Abstract:
An apparatus and an associated method ensure accurate scoring at a sporting event by associating controls of a score board with the colors worn by the teams, or the positions of the goals (e.g., goals in a basketball tournament). In one implementation, the apparatus alerts a scorekeeper when a play condition reaches a threshold.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to the scoring in sports events. In particular, the present invention relates to devices and methods ensuring accurate scoring of a game between opposing teams in tournament play.  
           [0003]    2. Discussion of the Related Art  
           [0004]    As volunteer scorekeepers in sport tournaments, and as spectators in such events, the inventors of the present invention observe that scorekeeping using existing score board control devices is error prone. Sometimes, errors crediting points scored to the wrong team are made. For example, in team sports such as basketball, the opposing teams are typically identified on the scoreboard and its controls as “Home” and “Guest.” Thus, the controls of such a score board require the scorekeeper to correctly identify the home or guest designation of a team to correctly credit the score to that team. In the past, to help the scorekeepers, it was customary for the home team to wear light color uniforms, while the guest team wears dark color uniforms. Unfortunately, this convention is no longer strictly observed. Today, the teams are more likely to appear in different color uniforms. As a result, in the excitement of a tournament, scorekeepers are often confused momentarily as to the “home” and “guest” designation of the teams when they operate the controls of a scoreboard, resulting in points being credited to the wrong team.  
           [0005]    Errors also often arise immediately after half-time in some sports, such as basketball. In basketball, each team is assigned one of the two baskets located at opposite ends of the court as its “own”. Baskets that are made at that basket, whether by the owning team (in the normal course), or inadvertently by the opposing team, are credited to the owning team. Ownership of the baskets is swapped at half-time. Errors often arise after half-time, as scorekeepers are sometimes confused immediately after the ownership swap.  
           [0006]    Errors often arise also because of complex scoring rules. In basketball, for example, if one team commits seven (7) fouls in one half, the opposing team moves into “bonus” play. If the team fouls reach ten (10) in that half, the opposing team moves into “double bonus” play. Foul counts are reset at half-time. Free throws that are awarded as a result of bonus play or double bonus play often determine the outcome of the game. By custom, the scorekeeper is expected to keep track of the number of fouls, and to alert the referee when the bonus or the double bonus milestone is reached. Often, however, scorekeepers miss these milestones.  
           [0007]    Thus, a method and an apparatus that ensure accurate scoring and avoid errors in tournament games are desired.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0008]    The present invention provides methods and systems that ensure accurate scorekeeping of a sporting contest through a graphical user interface on a scoreboard control device. (The scoreboard control device is used to keep score and transmits information to the score board for display.) Thus, a scorekeeper interacts with the graphical user interface to manipulate scores to be displayed on the score board. The graphical user interface displays images of control objects (e.g., a control panel or a keypad) which are each associated with one side of the sporting contest. (Each side of the sporting contest, whether a single player or a team, is referred to as a “participant.”). To prevent scoring errors resulting from mis-identifying a participant, the present invention associates and displays each control object associated with the score of a participant with a color distinguishing the participant from the other participants of the sporting contest. Most conveniently, the color used for each participant in the graphical user interface corresponds to the color of the uniforms worn by that participant.  
           [0009]    In one embodiment, the control object on the graphical user interface is a control panel for the score board, including a keypad for operating the controls. According to another aspect of the present invention, a graphical user interface presents a visual indicator which allows the scorekeeper to associate a basket with its current owning team (i.e., the owning team for that half of the game). In one implementation, the graphical user interface presents to the user a diagram representing the basketball court as seen from the perspective of the scorekeeper (the scorekeeper is presumed to be located at the center line of the basketball court), and requests the scorekeeper to associate each half of the basketball court with the color of the owning team of the basket inside that half. Each half of the basketball court is then displayed in the color of the associated owning team. Thus, when a basket is made on one half of the basketball court, the scorekeeper is prompted by color to credit the basket to the team whose color is displayed for that half of the basketball court. (In conjunction with displaying the scoreboard control panels in corresponding team colors, this visual association of the halves of the basket ball court with team colors ensures a high degree of accuracy in the scorekeeping.) In addition, when the scorekeeper indicates that the second half of the game has begun, the ownerships of the baskets are automatically exchanged to ensure that the score remains correctly credited to the appropriate participant. (The colors displayed by the graphical user interface for the baskets are also automatically exchanged).  
