Many people play the sport of basketball and devote considerable time to the development of their basketball skills, particularly in the United States. Millions of basketball goals have been mounted on barns, telephone poles, garages, and the like so basketball enthusiasts can conveniently enjoy a game together or shoot a few baskets in solitude. In recent years, many residential basketball poles carrying a backboard and a hoop have been installed next to a driveway or street. Portable basketball standards are also becoming commercially available for those basketball enthusiasts who do not have the necessary space or permission to have a basketball standard permanently installed. Once a backboard and hoop of some type are in place, a game of basketball soon follows.
Depending on the number of players available, the game may be a standard competition between two teams, a free throw or 3-point shooting contest, or any of a number of derivative games such as "HORSE" or "Around the World." But with any game of basketball played at a residential basketball standard, two aspects of the game often differ from a regulation game. A friendly game at a school yard, on a driveway, or in the street will generally involve no neutral referees, and will often lack a scoreboard.
Unfortunately, the lack of these two elements sometimes leads to disputes. Arguments over the score, who gets possession of the ball, and how long to play have disrupted many a friendly game. To compensate for the lack of independent officials, players in a friendly neighborhood game often call their own fouls and infractions. To compensate for the lack of regulation scoreboards, portable scoreboards have been developed. One such scoreboard, herein denoted the "previous scoreboard," is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/829,455, a parent application of the present case.
Although it represents an advance over flip-cards or similar manual scoring approaches, the previous scoreboard does have limitations. The previous scoreboard detects successful shots by means of a score registering assembly which is releasably attachable to a basketball goal. Signals indicating successful shots are transmitted from the score registering assembly to an electronic mechanism that is attachable to a basketball pole. The electronic mechanism analyzes input information received from the score registering assembly and other sources, and reports output information through a visual display.
The score registering assembly includes a switch and a paddle. The paddle, which is positioned just below the basketball hoop, is movable between a ready position and a reactive position. A cam on the paddle actuates the switch if a basketball successfully passes through the basketball hoop and thus causes the paddle to move from the ready position to the reactive position. The switch communicates such successful shots to the electronic mechanism.
On rare occasions, however, a single passage of a basketball may cause the paddle to bounce in and out of the reactive position several times. The oscillating paddle may in turn actuate the switch several times, thereby sending multiple signals to the electronic mechanism indicating successful shots. In fact, however, all signals immediately following the first signal are in error, because the ball passed through the hoop just once.
Another limitation of the previous scoreboard is that it cannot calculate shooting percentages because it can only detect successful shots. If a basketball strikes the hoop or backboard, but does not pass through the hoop, the paddle is not moved to the reactive position, the switch is not actuated, and no signal is sent to the electronic mechanism. Because it cannot detect unsuccessful shots, the previous scoreboard cannot calculate the number of successful shots as a percentage of the total number of attempted shots.
To detect passage of the basketball through the hoop, portable scoreboards typically include a passage sensor of some kind attached to the basketball standard near the hoop. For instance, the score registering assembly of the previous scoreboard has an adjustable arm attachment assembly containing two arms that are laterally adjustable for clamping engagement with a rim plate portion of the basketball goal. The movement of the arms is controlled by rotation of a knob. The knob has a gear that engages notches in each arm and advances or retracts each arm as the knob is turned, depending on the direction of rotation.
A drawback of some conventional passage sensor attachment assemblies is that the repeated impacts of the basketball against the basketball standard tend to loosen the attachment of the sensor assembly to the standard. Thus, play must be periodically interrupted to verify that the attachment assembly continues to hold the sensor securely to the basketball standard. If the attachment fails, the sensor may fall. On impact, the fallen sensor may break or cause other damage.
Thus, it would be an advancement in the art to provide an apparatus for securely yet releasably engaging a score registering assembly so that repeated impacts on the assembly's paddle do not tend to loosen the assembly from the basketball goal.
It would also be an advancement in the art to provide a basketball scoring apparatus which detects successful shots but does not generate false scores if the paddle used to detect successful shots oscillates after being flipped by the basketball that went through the hoop.
It would be a further advancement in the art to provide a basketball scoring apparatus capable of detecting shots that hit the rim or backboard but do not pass through the hoop, and to provide such an apparatus capable of calculating and displaying shot percentages.
Such a basketball scoring apparatus is disclosed and claimed herein.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds