Abstract:
Hitting practice training equipment is disclosed having an hitting instrument such as a bat paddle or racket, an apparatus for propelling a game piece such as a ball or puck in front of an individual holding the hitting instrument, and a transmitter remote from the hitting instrument for initiating the propelling apparatus to propel a game piece in front of the individual. The propelling apparatus includes a receiver for receiving signals transmitted by the transmitter to initiate a game piece being propelled in front of the individual. The individual actuates the transmitter when they wish to initiate the operation of the game piece propelling apparatus, and may send different signals from the transmitter to propel a game piece in a different manner for each of the different signals. The individual may also activate the transmitter using voice commands. When the receiver in the propelling apparatus receives a signal from the transmitter an adjustable timer is started and a few seconds later a mechanism is actuated that forwards a game piece from a replaceable magazine containing a plurality of game pieces into a propulsion mechanism to propel the piece toward the individual. The propulsion mechanism contains a pair of rollers for contacting opposite sides of a game piece. The rollers are actuated by motors connected in a circuit with a transportable energy source (e.g. battery) and the motors are energized only after the timer is started, thereby prolonging battery life, and are de-energized after a game piece is propelled in front of the individual. Other idler rollers are allowed to selectively contact the game piece to control same as it is propelled. When the game piece is propelled by the rollers of the propulsion mechanism the individual attempts to hit the piece.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates to sports training aids and more particularly to a system for hitting practice for games such as baseball, tennis, table tennis, hockey and street hockey.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Many youngsters, as well as adults, are interested in improving their skills in games such as baseball, tennis, and table tennis, hockey and street hockey. Because of this interest, machines have been provided on a commercial basis for pitching game pieces, it&#39;s such as balls, to a hitter. The hitter positions himself or herself in a hitting cage and the machine then pitches a plurality of game pieces in sequence to the hitter. The hitter pays for this by inserting coins into a coin operated mechanism or by paying a cashier.  
           [0003]    There are at least three (3) problems with the commercial hitting practice equipment described in the previous paragraph. One problem is that the hitter cannot control when successive game pieces, such as balls, are propelled to the hitter. Another problem is that the hitter has to travel to the site of the hitting practice machine.  
           [0004]    To overcome the above described shortcomings of commercial hitting practice equipment, relatively inexpensive hitting practice equipment is available in which a bat contains a transmitter and switch that is activated when the batter wants a ball propelled to them. The switch is activated by the batter holding the bat, and a signal is transmitted to a receiver in a ball propulsion unit that initiates the operation of the propulsion unit to propel a ball. The main problem with this prior art apparatus is that all the elements that make up the transmitter, including battery holder and cover, batteries, switch and transmitter are subjected to a lot of mechanical shock and failure of these elements is experienced far too often.  
           [0005]    Thus, there is a need in the prior art for improved hitting practice equipment that can be selectively activated by the batter using a transmitter and receiver when they want a game peace, such as a ball, to be propelled to them to be hit, and the transmitter is not subject to the mechanical shocks of prior art apparatus.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    The needs of the prior art are satisfied by the present invention. Improved hitting practice equipment is provided that can be selectively activated by the hitter using a transmitter and receiver when they want a game piece propelled to them to be hit, and the transmitter is not subject to the mechanical shocks of prior art apparatus. The improved hitting practice equipment is portable even by pre-teenagers so that an individual operating the equipment can practice anywhere including the individuals yard or a friend&#39;s yard.  
           [0007]    In accordance with the teaching of the present invention the improved hitting practice training equipment has a hitting instrument, such as a bat, racket or paddle, an apparatus for propelling game pieces, such as balls, in front of an individual holding the hitting instrument, and a transmitter located remote from the hitting instrument for initiating the apparatus to propel a game piece in front of the individual. The game piece propelling apparatus includes a receiver for receiving signals transmitted by the transmitter to cause a game piece to be propelled in front of the individual. The individual touches a switch on the transmitter to actuate the transmitter when they wish to initiate the operation of the game piece propelling apparatus, and a few seconds later a game piece is propelled in front of the individual to be hit using the hitting instrument. When the receiver in the propelling apparatus receives a signal from the transmitter an adjustable timer is started and a few seconds later a mechanism is actuated that forwards a game piece from a replaceable magazine containing a plurality of game pieces into a propulsion mechanism to propel the piece in front of the individual with the hitting instrument. The propulsion mechanism contains a pair of rollers for contacting opposite sides of a game piece that is forwarded from the magazine.  
