Target Scoring and Display System

This invention relates to the general field of target shooting and more particularly, to an automatic target scoring and display system.

There is a substantial amount of prior art relating to automatic target scoring and display systems. At least as early as Bergfeld U.S. Pat. No. 1,847,465, the use of electric circuits to indicate a projectile position on a target was given some consideration. Similarly, since at least as early as Hawkins U.S. Pat. No. 2,148,749, consideration has been given to apparatus for automatic target scoring. Kemmel et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,592,429 disclose the use of mechanically operated impact responsive devices electrically wired to a score registering device located near the firing position. Klose U.S. Pat. No. 2,767,987 discloses an electro responsive target employing a series of conductor strips of thin material or foil arranged in spaced parallel relationship upon an insulating support associated with a common sheet metal or foil-like conductor.

Various kinds of target devices having impact actuated electrical circuits are disclosed in the prior art such as Mauro U.S. Pat. No. 3,401,939, Mauro U.S. Pat. No. 3,454,277, Thalmann U.S. Pat. No. 3,529,828, Schary U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,579, Dalzell, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,585,497, Knippel U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,510, Oatiler U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,546, Thalmann U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,725 and LaMura U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,640.

The prior art also includes non-impact systems, such as disclosed by the Knapp U.S. Pat. No. 3,047,723, Ulrich U.S. Pat. No. 3,097,303, Hyman U.S. Pat. No. 3,475,029, Stoller U.S. Pat. No. 3,624,401, Finch U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,858, and in Filippini U.S. Pat. No. 4,204,683.

Prior art photoelectric-type systems, such as disclosed in Knapp U.S. Pat. No. 3,047,233 and Crittenclen, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 3,727,069, have required the use of a variety of costly and easily damaged devices such as focusing lenses, slit masks, diaphragms and baffles for controlling the light. Such devices also required elaborate mounting apparatus as well as elaborate alignment and adjustment features. Also, the location detection apparatus has been costly and overcomplicated. Consequently, such prior art systems have been too costly, too unreliable, and/or too inaccurate to meet the requirements of competitive target shooting.

A primary object of the present invention is to provide a non-impact type highly accurate and reliable relatively low cost target system which is electronically operable by interruption of a multiplicity of closely spaced light paths arranged to criss-cross a target area defined by a standard removable and replaceable paper target sheet or the like. Another object is to provide an electronic system which is capable of scoring each shot in a series of shots and providing a cummulative score for a series of shots. Another object is to provide associated computer means for automatically recording scores for each of a plurality of shooters for computing the ranking of the shooters and for displaying various information on CRT display means or the like.

In general, the invention comprises a series of light emission means for providing closely spaced finite parallel criss-crossing discrete light beams located on X-Y axes on two sides of a target area and a corresponding series of closely spaced light response signal generating means located on opposite sides of the target area for generating signals indicative of interruption of the light beams during passage of a projectile therethrough. The light beams create a criss-cross grid means having a uniform spacing between light beams of sufficiently small size to cause interruption of at least two transversely extending light beams along each axis whenever a projectile passes through the target area. The coordinates of the interrupted light beams provide a highly accurate indication of the location of the projectile when it passes through the target area. Thus, variations in the signals generated by the corresponding light responsive signal generating means due to interruption by the projectile are indicative of the exact location of the projectile as it passes through the target area. The variations in these signals are used in connection with a computer means to record the location, assign an appropriate score for a shot, allocate the score to a particular shooter, total the score of a series of shots by a particular shooter and enable the score for any one shot and the total score for a series to be displayed on a CRT device.

An illustrative and presently preferred embodiment is shown on the accompanying drawings which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of the system components;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the projectile location sensing means;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of the projectile location sensing means;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the projectile sensing means;

FIG. 5 is a front elevational view of a typical paper target;

FIGS. 6-8 are representations of CRT displays of shots and scores;

FIGS. 9A and 9B are a schematic drawing of the electronic components of the system; and

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of the arrangement of the light emitter devices, light receiver devices and light beams on one axis;

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of an alternative frame construction; and

FIG. 12 is a partial cross sectional side elevational view of a section of the frame shown in FIG. 11 with a printed circuit board mounted thereon.