           [0010]    In one embodiment, the input device for the graphical user interface is a touch-sensitive screen, which may be part of the display device, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD).  
           [0011]    According to another aspect of the present invention, a mechanism is provided to keep track of events that are significant to scoring or rules of play (e.g., the number of fouls committed by a participant) and to alert the scorekeeper of the occurrence of such event. In the case of basketball, for example, the present invention provides a visual or audio alert when the number of fouls exceeds predetermined thresholds. The alert prevents referees from inadvertently overlooking bonus play or double bonus play conditions.  
           [0012]    The present invention is better understood upon consideration of the detailed description below and the accompanying drawings. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0013]    [0013]FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of the software and hardware environments  100  in which one embodiment of the present invention can be implemented.  
         [0014]    [0014]FIGS. 2 a  and  2   b  show images of control screen  200  (displayed under control of the GUI of application program  111 ) for the first and second halves of a game, respectively, according to one embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 3 shows two examples of Pop-Up boxes that can be displayed through the GUI for alerting bonus play and double bonus play conditions, respectively. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0016]    The present invention is preferably implemented on a tablet-style portable computer, or a portable or notebook computer that is configured to allow its display (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) to be folded down flat and facing up, so that the display itself does not block the scorekeeper&#39;s field of vision. The LCD preferably has a touch-sensitive screen that can be used for input purpose. Alternatively, a conventional portable or desktop computer can also be used, preferably in conjunction with a touch-sensitive screen. The present invention can also be implemented in a color personal digital assistant (PDA), such as those known and marketed under the names PalmPad and iPAQ. While having exceptional portability, PDA devices provide less precise control because of their size.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of the software and hardware environment  100  in which one embodiment of the present invention can be implemented. A s shown in FIG. 1, software environment  101 , which is typically created in memory system  103  as various program segments to be executed in central processing unit (CPU)  102 , controls the operation of hardware environment  106 . Hardware environment  106  is a generalized representation of a hardware platform suitable for implementing the present invention, such as described above. In hardware environment  106 , CPU  102  can be implemented by a microprocessor, memory system  103  can be implemented by non-volatile and volatile memory components (e.g., dynamic random access memories and read-only memories), input/output (I/O) port  112  can be implemented by any I/O port controller for a conventional I/O port (e.g., parallel, serial or universal serial broadcast port), input device  104  can be implemented by an adaptor receiving input signals from the touch-sensitive screen discussed above, and output device  105  can be implemented by an adapter driving the LCD discussed above. I/O port  112  provides an interface to control a conventional score board. System bus  107  is provided for communication among CPU  102 , memory system  103 , I/O port  112 , input device  104  and output device  105 . Of course, those skilled in the art will recognize that the LCD and the touch-sensitive screen can be implemented in one single device, so that input device  104  and output device  105  can also be implemented in a single device.  
         [0018]    Software environment  101  includes operating system  108  (e.g., Windows XP, Windows CE), software device drivers  109 ,  110  and  113  that control output device  105 , input device  104  and I/O port  112 , respectively, and application program  111  that implements various aspects of the present invention. Application program  111  communicates with operating system  108 , and includes a graphical user interface (GUI) for interacting with a scorekeeper. Application program  111  can be created using a programming language (e.g., Visual Basic) and associated compilation facilities.  
