Rob
TS Team
- Favourite Ride
- Steel Vengeance
A new topic for various different Disney developments that are not yet linked to a specific park.
We all know the wonderful people over at Walt Disney Imagineering are always coming up with new ideas and concepts. Park Journey have come across a patent application for a brand new ride system:
Certainly an interesting concept. Park Journey have also speculated what it could be used for. One of their ideas if for the Tron coaster at Shanghai Disneyland, however it is thought this would be unlikely seeing as the coaster is already under contruction and due to open next year.
Their more intriguing and likely idea is a ride for Avatar Land at Animal Kingdom:
As they say, we have no idea when this technology might actually be used. They may have already developed a working test prototype or on the other hand they may only have drawings so far and are a long way off any sort of production. It does sound like somehting that could be used in Avatar Land though.
I'm not too sure what I make of it. Of course it is a brilliant concept and would bring a whole new meaning to interactive rides. That is a good thing right? I'm not sure, it depends how it all works. If it means that you are on your own ride vehicle, on your own, controlling your own ride experiece then for me that takes away a huge element of theme park rides: sharing the whole experience with family and friends. For me that Avatar idea sounds more like a gaming experience than a riding experience. Thankfully that is only an idea though, and for now you have to imagine that Disney would implement it in a suitable way.
We all know the wonderful people over at Walt Disney Imagineering are always coming up with new ideas and concepts. Park Journey have come across a patent application for a brand new ride system:
Park Journey said:We recently unearthed a very interesting patent application for an innovative new ride system created by the nice folks over at Walt Disney Imagineering. In many ways this system could be a game changer, allowing guests to interact with attractions like never before.
Full Disclosure: This is a patent application. They are typically written in the broadest spectrum possible as to not let on to competitors what the specific plans for the system are as well to have the legal protection of the patent cover as many iterations or ideas as possible.
At it's essence, this is a ride vehicle you sit on straddling like a motorcycle or even a dragon (hmm) where by leaning (to the side, forward or backward) you can control the direction, speed, or height of whatever you are riding on in a virtual world.
The system works by using sensors (gyroscopes) integrated into the seat. The seats sits on a motion actuated base (think Indy or Dinosaur) that responds to your leaning by moving or angling itself to correspond to your movements. In different iterations of the patent application, the motion base can be attached to a track as well as projected images.
Certainly an interesting concept. Park Journey have also speculated what it could be used for. One of their ideas if for the Tron coaster at Shanghai Disneyland, however it is thought this would be unlikely seeing as the coaster is already under contruction and due to open next year.
Their more intriguing and likely idea is a ride for Avatar Land at Animal Kingdom:
Park Journey said:Many rumors point to Avatar being similar to Soarin' . In this idea you would be able to feel like your were steering the dragon through this space as opposed to a static experience like on Soarin by replacing the large Soarin' screen with an Occulus Rift type VR headset. The tilting action of the motion base with the head tracking of a VR headset would be an amazing 1-2 punch of immersiveness to really bring you into the world of Pandora.
The patent also mentions using the leaning element to free hands for interactive shooting game. You lean to turn in the direction or on the angle you want to to be and have your hands already free to shoot.
So there you have some new technology that Disney is hard at work developing and a few possible scenarios that would make for completely unique experiences. We have no inside information of how or when this system may see the light of the day, but..... I'm just sayin'- The ability to fly your own dragon wherever you like in a completely convincing and free 3d world. I could see even the biggest opponents of the Avatar expansion flying down to Florida to try that.
As they say, we have no idea when this technology might actually be used. They may have already developed a working test prototype or on the other hand they may only have drawings so far and are a long way off any sort of production. It does sound like somehting that could be used in Avatar Land though.
I'm not too sure what I make of it. Of course it is a brilliant concept and would bring a whole new meaning to interactive rides. That is a good thing right? I'm not sure, it depends how it all works. If it means that you are on your own ride vehicle, on your own, controlling your own ride experiece then for me that takes away a huge element of theme park rides: sharing the whole experience with family and friends. For me that Avatar idea sounds more like a gaming experience than a riding experience. Thankfully that is only an idea though, and for now you have to imagine that Disney would implement it in a suitable way.
