stretched net. (3) The ball catching device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the strike zone portion is configured to allow the ball to pass behind the strike zone portion. (4) The ball catching device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the detection means is configured to detect the collision position of the ball via a switch means. (5) Ball catching according to any one of claims 1, 2, and 3, wherein the detection means is configured to detect the passing position of the ball by an optical sensor. Device. (6) The position of the ball is displayed by a display means based on the information detected by the detection means. The ball catching device according to any of Item 5. (7) Claims 1, 2, 3, and 4, characterized in that a mitt that can be moved to a desired position is provided on the front surface of the mat body. The ball catching device according to any one of paragraphs 5 and 6.