Movie changeover systems, that is systems which enable a real-time continuous change between reels during projection of a motion picture are well known in the art.
Conceptually, these prior art conventional movie changeover systems enable the projectionist to switch from one reel to another during projection of a movie which is contained on multiple reels without any such change being visably perceptible to the viewing audience. In order to accomplish this, the movie media on the reel being projected normally contains a series of cues for the projectionist located near the end of the reel with the last cue being the changeover point which is normally followed by an end leader. The reel to which the projection is being changed preferably contains a front leader prior to the last cue on the previous reel which leader is then followed by the continuation of the picture. The projectionist responds to the cues on the reel being projected to start the second projector up to speed so that when the last cue at the end of the reel being projected occurs, the projectionist can operate the changeover shutter switch to change over the movie presentation from the first reel being projected to the second reel which had been previously brought up to speed for projection. These prior art movie changeover systems, however, require that changeovers take place at a given time which is at the extreme end of the movie reels and do not enable a real time decision tree continuous movie display presentation to be provided so as to provide a variable movie display content dependent on the detected response of the viewing audience at various branching points throughout the movie. This is so despite it being known in the prior art to detect and measure audience responses, such as via a conventional applause meter or other conventional prior art polling system. However, none of these prior art polling systems is capable of providing a real time decision tree movie presentation having a variable movie display content dependant on the viewing audience response.
In addition to the above, the concept of branching in a real time environment is generally described in my prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,947,972 and 4,078,316, and 4,117,605 which also names Lawrence G. Kurland as an inventor thereof, and which all relate to a real time conversational toy; and in my U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,264,924 and 4,264,925, which also names Lawrence G. Kurland as an inventor thereof, and which relate to an interactive cable television system. However, none of the aforementioned patents is directed to a real time decision tree movie presentation in which a movie changeover system is capable of providing a variable movie display content dependent on the response of the viewing audience. Such a system, however is described in my copending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 321,478, filed Nov. 16, 1981, entitled "Audience Responsive Movie System", now abandoned and 371,415, filed Apr. 23, 1982, entitled "Improved Audience Responsive Movie System", now abandoned, with the system of the present invention being a further improvement thereon.
These disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention.