Sporting equipment including integrated diffused indicator

Abstract

A fencing weapon or piece of sporting equipment includes a diffused indictor light visible through at least one aperture. For the sport of fencing the diffused indictor light can signal valid and invalid touches. Sports equipment benefits in particular from this diffused indictor light configuration to provide instantaneous feedback to the bearer of such equipment, their teammates and competitors, and viewers of play involving such equipment.

Description

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY[0001]The modern sport of fencing is hundreds of years old. Historically, referees and bout directors awarded points (or touches—where one opponent's weapon blade or tip makes contact with the target area of the other opponent) by visually observing two opponents and determining whether a touch occurred and whether the fencer scoring the touch should be awarded a point based on existing rules. The object of saber fencing, based on cavalry fencing on horseback, is to score touches by contacting a blade or tip of a fencer's weapon with an opponent's target area (above that opponent's waist including his arms and head). The object of foil fencing is to score touches by contacting the tip of a fencer's weapon with an opponent's target area (the opponent's torso). The object of epee fencing, based on first-blood duels, is to score touches by contacting the tip of a fencer's weapon with an opponent's target area (any part of the opponent's body). Each form of modern ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]The invention overcomes the problems of the prior art by providing a pattern of apertures in a piece of sporting equipment, for example a fencing weapon. The fencing weapon has a guard through which light emits from a diffusive substance that is illumi

Problems solved by technology

Often actions, contacts, and target areas are difficult to visually see.

This speed renders it difficult to determine when touches are scored.

Even where several officials are employed to judge a match, visual identification of scoring maneuvers is difficult.

Disagreement between officials often occurs, due to the inconsistency in the quality of perspective enjoyed by the various officials.

A problem associated with the state of the art fencing system is that electrical scoring apparatuses are often difficult to see for fencers and referees who

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