Really it was only a matter of time before I combined these two topics… 😂
It’s no secret that most companies are modernizing to keep up with our technology-centric society. However, one corporation seems to be really embracing these changes and are making clear strides towards a “great big beautiful tomorrow”. Between the amusement parks and rides, the Walt Disney Corporation is living on the cutting edge, as they are constantly utilizing the newest tech, and when necessary, inventing tools for the future.
Disney’s interest in staying modern isn’t a new trend. Looking back at the 1960’s, the Matterhorn Bobsled at Disney Land was the first “tubular-steel roller coaster ever built”. This set a new standard in amusement park attractions, and many parks, like Cedar Point, Six Flags, and Universal followed Disney’s pioneering footsteps.
However, Disney has impacted the world outside the amusement park industry as well. Anyone who has ever been on a Disney Parks vacation knows that everything is fun and games until you have to wait on a two-hour line to ride Splash Mountain. While the lines themselves are a different story, Disney developed the wait-time tracking technology. Each attraction posts a wait time that helps guests decide if they want to enter the queue or not. This technology has permeated into hospital waiting rooms, where knowing the wait time could be extremely useful to an injured guest. This is only one example of how Disney’s dedication to technology is impacting everyone in the world!
I’d like to preface this by stating that I haven’t been to Disney World in about 7 years, so I haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing this high-tech attraction. But, from the research I have done, as well as first hand accounts I’ve heard, the new Avatar Flight of Passage attraction is the new pinnacle of technology in amusement parks. Anyone who has ever seen the movie Avatar knows how immersive the setting is, and it’s clear to even the casual viewer that the film was a technological feat. With this being said, Disney knew that if they were going to translate the world of Pandora into a theme park attraction, they would have to create something nothing short of spectacular. First and foremost, Disney had to engineer a new way to combat long lines. They needed to find space to host all of the traffic but ensure that guests in line felt that the wait was worth their while. The Avatar Ride’s line is long enough to provide for a 6 hour wait time. Fortunately, the line only averages a two hour wait time everyday (even years after the ride’s debut). However, that’s still a lot of time standing around! Disney decided to make the line an interactive experience to keep guests engaged and interested. The line tells a story about the world of Avatar, and the history of the fictional world.
The concept of this ride was “Soarin’ over Pandora”. However, Disney took that idea and improved it tenfold. They consulted James Cameron, the creator of the Avatar movie, and worked with his vision to engineer a truly immersive experience for riders. The end product, Flight of Passage, is an augmented reality ride, in that it “brings elements of the virtual world into our real world”. This is done seamlessly, in a way that keeps guests what is real and what is virtual. The ride mimics the sensation of flying, as riders are seated atop the Ikran creatures that were heavily featured in the film. However, Imagineer Joe Rohde commented that, “In Flight of Passage, the sensation of flying is visceral, really believable. Not only do you have the more obvious aspects of flying – the swooping and curving – but we’ve put in crosswind, air density and banking”. Essentially, riders have a giant protection in front of them and the ride will move in varying directions based on the images in front of you. This doesn’t sound like anything new, but riders wear augmented reality goggles that make the world of Pandora come to life, so much so that many people have commented how they as though if they reached out and dismounted their creature, they would be able to walk straight into the scene.
The best and most innovative aspect of this ride is the technology that went into creating the Ikrans. Riders mount them as if they were on a motorbike, but the creatures look and feel nothing like a motorcycle. You can actually feel the “creature” breathing as you sit on it. You can see its sides expand and contract and can feel their pulse beating below you. Additionally, Disney pipes in smells in order to make the experience feel even more real. If you are “riding” near water, you can expect to feel a mist on your face, and if you are approaching a volcano, the smell of embers will be piped into the room. Critics and casual fans are raving about the technological feats of this attraction; however, Disney is being recognized with accolades and awards as well. In fact, the attraction was just given the industry award for most Outstanding Visual Effects.
These are only a few examples of how Disney is raising the standard when it comes to implementing technology into their parks. I think it’s safe to assume that when it comes to technology and innovation, the Walt Disney Corporation will, in the words of their founder, “keep moving forward”.
To sum up this message, I’ll leave you with this song, that is featured in my favorite underrated Disney World ride, The Carousel of Progress.
