Disney Patent Could Warn Guests and Personalize the Ride Experience

This morning, Disney had a unique patent application published. It’s not about ride vehicles, Audio-Animatronics, or projectors. Instead, it focuses on ways to alert theme park guests to things they might not wish to encounter while riding an attraction. And, eventually, maybe even tailoring the ride experience to remove some of those things altogether.

Let’s be honest. We all have certain things we don’t particularly love on some attractions. But for some guests, those aversions are more than simple dislikes. Triggering a physical, medical, or sensory intolerance while riding can have very real consequences.

Disney offers several examples, including a fear of blood or gore and susceptibility to photosensitive epilepsy. Did anyone else just think of Disco Yeti?

Disney’s patent opens the door to dealing with those issues both passively and actively. It covers a wide range of possibilities, from simply warning a guest about what’s coming to, someday, temporarily removing, reducing, or replacing the unwanted element altogether.

The accessibility ramifications are intriguing to think about. Mariann, our expert in that department, has shared several stories about how Noah, her adult son who has profound autism, can enjoy an attraction while struggling with one particular part of it. I remember bypassing the Haunted Mansion’s stretching room when we spent the day with them a year ago. That’s similar to the kind of situation this patent could help address.

So how does it work?

The patent, officially titled “Personalized Notification of Attractions Including User Preferences or Aversions,” has several facets. First, guests would create a profile of their attraction preferences. Ride characteristics could be marked as enjoyable or aversive, possibly rated on a numerical scale.

Those characteristics cover a wide range of experiences, including visual effects, sounds, odors, flavors, motion, and tactile effects. Along with blood, gore, and flashing lights, Disney lists spiders, screaming, horns, chemical smells, spicy food, heat, cold, water, acceleration, changes in altitude, abrupt turns, and confined spaces.

Two of the patent drawings show what that process might look like. In one, the guest selects “Dark Scary Scenes” and “Sharp Turns & Drops.” Another example includes a “Request Substitute Content” option.

Once a profile is created, the system could use location information to alert a guest when they approach an attraction containing one or more of their selections.

That’s the simple part. But Disney could take this much further.

Changing the experience in real time

The patent proposes that, in some cases, Disney could modify the experience rather than simply warning the guest about it. If the system knows an unwanted moment is coming, it could provide substitute content that removes or reduces the problematic element. When that isn’t possible, it could instead warn the guest immediately before the moment occurs.

Substitute content could include different visual effects, audio, or other sensory content via a phone, tablet, smartwatch, or even an augmented- or virtual-reality device. That opens the door to experiences personalized for one guest without necessarily changing what everyone else sees or hears.

Then there are attractions where the ride itself could change. Disney mentioned a flight or space-travel simulator as an example. If a guest dislikes abrupt changes in acceleration or altitude, the attraction could reduce those movements. Someone who enjoys more intense motion could request increased g-forces.

That sounds a lot like Mission: SPACE’s orange and green options, but on an individual scale.

Disney won’t be able to make every attraction completely customizable for every guest. A shared dark ride can’t remove a large Audio-Animatronic because one rider doesn’t like snakes. But this doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. If a system like this could make even some attractions more accessible to some guests, that’s worth it.

Read more: Universal Patents Ride Seat That Molds to Each Guest