Ballast Technologies, Inc.

Stephen Greenwood

Ananda Shah

Alkis Roufas

Allan Evans

Hannah De Bie

Kyle Mayfield

Jim Mayfield

Keenan Mayfield

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for providing VR/MR experiences to users in water through a headset and at least one special-effects device. During a VR/MR experience, a controller may send commands to a special-effects device at particular times to cause the special-effects device to create effects in synchronism with the visual portion of the VR/MR experience. A headset application that provides the visual portion of the VR/MR experience may communicate with the controller before the experience begins to establish the identity of the experience and the start time. The VR/MR experience may be selected by reading a storage medium (e.g., a near-field communication (NFC) card) that identifies the experience and/or the controller. Some information on the storage medium may be included in a metadata file transferred to the application. The application may send information read from the storage medium to the controller via an over-the-air network.

Systems, methods, and devices for providing virtual-reality or mixed-reality experiences with special effects to a user in or under water

Disclosed herein are systems for providing virtual reality or mixed reality experiences to riders of a waterslide. In some embodiments, the system comprises a plurality of beacons or markers disposed along the waterslide, and a waterproof virtual reality (VR) headset for presenting virtual reality or mixed reality content to a person wearing the waterproof VR headset and riding the waterslide, wherein each of the plurality of beacons or markers is configured to be detectable to facilitate coordinated presentation of the virtual reality or mixed reality content to the person wearing the waterproof VR headset and riding the waterslide based at least in part on a location of the person along the waterslide.

Coordination of water-related experiences with virtual reality content

The present invention is directed to devices, systems and methods for coordinating water-related experiences with virtual reality content. In one aspect of the present invention, a method of providing a virtual reality experience to a rider moving along the surface of water is provided. The method includes the following steps: providing a headset to the rider, wherein the headset is placed over the rider's eyes; providing a surface of water along which the rider can travel; collecting data on the rider's acceleration, velocity or orientation through interaction of the headset with signals generated next to the surface of the water along which the rider travels; using the data to calculate one or more values that are used to coordinate virtual reality content with the rider's position along the water surface; presenting the virtual reality content to the rider through the headset, thereby providing a virtual reality experience to the rider.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Stephen Greenwood