System and method for tracking a passive wand and actuating an effect based on a detected wand path
A system in accordance with present embodiments includes a source of electromagnetic radiation that operates to emit electromagnetic radiation into an active playing area. The system also includes a sensing device that operates to receive the electromagnetic radiation after being reflected from a retro-reflective material of an article positioned in the active playing area and operable to generate data based on receiving reflected electromagnetic radiation from a series of article positions. Further, the system includes a controller that operates to process the data generated by the sensing device to determine whether the series of article positions correlate to a stored gesture and output a control signal to actuate an effect when the series of article positions correlate to the stored gesture.
1 . A system comprising:
a source of electromagnetic radiation configured to flood an active playing area with the electromagnetic radiation;
a sensing device configured to receive reflected radiation from a reflective material in the active playing area;
one or more effect devices configured to actuate an effect, wherein the one or more effect devices are positioned within the active playing area; and
one or more processors configured to actuate the effect based on the reflected radiation correlating to a stored gesture.
2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more effect devices comprise a water fountain, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to actuate the effect by activating the water fountain.
3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to actuate the effect by adjusting a position of a valve of the one or more effect devices.
4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the source of electromagnetic radiation is configured to continuously flood the active playing area with the electromagnetic radiation.
5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more effect devices are a plurality of effect devices, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to:
determine location information corresponding to the reflective material based on the reflected radiation; and
activate a subset of the plurality of effect devices based on the location information.
6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to actuate the effect based on the reflected radiation being within a boundary.
7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to interpolate between a plurality of positions of the reflected radiation to determine whether the reflected radiation correlates to the stored gesture.
8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the reflected radiation correlates to the stored gesture by comparing positional data generated by the sensing device based on the reflected radiation to gesture data and identifying a correlation between the positional data and the stored gesture of the gesture data.
9 . A method, comprising:
causing, via an emitter, a source of electromagnetic radiation to flood an active playing area with the electromagnetic radiation;
receiving, via a sensing device, reflected radiation from a reflective material in the active playing area, wherein the reflected radiation comprises a reflected portion of the electromagnetic radiation; and
actuating, via a controller, an effect based on the reflected radiation correlating to a stored gesture, wherein actuating the effect comprises activating one or more effect devices positioned within the active playing area.
10 . The method of claim 9 , comprising interpolating, via the controller, between a plurality of positions of the reflected radiation to determine that the reflected radiation correlates to the stored gesture.
11 . The method of claim 10 , comprising modifying, via the controller, a tolerance associated with determining whether the reflected radiation correlates to the stored gesture based on identification of a frequency of the reflected radiation.
12 . The method of claim 9 , comprising:
determining, via the controller, location information corresponding to the reflective material; and
activating, via the controller, the one or more effect devices based on the location information.
13 . The method of claim 9 , comprising determining, via the controller, that the reflected radiation correlates to the stored gesture based on a timeframe associated with the reflected radiation being less than a threshold timeframe.
14 . A system, comprising:
a sensing device configured to receive reflected radiation from a reflective material in an active playing area;
a source of electromagnetic radiation configured to flood the active playing area with the electromagnetic radiation;
one or more water effect devices configured to generate a first water effect and a second water effect, wherein the one or more water effect devices are positioned within the active playing area; and
one or more processors configured to:
actuate the first water effect based on the reflected radiation correlating to a first stored gesture; and
actuate the second water effect based on the reflected radiation correlating to a second stored gesture.
15 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to activate the water effect device to generate the first water effect based on the reflected radiation corresponding to a location within the active playing area.
16 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to:
determine a frequency of the reflected radiation; and
determine whether the reflected radiation corresponds to the first stored gesture or the second stored gesture based on the frequency of the reflected radiation.
17 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the source of electromagnetic radiation is at least partially covered by a camouflaging material.
18 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the source of the electromagnetic radiation and the sensing device are separately located from one another.
19 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the water effect device is positioned in the active playing area.
20 . The system of claim 14 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to pre-process the received reflected radiation to decrease interference received by the sensing device.