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US 9,757,633 B2Granted
Hockey puck
Assignee28 Engineering LLC
InventorWalter Douglas Bauman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An exemplary hockey puck includes a gyroscope within an outer shell. An exemplary method of controlling movement of a hockey puck includes holding a gyroscope within an outer housing of a hockey puck.
Claims17
A hockey puck, comprising:
- a gyroscope within an outer shell, the gyroscope independently rotatable relative to a radially outermost side of the outer shell about an axis,
- wherein the gyroscope comprises a plurality of inertial pins within a gyroscope housing, wherein the inertial pins are received within a radially extending slot of the gyroscope housing and the inertial pins are radially slidable relative to the gyroscope housing between a first position and a second position, wherein the inertial pin terminates at a radially outermost face, wherein the radially outermost face is radially spaced from the axis a first distance when the inertial pin is in the first position, and the radially outermost face is radially spaced from the axis a second distance when the inertial pin is in the second position, the first distance greater than the second distance,
- wherein the plurality of inertial pins are distributed annularly about the axis, the plurality of inertial pins each comprises a stem portion extending toward the axis from an enlarged head that provides the radially outermost end portion.
A method of controlling movement of a hockey puck, comprising:
- holding a gyroscope within an outer housing of a hockey puck;
- and
- spinning the gyroscope about an axis, the gyroscope spinning relative to a radially outermost side of the outer housing,
- wherein the spinning causes inertial pins of the gyroscope to slide radially outward relative to a gyroscope housing of the gyroscope, wherein the inertial pins are held within the gyroscope housing but entirely detached from the gyroscope housing such that each of the inertial pins can slide relative to the gyroscope housing.
1 more element
A hockey puck, comprising:
- a gyroscope having a gyroscope housing that contains a plurality of inertial pins distributed annularly about an axis, the plurality of inertial pins held within recesses of the gyroscope housing and detached from the gyroscope housing such that the inertial pins are slidable relative to the gyroscope housing;
- and
- an outer housing having a diameter relative to the gyroscope housing, the gyroscope contained within, and circumferentially bounded by the outer housing, wherein the gyroscope housing is rotatable relative to the outer housing about the axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.