Patents by Inventor William P. Norgren

William P. Norgren has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 5333874
    Abstract: A sports simulator has a housing and two arrays of IR receivers and emitters positioned in the housing. A launch area is established near one end of the housing, and a user can launch an object such as a golf ball located in the launch area and drive the ball into the housing through the planes defined by the arrays of emitters and against a screen positioned at one end of the housing. A computer is connected to the IR receivers, which detect the passage of the object through the respective plane. Based upon the signals from the receivers the computer, using triangulation techniques, determines the horizontal and vertical position, as well as the velocity, of the object. The computer can also determine the spin of the golf ball, and cause an image of the golf ball, as it would have appeared travelling away from the golfer had it not encountered the screen, to be displayed on the screen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 1992
    Date of Patent: August 2, 1994
    Assignees: Floyd L. Arnold, Carl J. Bair
    Inventors: Floyd L. Arnold, Carl J. Bair, Christopher M. Kiraly, William P. Norgren, George V. Wintriss