System and method for crowd management and maintenance operations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12086819-B2
Application number	US-202318320061-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 18, 2023
Priority date	Nov 29, 2017
Publication date	Sep 10, 2024
Grant date	Sep 10, 2024

Abstract

A crowd management system includes at least one local controller associated with an attraction area of an individual attraction within a theme park. The crowd management system includes a transceiver of the at least one local controller, where the transceiver receives guests data via wireless signals from guest-associated devices within a detection range of the local controller. The crowd management system includes a remote central controller in communication with the at least one local controller and the guest-associated device. The remote central controller receives the guest data from the at least one local controller and determines one or more crowd metrics of the individual attraction based on the guest data. The remote central controller generates an activity command based on the one or more crowd metrics. The remote central controller transmits the activity command to at least one guest-associated device of the guest-associated devices.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
interactive equipment elements of an individual attraction within a theme park;
one or more sensors; and
a controller comprising a memory storing instructions and a processor configured to execute the instructions to:
receive data from the one or more sensors, wherein the data comprises information indicative of guest interactions with the interactive equipment elements;
determine, using the processor, one or more maintenance-related metrics of the interactive equipment elements based on the received data;
generate a maintenance command for the interactive equipment elements based on the one or more maintenance-related metrics;
transmit a signal using communication circuitry to deactivate the interactive equipment elements based on the maintenance command; and

transmit a signal using the communication circuitry to activate different interactive equipment elements based on the maintenance command, wherein the interactive equipment elements are spaced apart from the different interactive equipment elements within the individual attraction, and wherein the interactive equipment elements are not the same as the different interactive equipment elements.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to transmit an activity command related to the different interactive equipment elements to one or more guest devices upon activating the different interactive equipment elements.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to transmit the maintenance command to a task program to queue maintenance request.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the maintenance command comprises an order to service or replace the equipment.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise impact sensors, accelerometers, time of operation sensors, piezosensors, optical sensors, or a combination thereof.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the maintenance-related metrics comprise a number of guest interactions with the interactive equipment elements.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more maintenance-related metrics is indicative of wear on a portion of the attraction.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more maintenance-related metrics is indicative of an upper operating limit of an individual interactive equipment element.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more maintenance-related metrics is indicative of maintenance for a mechanical or electronic response of an individual interactive equipment element.

10. A method, comprising:
receiving data from one or more sensors at a controller, wherein the data comprises information indicative of guest interactions with interactive equipment elements of an attraction comprising time of the guest interactions;
determining, using a processor of the controller, that the interactive equipment elements have reached a maintenance threshold;
using a processor of the controller to generate a maintenance command for the interactive equipment elements based on one or more maintenance-related metrics;
using a processor of the controller to deactivate the interactive equipment elements based on the maintenance command; and
using a processor of the controller to activate different interactive equipment elements based on the maintenance command, wherein the interactive equipment elements are spaced apart from the different interactive equipment elements within the attraction, and wherein the interactive equipment elements are not the same as the different interactive equipment elements.

11. The method of claim 10 , comprising transmitting an activity command related to the different interactive equipment elements to one or more guest devices upon activating the different interactive equipment elements.

12. The method of claim 10 , comprising transmitting the maintenance command to a task program to queue maintenance request.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the maintenance command comprises an order to service or replace the equipment.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more maintenance-related metrics is indicative of wear on a portion of the attraction.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more maintenance-related metrics is indicative of an upper operating limit of an individual interactive equipment element of the interactive equipment elements.

16. The method of claim 10 , comprising displaying an indication of the maintenance command.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the indication is indicative of a need for servicing at least one of the interactive equipment elements.

18. The method of claim 10 , comprising transmitting the maintenance command form a remote central controller.

Assignees

• Universal City Studios Llc

Inventors

• Yeh Wei
• Cossairt Travis

Classifications

• G07C2011/02

  related to amusement parks · CPC title

• G06K7/10237

  the reader and the record carrier being capable of selectively switching between reader and record carrier appearance, e.g. in near field communication [NFC] devices where the NFC device may function as an RFID reader or as an RFID tag · CPC title

• G07C11/00

  Arrangements, systems or apparatus for checking, e.g. the occurrence of a condition, not provided for elsewhere · CPC title

• G06Q50/10

  Services · CPC title

• A63G33/00

  Devices allowing competitions between several persons, not otherwise provided for · CPC title