1. Field of the Description
The present invention relates, in general, to walk-around, costumed characters and control over audio output (e.g., a character may sing or talk) and onboard robotics (e.g., the character may move their mouth and blink/move their eyes) on such walk-around characters, and, more particularly, to a control assembly for a walk-around character that is configured to sense an actor's chin and/or mouth movement and to respond by triggering audio playback and/or character animation.
2. Relevant Background
Walk-around or costumed characters are used to entertain and interact with visitors of many facilities including theme or amusement parks. A walk-around character is provided by an operator or performer wearing a costume including a head that covers the performer's face. The costume head is mounted to or supported on a headband that is worn by the performer. In the head and/or costume, equipment including sound equipment and robotics is provided so that a walk-around character can speak with visitors to provide a meetable character that can be animated to move their eyes and mouth while they talk and interact with the visitors.
In many applications, the walk-around character is representing a character from a movie, a video game, a cartoon, or the like. The visitors expect that character to have a particular or a single voice, e.g., the voice used in the movie. As a result, the performer cannot simply use their own voice when they meet and talk with visitors, and, instead, scripted lines typically are recorded for each of the walk-around characters to provide the expected voices. The onboard audio or sound equipment is then controlled or triggered to playback these lines at appropriate times. The character's head may simultaneously be animated by operating robotics to provide mouth movement and eye blinks that are synchronized to the audio playback.
To allow each walk-around character to speak to visitors, there has to be an effective way to trigger the animation and/or audio that cannot be detected by the often nearby visitor. For example, the triggering mechanism should not be audible to the visitor. One implementation is to use a backstage operator who has control over the audio and animation by selectively sending wireless control signals to the costume's sound and robotic systems. However, it is not practical in many cases to provide a backstage operator for each walk-around character. In other implementations, control is provided to the performer within the costume using finger paddles that the performer can operate to lip sync the character mouth to the pre-recorded audio track presently being played back to the visitor. Use of finger paddles, though, is typically visible to the visitors, which can ruin the illusion or desired effect.
There remains a need for effective ways to trigger control over walk-around character equipment such as to trigger an audio playback or to trigger animation of the character's mouth. Preferably, such new ways would not be audible and would not be detectable by an observer of the character. In some cases, it may be useful to continue to use finger paddle controls but to provide an additional triggering device. Further, it may be desirable that the trigger be easy for the performer to initiate or operate while also providing relatively few false triggers as interaction with a walk-around character can be ineffective if the character speaks at improper moments or an incorrect scripted line is triggered.