Some New theme park related Patents filed by Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Gringrinngghost

Gringrinngghost

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
It has been awhile since i searched though the US Patent and Trademark Office and here is what I found. (Note: They All relate to an themepark some sort of way. Links will always change.)
*UPDATE: OLD LINKS ARE DIFFERENT SO REMOVED*

- New Patents from April 20th - Sept 20th 2010. -
Fabricating multi-component skin systems for robotics and other applications
Management of the flow of persons in relation to centers of crowd concentration via television control
Systems and methods for interconnecting media services to an interface for transport of media assets
System and method for autonomous navigation in a ride vehicle
Video display system with an oscillating projector screen
Skin system with elastic components having differing hardnesses for use with robotics
Video actuated interactive environment
Vehicle transfer during operation of an omnimover ride
Management of the flow of persons in entertainment environments

- PROPOSED PATENTS BY DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC -
PERSONAL MISTING DEVICE WITH MANUALLY-OPERATED AND RETRACTABLE FOLDING FAN
SELF-SERVICE BEVERAGE AND SNACK DISPENSING USING IDENTITY-BASED ACCESS CONTROL
System and method for personalized location-based game system including optical pattern recognition
SYSTEM, METHOD, OR APPARATUS RELATING TO A RECONFIGURABLE COMMUNAL SPACE
METHOD, SYSTEM AND APPARATUS FOR MEDIA CUSTOMIZATION
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROL OF A FLEXIBLE MATERIAL USING MAGNETISM
DETERMINING DEMAND ASSOCIATED WITH ORIGIN-DESTINATION PAIRS FOR BUS RIDERSHIP FORECASTING
PERSONAL TEMPERATURE REGULATOR
System and method for differentiating subjects using a virtual green screen
System and method for providing user interaction with projected three-dimensional environments
FABRICATING MULTI-COMPONENT SKIN SYSTEMS FOR ROBOTICS AND OTHER APPLICATIONS
Robotic Marionettes on Magnetically-Supported and Highly Mobile Puppeteer Platforms

- New Patents from Sept 11th - Nov 22th 2010. -
Method and system for customizing a theme park experience
Passenger restraint system
Kinetic flame device
Amusement park ride with vehicles pivoting about a common chassis to provide racing and other effects
Skeletal support structure and skin for an animatronic figure

- NEW PROPOSED PATENTS BY DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC -
System and method for determining placement of a virtual object according to a real-time performance
System and method for synchronizing a real-time performance with a virtual object
FLYING ENTERTAINMENT VEHICLE

- New Patents from Nov 23rd 2010 - Feb 11th 2011. -
Interactive animation[
Safety restraint for vehicle towing assemblies
Amusement park ride providing free-flying experience
Personal misting device with manually-operated and retractable folding fan
System and method of wirelessly triggering portable devices
Flooring system


- NEW PROPOSED PATENTS BY DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC -
DYNAMIC BUS DISPATCHING AND LABOR ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM
Lap Bar Assembly with Locking Mechanism with Locking In Lap Bar and Grab Bar Positions
Method of Defining Stereoscopic Depth
Generating fog effects in a simulated environment
AMUSEMENT PARK RIDE WITH VEHICLES PIVOTING ABOUT A COMMON CHASSIS TO PROVIDE RACING AND OTHER EFFECTS
KINETIC FLAME DEVICE
MAGICAL IMAGE CUPS AND CONTAINERS WITH 3D DISPLAYS
MAGICAL IMAGE CUPS AND CONTAINERS WITH 3D DISPLAYS
MAGICAL IMAGE CUPS AND CONTAINERS WITH 3D DISPLAYS

NOTICE: I might have not gotten all the Patents in as this is a is a large patent update with over 40 plus patents to go though.

Update: Two of the Three "Magical Image Cups and Containers with 3D Displays are now Patents.

- New Patents from Feb 12th 2011 - Aug 17th 2011. -
Magical image cups and containers with 3D displays
Systems and methods for interconnecting media applications and services with automated workflow orchestration
Fabricating multi-component skin systems for robotics and other applications
Passive magnetic levitation ride for amusement parks
Magical image cups and containers with 3D displays
Theme park ride with ride-through screen system
Amusement park ride with vehicles pivoting about a common chassis to provide racing and other effects
Autostereoscopic projection system
Interactive zoetrope rotomation
Interactive zoetrope for animation of solid figurines and holographic projections
Combination compact disk player and jewelry box
Amusement ride and video game
Virtual identity apparatus and method for using same

