Roller coaster type rides have been appreciated for about two hundred years as riders have enjoyed viewing large skylines as they fall, climb, and roll with great velocities and strong accelerations up, down, and over hills of ride track. Such adventures, however, are limited in type of ride themes that can be effectively implemented. With desires to explore more fantastical themes, ride simulators emerged as self-contained systems of visual and audio presentations but such systems have proven to be severely limited in their full capabilities of motion movements. For example, the Advanced Technology Leisure Application Simulator (ATLAS) is used for amusement park rides like Disneyland's Star Tours and EPCOT's Body Wars developed by the Walt Disney Imagineering Company. While these rides present exciting video and audio simulated environments, the motion movements experienced by passengers on these ride simulators have not achieved the velocities and accelerations comparable to roller coaster rides. Furthermore, roller coaster rides have not captured the extensive and excitable video and audio effects of simulated themes and environments created by ride simulators. This has created the problem of a divide between amusement park attendees—“thrill-seekers” often flock to roller coaster rides while virtual-enthusiast riders commonly flood ride simulators. Another issue only worsens the current limited use of roller coaster cars.
Another key problem in the design of roller coaster cars is the limited practicality of ride theme variability and reusability. Roller coaster rides and cars are routinely built around a single theme. Ride construction and operation are limited by this theme: In contrast, other fields of advanced technologies are thriving on principles of variability and reusability of components and services like object-oriented programming and service-oriented architecture—such implementations are common in the industry of software. These practices of variability and reusability are applicable and highly beneficial to roller coaster rides and cars considering the extensive planning, allocation of resources, time, and cost in designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining these systems. Between amusement park attendees growing accustom to the repetitive sceneries of roller coaster rides (with such scenery often being narrowly composed of trees, bodies of water, skylines, other park attendees, and parking lots) and roller coaster rides and cars risking becoming outdated and underused within a few years after introduction into the market, it is time for a new direction in roller coaster ride and car design. Furthermore, it is time to recognize and act in response to the limiting motion movement capabilities of modern ride simulators and seek new simulation technology integrations into other applications to capitalize on the full potential of simulator components. The present invention offers an encompassing and unique solution to these problems as discussed in the following sections.
OBJECTIVES & ADVANTAGESA hybrid motion ride and ride simulator vehicle is designed as an Encapsulating and Reusable Simulation Technology (ERST) roller coaster car and proposed as an encompassing and unique solution to the current problems in the designs and operations of modern motion rides and ride simulators as identified in the present invention.
An ERST roller coaster car is a roller coaster car that visually encapsulates passengers of the car from the surrounding environment during the normal operation of a roller coaster ride such that only interior components of the car (including, but not limited to, simulated ride images produced by the car's internal simulation technology) are within the field of vision of passengers. The normal operation of a roller coaster ride is the period during which passengers are inside an ERST roller coaster car as the car is moving along a ride track of a roller coaster ride while an internal ride simulation system is running so that passengers are simultaneously experiencing motions of the roller coaster ride and presentation of the simulated ride theme adventure. As stated above, the passengers are visually encapsulated from the surrounding environment to the vehicle during this period. This period does not include the act of unloading and loading of passengers as the roller coaster car is both open and not moving during unloading and loading of passengers. Also, the displayed images in the car created by the simulator components can be of real images or artificial images (and in the latter case, being images like those created by computer generated imagery techniques). The ERST roller coaster car's internal simulation technology also produces audio output to passengers of the vehicle to compliment both the car's internal visual simulated ride theme adventure and the car's roller coaster ride motions. While the design of encapsulating and reusable simulation technology to roller coaster cars is new, partial integration of non-encapsulating simulation technology into passenger seating is evident as early as audio seat components in U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,370 to Tokumo, Takagi, & Mori (1987) and visual accompaniments in U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,821 to Prather & Headrick (1997). Such modifications for roller coaster cars are non-encapsulating and merely additive to external effects of the surrounding environment to the car (and are limited to the single theme constructed for the roller coaster ride) and therefore do not attain the full array of synergistic effects and benefits (including, but not limited to, ride reusability, ride variability, and heightened intensity of the ride experience) that are accomplished from using ERST roller coaster car technology.
There is no indication from designers, manufacturers, or users of motion rides or ride simulators that an integration of encapsulating and reusable simulation technology into roller coasters cars would be a desired technology. In fact, those in fields of motion rides and ride simulators may argue that combining these two separate technologies in the manner of ERST roller coaster car design is counterintuitive to their original applications. This would be valid reasoning; however, this radical departure from the traditional applications of motion rides and ride simulators is also the great novelty and utility of ERST roller coaster car technology. ERST roller coaster car technology eliminates the weakest effects of both systems by novel and selective integration of components and mechanisms unique to each separate system that results in a final product composed of only the best effects (and with new effects) that overall create a ride experience more intense than what is performed separately by these individual technologies. For example, visually encapsulating passengers from the surrounding environment to the ride vehicle gives ride designers and ride operators control over what passengers see and don't see during the ride. This creates heightened moments of intensity of the ride experience for passengers that cannot see but can still feel turns, drops, loops, and other dynamic movements of the roller coaster ride. This lack of visual presentation of the surrounding environment to the ride vehicle is replaced by a simulated ride theme that has the new advantages of being variable, reusable, and rich in technological and artistic capabilities that further increase the intensity of the ride experience.
In conclusion, the present invention replaces traditional motion rides and ride simulators with ERST roller coaster car technology. This new technology goes beyond additive effects of the separate technologies of motion rides and ride simulators and accomplishes synergistic ride experiences and from a greater spectrum of ride theme possibilities relative to the single theme construction of modern roller coaster rides. This is evident in that the individual contributing technologies of ERST roller coaster car technology enhance one another. For example, video outputs and audio outputs presenting a simulated ride theme adventure visually contained inside a roller coaster car enhance the ride motions of that roller coaster car running along a ride track and vice versa. This results in riders experiencing a total ride effect in ERST roller coaster cars greater in intensity than the total ride effect of what is created separately by motion rides and ride simulators. This also creates a heightened sense of realism of the ride experience as riders only see the simulated ride theme environment and not scenery of the amusement park environment (such as other rides, park attendees, and concrete walkways) surrounding the ride vehicle that otherwise would diminish riders' experiences. Thus, the synergistic effect of realism is accomplished by simultaneously matching motions of true roller coaster velocities and accelerations of the ride vehicle to the visually encapsulated simulated ride theme adventure.