In general, the system of the present invention comprises target array and projectile path sensing means 20 having a polygonal target support means 21, FIG. 2, for providing a polygonal open target area 22 and for supporting a paper target sheet 24, FIG. 5, across the target area. A plurality of light emitting means 26, 27, FIG. 2, are mounted on a first pair of transversely extending side wall portions 28, 30 of the target support means for providing a plurality of closely spaced finite collimated discrete light beams 32, 34, FIG. 4, extending laterally across the target area. A plurality of light responsive signal generating means 36, 38, FIG. 2, are mounted on a second pair of transversely extending side wall portions 40, 42 for normally generating a first signal indicative of non-interruption of the associated light beams. Each light generating means (emitter devices) is paired with one of the light responsive signal generating means (receiver devices) which is located directly opposite the associated one of the light generating means. The light generating means and the light responsive signal generating means comprise a plurality of commercially available infrared light emitting devices and detecting devices such as, for example, a Siemens SFH-309 silicon phototransistor-type device having a photo current of lmA and a wave length of maximum sensitivity of 850 nm; and a Siemens SFH-409 infrared emitter device having a radiant intensity in the axial direction of 7 (=5) mW/sr and a wave length at peak emission of 950 nm which are available in a 3 mm plastic case. The devices are arranged in identical closely spaced relationship to provide an array of closely spaced non-visible limited wave length light beams extending across the target area in a manner such as to cause at least two transversely extending light beams to be interrupted by passage of a projectile through the target area. The light beams are not modified by lenses and extend directly through the air from the emitter devices to the detecting devices without passing through any light modifying device, such as a lense, but the divergent peripheral rays of light may be restricted so that the light received by the detector devices is primarily located within a cylindrical light path. Interruption of any light beam will cause a variation in the normal signal generated by the associated light responsive signal generating means and generation of a variation signal indicative of passage of the projectile through the associated light beam. Since the light beams are arranged to provide an X-Y coordinate-type grid system, a pair of variation signals from one each of the X and Y coordinate light-responsive signal generating means establishes the X-Y coordinate location of passage of the projectile. A target computer means 44, which may be a conventional, commercially available CPU device with suitable programming, is connected to and processes the signals generated by the light responsive signal generating means. The computer means is connected to a CRT-type graphic display means 46, which may be a conventional, commercially available Apple II device, with a disk drive and suitable memory capability which is programmed to provide a graphic display of the target area, the locations of projectile hits in the target area and scores for each hit and each series of hits by any particular shooter. Thus, the target array projectile path sensing means 20 is located in the target area of a firing range while the computer means 44 and the display means 46 may be remotely located in the firing area to provide instantaneous information to the shooters in the firing area. The computer means 44 and display means may be combined as one device.

As shown in FIGS. 2-3, the side wall portions 28, 30, 40 and 42 of target array may be made from metallic plate material such as aluminum which are accurately secured to one another in any suitable manner such as by welding to provide a rigid, parallelogram frame with adjacent side wall portions extending at a right angle to one another and with opposite side wall portions being parallel to one another.

A plurality of spaced mounting holes 50, 52, FIG. 3, are precisely located on each side wall portion by a drilling or boring operation using a fixture to assure exact positioning and parallelism of the holes in each side wall portion as well as exact coaxial alignment with corresponding holes in the opposite side wall portion. The holes may be arranged in a single row or in a plurality of rows as illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 10. The holes in each row are spaced equidistant from one another and, if more than one row of holes is provided, the centers of the holes in each row are staggered relative to the centers of the holes in adjacent rows so as to increase the density of the light beam pattern. Commercially available infrared light emitting devices (I.R. LED) 26 are fixedly mounted in the holes 52 and commercially available infrared light detector and signal generating devices 38 are fixedly mounted in holes 50 so that each light emitting device has a corresponding associated light detector device located across the target area in coaxial parallel alignment with one another. Other kinds of light emitting devices and light detector devices may be utilized including laser and fiber optic devices.

In the illustrative embodiment of FIGS. 2-4 and 10, the target area has a size of approximately 4.65 inch.times.4.65 inch with 32 light emitting devices and 32 light detecting devices being employed on each side wall portion, but the target area may be of any suitable size. The diameters of the holes and devices is approximately 0.093 inch. The spacing between centers of adjacent holes and devices in each of the two rows in each side wall portion is approximately 0.30 inch, the spacing between centers of longitudinally adjacent staggered holes and devices from row to row is approximately 0.15 inch, and the lateral spacing between rows is 0.15 inch so that substantially the entire target area will be crossed by closely spaced light beams having a diameter substantially less than the diameter of any projectile to be fired through the target area. The preferred construction and arrangement is such that any projectile will intersect at least two adjacent light beams even if the projectile is centered on one light beam. For example, a .22 caliber projectile centered on one hole of 0.093 diameter would completely intersect one beam of light while also equally partially intersecting the two next adjacent beams of light.

For example, FIG. 10 shows a longitudinal row A of emitters and a laterally offset longitudinal row B of emitters. The centers of the adjacent emitters C, D, E, F, G etc. in each row are longitudinally offset from one another by 0.30 inch. The centers of the emitters E, F, G in row B are also laterally and longitudinally offset from the centers of the emitters A, B in row A by 0.15 inch. The diameters of the emitters is 0.093 inch. The longitudinal distance between the periphery of adjacent emitters, e.g., C, D, in each row is 0.207 inch. The longitudinal distance between the periphery of each of the emitters in one row and the periphery of emitters in the other row is 0.057 inch. Thus, a .22 caliber projectile, for example, will intersect at least two adjacent light beams CF or FD and may intersect as many as three light beams CDF. In the illustrative embodiment of FIGS. 2-4, all devices A-G, etc. on the two intersecting wall portions 28 and 30 are emitter devices and the corresponding aligned devices on opposite intersecting wall portions 40, 42 are all receiver devices. In another embodiment, the devices C, D, etc. in one row A on each wall portion may all be emitter devices and the devices E, F, G etc. in the other row B may all be receiver devices with a corresponding reverse pattern on the opposite wall portions. In this manner, any problems associated with collimation of the light beams may be more easily resolved. Additional rows of emitter and receiver devices or only a single row of devices may be employed on each wall portion in some instances. The arrangement and pattern may be such that the X-Y axis light beams intersect one another in the target area or such that the X-Y axis light beams do not intersect one another.

Each light responsive signal generating device will generate a signal when the associated light beam is partially or totally intercepted by the projectile. The generated signals of adjacent light responsive signal generating devices are utilized to determine the location of the projectile during passage through the target area.

In order to provide a high degree of accuracy by producing substantially separate finite and discrete collimated light beams, a light collimating means in the form of an elongated cylindrical tubular member 53, FIG. 3, is associated with each of the light emitting devices 26 to provide a cylindrical light passage 54 having a cylindrical light discharge opening 55. The length of the tubular members 53 should be 30 to 35 times the diameter of the light passage 54 which is approximately the same diameter as the outside diameter of the light emitting device 26. Thus, the tubular members 53 in the illustrative embodiment, which have an inside diameter of approximately 0.12 inch, should have a length of between approximately 3.6 to 4.2 inches.

In addition, the inside wall of the tubular members should have a flat black color, substantially non-reflective surface. In the illustrative embodiment, the tubular members are made of aluminum material and the interior surface is coated with a flat black color by a paint dipping or anodizing process. Similar tubular members 56 are employed with the light receiver devices 38 to provide light baffle-collimating means. Tubular support means may be employed in the form of aluminum plate members 57, 58, 59, 60 having circular holes 62, 64 of a size and precisely arranged in a pattern corresponding to the pattern of holes 50, 52 and the associated emitter and receiver devices as shown in FIG. 10. Tubular members 53, 56 and plate members 57, 58, 59, 60 are suitably precisely rigidly mounted on side wall portions 28, 30, 40 & 42 of the target array. The circular holes 62, 64 and cylindrical tubular members 53, 56 provide substantially cylindrical light beam outlet means on the emitter sides of the target area and substantial cylindrical light beam inlet means on the receiver sides of the target area. Thus, the portions of the light beams crossing the target area between the plate members 57, 58, 59, 60 will have a generally circular cross-section and the portions of the light beams transmitted to the receiver devices will have a substantially cylindrical configuration.

Suitable bullet-proof shielding means 70, 72 are provided to protect the target array means and may be utilized to fixedly support the target array means in the target area of a firing range as illustrated in FIG. 3. The devices 26, 38 may be mounted in printed circuit boards and connected by suitable shielded cable means 71, 73 to a suitable power source and the computer means 44. Paper target positioning means, such as precisely located pin means 74, 76, FIG. 2, are mounted on the target frame means for cooperation with locating holes 78, 80 in the paper target 24 as shown in FIG. 5. The paper target has target indicia, such as conventional concentric rings 82, 84, etc., which denote scoring areas having scoring values such as 22, 23, 24, 25.

In general, target computer means 44 is programmed to identify the location of a projectile relative to the paper target by use of the variable signals generated by the light responsive devices, to assign an appropriate score for each shot, store the information and to transmit the information to the conventional, commercially available display means which is programmed to display a replica of the target 90 with shot location and score information as illustrated in FIGS. 6-8. FIG. 6 shows a display of four shots 94, 96, 98, 100 with corresponding scores 102. FIG. 7 illustrates a display of 13 shots 104 and corresponding scores 106. FIG. 8 illustrates a display of 9 shots 108 and corresponding scores 110. In addition, the scores may be automatically totalled and displayed along with any other information such as the name of the shooter.