- NEW PROPOSED PATENTS BY DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC -
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETERMINING RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID) SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
AMUSEMENT PARK RIDE WITH VEHICLES PIVOTING ABOUT A COMMON CHASSIS TO PROVIDE RACING AND OTHER EFFECTS
Anti-Roll Back Assembly with Linear Magnetic Positioning
KINETIC FLAME DEVICE
KINETIC FLAME DEVICE
VEHICLE WHEEL ASSEMBLY WITH A MECHANISM COMPENSATING FOR A VARYING WHEEL RADIUS
Active Mask Projector Providing Diffracted Light with Animation and Non-Random Patterns
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SEARCHING FOR ENTERTAINMENT TICKETS VIA INTERNET
SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING REALISTIC EYES
 
bgraham34

bgraham34

Well-Known Member
Some really cool items in theory and would be awesome. The one I don't like is.
System and method for providing location-based data on a wireless portable device
 
Biff215

Biff215

Well-Known Member
Vernonpush said:
http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...="Theme+park"&OS="Theme+park"&RS="Theme+park"

This seems to be "RFID wrist band removal and reapplication".:shrug:
Click to expand...

I thought this was RFID-related at first as well, but when I read it more, it seems it may be used for EMH and/or the special ticket parties (MVMCP). Once you take the wristband off, it would no longer work for the guest who obtained it or a new wearer. Sounds like a bit too much security to me, so maybe it is being used for RFID?
 
jtizzle1023

jtizzle1023

Member
By the looks of some of the names and descriptions of these ideas they seem as if they may be used in the upcoming update for Star Tours 2.0
 
N

niteobsrvr

Well-Known Member
Biff215 said:
I thought this was RFID-related at first as well, but when I read it more, it seems it may be used for EMH and/or the special ticket parties (MVMCP). Once you take the wristband off, it would no longer work for the guest who obtained it or a new wearer. Sounds like a bit too much security to me, so maybe it is being used for RFID?
Click to expand...

Actually, it sounds more like a replacement for paper ticket media. A lot of legal mumbo jumbo but it seems to me that the idea is provide each member of a party something that is less transferable and prone to fraud or loss than a paper ticket. So ,say you and your 3 family members purchase admission to the parks. You would be issued 4 wristbands. upon admission for the first time, each wristband would be associated with a member of your party through a fingerprint scenario just as paper tickets are now. So long as you never take the band off, it will always be associated with you. If you do take it off, the next trip into a park the wristband must be revalidated through a finger print read. If the profile stored on the band previously doesnt not match the one associated with the most recent finger print read, admission is denied. If everythign matches, you go on in.

It also sounds as if bands would be interchangeable within your party as a matter of convenience. Junior had a red band yesterday but inadventently puts on sis's yellow band today. Thats ok, because the band interrogation process realises that juniors fingerprint matches another profile for another band in your group and that profile is not in use yet. On you go into the park, no problem
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
It's late, so I'm only going to comment on some of these tonight....

Not sure how many people were able to figure out how to look at the accompanying drawings that go along with the patents, but after reading through most of them, here are my thoughts:

-Autosterescopic Projection System
Wow. There's a lot to take in on this one. Hard to tell what they might be using it for, but it sounds like Disney's answer to the projected Pepper's Ghost that's being used in "Disaster!" at Universal.

-Theme Park Ride with Ride-through screen system:
It's a new style of show door used to separate show scenes. Essentially it's three or four hinged triangles that form a solid door (which they reserve the ability to project onto them). They're weighted so they fall into the closed position. As the ride car comes through, magnets on the outside of the vehicle push open the panels just enough for the car to safely drive through. No mechanicals to break down, but this would require a fully-enclosed ride vehicle.
It's the modern equivalent of the old "crash doors" on dark rides where the ride vehicle's front bumper would physically "crash" into the doors to push them open.

-Wheelchair Ramp for Ride Vehicle
This is essentially a cover-all patent for the wheelchair accessible ride vehicles on Buzz Lightyear, Seas with Nemo, and Midway Mania.

-Dynamic Loading System
Appears to be a system that Disney hasn't implemented yet, but looks to be a much more automated way of loading and unloading an Omnimover.

-The two projection usages seem to be combining something like Madam Leota's head with a concave mirror to create the viewing of an image that isn't actually within your line of sight, kind of like the "holographic" cookie illusion in Minnie's Kitchen in Toontown Fair...

