Disney filed new patent- Track-based Swing Ride with Long Arm Pendulum

[danlb_2000]

Has anyone seen the full patent?

 

[lazyboy97o]

Has anyone seen the full patent?

http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1="Swing+ride"&OS="Swing+ride"&RS="Swing+ride"

http://pdfaiw.uspto.gov/.aiw?docid=20170282085&PageNum=1&&IDKey=F2BE5739C475&HomeUrl=http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2%26Sect2=HITOFF%26p=1%26u=%252Fnetahtml%252FPTO%252Fsearch-bool.html%26r=1%26f=G%26l=50%26co1=AND%26d=PG01%26s1=%2522Swing%2Bride%2522%26OS=%2522Swing%2Bride%2522%26RS=%2522Swing%2Bride%2522

 

[Chef Mickey]

Patent filings literally mean nothing, sadly.

 

[Absimilliard]

I don't think this ride concept will ever see the light of day in the US:

1- due to the swinging, you're dealing with wide rooms and a large ride envelope. This will limit capacity versus the system Dynamic Attractions created for Forbidden Journey where they each have a much smaller footprint and you can have a ton of them in the same room at the same time.

2- the show building will have to be very tall to allow enough ground to car space to create an illusion of depth.

3- the patent shows similar safety harnesses to Forbidden Journey. This will be a major issue for "pooh sized" WDW guests and will limit who can ride it.

4- the proposed patent does not show a separate loading for disabled guests. This will really limit capacity in California and Florida.

 

[lazyboy97o]

1- due to the swinging, you're dealing with wide rooms and a large ride envelope. This will limit capacity versus the system Dynamic Attractions created for Forbidden Journey where they each have a much smaller footprint and you can have a ton of them in the same room at the same time.

This isn’t a free swinging system and it only swings in one plane. Controlling the exact placement of the ride vehicle gives control over the safety envelope.

4- the proposed patent does not show a separate loading for disabled guests. This will really limit capacity in California and Florida.

That isn’t something that would need to be shown in the patent.

 

[No Name]

That's neat. I could imagine a Forbidden-Journey-style ride, with a mix of screen portions where you swing on vines with Spider-Man in sight, and portions where you swing by physical things in the show building. Or I can imagine both portions kind of being combined into one, which is what the patent seems to show. Basically I can envision it.

My only major concern that it doesn't really capture the essence of swinging from a web, or especially, a vine. Your tush is resting on a seat, with three neighbors in sight, and you're not holding onto any vine/web-like object.

 

[Absimilliard]

This isn’t a free swinging system and it only swings in one plane. Controlling the exact placement of the ride vehicle gives control over the safety envelope.


That isn’t something that would need to be shown in the patent.

The ride safety envelope still need to account for the bottom position: if you look at the diagram of the vehicle, you can see the counterweight that would bring it down to the bottom position in case of a breakdown. If they need to evacutate, they just let gravity do its job and the ride goes down to the bottom position.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Inverted Mine Train, looks awesome.

 

[jaxonp]

Ya'll sure get a lot of a patent.

 

[DisneyDoctor]

I would love to see this technology used. It sorta reminds of a sketchy county fair pendulum ride, but the pendulum doesn't just swing, it moves about, and the chance of injury is significantly lower lol.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Yeah yeah....Tarzan, Spiderman and Monster's Inc door ride......Why not someone even better....

 

[Matt_Black]

Yeah yeah....Tarzan, Spiderman and Monster's Inc door ride......Why not someone even better....

Because they'd try to tie it in with the new movie that's in development which... initial reports have not filled me with confidence.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Spiderman, Tarzan, Rocketeer...nuts to those guys.

Why not this?

That would be one HECK of a plus to Peter Pan's Flight!

 

[bclane]

Spiderman, Tarzan, Rocketeer...nuts to those guys.

Why not this?

That would be one HECK of a plus to Peter Pan's Flight!

Yesssss! Peter Pan's flight to Neverland (on a swinging arm coaster)...from the UK in Epcot confirmed!

 

[DisneyFan18]

@marni1971, I'm not sure if you are able to answer this question, and I would understand if you can't, but can you tell us at which Disney Resort (if possible can you narrow it down to a park) should we expect to see this ride system?

 

[lazyboy97o]

@marni1971, I'm not sure if you are able to answer this question, and I would understand if you can't, but can you tell us at which Disney Resort (if possible can you narrow it down to a park) should we expect to see this ride system?

A patent doesn’t mean it should be expected anywhere.

 

[Jones14]

A patent doesn’t mean it should be expected anywhere.

That’s true, but patents aren’t filed entirely for no reason. If the company takes the trouble to patent a ride system, somewhere within the company there has to have been a pitch for a ride that COULD use it. Again, not quite the same as a full-on attraction pitch, but there’s something lying around somewhere, I’m sure.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Are there legal issues that would prevent Tarzan from being a usable IP? I ask because Disney has mostly ceased producing any Tarzan-related content after the animated series ended, there was apparently a legal dispute. I gather that Disney had a limited license for Tarzan from the original author's estate, and they lost that license sometime between 2001-2003.

Though there has also been some inconsistency i'm confused about regarding how they're allowed to use the IP. They can obviously still rerelease content they already created (the original movie, tv show, games etc). But they've apparently run into issues with new content. The first Kingdom Hearts game released in 2001 contained Tarzan content (which was kept in rereleases on newer platforms). But sequels that followed did not contain any Tarzan content. They were supposed to apparently, but cut due to licensing issues.

Shanghai Disneyland has a Tarzan stage show, though it isn't technically new. The show was created for Disneyland Paris back in 2000 (and closed there in 2012, not long after construction began on Shanghai but long before its opening). 2000 was before Disney lost the license. So they may have been able to use the loophole of the show being "existing content". The licensing issue may also differ for different regions of the world (such as how Disney can use classic Marvel IP in Disneyland but not WDW).

I don't know the details of what rights they still have to Tarzan, though they've been careful not to do too much with the IP from what it seems. Anyone that knows anything about the legal details of this (and what is or isn't allowed) feel free to clarify.

 

[lazyboy97o]

That’s true, but patents aren’t filed entirely for no reason. If the company takes the trouble to patent a ride system, somewhere within the company there has to have been a pitch for a ride that COULD use it. Again, not quite the same as a full-on attraction pitch, but there’s something lying around somewhere, I’m sure.

That’s not how Disney operates. R&D can and does work on its own projects. They hold ride system patents that were never part of a pitch. The reason they’re patented without a corresponding attraction is because they keep others from using a similar concept that Disney paid to develop.

 

[DisneyFan18]

A patent doesn’t mean it should be expected anywhere.

Martin said at a the Disneyland Forum that he has heard of something...