           [0008]    The rollers are actuated by motors connected in a circuit with a transportable energy source (e.g. battery or battery eliminator) and are energized only after the adjustable timer is started, thereby prolonging battery life, and are de-energized after a game piece is propelled toward the individual. When the game piece is propelled by the rollers of the propulsion mechanism the individual attempts to hit the piece, whether it be in the air or on the ground. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]    The invention will be better understood on reading the following Detailed Description of a preferred embodiment of the invention in conjunction with the drawing in which:  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 1 shows the preferred embodiment of the invention of a bat, a ball pitching machine, and a home plate with a built in transmitter;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 2 shows a front view of a rear portion of the ball pitching machine;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2A shows a representative front view of a front portion of the ball pitching machine used to create specific types of pitches;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 shows a side view of the ball pitching machine;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of the transmitter and receiver circuitry; and  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 5 shows an alternative embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0016]    The subject invention may be utilized in a number of games including, but not limited to, baseball, tennis, table tennis, hockey and street hockey. However, in the following detailed description the embodiment described is for baseball.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 1 shows a hitting practice equipment device  10  in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention. Device  10  comprises a bat  11 , a pitching machine  12  that propels balls  13  toward a batter/individual holding bat  11 , and a home plate  14  with a built in transmitter (not shown) that includes activation switches  15   a - 15   f  that are operated by the batter touching and operating one of switches  15   a - 15   g  with bat  11 . In both professional and non-professional baseball batters often touch the home plate in front of them as they are preparing to receive a pitch and this action is repeated with the present hitting practice training equipment  10 .  
         [0018]    More particularly, switch  15   a  is labeled “fastball” and when this switch is operated a fastball pitch is propelled toward the batter. Switch  15   b  is labeled “curve ball” and when this switch is operated a curve ball pitch is propelled toward the batter. Switch  15   c  is labeled “slider” and when this switch is operated a slider pitch is propelled toward the batter. Switch  15   d  is labeled “riser” and when this switch is operated a riser pitch is propelled toward the batter. Switch  15   e  is labeled “sinker” and when this switch is operated a sinker pitch is propelled toward the batter. Switch  15   f  is labeled “slowball” and when this switch is operated a slowball pitch is propelled toward the batter. Finally, switch  15   g  is labeled “random” and when this switch is operated random pitches of the above listed types are sequentially propelled toward the batter.  
         [0019]    Once the batter is ready to receive a pitch they touch one of switches  15   a - 15   g  on home plate  14  with the broad end of bat  11  and, responsive thereto, a radio frequency (RF) signal  16  is transmitted to pitching machine  12  where it received by a radio frequency (RF) receiver (not shown) inside machine  12  and a pitching sequence is initiated. Both the transmitter and receiver are described in detail with reference to FIG. 4. After receipt of RF signal  16  an adjustable timer is started in the receiver that times a period in the range of one to five seconds at the end of which period pitching machine  12  propels a ball  13  toward the batter with bat  11 . The batter then attempts to hit ball  13 . More particularly, there is a three position switch  58  on pitching machine  12  (FIG. 3) labeled “Beginner”, “Intermediate” and “Expert”. When this switch is set at Beginner there is a delay of five seconds before the ball  13  is propelled; when this switch is set at Intermediate there is a delay of three seconds before the ball  13  is propelled; and when this switch is set at Expert there is a delay of one seconds before the ball  13  is propelled. Alternatively, the time delay may be of fixed duration, or a control may be provided by which the delay is continuously variable between roughly one to five seconds.  
         [0020]    RF signal  16  is a pulse train with there being one pulse when the batter has selected a fastball by operating switch  15   a,  two pulses when the batter has selected a curve ball by operating switch  15   b,  three pulses when the batter has selected a slider by operating switch  15   c,  four pulses when the batter has selected a riser by operating switch  15   d,  five pulses when the batter has selected a sinker by operating switch  15   e,  six pulses when the batter has selected a slowball by operating switch  15   f,  and seven pulses when the batter has selected random pitches by operating switch  15   g.  The ball  13  may be a hard ball or a soft ball generally provided for baseball games. The ball may also be a hollow ball made of plastic, foam or another material and having a light weight and constructed to limit the speed of the ball and the distance of travel of the ball. This ball is advantageous when the batter is a child generally less than ten years old.  
