The Odd Epcot Pager Guide Device!

[Thelazer]

Well, I saw this on ebay and yea I bought it.

I'm playing with it now; a company called “Notus” makes it
It's basically a Motorola pager, which has info of Epcot loaded onto it. It appears to be able to interact with something at Disney, as it can provide wait times and such. The unit still has Horizons listed in it, so it's from some time ago. I've posted a photo of it here.

Edit-- Removed due to I don't want you to know who I am.

I plan to take it over to Epcot today and see if it picks up any signals or wait times or anything else. It currently does not seem to know what day it is or the time, the weather display it has shows the wrong day as well.

Anyone have any info let me know. Anyone good with electronics that would be willing to figure out if this can be made to sync to some network for time updates?

 

[venooch333]

Sounds interesting!!

 

[wdwmagic]

Interesting, let us know what happens.

 

[Moustronaut]

I saw that device at a company called Ratio Design in Atlanta GA. I interviewed with them in summer of 98. They either were a sub-contractor for the mechanical design of the device or for the User Interface for the software. They called it the ImagiNavigator. But the way it was explained to me was exactly what you describe, an interactive electronic device that would give you wait times at attractions and restaurants as well as electronic coupons for stores you were nearby. Sorta a PalMickey on steriods. But obviously well before Pal Mickey. I was told it was tested there briefly but killed for cost reasons.

I just searched for it on Google, trying to make sure I had the name correct, and found this presentation. It's in German.

http://w5.cs.uni-sb.de/~butz/teaching/mobile-ss00/parctab2/sld040.htm

It's from some software or communications seminar in Europe. No real info about it, but from the picture you can see it's the same device.

Anyway, one of the Ratio engineers now works with my at my current job. If ya want I can ask him about it when he gets back from our factory in China.

 

[Kwit35]

Was this a prelude to 'pal'? (oops, just saw the above post with a pal mickey mention, sorry)

 

[bhg469]

thats kinda cool. im interested to see what that will do at the park.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

That seems pretty interesting. Let us know if it works.

 

[Figment1986]

perhaps this was what they used to test to see what people would use.. adn it somewhat worked.. and evolved into pal mickey.... looks like it uses the same type of idea.... (you might pick up on PAL frequncies with it...)

 

[Thelazer]

Anyone care to do a german translation?

 

[lentesta]

What does babelfish translation look like?

 

[Kwit35]

What does babelfish translation look like?

Like a small fish you put in your ear... :lookaroun

 

[Moustronaut]

What does babelfish translation look like?

The presentation looks at some use cases for various context aware hand held electronics devices. Other than the picture, it mentions nothing specific about the imaginavigator.

 

[downwitheisner]

Like a small fish you put in your ear... :lookaroun

hahaha

 

[Captain Hank]

Like a small fish you put in your ear... :lookaroun

Now that's a person who knows where his towel is. :lol:

(if you don't get it, do yourself a favor and read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams)

 

[Woody13]

Now that's a person who knows where his towel is. :lol:

(if you don't get it, do yourself a favor and read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams)

You can read it online here:

http://flag.blackened.net/dinsdale/dna/book1.html

 

[Kwit35]

Now that's a person who knows where his towel is. :lol:

(if you don't get it, do yourself a favor and read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams)

HER... :wave:

 

[AliciaLuvzDizne]

You can read it online here:

http://flag.blackened.net/dinsdale/dna/book1.html

is this the whole book?

 

[Woody13]

is this the whole book?

*Yes*

"It is also the story of a book, a book called The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy — not an Earth book, never published on Earth, and until the terrible catastrophe occurred, never seen or heard of by any Earthman.

Nevertheless, a wholly remarkable book.

In fact it was probably the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor — of which no Earthman had ever heard either.

Not only is it a wholly remarkable book, it is also a highly successful one — more popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty More Things to do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway?

In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch Hiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.

First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words Don't Panic inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.

But the story of this terrible, stupid Thursday, the story of its extraordinary consequences, and the story of how these consequences are inextricably intertwined with this remarkable book begins very simply.

It begins with a house."

 

[wdwplaid96]

From time to time, various iniaitves have taken place like this. PAL Mickey is just the latest form. During the F&G and FIRST USA events at Epcot in 2000 and 2001, ideas were played with on an interactive pager system.