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Heber’s Dart Board

In the late 1980s Heber developed an automatic dartboard which allowed for instant scoring, a modem link and play against the board programmes.

The design of the board featured a receiver aerial, which integrated into the guard wire on the face of the board. An electric field was generated by the dartboard which was made conductive by coating the bristles with carbon. When a dart landed on the board, it acted as an aerial and increased the signal being transmitted from that section. That signal was then picked up by the receiver aerial, which allowed the control system of the board to register the score.

The modem link, using the phone line, allowed for remote matches, as demonstrated in the clip from Tomorrows World, below. You could also choose to play against the board, which had different skill levels programmed in.

(Bobby George gets a little carried away with the competitive spirit at the beginning, we can only assume its down to his excitement to try out the board!)