         [0021]    Prior to using hitting practice training equipment  10  the batter positions and adjusts pitching machine  12  so it propels balls into a hitting zone above home plate  14 . Details of pitching machine  12  are given with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.  
         [0022]    While a radio frequency transmitter and receiver are disclosed herein, an ultrasonic transmitter and receiver or an infra-red emitter and receiver may be utilized with departing from the teaching of the invention.  
         [0023]    In addition, the transmitter may include a microphone, such as a neck mounted microphone, and include voice recognition circuitry and software. The batter speaks one of the word(s) “fastball”, “curve ball”, “slider”, “riser”, “sinker”, “slowball” or “random” which the voice recognition circuitry recognizes and causes the corresponding number of RF pulses to be transmitted, as described above, to cause ball  13  to be propelled as requested by the batter. Voice recognition circuitry and software are well known in the art, are used in many fields from telephone information services and word processing dictation software to simpler versions such are now used with cell phones where a caller speaks a pre-programmed persons name and the phone number for that person is automatically dialed. Accordingly, no further discussion is given here of the voice recognition circuitry and software to implement this feature.  
         [0024]    Although a baseball pitching machine is the preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be appreciated by persons of ordinary skill in the art that other embodiments are within the scope of the invention. For example, the apparatus of this invention can be adapted to propel game pieces such as, but not limited to, table tennis balls, tennis balls, hockey pucks, tennis balls, table tennis balls, hockey pucks and street hockey balls to a player holding a hitting instrument used to hit the game pieces.  
         [0025]    In FIG. 2 is a front view of the rear portion of game piece propelling apparatus  12  which in the preferred embodiment of the invention is a ball pitching machine. The front portion is shown and described with reference to FIG. 2A.  
         [0026]    The apparatus  12  includes a base member  20  and a housing  21  pivotably attached on a horizontal axis to the base member. The pivotal attachment is better seen in FIG. 3 and is used to elevate the pitching angle of a ball  13 . The base member  20  is adapted to be supported on a support surface such as the ground but may also be placed on an elevated surface. The base member  20  is adapted to hold a transportable energy source such as a battery or batteries  22 . However, a small AC-DC converter (not shown) with a jack to plug it into base member  20  may be utilized in lieu of batteries  22 . These converters and how to use them are well known in the art.  
         [0027]    The housing  21  is provided with a hollow passage  23  in which a ball  13  to be propelled is inserted. There is a pair of motors  24   a &amp; b  and a pair of actuators such as rollers  25   a &amp; b  attached to the shaft of each of the motors that are mounted on the left and right side of passage  23 . The rollers  25   a &amp; b  are preferably made from a resilient material and are preferably extended into the hollow passage  23  to grip the opposite ends of the ball  13  in the passage  23  and to propel ball  13  from the passage  23  in accordance with the rotational speed of the rollers  25   a &amp;b. The motors  24   a &amp; b  and the rollers  21   a &amp; b  may be considered as a “propulsion mechanism”.  
         [0028]    The ball  13  in passage  23  is normally not in contact with rollers  25  but when a ball is to be pitched a motor driven piston (not shown in FIG. 2, but shown in FIG. 3) is actuated that pushes ball  13  in passage  23  into contact with rollers  25   a &amp; b.  Then rollers  25   a &amp; b  contact the ball and propel it from ball propelling apparatus  12  toward the batter and home plate  14  at a speed determined in accordance with the rotational speed of the rollers  25   a &amp; b.    
         [0029]    In order to cause one the fastball, curve ball, slider, riser, sinker, slowball or random pitches, idler rollers that are shown in and described with reference to FIG. 2A are brought into minimal contact with a ball  13  being propelled. These idler rollers are not shown in FIG. 2 so that the above described “propulsion mechanism” may be better seen and understood.  
         [0030]    The top of ball propelling apparatus  12  has an opening  26  into which is inserted a removable, preferably transparent, magazine  27  filled with balls  13 . While eight balls  13  are shown in magazine  27  in FIG. 2 the actual number of balls, fewer or greater, is determined by the length of magazine. By having a replaceable ball magazine a number of magazines may be utilized.  
         [0031]    Gravity causes balls  13  to move downward in magazine  27  so there is always a ball  13  in passage  23  until all balls have been pitched. When a ball is to be pitched, the batter activates the transmitter in home plate  14  by touching switch  15  as previously described.  
