Touch Sensitive Trigger

[Aleis]

i was reading a thread on the patends that Smartparts was trying to get through, and thinking of ways to get around them, thought a bit about electronic switches then went to my grandma's house to spent the night, went to turn on the lights and she had one of those touch sensitive lights, and i thought "Sweet God it's perfect!" i even walked it a little just to prove what a great idea it was,
Well the story isn't important but in the end i had a great idea.
What if instead of a "trigger" if you just used a touch sensitive plate. As soon as your finger even brushes the plate the marker shoots. It wouldn't even have to move, it could be hard mounted to the frame since it's not presure related at all. This might even get around the SA patend thingy since they say an "electronic trigger of any sort" this isn't a trigger it's a touch plate. you could even give it ridges so you could rake it as well.

Well just an idea...

[Jazkal]

SP just recieved the Patent on that Idea, the end of Feburary.

************************************************** *******
United States Patent :6,694,963 Taylor February 24, 2004

Touch trigger for electronic paintball gun

A paintball gun includes a touch-activated trigger system. The touch-activated trigger system preferably can cause the initiation of a firing operation of the paintball gun in response to contact with human flesh or a specialized glove.

Inventors: Taylor; Jeremy (Xenia, OH)
Assignee: Smart Parts, Inc. (Latrobe, PA)
Appl. No.: 384930
Filed: March 6, 2003
************************************************** *******

[Aleis]

NOOOOO!!

NOOOOOO! and such a good idea too why most i always be to late WHY!!!

[J_Hoyt]

That's not even tourney legal. Tourney rules specify there needs to be an exertion of force on the trigger and a relaxation of force. So if all you need to do is touch it, then you only need to apply a zero force on it. Any force you apply to it is not necessaary and the rules say there MUST be an exertion of force.

I dont know, if I was on the rules committee I'd interpret that it's illegal, in a second.

[Jazkal]

I see two reasons for them to have pursued this patent:

1) They think they are so big and bad ***, that they can get the rules changed.

2) They got this patent to prevent the industry from circumventing their bogus electronic marker patent (and the one I think is more likely).

just my $.02

[Aleis]

OK second Thought

OK so if thats not gonna work how about this for an idea. How about a presure sensor, kind of like a eletronic scale that would shoot at a specific presure, still no swing and thus might not be considered a trigger, you could set "pull" by verying at what presure the gun fired. Would that work around the patends.

Unless SA reads these forums and runs to the patend office tomarrow.....

[bjjb99]

If you want a force sensor and still have a trigger, just attach one end of spring to the trigger and the other end to your force sensor. The increase in spring force during compression will trip the sensor, and you've still got an actual trigger. It might feel a bit mushy, though... not crisp at all.

BJJB

[dyst0pia]

hasn't somebody already tried this anyways?

I was told somebody already made a gun that utilized a touchpad...and supposedly it sucked...I don't think I could get used to a trigger that doesn't "move".

[Aleis]

hmm Vauge to anyone else?

Ok now i'm just wondering but does any one here notice a problem with this?

Originally posted by Jazkal
SP just recieved the Patent on that Idea, the end of Feburary.

A paintball gun includes a touch-activated trigger system. The touch-activated trigger system preferably can cause the initiation of a firing operation of the paintball gun in response to contact with human flesh or a specialized glove.

Inventors: Taylor; Jeremy (Xenia, OH)
Assignee: Smart Parts, Inc. (Latrobe, PA)
Appl. No.: 384930
Filed: March 6, 2003

"Preferably can cause initiation" so thats not a definate there, that means even if they haven't thought of what the touch sensor triggers or they didn't like that idea it's still patened. I'm not a Patent lawyer but even to little ol' unsofisticated me that seems a little blatently abusing the system.

wonder if i can patend bad ideas because some times i hear something and think "That idea is so stupid i should have to be paid just to listen to it" Now that is a good idea maybe it'l stop people from being stupid

[pballguy17]

I dont know, if I was on the rules committee I'd interpret that it's illegal, in a second. [/B]

Wouldn't u need to exert some sick decimal number of force to trigger it? i remeber me and my bro playing w/ an old touch lamp, and if u moved ur finger ever so slightly, u could actually touch it w/o the light switching.... you would have to toch the triger, and "not" touch the trigger to get it to fire... even tho the trigger isn't moveing, it has force being used on it.

I think a few things would get in the way of useing this.. first safty is a huge issue.. i've seen enough people shoot a foot (or someonelses) with super light triggers... let alone a touch sensitive. Also if something blocks the sensor, such as paint, rain or dirt, suddenly ur licking paint and dirt of the sensor so it feels ur finger.. :P

IMO i don't think faster triggeres are the way to winning... infact, i enjoy alittle bit of luck in paintball :P. If everyone had dead accurate markers, taht shot 50bps... it wouldn't be to much of a game..

Mickey

[Aleis]

not a trigger

well part of the idea is that it's not "a trigger" just a plate, patends are like the lawyers that write them all about technicalities. for example the Freak SP patented the idea of usisg a 3 part barrel with sleaves so you then get the Pipe, or a 4 part with sleaves, or one where the threads are on the sleaves not the back end, and so on, they aren't "technicaly the same" which is good enough......sometimes

[slushee]

I think I may have to get one of those touch sensative lamps and reverse engineer it

I really am interested in putting one on my hyperframe by just replacing the microswitch .. but first, I would need a general understanding of the touch plate itself.. Anyone care to PM me the details? or is "reverse engineering" on my menu?

[bjjb99]

Slushee, check this link (cut-n-paste if necessary):

http://howthingswork.virginia.edu/incandescent_light_bulbs.html

There's a section a little more than a third of the way down the page that describes how touch-sensitive lamps work. It's a basic high-frequency capacitance sensor.

BJJB

[WetPaint]

Forget about touching anything

Just set up an IR light beam across a finger-width notch. When you break the beam, it fires...
I believe this was done on a .22 target pistol some time ago, so there's probably at least one existing patent on it too.

[darwin]

Why doint we just get a trigger setup with the clapper?