Abstract:
The present invention discloses a paintgun sight, which integrates an electronic camera and a liquid crystal display, and has a clamp for easily and quickly mounting the sight above the universal paintball loading inlet. The electronic camera and the liquid crystal display are disposed in front of and behind the paintball loading inlet respectively; the electronic camera captures the image of a target object and displays it on the liquid crystal display. Therefore, unlike the traditional sight, this invention provides a sight for aiming at a target without being blocked by the universal paintball loading inlet.

Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to an electronic sight, more particularly to a sight of a paintgun that assists paintball players to aim at the shooting target.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     A paintgun is a major recreational tool for the popular “Survival Game” of paintball. The paintgun was originally used to mark and count domestic animals, and cowboys also used it to shoot at each other for fun in their leisure time. The paintball gradually becomes a game over a long period of time, and the number of participants is increased as time goes by. Up to now, this game is developed into a shooting sport. The structure of a paintgun uses the principle of an anesthesia gun, and also utilizes carbon dioxide or high pressure air as its power source. Although the paintgun has the name of a gun, its appearance and structure are totally different from those of a real gun. The structure of a paintgun can be roughly divided into a main shooting body, a butt, a barrel (guiding the projectile direction), a breech (loading the paintball and having the function same as the magazine of a riffle), and air bottle (power source), etc.  
         [0003]     For a paintball game, the appearance of a general paintgun and the breech of the paintball are designed differently from those of a real gun. The external casing of a paintball is similar to the film of a pill capsule which wraps glycerol and eatable dye inside.  
         [0004]     The caliber of a paintgun is approximately 0.68 inch (or 17.5 mm), and thus is generally called “Point 68”. Such caliber is commonly adopted throughout the world. Since the manufacturing technology is improved unceasingly, the population of paintball players is increased in multiples. At present, paintball becomes the third largest sport in the United States. In fact, the fun and fitness brought by the paintball game makes it so popular over the world.  
         [0005]     A general sight used in toy guns usually includes a riffle scope and a front sight, etc, and a more advanced sight comes with a laser sight. The function of these components aims at improving the shooting accuracy, but as mentioned previously, the appearance and structure of a general paintgun are different from those of a real gun, since the way of loading paintballs is to put the paintballs into an agitator that is connected to the upper section of the main shooting body, and to drop the paintballs into the main shooting body through an agitator. Thus, the agitator becomes a standard component of most paintguns. Since such an agitator is located at the upper section of the paintgun, therefore it is unable to install a sight or a scope of a regular gun. When a player shoots, the player cannot aim with a sight to obtain a high shooting accuracy. As to the dot laser sights that intend to help players to aim at the target, it is hard to see the small light spot, particularly when the target is 50 yards away from the player, and thus is impractical for its application.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0006]     The primary objective of the present invention is to provide an electronic sight installed to a paintgun for assisting paintball players to aim at the target.  
         [0007]     The paintgun sight in accordance with this invention basically integrates an electronic camera and a liquid crystal display (LCD), wherein the lens of the electronic camera is located in front of the agitator for capturing the image of the target, and the liquid crystal display is located behind the agitator for displaying the image of the target captured by the electronic camera. Therefore, the aiming will not be blocked by the agitator on a regular paintgun.  
         [0008]     Another objective of this invention is to provide a universal and easy-to-install paintgun sight.  
         [0009]     Since the sight in accordance with this invention is equipped with a clamp for easily and quickly mounting the sight above the paintball loading inlet of the paintgun. The structure of the clamp includes a hoop and a pressing member, such that the hoop can be mounted onto the paintball loading inlet, and the pressing member can press the hoop tightly onto the paintball loading inlet. Such structure provides users an easy and quick way to mount or remove the sight. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]     Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0011]      FIG. 1  is a perspective diagram of the overall appearance of a paintgun with a sight according to a prior art.  
         [0012]      FIG. 2  is a perspective diagram of the sight according to the present invention when the hoop of the clamp is in the open state.  
         [0013]      FIG. 3  is a perspective diagram of the sight according to the present invention when the hoop of the clamp is in the close state.  
         [0014]      FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional diagram of the connecting mechanism according to the present invention.  
         [0015]      FIG. 5  is a cross-sectional diagram of the connecting mechanism according to the present invention when the pressing member is used to press the paintball loading inlet. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0016]     Referring to  FIG. 1 , the basic structure of a traditional paintgun includes a main shooting body  10  (including the gun parts which is not shown in the figure), a gun butt  11  (or handle), a barrel  12  installed at the front of the main shooting body  10 , an agitator  13 , and an air bottle  14 ; wherein a paintball loading inlet  15  is disposed at upper section of the main shooting body  10 , and the paintballs are dropped from the agitator  13  above the main shooting body  10  into a gun section of the main shooting body  10  through the paintball loading inlet  15 . Further, with the propellant of a high pressure air of the air bottle  15 , the paintballs are shot out from the barrel  12 . Therefore, the paintball loading inlet  15  is a standard equipment of most paintguns; on the other hand, after the agitator  13  for accommodating paintballs inserts its paintball supply pipe  130  into the paintball loading inlet  13 , the screw thread  150  of the paintball loading inlet  13  is used to mount the paintball supply pipe onto the paintball loading inlet  13  of the main shooting body  10 . Therefore, the paintball loading inlet  15  and the agitator  13  will block the vision of the shooter, and thus cannot aim at the target.  
