BOWLING APPARATUS FOR MOTOR FUNCTION HANDICAPPED PERSONS TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention generally relates to aids for motorically handicapped persons in connection with sports and games (such as for instance bowling) and more particularly to the manipulation of a specific controllable launching ramp for a bowling ball according to claim 1, said ramp enabling persons suffering from various kinds and degrees of motoric handicaps to participate in a bowling game, for instance in a normal bowling alley.

BACKGROUND ART A bowling ramp of the above-mentioned kind is described in Danish Patent DK PR 172,509 B1 which discloses a manually operable bowling ramp where a bowling ball is placed at the highest position of the ramp above the level of the bowling lane such that the ball can be released by the handicapped player either by using a purely mechanical release means incorporated in a handle part directly coupled to the ramp, said handle also making it possible for the player to adjust the orientation of the ramp relative to the direction to the bowling pins (the target) prior to release of the ball, or such that the release of the ball (and also the orientation of the ramp) can be remotely controlled by the player, for instance by using a joystick positioned on a wheelchair. Both in case of said mechanical handle part and in case of remote control via a joystick, the ramp is manipulated using the hand/fingers of the handicapped person. Furthermore, the ramp comprises means such that the orientation of the ramp relative to the direction to the target is automatically changed randomly when the ball leaves the ramp or shortly after the ball has left the ramp. Thus the player has to adjust the ramp again after the launching of the ball, before he is ready to launch the next.

An apparatus resembling the above-mentioned ramp is disclosed in DE 2,017,015 although this ramp is not primarily intended for handicapped persons. This ramp

can be remote-controlled, e. g. via a telephone connection and hence utilise in games transmitted via television.

A problem with the prior art manipulation means is that although they make it possible for a motorically handicapped person for instance sitting in a wheelchair to participate in a bowling game, they still require the ability to utilise the hand and/or fingers to manipulate the ramp and-especially in case of the joystick solution-a certain fine-motoric ability to be able to manipulate the ramp using said means.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a generally applicable manipulator means which can be used by a person suffering from a motoric handicap, so that he can participate in the game, even if his handicap does not allow him-or makes it difficult or inconvenient for him-to manipulate the ramp using hands/fingers.

It is a further object to provide different solutions (i. e. manipulator means and/or characteristics of these) corresponding to different kinds and/or degrees of motoric handicaps.

In order to attain the above objects in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a ramp according to claim 1, the orientation of which relative to the direction towards a target and the release of an object-such as a bowling ball- can be remotely controlled; a link between said ramp and a manipulator means; and a manipulator means which can be activated by said person in a manner that does not rely on that persons ability to utilise his hand (s) and/or fingers (s).

According to one embodiment of the present invention, said manipulator means comprises two classes of separate regions, the first of which is used to control the orientation of the ramp relative to the direction towards the target, and the second of which is used to effect a release of the movable object (e. g. the bowling ball) positioned on the ramp.

According to a specific embodiment of this kind, the manipulator means consists of three regions which can either be positioned separately from one another relative to the person or be formed as an integral unit, where an activation of one region makes the ramp turn in a counterclockwise direction about a substantially vertical axis relative to the direction towards the target, activation of another region similarly makes the ramp turn in a clockwise direction, and activation of the third region releases the moving object. The regions are e. g. placed in such a manner that they can be operated by the feet of the person. Instead of said three regions, another embodiment utilises only two regions, such that an activation of one region results in a counterclockwise movement of the ramp, an activation of the other region results in a clockwise movement, and a simultaneous activation of both regions releases the moving object on the ramp.

In a further embodiment, each of said regions could be designed to allow activation via a stick held by the mouth of the person.

According to an alternative embodiment of the present invention, manipulator means is provided which can be operated turning the head or torso of the person relative to the direction towards the target around a substantially vertical axis and thereby e. g. making it possible to move the ramp in a manner corresponding to and synchronously with aiming movements of the person's head. The release of the movable object on the ramp can also be accomplished using head-and/or torso movements, e. g. indicated by a nod of the head.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, manipulator means is provided comprising a sound sensitive device which can pick up uttered sounds (such as words) from the person; speech recognition means which can distinguish between at least three different commands/sounds; and decision means which based on the output from said speech recognition means can provide control signals intended for control of the orientation of the ramp and the release of the movable object on the ramp.

