Indoor skiing ground facilities having lighting fixtures

• US 6,488,590 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2001
• Issued: 12/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Snowmagic Entertainment USA, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Piste Snow Industries
• Inventors: Katayama, Minoru
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Kien T.
• Application Number:
  US09/802,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20020128082A1
• Time in Patent Office: 634 Days
• Field of Search: 472/61, 472/88, 472/90, 472/92, 434/247, 434/253, 434/38, 434/44
• US Class Current: 472/90
• CPC Class Codes: A63C 19/10 Ice-skating or roller-skating rinks; Slopes or trails for skiing, ski-jumping or tobogganing chutes A63G21/00; ski-lifts B61B11/00; making or maintaining surfaces of snow or ice suitable for traffic or sporting purposes E01H4/00; removing snow or ice E01H5/00; production of ice or snow F25C3/00

Abstract

In skiing ground facilities having a plurality of artificial snow manufacturing apparatuses of ice crushing type, this invention provides a system that is capable of precisely monitoring the respective artificial snow manufacturing apparatuses. This system comprises a monitoring apparatus, connected to the artificial snow manufacturing apparatus, for monitoring the operation state of each artificial snow manufacturing apparatus. This system has an outer monitoring apparatus, which is provided at an outer monitoring site positioned at a location away from the skiing ground, and is selectively connected to the monitoring apparatus provided at each skiing ground, whereby making it possible to monitor the operation state of each artificial manufacturing apparatus of each skiing ground.

Claims

1. An indoor skiing ground comprising:

a ski slope with a predetermined inclination on which skiers go downhill;

a wall for surrounding said ski slope to cut off atmosphere on said ski slope from outer atmosphere;

a plurality of spray nozzles, arranged at the inner side of said wall, for generating a plurality of screens of mist, each having a predetermined shape, at upper portions of said ski slope; and

a plurality of projectors, arranged at the inner side of said wall, for projecting predetermined images on said screens of mist to be shown to said skiers.

2. The indoor skiing ground according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of spray nozzles are continuously arranged along a predetermined direction to generate the curtain-like screens of mist.

3. The indoor skiing ground according to claim 2, wherein said spray nozzles are continuously arranged along a width direction of said ski slope to generate the curtain-like screens of mist extending along said width direction, and said spray nozzles are arranged at given intervals in a downhill direction of said ski slope to form said curtain-like screens of mist in said inclination direction.

4. The indoor skiing ground according to claim 3, wherein said projectors are provided at given intervals along the inclination direction of said ski slope to project said image on each of said plurality of curtain-like screens of mist.

5. The indoor skiing ground according to claim 4, further comprising control means for selectively operating said plurality of spray nozzles and said plurality of said projectors, wherein said control means operates said spray nozzles and said projectors in accordance with a control pattern prepared depending on a predetermined scene.

6. The indoor skiing ground according to claim 5, wherein said control means controls the operation of said spray nozzles or said projectors, or both in synchronization with downhill speed of the skiers.

7. The indoor skiing ground according to claim 1, wherein the inner surface of said wall that surrounds said ski slope is formed to have a semicircular shape extending from one side portion to the other side portion, and a landscape that imitates sky is painted on the inner surface.

8. The indoor skiing ground according to claim 7, further comprising illuminators for illuminating the landscape on the inner surface of the wall and illuminators for illuminating the surface of the ski slope, separately.

9. The indoor skiing ground according to claim 8, wherein the landscape painted on the inner surface of said wall includes objects painted with fluorescent paint, said illuminators for illuminating said landscape are provided such that normal light and near-ultraviolet light for emitting the objects painted with fluorescent paint are changeable.

10. The indoor skiing ground according to claim 8, wherein said illuminators for illuminating the surface of said ski slope includes illuminators for daytime, which are used together with normal light with which said landscape is illuminated at the time of representing daytime, and illuminators for night, which are used in a state in which said normal light is turned off or weakened at the time of representing night.