Rollercoaster AR Visual System for Immersive Reality

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional roller coasters struggle to maintain attraction by relying on virtual representations, which fail to replicate essential ride experiences like height impressions, limiting the immersive experience for passengers.

Innovation Solution

Integration of an Augmented Reality (AR) and Diminished Reality (DR) system that records and alters the visual reality in real-time, allowing for expanded or diminished perceptions, combined with optical and acoustic effects, to enhance the ride experience without losing the authenticity of the physical environment.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If virtual reality displays are used to convey visual effects, then the driving experience is enhanced, but the real height impression and authentic sensory experience are lost

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvedriving experienceVSAvoidreal height impression
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent merges virtual reality displays with the physical roller coaster environment by integrating screens into the vehicle structure that show virtual scenes while the vehicle travels along the actual track. This combination allows passengers to experience both the authentic physical sensations of the roller coaster and the enhanced visual effects of virtual reality simultaneously, resolving the contradiction between enhancing driving experience and preserving real sensory impressions.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #5Merging (Combining)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary system that includes cameras mounted on the vehicle to capture real-time views of the actual roller coaster environment, which are then combined with virtual reality content and displayed on screens. This intermediary approach allows the virtual reality to complement rather than completely replace the real experience, maintaining the authentic height impression while enhancing the visual experience.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If conventional roller coasters rely on traditional track systems, then the structural integrity is maintained, but the attraction and novelty are reduced

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvestructural integrityVSAvoidattraction
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies dynamics by making the visual experience adaptive and changeable while the physical track remains stable. The virtual reality content can be dynamically adjusted based on the vehicle's position, speed, and orientation along the track, allowing for varied and novel experiences without compromising the reliable structural integrity of the conventional track system.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Solution Approach 2:

The patent adds another dimension to the conventional roller coaster experience by overlaying virtual reality content onto the physical ride. This creates a multi-dimensional experience where passengers simultaneously engage with the three-dimensional physical environment and the two-dimensional virtual displays, thereby increasing attraction while maintaining the reliability of the original track structure.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

3Illumination intensity

If monitors are folded down in front of passengers to show films, then visual effects are conveyed, but the real sensory impressions are compromised

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvevisual effectsVSAvoidloss of real impressions
Core Design Contradiction:
Illumination intensityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies local quality by positioning displays strategically within the vehicle rather than blocking the entire view. The screens are integrated into specific areas of the vehicle structure, providing visual effects in localized zones while leaving other areas open to maintain unobstructed views of the real environment. This allows visual effects to be conveyed without completely compromising the real sensory impressions.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent uses partial action by implementing visual effects only when and where they enhance the experience, rather than continuously blocking the view. The system can selectively activate displays based on the vehicle's position and the type of visual effect needed, providing illumination and visual stimulation only in partial instances, thereby maintaining real sensory impressions during other periods.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentEP2138213B1Ride, in particular rollercoaster
Publication Date: 2012.01.18 MAURER SOHNE GMBH & CO KG

AI summary

The ride has a vehicle movable along a driving route, and an element e.g. partially transparent glasses, on which a recorded image is formed. A recording device records optical reality perceivable from the vehicle, and the vehicle has an impression generating device for generating visual impressions, which change reality perception. The impression generating device is formed such that an overall image comprising the recorded image and additional visual impressions imported and/or mixed and generated by the impression generating device.