h a l f b a k e r yVeni, vedi, fish velocipede
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Golfing is undoubtedly the most frustrating skill sport imaginable - you spend a thousand bucks on clubs, then you pay no less than 10 dollars to lug these expensive sticks around and chase a little white ball for a few hours in the hot sun.
Good times.
It's only made worse when you lose a
ball - golf balls themselves aren't cheap, and losing one not only costs you another two bucks per sphere, but you also get to spend 5 minutes or so tramping through briars trying to find the thing and save yourself a stroke, while Johnny Jackass on the tee decides that he's going to play through you, whether you'll allow it or not.
I can't solve all of these problems, but I can solve at least one: lost balls.
The Never-Lost ball has a small radio receiver in it, along the lines of an RFID tag, as well as a watch battery, four equally-distanced LED lights (set within the dimples) and a small speaker.
If you're unlucky or unskilled enough to plunk a ball into the woods, grab your Never-Lost Ball Finder (it's a key fob, really), press a button. The receiver in the ball acknowledges the signal from the Finder, and your lost ball reacts to the signal by both blinking and whistling - so blind and deaf golfers are equally able to find their missing balls.
To prevent a cacaphony that would surely result from always-on status (click the fob, your 200-dollar golf bag erupts into a light and sound spectacular), the ball will have a built-in timer, initiated by club impact. The timer will force the lost ball to turn itself off 15 minutes after being struck by a club, meaning that only one ball at a time within a certain range of the Finder (say, 100 feet) will ever blink on.
See link for similar products.
Never-Lost Golf Ball ~bz
[bristolz,
Feb 17 2005, last modified Jun 28 2005]
EasyFind Golf Ball
http://www.halfbake...yFind_20Golf_20Ball A radioactive golf ball and radiation detector from a 'baker. [shapu, Oct 05 2004]
Radar Golf
http://www.pga.com/...lf/spike_102003.cfm A golf ball with a radio transmitter - just like tracking a tagged bear! [shapu, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
The Sanderson Golf Ball Finder
http://www.sanderso...?subj=Golf+Products Without benefit of RFID [angel, Oct 05 2004]
RadarGolf
http://www.thefeatu...le?articleid=100672 Complete with RFID, pretty much as described. [angel, Oct 05 2004]
[link]
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Baked (linky). Amazing what two minutes on Gooooogle can do. |
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I don't think it qualifies as baked - those both have the sound in a handheld device. More warmed than anything. |
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In my idea, it's the ball itself that makes the noise, not the finder. |
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That is, I grant, a significant difference, but it also makes your version rather less useful. How loud would this thing need to be to be heard over the distance of a half-decent drive, while buried in foot-high rough? |
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Forget your golf ball. I think you lost a
whole letter there. Bip... bip... bip...
PING!!! Ah. There it is. |
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[admin: idea renamed from 'Nevr-Lost
Golf Ball' to 'Never-Lost Golf Ball'] |
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//How loud would this thing need to be to be heard over the distance of a half-decent drive, while buried in foot-high rough?// |
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Hmm...that's a good question. I had thought that perhaps what the HB really needed was a dedicated workforce to actually build these things we come up with. Perhaps we need a research team to discover the noise level necessary to penetrate thick wheat grass as well... |
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I play golf. My elder brother has just given me a geiger counter (earning the respect and awe of approximately 50% of my friends). All I need now is a source, beta for preference as alpha is a bit short from memory. |
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Uranium-core golf balls? The radiation isn't THAT bad... |
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Probably not something you'd want to keep in your pocket. |
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Jane: I have the greatest golf ball. You can't lose it! |
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Michael: What do you mean? |
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Jane: If you hit it into the rough, it beeps. If you hit it in the water, it floats. If you hit in the sand, it bounces. |
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Michael: Wow, where did you get it? |
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Jane: I found it in the woods. |
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It would be heat-sensitive (I think they have invented this part already) and your ball would just have to mark where it fell before it rose and homed in on its owner. gfundl |
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Or tie it to a piece of string? |
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[Loris]: No objections to the string, except that it conflicts my Goldbergian upbringing. Is there any way to use that string with a mousetrap, a magnifying glass, and a downtrodden laborer? |
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