In any of the above-mentioned embodiments, means are incorporated to allow adjustment of the physical characteristics of the total system, i. e. the ramp and the manipulator means, to correspond to the specific characteristics of a given motoric handicap.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1. Side elevation view of a remote-controllable ramp coupled to a manipulator means according to one embodiment of the invention, said means being positioned on a wheelchair, Figure 2. Manipulator means according to Figure 1, seen from above, Figure 3. Alternative embodiment of manipulator means according to Figure 2, seen from above, Figure 4. Manipulator means based on head movements, Figure 4a. The receiving part of the head-movements-based manipulator means according to Figure 4, Figure 5. Manipulator means based on speech recognition, and Figure 5a. The receiving part of the speech-recognition-based manipulator means according to Figure 5.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to Figure 1, a ramp 5 is supported on a frame 3 carried by a base plate 1.

At the uppermost position of the ramp the movable object 7, in this case a bowling ball, is positioned in a stable position, until a release is effected by means of a suitable release device (not shown) under the control of a signal from the manipulator means 2. This manipulator means 2 is coupled to the ramp 5 via a cable 4, but any other connection, such as a wireless connection, may of cause also be used. The ramp 5 is rotatably positioned about a substantially vertical axis

9 so that the person sitting in the wheelchair 6 can control the rotation about said axis 9 by means of the manipulator means 2. The base plate 1 is supported by feet 8 allowing the ramp to be adjusted relative to the plane of the lane 10. Finally, the ramp 5 comprises one or more actuator means 11 rotating the ramp 5 about the axis 9 and releases the ball 7 according to control signals provided by the manipulator means 2.

Figure 2 shows an embodiment of a manipulator means 2 according to the present invention, which means is formed as a low rectangular box 12 which can be placed on and attached to the foot rest 13 of the wheelchair 6. The upper surface of the box 12 is subdivided into a number of regions shown in Figure 2 as rectangles of various size 14,15,16,17, such that a depression of the left region 14 results in rotation of the ramp 5 about the axis 9 in a counterclockwise direction, a depression of the right region 15 results in a rotation of the ramp 5 in a clockwise direction, and a depression of the middle region 16 releases the movable object 7 from its stable position on the ramp 5. Moreover, a couple of foot rests 17 are provided between regions 14 and 16, and 15 and 16 respectively. The manipulator means 2 is coupled to the ramp 5, and to the actuators 11 located herein, via the cable 4, but various forms of wireless connections would of cause also be conceivable.

Figure 3 shows an alternative version of the embodiment according to Figure 2. In the embodiment according to Figure 3, the release region 16 shown in Figure 2 has been omitted, and the release of the moving object 7 is effected by a simultaneous depression of the left region 14 and the right region 15. A foot rest 17 is positioned between regions 14 and 15.

Figure 4 shows another embodiment of the manipulator means allowing the ramp 5 to be controlled by movements of the head of the person relative to the direction towards the target. In principle a similar embodiment could be based on movements of the person's torso instead of the head.

The embodiment according to Figure 4 relies on wireless transmission between a transmitting means 21 attached to the head 23 of the player with the aid of e. g. a

head band 22. The transmitter radiates a beam of e. g. infrared (IR), ultrasonic or laser light energy towards a receiving means 20 which is either attached to the ramp 5 or forms an integral part thereof. By moving the head, the player can direct the emitted energy beam towards different areas on the surface of the receiving means 20, said areas being sensitive to the particular form of energy being emitted.