FIGS. 9A & 9B show the electronic devices and circuitry for coupling the signal generating means to the target computer means through an interface means 110 including an eight line search input signal portion 112 (CSO-7) and an eight line data output signal portion 114. The 32 signal generating means along each of the X and Y coordinate axes are divided into eight groups of four each as illustrated at 116, 117, 118, 119, FIGS. 2 and 9. Each group is connected to a conventional-type voltage comparator device 120, 122 (LM 339) etc. through resistors 124, 126 and capacitors 128, 130. When a projectile interrupts a light beam, a signal of 0.1 volts peak to peak is generated across the associated resistor. Reference voltages are supplied to the voltage comparator device in a conventional manner from reference voltage sources 132, 134, 136, 138 to determine the threshold voltage point of the voltage comparator device which has open output lines 140, 141, 142, 143, and 145, 146, 147, 148 connected to a conventional-type quadlatch device 150, 151 through pull-up resistors 152, 154. Thus, whenever a light beam is interrupted, an output signal indicative of interruption of that particular beam is provided on the output lines. Upon receipt of a signal CSO-7 on lines 156, 158, etc., the output signals are transmitted in a conventional manner from the quadlatch devices (4043) through output lines 160, 162, etc. to data lines 164 and data transfer terminal 112.

The construction and arrangement is such that a projectile may cause generation of one to four output signals from each latch device 150, 152, etc., depending upon the number of light responsive signal generating means in each group 116, 118, etc. which are actuated by partial or complete interruption of the associated light beam. Each output signal identifies a particular light beam and a particular location on the X or the Y coordinate axes. In the illustrative embodiment, the groups of light responsive signal generating means along one axis are serially searched and then the groups of light responsive signal generating means along the other axis are serially searched after each shot. The location of the shot on each X-Y axis is calculated in the computer means by determining the center position among the multiple output signals received during the search of each group of latch devices along each coordinate axis. For example, if three output signals are received from three adjacent light responsive signal generating means along the X coordinate axis, the location of the center one of the group of light responsive signal generating means is utilized to identify the location of the projectile on the X coordinate axis. If there are an even number of output signals received from four adjacent light responsive signals, the center of the group is utilized to identify the location of projectiles or the computer may be programmed to calculate the location as one-half the distance between the outermost opposite ones of the group of corresponding light beams. For most target shooting competitions, the foregoing arrangement provides more than sufficient accuracy and, as is conventional, the paper targets may be used to make any more specific determinations.

FIG. 11 shows an alternative frame means 200 comprising four side wall sections 202, 204, 206, 208 which are preferably made of one solid continuous piece of rigid material. A solid one piece molded or laminated plastic material is preferred. Each section has a polygonal cross-sectional configuration defined by front and rear flat side surface portions 210, 212 and inner and outer side surface portions 214, 216. Opposite end portions 218, 220 of each section are abuttingly matingly engageable with opposite end portions of adjacent sections and fixedly connected to one another by suitable fastening means such as fasteners and/or adhesive materials (not shown). In the presently preferred embodiment, the end portions are inclined at an angle of 45.degree.. As an alternative, the frame means 200 may be molded as a solid one piece unit.

Each side wall section has a plurality of transverse parallel elongated passage means 230, 232 which are coaxial with a similar number and arrangement of transverse passages in the oppositely spaced section. These passages may be constructed and arranged as previously described and shown in FIG. 10. The length of the passages and the width of the section members are such as to provide light collimating means. The sections are preferably made of a black color plastic material to enhance light collimation. The passages are precisely formed by a boring operation with use of jigs and/or fixtures to provide passage parallelism and alignment as previously described.

As shown in FIG. 12, light emitting devices 240 and light detecting devices 242 are mounted on the outer surfaces 216 of oppositely spaced side wall sections and, preferably, extend into the adjacent end portions of the passages 230, 232 as previously described and shown in FIG. 3. The emitting devices and detecting devices are preferably mounted on printed circuit board devices 244, 246 abutting outer side surfaces 216.

