Audience Interaction Projection System Using Retroreflective Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing projection systems fail to effectively engage individual audience members in entertainment performances due to difficulties in precisely targeting lighting devices, leading to ineffective audience interaction and potential safety concerns.
Innovation Solution
An audience interaction projection system that uses retroreflective materials and invisible light sensors to precisely locate audience members, projecting visible light beams that appear to emanate from the audience members' retroreflective objects, creating an illusion of participation in the performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional lighting devices are used to illuminate the audience, then the audience can be lit, but precise targeting of individual audience members cannot be achieved
Solution Approach 1:
Retroreflective materials are introduced as intermediaries that audience members wear or hold. These materials reflect invisible light back to sensors, enabling precise location detection without requiring complex active sensors at each audience member position. The retroreflective material acts as a passive mediator that facilitates the interaction between the lighting system and audience members.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical or manual targeting methods with an optical sensing system using invisible light (infrared or ultraviolet) and retroreflective materials. This substitution enables automated, precise tracking of audience member positions and movements, allowing the visible light projection system to accurately target individual audience members dynamically during the performance.
2Adaptability or versatility
If powerful lighting is directed at audience members to create engagement, then audience interaction improves, but safety concerns increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts the targeting function from the visible light projection and performs it separately using invisible light sensors and retroreflective materials. This separation allows the visible light to be used purely for engagement effects at precisely located positions, while the invisible light system handles the safe detection and tracking of audience members, eliminating the need to direct powerful invisible light at them.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the potential harm of powerful lighting into a benefit by using invisible light (infrared or ultraviolet) for detection purposes only, which is safe at the required power levels. The visible light, which could be harmful if misdirected, is instead used for creating engaging visual effects after precise positioning is achieved through the safe invisible light sensing system.
3Adaptability or versatility
If lighting devices are given to audience members to encourage interaction, then engagement increases, but the range and effectiveness are limited
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of giving active lighting devices to audience members and having them illuminate the stage, the patent inverts the approach: the stage lighting system illuminates the audience members wearing passive retroreflective materials, and the reflected light is detected to determine their positions. This inversion allows the system to achieve long-range interaction capability while keeping the audience member devices simple and passive.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enhances audience participation by providing the illusion of projecting laser-like light beams during entertainment events, ensuring safety and engagement through precise targeting and adjustable effects like color and strobing, while using low-cost, passive or active materials.
Implementation Method 1
The retroreflective object reflects invisible light such as IR light from the location of the retroreflective material (and thereby, for instance, the guest's hand).
Implementation Method 2
the visible light passes through an atmosphere containing particulate matter rendering the visible light as a beam that appears to emanate from the object rather than from the light source
Data Source
AI summary
A process and system capture infrared light that is reflected or emitted from a device to precisely locate the device. The process and system project visible light from a light source toward the device such that the light is precisely targeted at the device. Preferably the visible light passes through an atmosphere containing particulate matter rendering the visible light as a beam that appears to emanate from the device rather than from the light source.