Electronic scoring system for bowling establishments

Claim 2

A semiautomatic scoring system for a plurality of pairs of bowling lanes comprising: a player console for each pair of bowling lanes, including a cathode-ray-tube display device, a keyboard and a logic unit, an electronic module for each pair of bowling lanes, including a lane-pair memory and a chaRacter generator, said keyboard in each player console being connected to supply player and pinfall information in the form of digital signals through said logic unit in the player console to the lane-pair memory in the respective electronic module, said character generator in each electronic module being constructed to translate digital information received from the corresponding lane-pair memory into video signals and to supply the video signals to the display device in the respective player console, and a central control unit for all bowling lanes including a proprietor''s control console, a proprietor''s cathode-ray-tube display device, a displayed-information printer unit, a lanepair video signal selector to connect the video signal from the character generator associated with any desired one of said bowling lane pairs to said proprietor''s display device and said printer unit, a general purpose mini-computer processor connected through a memory interface with all of said lane-pair memories so that they serve as the main memory for said processor, and a read-only memory containing a computer program for controlling the operation of the processor in the computing and display of scores in all bowling lanes.

Claim 3

A fully automatic scoring system for a plurality of pairs of bowling lanes, comprising: a player console for each pair of bowling lanes, including a cathode-ray-tube display device, a keyboard and a logic unit, an electronic module for each pair of bowling lanes, including a lane-pair memory and a character generator, said keyboard in each player console being connected to supply player and score correcting information in the form of digital signals through said logic unit in the player console to the lane-pair memory in the respective electronic module, a separate, automatic pinfall sensor for each of said bowling lanes connected to supply pinfall information in electrical form through the logic unit of the corresponding player console to the lane-pair memory in the electronic module associated with that player console, said character generator in each electronic module being constructed to translate digital information received from the corresponding lane-pair memory into video signals and to supply the video signals to the display device in the respective player console, and a central control unit for all bowling lanes including a proprietor''s control console, a proprietor''s cathode-ray-tube display device, a displayed-information printer unit, a lane-pair video signal selector to connect the video signal from the character generator associated with any desired one of said bowling lane pairs to said proprietor''s display device and said printer unit, a general purpose mini-computer processor connected through a memory interface with all of said lane-pair memories so that they serve as the main memory for said processor, and a read-only memory containing a computer program for controlling the operation of said processor in the computing and display of scores in all bowling lanes.

Claim 4

A fully automatic scoring system for a plurality of pairs of bowling lanes, comprising: a player console for each pair of bowling lanes, including a cathode-ray-tube display device, a keyboard and a logic unit, an electronic module for each pair of bowling lanes, including a lane-pair memory and a character generator, said keyboard in each player console being connected to supply player and score correcting information in the form of digital signals through said logic unit in the player console to the lane-pair memory in the respective electronic module, a separate, automatic pinfall sensor for each of said bowling lanes connected to supply pinfall information in electrical form through the logic unit of the corresponding player console to the lane-pair memory in the electronic module associated with that player console, said character generator in each electronic module being constructed to translate digital information received from the corresponding lane-pair memory into video signals and to supply the video signals to the display device in the respective player console, and a central control unit for all bowling lanes including a proprietor''s control console, a proprietor''s cathode-ray-tube display device, a displayed-information printer unit, a lane-pair video signal selector to connect the video signal from the character generator associated with any desired one of said bowling lane pairs to said proprietor''s display device and said printer unit, a general purpose mini-computer processor connected through a memory interface with all of said lane-pair memories so that they serve as the main memory for said processor, and a read-only memory containing a computer program for controlling the operation of said processor in the computing and display of scores in all bowling lanes.