-Interactive Theater
This sounds really cool, and not all that difficult, really. Essentially, it allows them to project multiple images onto a screen using a similar system to LCD 3D glasses, but you can change which image you see on the screen by user selections, and then your glasses woudl change frequencies to stop viewing one image, and start viewing another. It would also be worked into a "choose your own adventure" type thing. So what you're seeing on the screen isn't necessarily what the person next to you is seeing... (I find it both funny and interesting that the images shown in the drawings have Wall-E as part of the images being projected... This could be a sign that a new Wall-E film show is being worked on for the parks...)

-Scenographic image projection
Hard to say where they might use this. Could be an attraction, could be something developed for a stage show either in the parks, their Broadway shows, or the Cruise Line shows.

-Infrared Imaging Projection
Multiple uses described in this, both being pretty cool.
Essentially, they project an image using an infrared light source. This infrared projection is invisible to the naked eye, because it's outside of our visal range. But, many solid-state cameras (like on cell phones and digital cameras) see some of the infrared spectrum when they're recording, even those that don't have a night mode. (If you've ever seen on-ride videos from Tower of Terror, the infrared light sources the flood the ride vehicles for the security cameras are often picked up by the riders' cameras)
In this instance, they could project the large words "Copy Protected" on top of the onride photo display screens at the exit to the ride, which would be invisible to people standing there, but if someone tried to snap a pic of the monitor with their cell phone or digital camera, they'd get a big "Copy Protected" message across their photo. Essentially it would force people to actually buy the on-ride photo if they wanted to have the image.
Alternately, they could work it into a game, where hidden messages and images can only be seen by cameras, giving either "ghostly" photos for the Guests, or something like a hidden message on Kim Possible.


-Rob
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
Here's an interesting one from a couple years ago... Wonder what Disney has up their sleeve... ;)

Vehicle and track system for flying corner amusement park rides:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7677179.pdf
Hmmm... New bobsled style coaster... Could a Florida Mt Fuji or Matterhorn be on the way?

Cable tow whip ride with inside curves:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7685944.pdf
Disney has re-invented a classic Whip ride. I believe this is going into Cars Land at DCA (especially when the vehicles in sihouette are the little farn tractors from Cars)



-Rob
 
Figment1986

Figment1986

Well-Known Member
Rob562 said:
-Infrared Imaging Projection
Multiple uses described in this, both being pretty cool.
Essentially, they project an image using an infrared light source. This infrared projection is invisible to the naked eye, because it's outside of our visal range. But, many solid-state cameras (like on cell phones and digital cameras) see some of the infrared spectrum when they're recording, even those that don't have a night mode. (If you've ever seen on-ride videos from Tower of Terror, the infrared light sources the flood the ride vehicles for the security cameras are often picked up by the riders' cameras)
In this instance, they could project the large words "Copy Protected" on top of the onride photo display screens at the exit to the ride, which would be invisible to people standing there, but if someone tried to snap a pic of the monitor with their cell phone or digital camera, they'd get a big "Copy Protected" message across their photo. Essentially it would force people to actually buy the on-ride photo if they wanted to have the image.
Alternately, they could work it into a game, where hidden messages and images can only be seen by cameras, giving either "ghostly" photos for the Guests, or something like a hidden message on Kim Possible.
Click to expand...

hmm... they could use this on film based attractions as well to deter people from recording or taking photos during things they are told not to. :shrug:
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
Just adding some more....

Mobile Projected Sets:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20100053029.pdf
Could this be the next generation of Pooh's Hunny Hunt?

This may have already been posted and talked about elsewhere...
The next generation Test Track style cars that'll be used for Radiator Springs Racers in Cars Land
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20090272289.pdf
Up until now, I'd always thought that it would be two parallel tracks where the cars would actually race side by side, but in actuality they'll always stay together on either end of a boom arm, which can then rotate to bring one car forward of the other... (If this is done right, I could totally see some amazing uses in the ride, like the cars racing side-by-side heading toward an opening that's only one-car-wide, the road starts to narrow, and all of a sudden one car zooms ahead and one drops back so they pass single-file through the opening...) And if they can rotate the cars on their pivot points, you can simulate some pretty wicked spinouts and skids.


Here's a big one... Off-line loading of an Omnimover vehicle for handicapped Guests...
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20090269175.pdf
Vehicles are on chassis that can be rotated off of the chain to a side loading platform where the handicapped Guest can take as much time as necessary to load/unload. The vehicle is then moved onto/off of the chain of vehicles without having to slow the system at all.
By the drawings, this is obviously being developed for the Haunted Mansion, to be located between Unload and Load.

-Rob
 

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