# US 11,298,624 B2 · Fairground ride, in particular roller coaster, and method and computer program for operating a fairground ride of this type

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- Number: US 11,298,624 B2
- Document ID: US11298624B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 16/762,062
- Filed: 2018-09-03
- Published: 2020-08-20
- Granted: 2022-04-12
- Earliest claimed: 2017-11-07
- Assignees: Vr Coaster GmbH & Co. KG
- Applicants: Vr Coaster GmbH & Co. KG
- Inventors: Dennis Gordt
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11298624B2

## CPC

- A63G 31/16: creating illusions of travel
- A63G 7/00: Up-and-down hill tracks; Switchbacks
- G06F 3/011: {Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality (blind teaching G09B21/00)}
- G06T 11/00: Two-dimensional [2D] image generation
- A63G: MERRY-GO-ROUNDS; SWINGS; ROCKING-HORSES; CHUTES; SWITCHBACKS; SIMILAR DEVICES FOR PUBLIC AMUSEMENT
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- G06T: IMAGE DATA PROCESSING OR GENERATION, IN GENERAL

## Abstract

A fairground ride includes a first section which includes a travel route on which at least one vehicle is movably arranged. The vehicle is designed for accommodating at least one passenger. The fairground ride also includes a second section within which the passenger can move freely, a third section which connects the first section to the second section and in which the passenger can enter the vehicle and can exit from the vehicle, and a VR apparatus for generating and depicting a virtual reality. The virtual reality corresponds to a journey of the passenger with the vehicle along the travel route in the first section, to the position and movement of the passenger in the second section and to the entry and/or the exit of the passenger in the third section. The virtual reality can be depicted on a head-mounted display assigned to the passenger.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A fairground ride, comprising:
a first section (12) which comprises a travel route (14) on which at least one vehicle (16) is movably arranged, wherein the vehicle (16) is adapted for accommodating at least one passenger (20);
a second section (22) within which the passenger (20) can move freely, wherein the second section (22) is outside of travel route (14);
a third section (30) which connects the first section (12) to the second section (22) and in which the passenger (20) can enter the vehicle (16) and can exit from the vehicle (16); and
a virtual reality (VR) apparatus (32) for generating and depicting a virtual reality, with which a virtual reality corresponding to a journey of the passenger (20) with the vehicle (16) along the travel route (14) in the first section (12), a virtual reality corresponding to the position and movement of the passenger (20) in the second section (22), and a virtual reality corresponding to the entry and/or the exit of the passenger (20) in the third section (30) can be generated and can be depicted on a head-mounted display assigned to the passenger (20) depending on the position and the movement of the passenger (20) on the fairground ride, wherein the VR apparatus (32) comprises:
a first position detection device (38) for detecting the position of the vehicle (16) on the travel route (14);
a second position detection device (42) for detecting the position and movement of the passenger (20) in the second and third section (30); and
a third position detection device (46) for detecting the stopping position of the vehicle (16) in the third section (30).

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The fairground ride according to claim 1, wherein the third position detection device (46) is configured such that the stopping position of the vehicle (16) can be detected with an accuracy of 20 mm to 0.1 mm.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The fairground ride according to claim 1, wherein the third position detection device (46) comprises inductively and/or optically operating position sensors (48).

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The fairground ride according to claim 3, wherein the position sensors (48) are arranged on the vehicle (16) and the vehicle (16) has a transmission apparatus (50) for transmitting the position of the vehicle (16) to the VR apparatus (32).

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

A method for operating the fairground ride according to claim 1, comprising the following steps:
detecting the position of the vehicle (16) on the travel route (14) by means of the first position detection device (38);
detecting the position and movement of the passenger (20) in the second and third section (30) by means of the second position detection device (42);
detecting the stopping position of the vehicle (16) in the third section (30) by means of the third position detection device (46);
transmitting the detected positions, movement and stopping position to the VR apparatus (32); and
generating and depicting the virtual reality corresponding to a journey of the passenger (20) with the vehicle (16) along the travel route (14) in the first section (12), the virtual reality corresponding to the position and movement of the passenger (20) in the second section (22) and the virtual reality corresponding to the entry and/or the exit of the passenger (20) in the third section (30) on the head-mounted display assigned to the passenger (20) depending on the position and the movement of the passenger (20) on the fairground ride.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The method according to claim 5, further comprising the following step:
detecting the stopping position of the vehicle (16) with an accuracy of 20 mm to 0.1 mm by means of the third position detection device (46).

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method according to claim 6, further comprising the following steps:
defining a stopping position of the vehicle (16) in the third section (30); and
moving the vehicle (16) within the third section such that the vehicle (16) occupies the stopping position with an accuracy of 20 mm to 0.1 mm.

### Claim 8 (depends on 5)

The method according to claim 5, further comprising the following step:
depicting the virtual reality in the first section (12), in the second section (22) and/or in the third section (30) by means of an environment depiction generated in real time, by means of a depiction of the virtual reality precalculated as a video sequence or by means of a virtual reality generated in real time but depicted in connection with precalculated elements.

### Claim 9 (depends on 5)

A computer program for executing the method according to claim 5, and/or for operating a fairground ride, wherein the computer program comprises program means for causing the VR apparatus (32) to execute the following steps when the computer program is executed on the VR apparatus (32), the program means including a non-transitory storage medium readable by a processor, the non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon a set of instructions for performing:
detecting the position of the vehicle (16) on the travel route (14) by means of the first position detection device (38);
detecting the position and movement of the passenger (20) in the second and third section (30) by means of the second position detection device (42);
detecting the stopping position of the vehicle (16) in the third section (30) by means of the third position detection device (46);
transmitting the detected positions, movement and stopping position to the VR apparatus (32); and
generating and depicting the virtual reality corresponding to the journey of the passenger (20) with the vehicle (16) along the travel route (14) in the first section (12), the virtual reality corresponding to the position and movement of the passenger (20) in the second section (22), and the virtual reality corresponding to the entry and/or the exit of the passenger (20) in the third section (30) on the head-mounted display assigned to the passenger (20) depending on the position and the movement of the passenger (20) on the fairground ride.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The computer program according to claim 9, further comprising the following steps:
automatically switching the position detection between the first position detection device (38), the second position detection device (42) and the third position detection device (46) depending on the position of the passenger (20) and/or the speed of the vehicle (16); or
switching the position detection between the first position detection device (38), the second position detection device (42) and the third position detection device (46) after confirmation by an employee of the fairground ride (10).