Sources:
https://www.realitytechnologies.com/augmented-reality/
https://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20170906/33143/behind-ride-avatar-flight-passage?page=2
I love love love roller coasters! It seems like every time we blink there is a new fastest, tallest, craziest roller coaster opening up somewhere. With all these rapid advancements in roller coasters, I can’t help but wonder how long we can maintain this? Doesn’t there have to be a certain height that we just can’t physically build any higher than that? Well, turns out that may or may not be true, but there is certainly one aspect of roller coasters that we can’t keep improving on- the G force the passengers experience.
In Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, the passengers go from 0 to 4.8G of acceleration in just under five seconds! Typically, only fighter pilots experience that level of G force. Increasing the G force gives the riders a greater sense of thrill, so naturally amusement parks have tried to increase this as much as possible. However according to John Wardley, a roller coaster designer, people are likely to black out if they are subjected to more than a couple of seconds of 5G force, so it seems highly unlikely that we are going to see roller coasters improving in this area.
On the other hand, we could absolutely still see roller coasters become faster and taller. However, experts also believe that it is unlikely for these aspects to keep rapidly growing as well due to one key factor: cost. Roller coasters are already incredibly expensive to build, but naturally, the more advanced they get, the more the prices increase exponentially. For example, to increase the speed of a roller coaster by 31mph costs approximately four million dollars. That’s just to bump the speed up to the new level that is expected from riders today! That doesn’t include the costs for designing and physically creating the coaster, and it doesn’t even factor in any other added advancements such as the height aspect!
With roller coasters becoming more and more expensive, it seems like perhaps we’ve reached the limit of what roller coasters can become, and thus it seems much more likely that amusement parks will turn to rides much like the Avatar one Kaitlyn described. My poor, precious roller coasters are a thing of the past, and new virtual reality rides are the way of the future.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-24553630
Hi Kaitlyn! Like Kara, I, too, am a fan of rollercoasters! I am also a huge fan of the incredible immersion that only Disney can seem to perfect! When you mentioned the use of augmented reality in rides such as the Flight of Passage, I also thought of my previous civic issue blog of Microsoft using augmented reality in a contract with the United States military. These two examples exemplify technology’s varying impact on society. There are clearly ways that new technology can be used for serious examples, such as using augmented reality to help the military become stronger and better equipped, but there are also lighthearted and fun ways that technology can be adopted as seen with Disney’s new and innovative rides.
According to Inc.com, the augmented reality market is expected to hit 100 billion dollars by 2020 – in just one year. Since this is such a quickly growing market, I was interested in other applications that society is currently exploring in regards to augmented reality. Out of a top 10 list, here are a few that I found to be extremely interesting or appealing.
Medical training is a big one. From talking with many pre-med students, I understand that getting shadowing and hands-on experience can be very competitive and difficult to find. With the rise of augmented reality, it gives students the opportunities and resources to obtain this experience. This will not only give the students an earlier understanding as to whether they enjoy the medical field, but it also allows them to enter the vigorous training process with a bit more experience – even if it is just a simulation. I think augmented reality can also become an invaluable tool when teaching about medical subjects such as anatomy.
Retail is one field that I was not expecting to find as a top interest for augmented reality. After reading into it, however, I think it makes complete sense. With the use of augmented reality, shoppers would be able to fully customize and experience the product before actually making a purchase. For example, if a shopper was looking for a dress that was not currently in stock, they could still see how it fit by using augmented reality. The example mentioned in the Inc article describes the benefits of augmented reality in the auto-industry as well. If a consumer wanted to purchase a customized vehicle, they would be able to see exactly what it would look like before placing the order. This would make shopping and the retail industry more efficient and more consumer friendly.
I think the Carousal of Progress is the perfect way to wrap up the investigation into technology in civic life. As new technology seems to be created every day, it is important that the public realizes the consequences of adopting or not adopting certain technologies. Especially since the entire world seems to operate on technology nowadays, I find it important that the public gets involved, so they can promote the technologies they believe in, and effectively fight against technologies they do not.
https://www.inc.com/james-paine/10-real-use-cases-for-augmented-reality.html
Wow Mike your comment was really interesting and I had never thought of some of those uses before. I had heard of using it for med students, but I hadn’t heard of the retail usage. This makes total sense though! I’m super lazy and I hate trying clothes, so it would be great to be able to see what the clothes look like on you without trying it on actually. Although, I am a little confused as to how you would know if it actually fits you or not? But overall, I think there are lots of advantages to this technology, and I’m sure we’ll think of more uses as it becomes more of a reality. lol get it get it
Thinking about all of the recent advancements in technology and where we are headed, the possibilities seem almost endless. I had never thought about the everyday uses, however, that come with these advancements, such as the dress example you had used. The augmented reality used in Disney’s newest attraction is absolutely breath taking, but an entire park full of rides such as those sounds like it may become boring. I do hope that Disney executes these technologies properly and with the good of their clients in mind.