         [0032]    After receipt of the RF signal  16  in RF receiver (not shown in FIG. 2, but shown in FIG. 3) a timer is started in the receiver that times a period in the order of three seconds at the end of which period a motor  31  operated piston  30  (not shown in FIG. 2, but shown in FIG. 3) in pitching machine  12  is actuated that pushes ball  13  in passage  23  into contact with rollers  25 . Rollers  25   a &amp; b  contact the ball and propel it from ball propelling apparatus  12  toward the batter and home plate  14  at a speed determined in accordance with the rotational speed of the rollers  25 .  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 2A shows a front view of a front portion  51  of the ball pitching machine  12 . It is a representative depiction of the operations performed and those skilled in the art can make numerous changes and provide the desired operation. Front portion  51  may be deleted for embodiments of the invention other than baseball and table tennis where a ball, puck etc. do not need any “spin” placed thereon, such as in hockey. After a ball  13  is propelled by rollers  25   a &amp; b  it travels through portion  51  between idler rollers  54   a - d  as shown. Ones of idler rollers  54   a - d  are selectively moved a small amount to barely touch ball  13  as it passes between idler rollers  54   a - d  to create a drag on the ball that causes all pitches except a fastball. For a slider, side idler roller  54   b  is caused to touch ball  13  to thereby cause rotation of the pitched ball that causes it to curve away from the batter. For a slow ball, idler rollers  54   a - d  are all caused to touch ball  13  to thereby slow it down. For a riser, top idler roller  54   c  is caused to touch ball  13 . For a sinker, bottom idler roller  54   d  is caused to touch ball  13 .  
         [0034]    To bring idler rollers  54   a - d  into minimum engagement with a propelled ball  13 , these idler rollers are positioned and turn freely on shafts (not shown). Each roller and associated shaft are attached to one of movable base plates  55   a - d.  Each baseplate is in turn connected to one of solenoids  56   a - d.  As each of these solenoids is operated the base plate to which it is connected is moved, thereby moving the idler roller mounted thereon into a position where the edge of the roller will minimally contact a ball  13  as it is propelled past the idler rollers. This minimal contact causes ball  13  to spin as it travels and the previously described pitches are created.  
         [0035]    In FIG. 3 is shown a side view of game piece propelling apparatus  12  which in the preferred embodiment of the invention is a ball pitching machine.  
         [0036]    As described with reference to FIG. 2 apparatus  12  includes a base member  20  and a housing  21  pivotably attached on a horizontal axis to the base member  20  at a pivot member  28 . Pivot member may be loosened to change the angle of elevation of housing  21  to adjust the upward pitching angle of a ball  13  and is then re-tightened. The base member  20  is adapted to be supported on a support surface such as the ground but may also be placed on an elevated surface. The base member  20  is adapted to hold a transportable energy source such as a battery or batteries  22  but a small AC-DC converter may be utilized in lieu of batteries  22 .  
         [0037]    As previously described housing  21  has a hollow passage  23  in which a ball  13  to be propelled is inserted. There is also a pair of motors  24  and a pair of actuators such as rollers  25  attached to the shaft of each of the motors. The rollers  25  are preferably made from a resilient material and are preferably extended into the hollow passage  23  to grip the opposite ends of the ball  13  in the passage  23  and to propel ball  13  from the passage  23  in accordance with the rotational speed of the rollers  25 .  
         [0038]    The front portion  51  of ball pitching machine  12  has idler rollers  54   a - d,  movable base plates  55   a - d  and solenoids  56   a - d  the collective function of which is to create certain types of pitches that have already been described with reference to FIG. 2B so are not repeated here.  
         [0039]    The lowest ball  13  is in passage  23  and is normally not in contact with rollers  25  but when a ball is to be pitched, a solenoid  31  with piston  30  attached thereto is actuated. Piston  30  pushes ball  13  in passage  23  into contact with rollers  25 . Rollers  25  contact ball  13  and propel it from apparatus  12  toward the batter and home plate  14  at a speed determined in accordance with the rotational speed of the rollers  25 .  
         [0040]    As described previously there is a magazine  27  of balls  13  inserted into hole  26  and gravity feeds these balls into passage  23 .  
