PORTABLE BALL GAME TARGET AND FLOORING TILE

Description

PRIOR ART

A) Use Case: Ball Game-Related Activities

Ball games such as volleyball, basketball and tennis have existed since the 1890s and ones such as pickleball are more recent inventions. Each game typically is played on a large hard surface called a court and requires a ball and for the players to be on the court in order to play the game. Although some ball games can be played in beach or field environments because the ball does not require touching the ground during the game, other ball games are limited to being played on a court to properly rebound the ball because soft ground, such as sandy beaches and grassy field environments, absorb the energy of a bouncing ball reducing or eliminating the ability for the ball to rebound effectively and accurately to the player.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,676,546 to Gordon discloses a court and method for playing a game. The game court comprises a playing surface suitably large for running and jumping players. A first area of the playing surface is substantially rigid and resilient and suitable for bouncing a ball. Optionally, the first area of playing surface comprises a resiliently suspended floor with a deformable-elastic surface that is tuned to greatly increase the heights that players may attain by jumping. The game court is optionally surrounded by a wall comprising at least a portion of the court boundary. A game for playing on the game court is disclosed, comprising a basketball-like game. The game court may also be used for other sports such as gymnastics or exhibition-style wrestling.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,807,568 B1 to Ruder discloses a ball game that has a surface largely resembling a trampoline which allows balls to bounce. In use, the trampoline surface is placed on the ground and a user stands on solid ground outside the perimeter of the trampoline surface and bounces the ball off the trampoline surface. The height and tension of the trampoline surface may be adjusted, but never becomes perfectly rigid.

U.S. Pat. No. 11,400,354 B2 to Allen discloses a portable outdoor game that may include a ramp, a target, and one or more projectiles. The ramp may include an elongated runner and an elevation structure that may be positioned at one end of the runner to lift one end of the runner from the ground. In use, projectiles may roll or slide across the runner in the direction of the elevation structure causing projectiles to potentially become airborne after traveling over the elevation structure and land within or near a target that sits on the ground. The tension of the elongated runner may be adjusted, but never becomes perfectly rigid and, since only one end of the runner can be elevated, the runner never becomes level while elevated from the ground.

The problems with ball games such as volleyball, tennis, basketball and pickleball are the need and availability of a large, hard surface court and the large court size. Hard surface courts might not be available in all locations where the players want to play, such as the beach or grassy fields, or when they want to play as the court may be occupied by others. Travel equipment may be available such as that provided by Ruder and Allen, but can be cumbersome to carry, transport and set up, some may still require a lot of space in the area of play to create a playable court, and they do not provide a hard surface to properly and effectively bounce a ball on.

B) Use Case: Flooring Tile

U.S. Patent No.: US 2008/0127593 A1 to Janesky discloses a cover floor system for covering a sub floor or a basement concrete floor. The cover floor system has a plurality of interlocking floor tiles. The tiles have a cover floor surface and a grid of supporting legs adapted to elevate the cover floor surface over the sub floor and form a gap between the cover floor surface and the sub floor. At least two tiles are coupled together with a lap joint and a plurality of interlocking floor tiles may be coupled together to create a cover floor surface. The cover floor system helps prevent water vapor and moisture from passing from the concrete floor through the cover floor surface to the carpet or other floor covering.

U.S. Patent No. US 2014/0112715 A1 to Browning and Lundell, discloses shaped paving stones and blocks with inter fitting vertical spacers forming serpentine side contact surfaces that provide enhanced stone-to-stone interlocking in both water-permeable and water-impermeable paving installations. These serpentine wall portions contact abutting paver wall portions to maintain desired separation between pavers to permit vertical water flow when desired. Moreover, the serpentine wall portions providing superior frictional vertical interlocking, as well very effective horizontal and rotational interlocking between pavers.

While these devices may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they are not as suitable for a portable flooring tile for use in environments where a hard surface to stand, walk, dance or otherwise perform movement on is desired, but not available (e.g., beaches and fields). These devices are not easily assembled and disassembled nor collapsible and packable for easy transport and storage. These devices fail to provide a device with the features described below wherein a user stands, walks, dances or otherwise performs movement on a portable, temporary flooring tile that can be placed on soft ground creating a hard surface when there are no hard surfaces available.

In these respects, the portable ball game target and flooring tile according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of creating a portable ball game target and flooring tile that acts as a hard surface to rebound a ball or to stand on or perform movement on in non-hard surface environments (e.g., beaches and fields).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A portable ball game target and flooring tile device is provided. By providing a ball game target and flooring tile device, ball games such as volleyball, tennis, basketball and pickleball can be played with modification in the sand and field environments where hard surface courts are not available. The inventive device includes a rigid playing surface top, supports, and legs, all of which are separable for travel and storage. Further, the rigid playing surface top is composed of slats connected by tethers that enable roll-up of the top surface for travel and storage. The tethers also help to deaden noise between connected parts. The top surface's support members are sandwiched between the top surface and legs to provide rigidity to the top's surface. Legs are connected to the support members and top surface with fasteners enabling the user to elevate and/or level the device on soft ground environments. Further, each leg has an optional spiked endcap to enhance stability of the device by enabling the legs to burrow into the sand or ground.

