Apparatus for timing races

Claim 1

An apparatus for timing races including an optical arrangement installed at a fixed station and in the extension of a crossing line of a race comprising several competitors in order to project an image of such line onto a photo sensitive bar which includes a plurality of pixels juxtaposed in a single column, said column of pixels storing signals corresponding to an intensity profile of an image of the line at a given instant, such apparatus comprising: means for reading said column of pixels at a predetermined frequency chosen as a function of anticipated speed of the race, to produce an electrical signal corresponding to an intensity profile of the line image at a given instant; first and second buffer memories alternately adapted to memorize a plurality of said electrical signals resulting from successive readings of the column of pixels in order to form respectively first and second image parts of the race; means for alternately transferring said first and second image parts into an image memory adapted to store n image parts of substantially equal capacity, n being equal to or greater than 3, the apparatus being arranged in a manner such that, when the first buffer memory stores the signals issuing from the bar, the image part contained in the second buffer memory is written into the image memory and vice-versa, said image memory exhibiting at the time of each writing an image part in the course of writing and n-1 image parts already written; means for reading and for setting in a shape suitable for a standard type TV monitor in accordance with a predetermined order said n-1 parts already written into the image memory in a manner such that the first image part read corresponds to the part freshest in time already written into the image memory and so on in accordance with a chronological order; a monitor of standard TV type for displaying on a screen the n-1 image parts read in the image memory in a manner such that, at the time of each writing of a new image part into the image memory, the freshest portion appearing on the screen takes the place of the preceding portion, this latter undergoing a jump displacement so as to be placed inside said freshest portion, and a recorder of standard TV type for recording the images appearing on the monitor.

Claim 2

An apparatus for timing races including an optical arrangement installed at a fixed station and in the extension of a crossing line of a race comprising several competitors in order to project an image of such line onto a photo sensitive bar which includes a plurality of pixels juxtaposed in a single column, said column of pixels storing signals corresponding to an intensity profile of an image of the line at a given instant, such apparatus comprising: means for reading said column of pixels at a predetermined frequency chosen as a function of anticipated speed of the race, to produce an electrical signal corresponding to an intensity profile of the line image at a given instant; first and second buffer memories alternately adapted to memorize a plurality of said electrical signals resulting from successive readings of the column of pixels in order to form respectively first and second image parts of the race; means for alternately transferring said first and second image parts into an image memory adapted to store n image parts of substantially equal capacity, n being equal to or greater than 3, the apparatus being arranged in a manner such that, when the first buffer memory stores the signals issuing from the bar, the image part contained in the second buffer memory is written into the image memory and vice-versa, said image memory exhibiting at the time of each writing an image part in the course of writing and n-1 image parts already written; means for reading and for setting in a shape suitable for a standard type TV monitor in accordance with a predetermined order said n-1 parts already written into the image memory in a manner such that the first image part read corresponds to the part freshest in time already written into the image memory and so on in accordance with a chronological order; a monitor of standard TV type for displaying on a screen the n-1 image parts read in the image memory in a manner such that, at the time of each writing of a new image part into the image memory, the freshest portion appearing on the screen takes the place of the preceding portion, this latter undergoing a jump displacement so as to be placed inside said freshest portion, and a recorder of standard TV type for recording the images appearing on the monitor.