Application Of Optical Flow In Determining Movements For Realistic Roller Coaster Ride Using A 360° Video And Two Degrees Of Freedom Motion Chair

Virtually created roller coaster rides are computer generated scenario that mimic real life roller coasters. But most virtual roller coaster rides are dependent on artificially made environments that seem fake and are not at all realistic. This study focuses on the use of motion chair, 360° roller coaster videos, and the use of optical flow to create a roller coaster system that is more realistic. Using optical flow to determine movements in the 360° video that is sent to the created motion chair, while the video is played on the connected android phone for viewing of the video. The solution proved that acquiring 3D movements of roller coaster in 360° video is possible through the proposed method by the researchers but provides the problem of level of accuracy of movements. The optical flow is used to determine the movement of pixels from its current to previous movement, the gathered data in the whole video that is processed with optical flow is filtered to acquire the estimated angle of the movement of the roller coaster int the video. It was also proven that the created motion chair can execute the calculated movements of the program but relating it to the 15° maximum and -15° minimum movement of the created motion chair. Finally, the realism of the created system is evaluated by respondents that have previously experienced riding rollercoaster rides in real life.