         [0019]    According to one embodiment of the present invention, application program  111  provides control screen  200  (FIGS. 2 a  and  2   b ) that is displayed under control of the GUI. FIGS. 2 a  and  2   b  show images of control screen  200  for the first and second halves of a game, respectively. In each of FIGS. 2 a  and  2   b , control screen  200  includes blocks  201  and  202  which display, respectively, soft control keys  210 - 1  to  210 - 8  and  211 - 1  to  211 - 8  for receiving input from the scorekeeper. If application program  111  is created in Visual Basic, control screen  200  can be implemented using a Form object. Within the Form object, blocks  201  and  202  can each be implemented inside a Picture Box container, with the soft control keys implemented as Command Buttons. In that implementation, each soft control key can be labeled by setting the Caption property. Blocks  201  and  202  are respectively labeled “Home” and “Guest,” and the backgrounds surrounding the control keys are displayed correspondingly in the colors of the jerseys worn by the teams. For example, the background in block  201  is displayed in red, and the background in block  202  is displayed in blue. At the beginning of the game, as an initialization procedure, the scorekeeper is prompted through the GUI to associate the colors with blocks  201  and  202 . In a Visual Basic implementation, two List Boxes can be presented to the scorekeeper through the GUI, each showing a scrollable list of color choices from which the scorekeeper can choose the Home or Guest color. Upon the scorekeeper making the selection, the Fillcolor method can be called from the GUI to provide the color of the background. Keys  210 - 1  to  210 - 12  and  211 - 1  to  211 - 12  can be selected and activated through the touch-sensitive screen, or alternatively, if a touch-sensitive screen is not used, through a pointing device (e.g., buttons associated with a mouse or a track ball). Because the scorekeeper can now be guided by the colors of the teams&#39; jerseys, rather than the traditional Home and Guest designations, as she operates the controls, scorekeeper errors relating to incorrect identification of the Home and Guest teams are expected to be substantially eliminated.  
         [0020]    According to another aspect of the present invention, control block  203  (FIG. 2 a ) can be created and displayed to the scorekeeper to facilitate scoring. As shown in FIG. 2 a , control screen  203  includes a graphical representation of the basketball court, divided into court areas  203 - 1  and  203 - 2 , representing the locations of the baskets. If application program  111  is implemented using Visual Basic, court areas  203 - 1  and  203 - 2  can be represented by Picture Boxes, and drawn using Circle, Line and any other suitable drawing methods.  
         [0021]    As part of the initialization procedure described above, the scorekeeper is asked to associate the court areas  203 - 1  and  203 - 2  with ownership by the Home and Guest teams, as they are positioned from the scorekeeper&#39;s perspective. (The scorekeeper is presumed to be seated at or near the center line of the basketball court.) The association can be accomplished, for example, by the scorekeeper selecting from a List Box displaying on one of the court areas either the Home and Guest designations, or the colors of the teams. Upon selection for one court area for one team, ownership of the other court area by the other team is automatically set. As shown in FIG. 2 a , the basket area in court area  203 - 2  is provided the color of the Guest team, to indicate ownership by the Guest team. Similarly, the basket area in court area  203 - 1  is provided the color of the Home team, to indicate ownership by the Home team. As in the case of blocks  201  and  202  above, the Fillcolor method can be called from the GUI to color the basket areas. As the game is played, the scorekeeper can directly correlate a made basket at one end of the court with the owning team using the visual aid provided by block  203 - 1  or  203 - 2 , and accordingly operate the controls in block  201  or  201 , thus correctly crediting the made basket to the corresponding team.  
         [0022]    In this embodiment, a “Second Half” selection control  204  indicates that the second half of the game has begun. In a Visual Basic implementation, this selection control can be implemented as a Check Box object to be selected by the scorekeeper at the appropriate time. Upon such selection, the colors of the basket areas in court areas  203 - 1  and  203 - 2  are exchanged, indicating an exchange of basket ownerships between the Home and Guest teams. FIG. 2 b  shows that the basket ownerships in the second half are exchanged from the ownerships in the first half. Because the scoring is now guided by the physical locations of the baskets from the perspective of the scorekeeper, rather than being guided by Home and Guest designations, errors crediting scores to the wrong team are expected to be substantially eliminated.  
         [0023]    According to another aspect of the present invention, a control mechanism is provided for each team (e.g., one of the soft control keys in blocks  201  or  202 ) to register fouls and to provide appropriate alerts. The number of fouls is automatically incremented each time the control mechanism is selected, and is automatically reset when “Second Half” selection control  204  is selected. In each half, when the foul limit for “bonus” or “double bonus” play is reached, a visual indication is provided to alert the scorekeeper of the corresponding bonus play condition. The visual indication is provided, for example, at the pop-up box areas  205 - 1  and  205 - 2  within blocks  201  and  202 , respectively. (An audio indication can also be provided, but is expected to be less effective in a noisy gymnasium environment). FIG. 3 shows examples  301  and  302  of Pop-Up boxes that can be displayed through the GUI to alert bonus play and double bonus play conditions, respectively.  
         [0024]    The above detailed description is provided to illustrate specific embodiments of the present invention and is not intended to be limiting. Numerous variations and modifications within the scope of the present invention are possible. The present invention is set forth in the following claims.