An example of an array 24 of sensitive areas 26,27,28,29 and 30 is shown in Figure 4a together with appropriate processing means 31,32,33 and 34 necessary to translate the electrical signals from the sensitive areas into control signals 35 and 36 for the actuators (not shown) which control the orientation of the ramp 5 and the release of the movable object 7. According to Figure 4a, the array 24 comprises five sensitive regions termed LEFT 26, RIGHT 27, C (CENTRE) 28, UP 29 and DOWN 30. The areas 26,27 and 28 are used to control left/right movements of the ramp relative to the direction towards the target such that a turning of the player's head towards the left relative to the centre C 28 will result in the ramp 5 being turned to the left, and a turning of the head towards the right will correspondingly result in a turning of the ramp 5 towards the right. When the player decides that the orientation of the ramp 5 is correct, he indicates this by moving his head 23 in the vertical plane (i. e. by nodding his head), which movement results in a release of the movable object 7 down the ramp. The left/right decision is based on the signals from the sensitive regions 26,27 and 28 and is carried out in the left/right decision means 31 based on e. g. a comparison between the magnitudes of said signals. The output from the left/right decision means 31 is a control signal 35 which is passed to the orientation actuator 32. Similarly, the release decision is based on the signals from the three sensitive regions 28,29 and 30 placed above each other in the vertical plane. A release decision means 33 compares e. g. the magnitudes of said signals and produces an output 36 which is passed on to the release actuator which in turn activates a release member (not shown) placed in connection with the moving object 7 on the ramp 5.

An alternative embodiment which does not require any movement of the player is shown in Figure 5 and Figure 5a. According to this embodiment, the orientation of the ramp 5 and the release of the movable object 7 is controlled by the voice of the

player, for instance through predefined commands such as"left","right"and"fire", the first two of which controls incremental movements of the ramp 5 in either direction, and the last one of which results in the launching of the movable object 7.

Introducing a fourth command, such as for instance"stop", would yield the possibility of moving the ramp in a continuous manner either in a direction to the left or to the right about the axis 9 with a certain selectable angular velocity, until the ramp is brought to a halt by uttering the word"stop". Many variations within this procedure are of course possible.

The specific embodiment shown in Figure 5 and Figure 5a utilises a wireless transmission between the player and the ramp. On the player is mounted a small microphone 40 coupled to a transmitter 41 and in turn to an antenna 42. From here a wireless transmission of the audio signal from the player takes place to the antenna 43 positioned appropriately on the ramp 5. This antenna is coupled to a receiving and controlling means 44 which provides control signals to the orientation-and release actuators 51,53. The main functional components of said receiving-and control means 44 are shown in Figure 5a. The antenna 43 is coupled to a receiver 46 from which the electrical signal representing the original audio signal from the player is passed to a speech-recognition means capable of distinguishing between a finite list of pre-programmed words. These words could e. g. consist of the above-mentioned commands"left","right","fire"and possibly "stop"with appropriate allowances for variations in pronunciation and duration of the words. The output (s) 48 from the speech-recognition means pass (es) to a left/right/release decision means 49, the outputs 50 and 52 of which are used to control the orientation actuator 51 and the release actuator 53, respectively.

It is understood that the above embodiments of the present invention are merely exemplary and that these embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. It is also understood that although the description has focused on the utilisation of the present invention in connection with handicap bowling at least the embodiment based on speech recognition could also be used for other purposes such as e. g. television transmitted games.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS 1 base plate 2 manipulator means 3 frame 4 cable 5 ramp 6 wheelchair 7 movable object 8 feet 9 axis 10 bowling lane 11 actuator means 12 rectangular box 13 foot rest 14 rectangle 15 rectangle 16 rectangle 17 rectangle 18 reorientation means 20 receiving means 21 transmitting means 22 head band 23 head 24 array 26 left region 27 right region 28 centre region 29"up"region 30"down"region 31 release decision means 32 orientation actuator 33 release decision means 34 release actuator

35 control signal 36 control signal 40 microphone 41 transmitter 42 antenna 43 antenna 44 receiving and controlling means 45 wireless transmission 46 receiver 47 speech recognition means 48 output 49 decision means 50 output 51 orientation actuator 52 output 53 release actuator