In use, to play a game, the user stands on the ground outside the perimeter of the rigid playing surface of the device and bounces a ball off the rigid playing surface either back to oneself or to one or more other players. In use, to use as a flooring tile, the user places one or more devices on the ground such that the rigid top surface is level to the ground. The devices can be placed adjacent to each other to build larger floors or pathways over soft ground environments (e.g., sand and grassy fields) as needed.

The teaching of the present application has numerous advantages. Different embodiments or implementations may yield one or more of the following advantages. It should be noted that this is not an exhaustive list and there may be other advantages which are not described herein.

An advantage of the present device is to provide a portable ball game target with a rigid playing surface for use in sand or soft ground environments wherein a player may bounce a ball off a solid surface towards themselves or another player or set of players who must then return the ball.

An additional advantage of the present device is to provide a rigid surface for a person to stand on or perform movement on when a solid surface is not available, such as in sand or field environments.

An additional advantage of the present device is to provide a single device that is a dual-purpose device enabling the user to use it both as a ball game surface and also a flooring tile.

Another advantage of the present device is to a ball game target and flooring tile that is steady and stable when used in environments where the ground is soft and unstable (not a hard surface court), such as sand and field environments.

And another advantage of the present device is to provide a ball game target and flooring tile which is light-weight, collapsible into a very compact size, packable and easy to transport and store.

And another advantage of the present device is to provide a ball game target and flooring tile which can easily be assembled or dissembled.

Yet another advantage of the present device is to provide a ball game target and flooring tile which is inexpensive to produce and fun and easy to use.

Another advantage is that multiple devices can be placed near each other or multiple devices can be placed adjacent to each other and tethered together, if desired, to create larger and shaped hard surfaces in soft ground environments.

Yet another advantage is that each device can be lit with lights to better enable visibility of the target in low light conditions.

For a more complete understanding of the above listed features and advantages of the present ball game target and flooring tile, reference should be made to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. Further, additional features and advantages of the invention are described in, and will be apparent from, the detailed description of the preferred embodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a front perspective view of the ball game target and flooring tile.

FIG. 2 illustrates a top view of the rigid playing surface top of the ball game target and flooring tile.

FIG. 3 illustrates an end view of the ball game target and flooring tile.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exploded end view of the ball game target and flooring tile surface and support structure.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exploded side view of the ball game target and flooring tile surface and support structure.

FIG. 6 illustrates a top view of the ball game target and flooring tile surface rolled up next to the disassembled associated supports, legs, endcaps, and fastener parts.

FIG. 7 illustrates an end view of the ball game target and flooring tile surface rolled up connected by the tether.

FIG. 8 illustrates a front view of the bag in which the ball game target and flooring tile is stored and carried for transport.

FIG. 9 illustrates the front perspective of the multi-device connector plate.

FIG. 10 illustrates a cut-away end view of two ball game target and flooring tiles connected together via the multi-device connector plate.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following detailed description, the device according to the teachings for this application in the form of a ball game target and flooring tile will be described by the following embodiments. The general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new portable ball game target and flooring tile that has many of the advantages and novel features that result in a new portable ball game target and flooring tile which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by any of the prior art, either alone or in any combination thereof. It can be used to for general game play for games that bounce a ball or used for practice in order to increase the user's accuracy of aim of bouncing a ball onto the target. It can also be used as a flooring tile so that the user can stand, walk, dance or perform other movement on it when a hard surface is desired, but not available.

A first embodiment of the ball game target and flooring tile (1) is illustrated in FIG. 1. The inventive device includes a square rigid playing surface (2), a plurality of support members (4), and a plurality of legs (5), all of which are separable. The rigid playing surface (2) of the ball game target and flooring tile can in this embodiment be comprised of multiple slats (2a-2i) connected together by flexible tethers (3) acting as a single surface as shown in FIG. 2 that enable roll-out of the surface for use or roll-up of the top for travel and storage. The support members (4) are sandwiched between the rigid playing surface (2) and legs (5) to provide additional rigidity to the playing surface. Legs (5) are connected to the support members (4) and rigid surface (2) with a fastener (6) enabling the user to elevate, tilt and/or level the device on uneven ground. Further, each leg has an optional spiked endcap (7) to enhance stability of the device by enabling the legs to burrow into the sand or soft ground.

