US 5,195,746 · Granted 1993-03-23
The Arcade Chair That Lets You Fly a Plane With Your Weight
Imagine a video game chair that tilts when you lean, and the game responds by moving the image on screen — like you're actually piloting a plane. You grab the handles on the sides, shift your weight forward or back, and the sensors inside detect your movement and tell the game what to do.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a combination of a tilting seat mounted on a base, dual handles on either side for the operator to grip, switches that detect how the seat tilts in different directions, and the connection between those switches and video game circuitry that moves images on a screen in response to the tilting motion. What's protected here is the specific mechanical and electrical integration: the idea that an operator's weight shift, sensed by the chair's tilt, directly controls what happens in a video game or flight simulation.
Why it matters
This patent locks down a core interaction mechanic for immersive arcade and simulation games — the idea that your body movement in a physical seat can directly steer a virtual aircraft or vehicle. By patenting this combination of mechanical tilting, sensor detection, and game control, the assignee created a defensible design for flight simulators and arcade cabinets that needed to feel responsive and realistic. This kind of motion-control feedback became a key selling point in arcade venues during the early 1990s.
Real-world use
Walk into a 1990s arcade and find a flight simulator cabinet with a cockpit-style seat — when you lean forward to dive, the plane dives; when you lean back to climb, it climbs. You're using this patented tilting-seat control system.
Original USPTO abstract
Apparatus for controlling the movement of an electronic image on a video display includes a base member, a seat for an operator, a support assembly for mounting the seat on the base member in facing relation to the video display, such that the seat can be tilted relative to the base member. Two handles project upwardly from the base member, adjacent respective opposed sides of the seat for being grasped by the operator in the seat to impart tilting movement thereto by shifting the weight of the operator in a direction corresponding to a desired directional movement of the image. A plurality of electrical switches are provided for sensing the tilting movement of the seat and for generating an electrical signal indicative thereof. Video game control circuitry is responsive to the discrete electrical signal for moving the electronic image in response to the tilting movement of the seat. The apparatus is particularly well-suited for use in connection with a flight simulation video game, whereby the video display is used to simulate the movements of an aircraft and the sensations experienced by an aircraft pilot during various movements of the aircraft.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 5,195,746
- Filing date
- 1991-04-04
- Grant date
- 1993-03-23
- Assignee
- Simulator Technology, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- BOYD; CECIL E., TESSMER; TERRY N., DWYER; KENNETH F., THOMAS; GLEN E.
- CPC class
- A47C15/004
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