Virtual Playground Overlay on Restaurant Objects
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Solution Overview
Problem
Restaurants face challenges in providing entertainment and information to customers due to space constraints from physical gaming equipment and limitations of printed menu cards, which are bland and unable to deliver rich multimedia content.
Innovation Solution
Creating a virtual playground using real-world objects like salt and pepper shakers, menu cards, and other items, and overlaying them with virtual multimedia content such as video, audio, and graphics, allowing customers to interact and engage through mobile devices, thus eliminating the need for physical hardware and enhancing menu cards with interactive information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If physical playground equipment like swings and slides is installed to provide entertainment, then customer entertainment experience is improved, but valuable property real estate space is consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual copies of playground equipment (swings, slides, etc.) that exist digitally rather than physically. These virtual playground elements are rendered on mobile device screens, allowing customers to interact with and play games using virtual representations of playground equipment without requiring actual physical installations in the restaurant space.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions the playground experience from three-dimensional physical space to two-dimensional digital display space. By rendering virtual playground equipment on mobile device screens, the system allows full interactive entertainment experience while consuming zero physical restaurant real estate, effectively moving the entertainment to a different dimensional plane.
2Loss of information
If printed menu cards are used to provide information, then basic information delivery is achieved, but the cards are bland, boring and have limited printing space
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the menu card from a single-function informational printout into a multi-functional interactive platform. By overlaying augmented reality content on the physical menu card, the system enables the same object to serve both as traditional printed menu guidance and as an interactive window to virtual playground games, additional information layers, and engaging customer experiences.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an augmented reality intermediary layer between the physical menu card and the customer experience. This AR layer, accessed through mobile device cameras and displays, provides unlimited virtual information and interactive content while the physical menu card remains unchanged, effectively decoupling information delivery capacity from physical card area.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention obviates the need for restaurants to install expensive physical hardware such as swings, slides, etc that consume valuable property real-estate, to provide playing entertainment to customers, by constructing a virtual playground out of objects typically found in restaurants such as salt and pepper shakers, napkin dispensers, spoons, forks, plates, glasses, menu cards, pizza-boxes, etc. The present invention virtualizes these real-world objects and uses the virtualized characters to populate a virtual playground that is overlaid on top of real-world objects. This virtual playground allows users to manipulate virtual characters facilitating gameplay and entertainment.The present invention also transforms conventional printed restaurant menu cards into a platform for rich multimedia information delivery/consumption by superimposing/overlaying real-world printed menu cards with virtual multimedia contents such as video, audio, graphics, graphical characters in 2-dimension or 3-dimension, animation, etc that can be interacted with, providing a rich infotainment experience for customers.