         [0041]    To cause this to happen, RF receiver  29  receives the pulse train RF signal  16  transmitted from home plate  14  and initiates a pitch following a period in the order of one to five seconds, as determined by the setting of three position “Beginner, Intermediate, Expert” switch  58  as previously described with reference to FIG. 1, at the end of which time period motor  31  driven piston  30  is fully actuated and pushes ball  13  in passage  23  into contact with drive rollers  25  to be pitched. The batter has this time to bring bat  11  to their shoulder in preparation of hitting the ball  13  to be pitched.  
         [0042]    Also as previously described, depending on the type of pitch selected by a batter, a pulse train from one to six pulse long is transmitted by the transmitter  32  in home plate  14  (FIG. 1) and is received by RF receiver  29  in ball pitching machine  12 . Logic circuitry associated with receiver  29  decodes the number of pulses and actuates ones of idler rollers  54   a - d  to create the selected pitch.  
         [0043]    In FIG. 4 is shown a simplified block diagram of the transmitter circuitry  32  located in home base  14  and the receiver circuitry  29  located in ball propelling apparatus  12 .  
         [0044]    As previously described, transmitter  32  is located in home plate  14  along with a transportable energy source such as a battery or batteries, but a small AC-DC converter may also be utilized in lieu of batteries. The transmitter is used to transmit a pulsed RF signal  16  to receiver  29  in pitching apparatus  12  when a batter wishes to initiate a pitch of a selected type, as previously described.  
         [0045]    In one embodiment, transmitter  32  includes an oscillator  33  for producing signals at a particular frequency such as approximately thirty-two megahertz (32 MHz). The oscillator  33  may be crystal controlled. The signals from oscillator  33  may be amplified by amplifier  34  and the amplified signals are applied to antenna via antenna matching circuit  35  to be transmitted. When a batter touches one of switches  15   a - g  on home plate  14  to initiate a selected type of pitch, the selected switch  15  causes logic circuit  47  to apply power to oscillator  33  in a pulsed manner and thereby causes a pulsed RF signal  16  to be transmitted. For example, if switch  15   f  on homeplate  14  is operated by a batter, indicating that they want a slowball to be pitched, six pulses are output from oscillator  33 . This pulsed operation is previously in this description.  
         [0046]    RF receiver  29  in pitching apparatus has a tuned antenna  37  that receives the pulsed 32 MHz RF signal  16  transmitted by the transmitter in home plate  14 . By having a tuned antenna extraneous signals will not trigger the pitch of a ball  13 . RF amplifier  38  amplifies the received RF signal. Using the example in the previous paragraph, the received RF signal has six pulses indicating that a slowball is to be pitched. The presence of the amplified, pulsed RF signal is detected at 32 MHz detector  39 . The number of pulses in the pulsed 32 MHz signal is detected by logic circuit  48  and starts timer  40  that times a period of between one and five seconds, as selected by three position switch  59  in ball pitching machine  12 , as previously described. At the end of the timed period driver  41  outputs a signal that actuates motor  31  to thereby causes motor driven piston  30  to push adjacent ball  13  between the two rollers  25  to be propelled towards the batter and home plate  14  as previously described.  
         [0047]    As ball  13  is propelled by rollers  25   a &amp; b  it passes between idler rollers  54   a - d  (FIGS. 2 &amp; 3). Responsive to the number of pulses in the received RF signal logic circuit  48  causes ones of solenoids  56   a - d  to be actuated, thereby moving idler rollers  54   a - d,  all as previously described, to provide the type of pitch indicated by the batter using switches  15   a - g  on home plate  14 . These idler rollers  54   a - d  are actuated just prior to ball  13  being propelled.  
         [0048]    In an alternative embodiment of the invention the invention may be used to propel table tennis balls toward a player who wishes to practice their table tennis ball returns. Such a player is figuratively shown in FIG. 5 holding a table tennis paddle. For table tennis and other games, such as tennis, there is no home plate so the transmitter must be positioned in a different location. The transmitter is relatively small container  45  with seven buttons thereon (corresponding to switches  15   a - g  on home plate  14 ) that is mounted on the players belt, or on a player wrist with a strap, both as shown in FIG. 5. With their free hand the player actuates ones of the buttons on the transmitter when they wish to initiate a ball being propelled toward them.  
         [0049]    While what has been described here in the preferred embodiment of the invention, it should be understood that numerous changes will be apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art and may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The invention is, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims.