William L Bohn

US Patent:

7021937, Apr 4, 2006

Filed:

Apr 16, 2001

Appl. No.:

09/835830

Inventors:

Barry Simpson - Irvine CA, US
William R. Bohn - Granada Hills CA, US

Assignee:

Viretek - Newport Beach CA

International Classification:

G09B 19/16

US Classification:

434 62, 434 69

Abstract:

The cockpit and external appearance of a racing car are accurately simulated. A spherical mirror display is attached to the underside of the hood of the simulator. When the hood is raised, a video presentation is projected onto a display screen via first and second mirrors and the image on the display screen is reflected off of the spherical mirror to the player “driving” the simulated racing car. In the preferred embodiment, the spherical mirror is a thin acrylic sheet molded to the desired curvature. A mirror surface is formed on the concave surface of the molded sheet and a sheet of foam plastic is scored on one side so that the foam plastic sheet conforms to the reverse concave side of the molded acrylic sheet. The foam sheet is molded to the thin acrylic sheet mirror to rigidly support the acrylic sheet mirror in the desired curvature.