Howard E Hall

US Patent:

53281900, Jul 12, 1994

Filed:

Aug 4, 1992

Appl. No.:

7/926539

Inventors:

Peter J. Dart - Boulder CO
Howard F. Hall - Albuquerque NM

Assignee:

Dart International, Inc. - Englewood CO

International Classification:

F41J 914
F41J 514
A63B 7100

US Classification:

273358

Abstract:

An archery practice device simulates dynamic targets, such as in an animal hunt, on a visible screen. A video disk contains a plurality of hunting scenes which are projected via a video projector on a vertical screen whose size simulates an area normally viewed by an archer during a hunt. The screen images are comprised of pixel areas arranged in horizontal rows and vertical columns. A source of light of a spectrum outside the humanly visible range is provided adjacent the screen. Arrows penetrating this light field reflect light to a detector sensitive to light of said spectrum, but not sensitive to visible light otherwise. The detector generates a full screen signal of a plurality of pixel areas, certain of which contain indicia of light reflection from the arrow. Upon detecting such reflection, the scene frame is frozen on the screen. The frozen frame is coordinated to the signal from the light detector, whereupon a hit zone image is projected to indicate an arrow impact point relative to the frame image to show the scoring of the point of arrow impact.

US Patent:

55669514, Oct 22, 1996

Filed:

Jun 24, 1994

Appl. No.:

8/265303

Inventors:

Peter J. Dart - Boulder CO
Howard F. Hall - Longmont CO
David A. Johnson - Littleton CO

Assignee:

Dart International, Inc. - Englewood CO

International Classification:

F41J 914
F41J 514
A63B 7100

US Classification:

273358

Abstract:

An archery practice device projects a moving hunt scene on a screen. In one embodiment of the invention, a continuous plane of IR light is located prior to the screen, an arrow carrying a reflector is detected as it penetrates this light plane, and IR illumination is reflected back toward the archer and a full-screen radiation detector. In another embodiment, a piezoelectric motion detector senses impact of an arrow on the screen, an IR source is momentarily triggered by the motion detector, and IR illumination is reflected by the arrow toward the full-screen radiation detector. The detector generates a full-screen signal indicating the point of arrow impact on the screen. Upon detecting the arrow, the moving scene is frozen on the screen. The visual content of the frozen scene is coordinated to the full-screen signal from the detector, whereupon a hit zone image is projected on the screen to indicate the arrow impact point relative to the frozen scene. The arrow does not penetrate the screen, and drops vertically downward adjacent to the bottom of the screen at a location between the front of the screen and the archer.