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  Device and method for measuring a rotational frequency of a movable game deviceUSPTO Application #: 20070059675Title: Device and method for measuring a rotational frequency of a movable game device Abstract: For measuring the rotational frequency of a movable game device, one resorts to an existing radio signal in the form of a broadcast signal or mobile communication signal within the framework of an open system, or to a radio signal of an evaluation unit within the framework of a closed system, so as to obtain, by means of an antenna having a directivity characteristic, a time-varying radio antenna receive signal which has a low-frequency modulation portion, the frequency of which corresponding to the rotational frequency of the movable game device. (end of abstract) Agent: Glenn Patent Group - Menlo Park, CA, US Inventors: Udo Kuenzler, Walter Englert USPTO Applicaton #: 20070059675 - Class: 434251000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Education And Demonstration, Physical Education, Football, Soccer, Or Rugby The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070059675. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims priority from German Patent Application No. 102005036355.5, which was filed on Jul. 29, 2005, and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to movable devices and in particular to game devices such as balls, and to concepts for measuring a rotational frequency of a movable game device. [0004] 2. Description of Prior Art [0005] For quite some time, various interest groups have wished to study and understand the sequence of movements of moving objects and/or persons, which requires an exact indication of the object's position in space and time. What is of particular interest here are, among other things, game balls, in particular in commercialized types of sport, such as footballs, or soccer balls, which are highly accelerated in three-dimensional space, as well as tennis or golf balls. The question of who was the last to touch the object of the game, how it was hit and in which direction it was accelerated further may be decisive for the outcome of the game, depending on the type of game. [0006] Game devices that are used in high-performance sports, such as tennis balls, golf balls, footballs and the like, nowadays can be accelerated to extremely high speeds, so that the detection of the object during the movement requires highly sophisticated technology. The technical means employed so far--mainly cameras--either completely fail to meet the requirements set forth above, or meet them only to an insufficient degree; also the methods, hitherto known, for position finding by means of various transmitter and receiver combinations still leave a large error margin with regard to the spatial resolution of the position indication, with regard to the ease of use of the transmitter/receiver components required, and above all with regard to evaluating the data obtained by means of the transmitter/receiver system, so that it is not yet possible, or at least requires a large amount of effort, to evaluate the results obtained from this data as fast as possible. [0007] It is not only in the field of commercial sports, where movable game devices may be employed, but it is also in the personal field that users have become more and more used to electronic devices indicating various pieces of information to give a user feedback as to how he/she has affected an object, or to provide him/her with information about how a player has affected a gaming device. [0008] Current statistics methods in commercial applications, such as of the German first football division (Bundesliga), work with recording relatively simple statistics, such as the percentage of ball contacts of a team or the number of corners, free kicks or fouls. [0009] On the other hand, there have been means, for example in tennis, where there is a very plannable, clearly arranged environment with only two players, which measure, for example, the speed of the tennis ball at the serve, such that a viewer is in a position to assess whether a serve was "hard" or "soft". [0010] What is problematic about such speed measurements which may occur by optical methods is the fact that they do not function within an environment where there is a muddle of players, such as on a football pitch where there are not only two persons being active, but 22 persons, who, in addition--unlike in tennis for a serve--are not positioned in more or less the same place but may form any constellation on the pitch. On the other hand, particularly in football, it is interesting, both for the feedback of the players in training and for the viewers to know, for example, how a shot actually came about and/or how large the force of the shot was. [0011] Thus, kicking a ball in football or soccer or hitting a ball in tennis represents the actual "base" impact, as it were, on the game device which is always decisive of how the game continues, since ultimately everything is about doing something with the movable game device, such as playing it into an opponent's field (as in tennis) or moving it into a goal (as in football, or soccer) or into a basket (as in basketball) or to cause it to contact the floor of the opponent's pitch (as in volleyball). Due to the difficulty of the continuously changing constellations in dynamic games, in particular team games, however also in tennis when no serve is currently played, but the ball is played in one move, external speed measurements will fail, which has lead to the fact that there are currently no shot force detection systems that could be employed in a flexible manner. [0012] On the other hand, for the field of sports, but also for the field of leisure, there is a further limitation resulting from the fact that these fields are highly commercialized. All systems providing additional information, in particular when they are intended for leisure of for leisure sports, must enable to be offered at a low price since they are objects which a user never "absolutely needs" but might like to have anyway. Particularly in such a market, it is decisive to be able to offer a robust system at low price. For example, a system must not require a high level of maintenance or of equipment such as, for example, a speed measurement system for measuring the serve of a