Universal Patents Ride Seat That Molds to Each Guest

Universal is being awarded a lot of patents of late. Many of them deal with ride systems and animatronics – and don’t worry, we’ll be talking about them soon enough – but it was a patent about ride seat pans, of all things, that really grabbed my attention and got me thinking.

Thanks to Aahs n Oohs for always making sure these patents are on my radar.

It’s not an overly exciting patent, but it provides a possible solution to a common criticism of Universal’s rides: their ride seats aren’t designed to accommodate guests of all shapes and sizes.

How Universal’s moldable ride seat works

The patented seat is filled with an electrorheological or magnetorheological fluid, meaning a fluid whose viscosity changes when an electric or magnetic field is applied. When no field is present, the fluid stays loose, forming around whoever sits in it. The patent allows for a possible pommel that rises between the legs.

Once a sensor confirms the guest is seated and the ride is about to move, the controller energizes the field. The current causes the seat material to stiffen, locking in the custom-molded shape to hold the guest securely for the duration of the ride.

I need to pause to give Universal’s patent attorneys credit for their commitment to professionalism. Rather than naming the specific body part responsible for all this molding, the filing repeatedly falls back on the wonderfully legalistic “portion of the passenger.” It’s the kind of euphemism I’d expect from someone trying very hard not to say “rear end” in a legal document, and honestly, I respect the restraint.

The potential accessibility benefits

A seat that reshapes itself around the actual person sitting in it, rather than forcing every guest into the same molded bucket, is a genuinely elegant fix to Universal’s accessibility issue. It’s not hard to imagine this technology eventually showing up across coasters, dark rides, and simulators alike. Maybe future coasters, like the rumored broom flying coaster in Ministry of Magic, could feature these seats to accommodate all guests more easily.

What happens if power fails?

There’s a catch worth flagging, though. Keeping the seat firm requires an electric or magnetic field, which means it requires constant power. Most ride restraint systems are engineered the opposite way on purpose: they’re designed to stay locked if power is lost. Those require power to release the locks, not to hold them shut.

A seat pan that could lose rigidity if a ride vehicle were to lose power could be a dangerous situation, especially if it happens mid-ride. I’d expect Universal’s safety and legal teams to want a solid answer for that failure mode before this fluid seat ever ends up under a real guest. If they solve it, though, it could be a game-changer.

Because of this possible limitation, I think it may be more likely to see seats like these first implemented on slower-moving rides. If your seat softens in the middle of a dark ride like Secret Life of Pets, you’re far less likely to be ejected and injured than if it happened in the middle of Velocicoaster!

I’m excited to see if and where Universal may implement this new seat pan, and whether it could change the narrative around accessibility in Universal rides.

Read more: Universal Patent Combines Floating Boat With Overhead Track