>>>I bet you didnt know that they have updated Madam Lenoa from the original technology used in the DL version. <<<
Images are now sent from laserdisc rather than a filmed loop. Not of much significance, except that the film loop could fade and get scratched over time, and had to be replaced. The disc will not.
There are no fiber optics used for Madame Leota. It is not a complicated illusion. Virtually ALL of the effects in the Haunted Mansion are very simple "tricks" - many of which are over a hundred years old in one form or another, simply having found new and great application within this particular attraction.
The 3-D system from HAUNTED CASTLE (and many other movies) mentioned works this way:
There are liquid crystal lenses - one for the right eye, one for the left - in each set of goggles. Radio signals communicate with the battery powered visors containing the lenses. The image projected on screen is actually TWO images, each flashing at 30 frames per second (these are video images by necessity, which runs at 29.999997 frames per second), NEITHER flashing at exactly the same time. (this is different from conventional 3-D projection, where you have two polarized images projected simultaneously) So, the images are literally flashing, faster than the eye can perceive, left flash, right flash, left flash, right flash, etc.
The radio signals command the lenses to go FULLY OPAQUE and then FULLY CLEAR, to coincide with each image, again, so fast that if you were to simply hold up the goggles and look at them during a picture, the lenses would simply appear "gray" or 50% dark (or 50% clear).
The left lens is FULLY CLEAR when ONE image is on screen, for 1/60 of a second. Then, the OTHER lens is FULLY CLEAR, while the first lens is FULLY OPAQUE (blocking vision with that eye) for 1/60 of a second.
Your brain cannot separate the input at that speed, so it takes both images, shot at slightly offset angles, and in your brain, puts the two together, mimicking the illusion of depth.
If your goggles malfunction, or lose their charge (they are powered up between performances) then the lenses would look so black you could pretty much see nothing through them.
The Haunted Mansion is already "3-D" in that everything being seen is REAL and has real depth. I agree that some 3-D images swooping toward you and so forth would be interesting, but to layer that over an attraction already so layered and visually arresting, probably wouldn't work stylistically. Might be something they'd experiment with. I do know that changes are in store for the Mansion... not deletions so much as additions to some sections where there is less stimulation than others (hint: the stretching room). But these will probably be incorporated first in Disneyland for the 50th. WDW would come later.