In one embodiment, the rigid playing surface (2) as shown in FIG. 2 is made up of nine slats (2a-2i) where each slat has the length of 30 inches, width of 3 inches and thickness of 1 inch. Each slat can be solid or hollow in nature in order to make each slat lighter. All slats (2a-2i) are adjacent to one another and separated slightly, but connected via flexible tethers (3) to create a 30 inch by 30 inch square-shaped playing surface.

In another embodiment, the rigid playing surface could be made of slats (2a-2i) in various sizes (wider, narrower, longer or shorter) to change the shape of the rigid playing surface (2) to form a rectangle, circle or other unspecified shape. Due to changes in sizes of the slats, in another embodiment, the rigid playing surface may contain more or fewer numbers of slats (e.g., smaller surfaces with wide slats may require fewer boards while larger surfaces with narrower slats may require more boards). The thickness of each slat may also increase or decrease as needed in order to maintain sufficient rigidity of each slat under load.

In an additional embodiment, the rigid playing surface can be made more continuous by adding filler strips in between the slates of the rigid surface to better eliminate the space in between the slats and make the top surface more rigid and better eliminate the gaps in between the slats. In a related additional embodiment, a flexible film, such as a silicone mat, could be placed on top of the rigid playing surface to cover the entire rigid playing surface (2) to completely eliminate all gaps in the rigid playing surface (2).

The rigid playing surface (2), support members (4), legs (5) and endcaps (7) of the ball game target and flooring tile (1) can in an embodiment be made from plastic, metal, wood or similar material thereby rendering the device to be light, strong and durable. The rigid playing surface (2), support members (4), legs (5) and endcaps (7) of the ball game target and flooring tile (1) can in an embodiment also be painted or otherwise decorated with different colors or patterns.

The top face (21) of the rigid playing surface (2) of the ball game target and flooring tile (1) as seen in FIG. 3 can in an embodiment be made from or coated with non-slip materials, thereby rendering the top face of the ball game target and flooring tile more resistant to ball and foot slippage caused by very smooth surfaces and/or when in contact with environmental additives that cause the top face to be slippery, such as water, sand and similar additives.

In another embodiment, the perimeter of the rigid playing surface (2) or other components of the of the ball game target and flooring tile (1) as seen in FIG. 3 is fitted with lights to better enable user visibility of the rigid playing surface in low light conditions.

The bottom face of the slats (22) that make up the rigid surface of the ball game target and flooring tile (1) as seen in FIG. 5 can in an embodiment be connected with a tether (3) (best seen in FIG. 2) made from a flexible material that allows the space between the slats that make up the rigid playing surface to bend. In one embodiment, the tether can be made of nylon, Kevlar, silicone, leather, rubber or similar flexible material. In another embodiment, the tether can be made similar to a set of hinges where each hinge connects two adjacent boards together and allows the boards to roll up due to the bending at the hinge point.

Although any number of support members (4) may be used, the number of support members (4) should result in a support structure that holds at least both ends of the rigid playing surface (2) to maintain a rigid surface as seen in FIG. 3, adding additional supports as needed to maintain a stable, rigid playing surface (2) when assembled (e.g., a larger rigid surface may require additional support members (4)).

The plurality of legs (5) and support members (4) are connected to the rigid playing surface (2) by a plurality of fasteners (6) best seen in FIG. 4. In one embodiment, this fastener (6) is a long, sunken screw or bolt that enters through a hole in the top face (21) of the target top surface (2), passes through a hole in the tether (3), passes through a hole in the support member (4) and enters the leg (5) through a hole in the center of the top of the leg (51) as shown in FIG. 3. In another embodiment, the fastener (6) is a plastic (or similar material) peg to hold the device together and is used in the same manner as previously described.

The plurality of legs (5) best seen in FIG. 6 may be used to elevate and support the rigid playing surface (2) as seen in FIG. 1. Although the drawings show four legs (5), the number of legs (5) may vary depending on the size of the rigid playing surface (larger surfaces may require more legs and support members to remain stable). Although the drawings show circular, cylindrical legs (5), the shape of the leg may also be elliptical, square or other undefined cylindrical shape enabling the user to offset the rigid playing surface (2) above the ground. The plurality of legs (5) may have a first end (51) and a second end (52). The first end (51) may be secured to the plurality of support members (4) whereas the second end (52) may rest upon the ground.