         [0017]     Refer to  FIGS. 2 , and  3  for the sight  20  of the paintgun according to this invention, comprising:  
         [0018]     a clamp  30 , for being quickly clamped onto the paintball loading inlet  15  of the paintgun;  
         [0019]     an electronic camera  40 , coupled to one side of the clamp  30  for capturing the image of a target and converting the image into an electronic output signal; and  
         [0020]     a liquid crystal display, coupled to another side of the clamp  30  for outputting the electronic output signal and displaying the captured image of a target object; wherein the electronic camera is an electronic photography equipment including an image detector  42  (such as a charged couple device array, CCD array) and a corresponding image processing circuit  43 , and the image processing circuit  43  converts and outputs the optical image detected by the image detector  42  into the corresponding electronic signal; and the liquid crystal display  50  is a general LCD display which is electrically coupled to the image processing circuit  43  by an electric wire and then display the captured image of the target object according to the electronic signal outputted from the electronic camera  40  for the player&#39;s visual observation and viewing.  
         [0021]     To implement the technology of the foregoing electronic camera  40  and the liquid crystal display  50 , it is very similar to the digital camera, wherein the image detector  42  can adopt a color image detector or a gray-scale image detector for capturing the image of a target object. These related technologies are well known to the persons skilled in the art and can be implemented with no problem at all.  
         [0022]     The foregoing clamp  30  is the key component of this invention, and its main function is to install the entire sight  20  onto the paintball loading inlet  15  above the main shooting body  10  easily and quickly. The structure of the clamp  30  comprises a hoop and a pressing member, wherein the hoop is a component that can surround the periphery of the paintball loading inlet  15 , and the hoop used in the embodiment of this invention comprises a first member  31  and a second member  32 , and the first member  31  has a cross-sectional area substantially in the shape of an open ring (refer to  FIG. 4 ) and the first member  31  comprises three consecutively connected sides, which are a first side  311 , and a second side  312  and a third side  313  located on both sides of the first side  311 , such that the electronic camera  40  and the liquid crystal display  50  are disposed respectively on the corresponding second side  312  and third side  313 , and the paintball loading inlet  15  is surrounded by these three sides  311 ,  312 ,  313 ; wherein the first side  311  comprises an arc or semicircular surface facing a side of the paintball loading inlet to match the first side  311  with the shape of the paintball loading inlet; a second member  32  pivotally coupled to the second side  312  by a pivotal axis  33 , which has a first hook member  34  disposed on another side of a pivotal axis  33 , and the function of this hook member  34  is similar to a door to the first member  31 , thereby defining or destroying a close ring structure with the first member  31 . The third side  313  of the first member  31  has a lock assembly, and such lock member comprises a movable member  351  and a second hook  352  disposed on the movable member  351 . Under normal condition, the movable member  351  is maintained in a locked position by an elastic member  353  (such as a compressed spring). After the first member  31  of the hoop surrounds the paintball loading inlet  15 , the first hook  34  of the second member  32  is pushed towards the second hook  352 , so that the second hook  352  and the movable member  351  are forced to move downward (as shown in the arrowhead in dotted line), and under the pushing of the elastic member  353 , when the movable member  351  recovers its normal locked position, the first hook  34  and the second hook  352  are hooked mutually. Then, the first member  31  and the second member  32  will constitute a close ring structure as shown in  FIG. 4  to tightly hoop the paintball loading inlet  15 . Basically, the pressing member comprises a screw bolt  361  being screwed to the second member  32  and a spacer  362  being installed at the front end of the axial direction of the screw bolt  361 . By means of rotating the screw bolt  361 , the spacer  362  is pushed towards the paintball loading inlet  15  to further drive the spacer  361  to tightly clamp the paintball loading inlet (see  FIG. 5 ).  
         [0023]     In  FIG. 4 , the first member  31  also has a bracket  37  being embedded into one side facing the first member  31 , and the bracket  37  is a component of an elastic thin plate, which could be made by metals or plastic materials. Both ends of this bracket  37  respectively prop the surfaces of the second side  312  and the third side  313 . To prevent it from being loosened or fallen out, a concave opening  38   a ,  38   b  is disposed respectively on the second side and the third side as shown in  FIG. 4 . Both ends of the bracket  37  respectively prop against these two openings  38   a ,  38   b , so that after the first member  31  of the hoop hoops the paintball loading inlet  15 , this bracket  37  jointly hoops the paintball loading inlet  15  with the spacer  362  of the pressing member. To avoid the slippery action between the bracket  37  and the paintball loading inlet  15 , a slippery resisting pad  371  (such as a rubber pad or silicon pad) having a higher friction can be disposed on a side facing the paintball loading inlet  15 . Therefore, users can quickly and easily install such electronic sight  20  onto the paintball loading inlet of the paintgun by means of the foregoing design.