tennis player. Due to the relatively high cost associated, a small tennis club would never acquire such a system for training purposes, which applies even more to a private person who wishes to play tennis in a slightly more ambitioned manner in his/her leisure time. [0013] When considering the impact experienced by a game device, such as when it is shot by a racket or a leg or an arm or a hand of a player, one will find that most of the time, the movable game device will be made to rotate. Part of the energy transmitted to the device is thus converted into rotational energy rather than into, e.g., kinetic or potential energy. This rotation of the movable game device has a considerable effect with regard to a trajectory of the movable game device, since a trajectory thereby may be influenced in that the trajectory will deviate from a normal trajectory which would be followed, e.g., by a non-rotating object in the air. In football, one knows of so-called "curling crosses" which occur due to the fact that a ball rotates in the air and its trajectory is influenced by the rotation. One also knows of free kicks which are lowered down into the goal after they have passed the wall and represent a challenge for each goal keeper. Here, too, the rotation of the game device plays an important part. [0014] A further decisive part is played by a rotation when the rotating object hits the ground. Everybody knows this phenomenon for example in table tennis, tennis or even football. The ball will jump off differently when it is rotating than when it is not rotating. Thus, a so-called "stopped" ball in tennis will hardly continue its direction of flight once it bounces on the ground, but will be highly decelerated and then tend to jump off high and thus contribute to the opponent's confusion. On the other hand, an accelerated ball will, when it hits the ground, jump off at a very much smaller angle with the floor and in a highly accelerated manner, which results solely from the rotation of the ball. [0015] Measuring a rotation of a movable game device is thus a good measure of being able to predict the behavior of a movable game device or to receive feedback or to accumulate further statistical data with regard to, e.g., a football match in terms of which player not only has the hardest shot but may also give a ball the highest level of rotation when he/she shoots. [0016] U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,563 discloses a device for measuring a movable object such as a baseball, football, hockey puck, football, tennis ball, bowling ball or golf ball. A detection unit mounted to the ball includes a spin detection circuit, an electronic processor circuit, a magnetic field sensor and a radio transmitter. A monitoring unit is worn, or carried, by a user and serves as a user interface for the detection device. The monitoring unit has a radio receiver, a processor, a keyboard and an output display displaying various movement characteristics measured of the movable object, such as flying time, speed, height of trajectory, spin rate or curve of the movable object. Particularly, a spin detection is performed in that a measurement of the earth's magnetic field is performed using a magneto-inductive sensor, which is an inductive element within an oscillator. If the sensor rotates by 1800 relative to the earth's magnetic field, a frequency shift of the oscillator of up to 100% may be achieved. Thus, the frequency of the oscillator tuned by the variable inductance is varied between a maximum and a minimum value, an interval being measured between frequency peaks to determine the spin rate of the object. [0017] What is disadvantageous about this concept is the fact that the entire detection is based on the earth's magnetic field which may vary considerably from area to area and thus will lead to a pronounced or weak frequency variation, depending on the intensity of the earth's magnetic field. [0018] In addition, measuring the earth's magnetic field requires a lot of effort, particularly as an oscillator must be provided which additionally must be energized. This problem is a large one, particularly since this oscillator would have to be arranged within the ball, but replacing batteries within the ball or recharging the ball is problematic, if not impossible. In addition, this concept of the tuned oscillator is also problematic, with regard to the energy consumption, in that the oscillator must be kept switched on irrespective of whether a rotation is detected, and will thus consume as much valuable battery energy of the ball as in those cases when no rotation is measured. [0019] In addition, provision of an oscillator with a wide tuning range is expensive and problematic particularly for low frequencies, unless one resorts to digital circuits which, however, require a lot more energy than analog circuits while being more prone to defects. On the other hand, to build analog circuits with oscillation characteristics at low frequencies, these circuits would have to have either high capacitances or high inductances, which in turn contributes to the sensor being expensive, to a large volume required and, possibly, even to a heavy weight of the sensor. In particular, however, volume, energy consumption and especially also the weight of the sensor are measures which should be kept as small as possible, since a ball without a sensor actually must not differ, with regard to its properties for the player, from a ball having a sensor. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0020] It is the object of the present invention to provide an efficient, low-cost but nevertheless flexible concept for measuring a rotational frequency of a movable game device. [0021] In accordance with a first aspect, the invention provides a device for measuring a rotational frequency of a movable game device using a high-frequency radio signal, the device including: [0022] a provider for providing a time-varying radio antenna receive signal; and [0023] a detector for detecting a low-frequency frequency, which has been modulated onto the high-frequency radio signal, using the time-varying radio antenna receive signal, [0024] the low-frequency frequency of the time-varying radio antenna receive signal representing the rotational frequency of the movable game device. Continue reading... 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