# US 9,038,543 B2 · Amusement ride comprising a facial expression recognition system

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- Number: US 9,038,543 B2
- Document ID: US9038543B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 12/691,323
- Filed: 2010-01-21
- Published: 2011-07-21
- Granted: 2015-05-26
- Earliest claimed: 2010-01-21
- Assignees: Maurer Soehne GmbH & Co. KG
- Applicants: Joerg Beutler
- Inventors: Joerg Beutler
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9038543B2

## CPC

- A63G 7/00: Up-and-down hill tracks; Switchbacks
- A63G 4/00: Accessories for roundabouts not restricted to one of groups A63G1/00 or A63G3/00
- A63G: MERRY-GO-ROUNDS; SWINGS; ROCKING-HORSES; CHUTES; SWITCHBACKS; SIMILAR DEVICES FOR PUBLIC AMUSEMENT

## Abstract

The amusement ride 1 comprises a track 2 and a vehicle 3 being moveable along the track 2 at a velocity v. Within the vehicle 3 a video camera 4 is installed. The video camera 4 takes a video film of the face of a passenger received within the vehicle 3 during a ride. A sender 5 transmits the data 6 to a facial expression recognition system 7. The result 10 of the process carried out by facial expression recognition system 7 may be downloaded from a server 11 by a client 13.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An amusement ride comprising:
a track;
a vehicle for receiving at least one passenger and for movement of the vehicle along said track;
at least one video camera installed in the vehicle, the at least one video camera configured to record a film of the face of the at least one passenger in said vehicle from a start of a ride and continuing during the ride;
a facial expression recognition system for analyzing said passenger's facial expression recorded in said film; and
an output unit for outputting a result of said analysis of the facial expression of the passenger, wherein the result includes a classification of the facial expression at various points along the track.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The amusement ride of claim 1, wherein said output unit comprises a display for displaying at least one result of said analysis of the facial expression of the passenger.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The amusement ride of claim 1, wherein said output unit comprises a device for printing at least one result of said analysis of the facial expression of the passenger.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The amusement ride of claim 1, wherein said facial expression recognition system comprises a memory device and software stored in the memory device, wherein said software is configured for analyzing the facial expression of the passenger.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The amusement ride of claim 1, said amusement ride comprises a storage unit comprised in a network, wherein said storage unit receives and stores a result generated by said facial expression recognition system.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The amusement ride of claim 5, said result is accessible for the passenger after the ride from different locations at various times.

### Claim 7

A method of operating an amusement ride, comprising the steps of:
providing an amusement ride vehicle for receiving at least one passenger, the amusement ride vehicle including at least one video camera installed in the vehicle;
recording a film of the face of the at least one passenger received in the amusement ride vehicle from a start of a ride and continuing during the ride of said vehicle along a track using the at least one video camera;
recognizing a facial expression of said passenger from analyzing facial expressions recorded in said film; and
outputting a result of said analysis of the facial expression of the passenger, wherein the result includes a classification of the facial expression at various points along the track.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein the step of outputting the result includes outputting a visual result of said analysis of the facial expression of the passenger.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the step of outputting the result includes displaying said analysis of the facial expression of the passenger.

### Claim 10 (depends on 8)

The method of claim 8, wherein the step of outputting the result includes printing the result of said analysis of the facial expression of the passenger.

### Claim 11 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein said method includes the step of storing said result of said facial expression analysis in a storage.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The method of claim 11, wherein said method includes a step of providing stored data in a network for retrieval or downloading of the data by the passenger.