Hi Kaitlyn! I really loved reading your blog post this week. I’m such a Disney fan as well, and after reading your post, I was reminded of a ride I went on a few years ago in Disney World with my friends. This ride is part of the Harry Potter attraction, and is called the Forbidden Journey. Much like the Avatar line, the Harry Potter line also interactive. There were paintings on the walls of Harry Potter characters that moved and talked, and the architecture inside the structure while waiting was so detailed and beautiful. It truly looked just like the movie. I honestly think it’s so smart that Disney has started making their lines for rides entertaining, because as you said, it makes the two hour long waits way more enjoyable!
In addition, the Harry Potter ride also mimics the idea of flying. Instead of feeling like you’re on an Ikran though, riders are supposed to feel like they are riding a broom and chasing a Golden Snitch. Furthermore, not only do you feel the swooping and deep plunges, but there was also the feeling of wind as well from what I can remember! The screen we watched while sitting on this ride took us through all of Hogwarts, and everything looked so realistic. It’s so crazy to think of all the innovative technology that goes into making the Disney Rides. It’s no wonder such a wide range of people enjoy going to Disney World or Disneyland.
What’s really cool you added in this post is the description of the Ikrans. It’s amazing how the creators of this ride had the idea to make the creatures give of a breathing and pulse sensation. That definitely has to make stepping on this ride even more realistic. It’s the small details that can make such a difference.
I really enjoyed your post this week, and it was great to learn about a ride I was unfamiliar with. Great job!
Link:
https://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/things-to-do/rides-and-attractions/harry-potter-and-the-forbidden-journey/#
Hey Bella! The Forbidden Journey was such a good ride! The screens and visuals made it feel extremely realistic, but occasionally I would wind up getting dizzy from being able to see small tears in the images. I think as technology advances, the ride will become more seamless and more immersive. I feel this is the same for virtual reality devices. In many situations, the virtual reality works by placing a screen very close to your face to be viewed through a set of lenses. These lenses will help enlarge the image, which can highlight the individuals pixels if the resolution is too low, which can make the image harder to see. However, advancements in technology are allowing us to pack more pixels into a smaller amount of space, which makes these images clearer!
On a side note, they make the Forbidden Journey so immersive and so realistic that its very jarring when the ride shuts down. When I was on the ride one time, it shut down at the very beginning when I taking off and it was a very peculiar experience.
Hey!
I agree with you 100% about the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride! I was thinking about that as I was reading about the Avatar ride. It’s awesome that both Universal and Disney (and other theme parks) are implementing new technology and are making these experiences so immersive and exciting for viewers. I hope that theme parks continue to experiment with this and also implement more sensory experiences in creative ways.
Hi Kaitlyn! This blog was right up my alley. I am a huge Disney fan; I just visited Disney World in Florida this past spring break. The most amazing part was the Avatar ride in Animal Kingdom. I can vouch for all of the hype around the ride – it was amazing! Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait in 6 hour lines, or even 2 hour lines. My mom and I got to the park right before opening and made our way right to the Avatar ride. The wait was a little long, but it was so worth it. The ride was unlike anything I have experienced. The graphics were so clear, the smells were real, and it really felt like I was riding the creature. I even ducked and dogged when we were “flying” through trees. If anyone travels to Disney I highly recommend taking time out of your day to ride the Avatar ride – you won’t regret it!
Disney is an amazing company that my family has always loved. Another technological advancement they have made is the magic bands. For the past few years, my family and I have invested in the magic bands and they are so convenient. The bands have your room key, park tickets, ride photos, and you can even add a credit card so all you have to do to get water and a snack is tap your band on the scanner. The bands even track where you are. While some people may hate the idea of this and think it is creepy, I believe that Disney does it for their own protection and for your own safety. The bands even have enough battery to last two whole years. The magic bands eliminate paper and keep everything organized for you. If you ask me, I think it’s the best invention ever.
Disney serves as a model in the technology field, soon enough we’ll be using magic bands for everything!
https://www.wired.com/2015/03/disney-magicband/