Apparatus for judging the order of arrival of racers at a goal in a race and the time taken for the race, using color image pickup

An apparatus for judging a race time, comprising.

• at least one linear sensor installed on a judgement criterion line such as a goal line so as to align with the judgement criterion line;
• an optical system for focusing the image of a moving object which passes the judgement criterion line onto said at least one linear sensor;
• scanning means for scanning said at least one linear sensor at a predetermined period to provide a color image signal;
• means for converting said color image signal from said at least one linear sensor to a luminance signal and a color signal and for A/D converting said signals;
• first image memory means for storing image data including luminance signal data representing said luminance signal and for judging the order of arrival of said moving object at said judgement criterion line;
• second image memory means for storing image data including color signal data representing said color image and for discriminating said moving object arriving on said judgement criterion line;
• writing means for operating so that said respective luminance and color signal data from said converting means are written into said first and second memory means, respectively, in the vertical direction so as to coincide with the scan of said linear sensor;
• read means for operating so that said respective luminance and color signal data stored in said first and second memory means are read from said first and second memory means in the horizontal direction of said memory means;
• means for D/A converting the image data read by said read means and displaying the resulting signal;
• and
• command means for commanding the read/write of the image data from/to said first and second image memory means,
• a reference timer started up synchronously with the start of a race;
• addressing means for giving addresses sequentially in each scan of said scanning means;
• measuring means for extracting into a measured information memory at a required timing data on the elapsed time from said reference timer at the time of that timing and data on the current scanned address from said addressing means;
• and
• means for determining the time when any position in the image of the moving object displayed on said display means has passed the judgement criterion line on the basis of information on the scanned address of that position, information on the elapsed time read from said measured information memory and information on the scanned address.