Floating Simulator Theater
Floating-Simulator Theater
Patent Pending
The HinesLab motion-based theater combines linear and rotational motions of the floating sphere to make the audience feel like they are in the scene of action movies.
Currently, 80-ft. diameter Omnimax / IMAX theaters, and the 516-ft. diameter Sphere theater in Las Vegas, provide stunning wide-angle views, however lack the excitement of a motion base to move the theater in synch with the action in the film.
The Floating Theater with ballast-tanks:
The 3-dof floating spherical theater is pushed in the X and Z directions by paddles in the water. To lift the floating theater, water is released from the annular tank into the central tank.
The theater building and floating spherical theater can be scaled up (for a larger audience), or down (for a pilot trainer) using techniques familiar to water parks (ex.: Blue Thunder Wave Pool, and the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas).
Ballast tanks to control angular motion:
The screen can be a conventional front projection screen, or a rigid shell to support LED-video tiles. To save weight, the screen can be inflated like a weather balloon, a tennis court cover, or a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade float.
The umbilical cord supplies electrical power to the water pumps, to the gyro stabilizer and the projector or screen.
Angular-change, technique #1:
Transferring water between ballast tanks causes the spherical theater to tip:
In the theater, propellers circulate water through mutually-perpendicular propulsion tubes to create back pressure to move the theater to pitch, roll and yaw (a trick reverse engineered from the human inner ear).
Circular pipes (for each of pitch, roll and yaw) made of modular propulsion tubes with propellers. The back pressure to the hull is proportional to the number of circular pipes (the more the better to increase back pressure).
Military Application:
The steering of watercraft can be simplified using mutually-perpendicular propulsion tubes. The absence of rudder and hydrofoils eliminates two of the three sources of cavitation.
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| notebook #2, p. 080 |
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HinesLab is actively seeking to license this patent-pending technology. Please contact Steve Hines at:
HinesLab