The endcaps (7), best seen in FIG. 4, are optional pieces of the device (1) that can be added to the bottom of each leg (52) to improve contact with the ground in soft ground environments such as sand and soft, grassy fields and to help reduce shifting and better ensure stability of the device (1) during play. In one embodiment, the top portion of the endcaps (71) contain a large hollow cavity that fits over the bottom of the legs (52) thus allowing the endcaps (7) to be pushed onto the bottom of the legs (52). In another embodiment, the top portion of the endcaps (71) contain a large hollow cavity with a screw-like design on the interior walls such that the cavity can fit over a similar screw-like design on the bottom of the legs (52) if the endcaps are hand-screwed onto the bottom of the legs (52). In one embodiment, the bottom surface of the endcap (72) has a spiked design consisting of 2-4 fins (73) to better enable pushing the device into the sand or soft ground and better maintain device stability during play. In another embodiment, the bottom surface of the endcap (72) has a single point, like that of a sharpened pencil, that burrows into the ground to help maintain stability of the device (1).

The embodiment for assembly of the ball game target and flooring tile (1), the user lays the target top surface (2) upside down on the ground such that the tethers (3) are facing up.

The user then inserts the plurality of fasteners (6) through the playing surface (2) such that the fasteners (6) are sticking up at the user through the bottom of the playing surface (22) and the tether (3). The plurality of support members (4) then slides over the fasteners (6) such that it rests flush with the tethers (3). Each leg (5) is then attached to the fastener (6) to hold together the rigid playing surface (2), the tethers (3), and the plurality of support members (4) into a single device (1), the ball game target and flooring tile (1). If the ball game target and flooring tile (1) shifts during play, the user may attach an endcap (7) to each leg bottom (52) that touches the sand/ground to enable the ball game target and flooring tile (1) to be better driven into the ground.

For transport and storage of the device, in this embodiment, the device may be disassembled into its individual, separable parts as shown in FIG. 6: the rigid playing surface (2) with connected tethers (3), support members (4), legs (5), fasteners (6), and endcaps (7). The rigid playing surface (2) with connected tethers (3) will roll up into a long cylinder as shown on the left image of FIG. 6 and shown on end in FIG. 7. All optional parts (not shown) such as slat gap fillers, lights and multi-device connectors (9, described later) are also separable. All parts are to be placed inside the travel bag (8), shown in FIG. 8 for transport and storage.

The embodiment of the travel bag (8) in FIG. 8 has a main cylindrical storage compartment (81) where all components of the disassembled device are kept for transport and storage. The travel bag (8) also features an external pocket (82) that is large enough and stretchy enough to hold at least one ball and potential paddles, gloves or other accessories for ball game play. The travel bag (8) also has a carrying handle (83) that is adjustable in length and has handle ends (84) that attach the handle (83) to the travel bag main compartment (81) with reinforced stitching for durability. The travel bag (8) is made of a soft, durable material such as nylon, polyester or canvas or similar material and can be closed with a drawstring tie (85).

The device (1) can be used as both a ball game target and a flooring tile and more than one device may be connected together via the multi-device connector plate (9) shown in FIG. 9. In this embodiment, a larger surface is desired by the user and this is accomplished by placing multiple devices near each other or directly adjacent to each other. In order to help keep the larger surface, now created by a plurality of multiple devices (shown as 1A and 1B in FIG. 10), level and connected across devices, the multi-device connector plate (9) is used to tether a plurality of separate devices together. In order to tether a plurality of multiple devices (1A and 1B) together, on one device (1A), the fastener (6) enters through a hole in the top face (21) of the target top surface (2), passes through a hole in the tether (3), passes through a hole in the support member (4), passes through a hole in the multi-device connector plate (91) and enters the leg (5) through a hole in the center of the top of the leg (51). This process is repeated with a second device (1B), utilizing the same multi-device connector plate (9) that was used for the first device (1A), thus connecting the two devices together. This process can then be repeated as many times as desired to achieve the size and shape of the ball game target and a flooring tile surface created from connected devices.

In use as a ball game target for a modified version of volleyball, pickleball, tennis, basketball or similar ball game, the rigid playing surface (2) is typically parallel with respect to the ground, but it can be tilted at an incline, if desired. A user stands on the ground outside the perimeter of the rigid playing surface of the ball game target and flooring tile (1) and delivers a ball by hand, racket or other means to bounce the ball off the rigid playing surface (2). The ball may be bounced back to oneself or to one or more other players who then bounce the ball to return it to the original player(s). The height and incline of the rigid playing surface may be adjusted by pushing the legs further into the sand or soft ground as needed to achieve the desired playing surface height and inclination.

In use as a flooring tile, the rigid playing surface is typically parallel with respect to the ground. One or more flooring tiles may be installed adjacent to or near to each other to create a larger floor or pathway that hovers over the soft ground. A user stands, walks, dances or performs some other movement on top of the device that now provides a hard surface for a person to stand and perform movement on. The height and inclination of the rigid playing surface may be adjusted by pushing the legs further into the sand or soft ground as needed.

Although embodiments of the invention are shown and described therein, it should be understood that various changes and modifications to the presently preferred embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and without diminishing its attendant advantages.