The system of the present invention provides target support means for supporting a target sheet with target indicia thereon across a target area; a plurality of separate closely spaced light emitting means located about the periphery of the target area for providing a multiplicity of separate individual generally parallel light beams of non-visible limited wave length of substantially circular cross-section extending across the target area and substantially covering the entire target area and being arranged in an X-Y coordinate pattern; target sheet mounting means for locating the target sheet on said target support means with the target indicia located in predetermined relationship with said X-Y coordinate pattern of light beams; a plurality of separate closely spaced light detector means equal in number to the number of the light emitting means located about the periphery of the target area opposite the light emitting means for normally receiving a generally cylindrical column of uninterrupted light from the light emitting means in the absence of the presence of a projectile in the target area and generating a normal standard signal indicative of uninterrupted receipt of light and for generating an interrupt signal upon passage of a projectile through the associated light beams in the target area; means for determining the location of each light beam interrupted by the passage of the projectile through the target area and for generating coordinate signals representative of the X coordinate and the Y coordinate of each interrupted light beam; means for receiving and correlating the coordinate signals to establish the precise location of the passage of the projectile through the target area and generate control signals representative of such locations; comparator means for comparing the control signals with scoring data based upon proximity of the precise location relative to the center of the target area or other reference position and providing a score signal representative of the score achieved; and means for displaying the score and for displaying a simulation of the target area and for displaying the location of projectile in the simulated target area.

The light emitting means are located on at least two emitter sides of the target area and the light receiving means are located on at least two other receiver sides of the target area opposite the two emitter sides to provide at least one row of closely spaced light beams extending along an X coordinate axis and at least one row of closely spaced light beams extending along a transverse Y coordinate axis. The light emitting means and the light receiving means are arranged in a pattern providing a space between adjacent ones thereof which is less than the diameter of the light emitting means, and are arranged in a pattern and have a diameter such that the projectile will interrupt more than one beam of light in each row along each of the X and Y coordinate axes. Light baffle collimating means are associated with the light emitting devices and light receiving devices for forming a generally cylindrical column of light therebetween.

The invention also provides a method of automatic electronic determination of location of passage of a projectile through a target area comprising providing a multiplicity of discrete separate light beams extending across the target area in a fixed X-Y coordinate pattern whereby a projectile passing through the target area will pass through at least one of the X coordinate light beams and at least one of the Y coordinate light beams transmitted across the target area; mounting a target sheet across the target area with target indicia on the target sheet located in predetermined relationship to the fixed X-Y coordinate pattern of light beams; generating a first set of electronic signals indicative of the amount of light normally transmitted across the target area by each of the light beams in the absence of the passage of a projectile through the target area and generating a second set of electronic signals when a projectile passes through the target area indicative of the light beams interrupted by the projectile; identifying the location of the light beams interrupted by the projectile during passage through the target area; calculating the location of the projectile during passage through the target area by the identification and location of the light beams interrupted by the projectile during passage through the target area; and generating location signals representative of the location of the projectile during passage through the target area. The location signals may be transmitted to a display means including a representation of the target area and displaying the location of the passage of the projectile in association with the representation of the target area.

A score may be electronically based upon the location of the projectile during passage through the target area and score signals representative of the calculated score may be generated and transmitted to the display means for displaying the score with the display of the location of the projectile during passage through the target area.

The score information may be stored each time a projectile passes through the target area; the total score of successive projectiles may be calculated and total score signals may be transmitted to the display means for display of the total score with the representation of the target area.

Shooter identification information for each of a plurality of shooters may be stored in the system and projectile location information for each shot of each shooter may be correlated with the shooter information for each shooter.

The system also provides a method of determining the location of a projectile during passage through a target area comprising: arranging and mounting at least two transversely extending rows of light emitting devices on first and second sides of the target area so that one row of light emitting devices extends transversely to one other row of light emitting devices and arranging and mounting at least two rows of light responsive devices on transversely extending second and third sides of the target area so that one row of light responsive devices extends transversely relative to the other row of light responsive devices and one of the light responsive devices in each of light responsive devices row is in coaxial alignment with one of the light emitting devices in an opposite row of light emitting devices; generating a criss-crossing coordinated matrix of separate individual closely spaced light beams extending across the target area with at least one set of closely adjacent parallel light beams extending thereacross in a first direction and at least one other set of closely adjacent parallel light beams extending thereacross in a second direction transverse to the first direction so as to provide an X-Y type coordinate light beam pattern; mounting a target sheet across the target area with target indicia on the target sheet located in predetermined relationship to the fixed X-Y coordinate pattern of light beams; firing a projectile through the target sheet and the target area and interrupting at least one light beam in each set of X-Y coordinate light beams; and determining the location of the projectile during passage through the target sheet and the target area by measuring variations in the amount of light transmitted across the target area by each of the light beams.

A replica target sheet image is displayed on a display device at a location remote from the target area and shot location signals indicative of the location of the projectile during passage through the target sheet and the target area are utilized for displaying shot location images on the replica target sheet image on the display device.

It is intended that the appended claims be construed to include alternative embodiments of the invention except as precluded by the prior art.