h a l f b a k e r yExpensive, difficult, slightly dangerous, not particularly effective... I'm on a roll.
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Trip pool
slightly more bar room confusion....... | |
I am a pretty decent player and i love pool-but the only places to go to play here are dimly lit bars and pool halls- and i sometimes get bored by just hitting plain balls around a plain table-so i suggest a more exciting,interesting game of pool.
The balls are now see through, with some kind of
a light inside, impact activated for the solid balls, and for the striped a constant glowing band that flashes when its hit.The eight ball could have a constalntly glowing blacklite inside of it, so that its harder to hit accidently. The cue ball will have a white glowing center. When a ball goes into a pocket, chaser lights around the table activate and the table will emit a low clapping sound- unless its the cue ball, then a low booing sound and dark colored lights around the hole will appear.
this would be fun in the dark!
If they can do lighted golf balls...
http://www.glowsour...GY/LIGHTUPGOLFBALLS
...I'm sure pool balls aren't so difficult. (This same site carries a "pool ball light," but unfortunately by that they mean a ball light for the pool.) [DrCurry, Apr 28 2006]
related: goldfish pool balls
Goldfish_20Pool_20Balls
Now with fish! [lowbot, Apr 28 2006]
US patent 5,653,640
http://patft.uspto....53640&RS=PN/5653640
An illuminated pool game with a light located within the interior space of each ball. Shirley [xaviergisz, May 02 2006]
Cave man version.
Pyrotechnic_20billiards
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, May 05 2006]
Clear bowling balls. (Similar tech?)
http://www.bowling....oryName=Clear+Balls
Heh - balls. [Letsbuildafort, May 05 2006]
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It'd be a pretty sight in a dingy pool hall. |
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The technology is out there - patent the thing and market it! |
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I really like this. imbed lights below the felt to help line up shots for newbies too. |
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I like this but if I was to try it the balance on the balls would be way off. The game wouldnt play right either because the weights and mass would be different with different material balls hollowed out to hold lights. Cute idea, its probably doable but no one would play it other for the gimmick. |
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+ Easier said than done [DrC]. |
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2 fries: is there one idea here that that doesn't apply to? |
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The only one that I can think of is Tails For All. :)
I was referring to the cost of obtaining a patent. The more I read on the subject the more I think that if someone is serious about getting a new invention on the market they should stall the patent process as long as possible while getting their product to the consumer. That year time limit, (at least here in Canada) after public disclosure, before filing and then several years of patent pending gives the inventor time to make enough money with the invention to pay for the patent, get their product some recognition and lengthen the amount of time before competitors can develop a knock off. |
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I hope I'm right because I am working on a prototype right now. The concept is sound and I believe will sell like hotcakes but money is a big hurdle. Providing for a family and extended family really hollows out the old piggy bank. |
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Except that, in other parts of the world, you have to apply for the patent *before* any public disclosure of the product. |
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Yeah that is a pickle, but without the cash to patent in even one country, what's a guy to do? Looking for investors seems like a sure fire way to have an idea stolen. Disclosure agreements do nothing to protect against that person handing your idea to another person for a kickback and those inventor help companies all appear to be scams, (give us your idea, oh and some money, and we'll stall you long enough to take it if it's any good). |
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2 fries, I and some others are also trying to patent and sell something, and I agree with the whole patent and intellectual property plight is frustrating. |
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One option is to not patent and just move faster than the competition -- ie start selling it first and continually improving it. Other companies can't patent it since its in the public domain and they won't want to try making and selling it, since if they did, nothing would stop another company from copying them. |
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How do you plan to make prototypes of these glowing billiard balls? Will you mold plastic in a mold at home with LEDs in them? For playing in a bar, in the dark, the slight imbalance caused by a little battery won't be a problem; ie the pros won't be using the table anyway. bun. |
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That's not a bad idea [sninctown]. Good luck to you and the others on your project. |
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these flash-balls are rather difficult to produce, since each pool ball need to have a perfectly centered weight point. now if you put circuitry and light sources inside, it gets really complicated.
you can't mix perfect balance with cheap light effects; it would only work for kid's pool table.
wait, did i just say kid's pool table? [+] |
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i was thinkin that maybe making the balls out of a glow in the dark material would get rid of the weight problem-but they wouldnt have the impact flash :( |
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You don't have to put the light inside, all you need to do is track the balls and light them from above with spots/lasers. You could put a minature microchip locator in the centre (RFID??) and use this to track them. With Laser you could even project animation onto the outside of the ball. |
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[webfishrune] that's a good idea, except for the location chip inside. just use a set of three cameras on the ceiling for location and voila! you get the light-up-when-hit function. im sure the japanese would do it, if, by any chance, they hadn't done it yet. |
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Could always make the balls out of celluloid again... |
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This wll be a hard sell in River City... |
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/these flash-balls are rather difficult to produce/ |
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It would just take a few years of engineering and design. Here: Market the overhead-laser version and make lots of money. Use that to finance the internally-lit balls. When they hit the market, they would make version 1 obsolete. <calculates>number of pool halls in the world x lots of money x 2 = a fortune! |
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If they can prodice clear bowling balls, surely this is within reach. What is the competition face hardness for a pool ball anyway. These in the link may be a little too soft. |
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Pool has remained relatively uncheged for the 200-odd years of it's existence. People are generally quite satisfied with the game just the way it is. Your versios sounds pretty cool, I wont lie, but it can by no means become the future, or replacement for the traditional game, but rather a las vegas-esque take on it. |
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i dont want 2 replace the original version-i love pool!-just wanted to add a bit of flash to it-but i was thinking it wouldnt replace it anyway but rather coexist as a sort of novelty pool |
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