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US 5,181,726 AGranted
Apparatus and methods employing elastic cords with hand balls
OwnerGary D. Piagetinventor
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OwnerGary D. Piagetinventor
Estimating the term…
A ball and elastic cord is affixed to a finger band so that the ball may be thrown, retrieved and paddled by a user's hand. A finger band comprising a strip wrapped about and secured to a finger by locking means such as frictional fabric pads hold the cord snugly about a finger. The cord is firmly secured while permitting adjustment of cord length by threading through apertures in stiffened plates on opposite sides of the strip. The ball in one embodiment has a fabric cover internally filled like a bean bag with plastic pellets and contains a semi-spherical internal cup anchor for securing the cord to the ball. An electronic circuit with a spring biased switch responds to a predetermined force threshold on the cord for signalling by audio or visual means identifying different balls to be used in various games. One or more photo-diode lamps thus can identify one of several balls or players directly or by means of shaped decals, etc. A translucent ball cover may respond by fluorescence to light to store the signal after a momentary switch contact. The ball is manipulated in game steps to actuate the signal by the magnitude of force on the ball at the end of a throw or in response to external forces by contact with another player's ball or cord.
A ball system for use in a play activity that requires manipulation by a hand of a user, comprising a ball, an elastic cord, one end of which is interconnected to said ball, and a single loop finger band interconnected to the other end of said elastic cord and being mountable on a single finger of said user, wherein the palm of the hand of the user faces in the direction of the ball as interconnected to said cord, said single loop finger band having a width that extends over a relatively large surface area of said single finger, wherein impact forces affecting the single finger in the play activity of the ball system are distributed over a relatively large surface area of said single finger for preventing discomfort and irritation to said single finger, said elastic cord providing for return of said ball toward the palm of the user's hand after the ball is thrown by the user during the play activity thereof.
A ball system for use in a play activity that requires manipulation by a hand of a user, comprising a ball, an elastic cord, one end of which is interconnected to said ball, and a finger band interconnected to the other end of said elastic cord and being mountable on a finger of said user, said finger band having a width that extends over a relatively larger surface area of said finger, wherein impact forces affecting the finger in the play activity of the ball system are distributed over a relatively large surface area of said finger for preventing discomfort and irritation to said finger, said elastic cord providing for return of said ball toward the hand of the user after the ball is thrown by the user during the play activity thereof, means for adjustably securing the cord at variable positions along its length to the finger band, and a pair of stiffened plates located on opposite sides of the finger band with two apertures in each and in the finger band in registration in a position for threading the cord through the apertures to secure the cord to the finger band.
A ball system for use in a play activity that requires manipulation by a hand of a user, comprising a ball, an elastic cord, one end of which is interconnected to said ball, and a finger band interconnected to the other end of said elastic cord and being mountable on a finger of said user, said finger band having a width that extends over a relatively large surface area of said finger, wherein impact forces affecting the finger in the play activity of the ball system are distributed over a relatively large surface area of said finger for preventing discomfort and irritation to said finger, said elastic cord providing for return of said ball toward the hand of the user after the ball is thrown by the user during the play activity thereof, signalling means inside the ball for producing a signal in response to a force of predetermined magnitude on said cord, and said signalling means comprising an electrically switched lamp.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.