Innovations Move Amusement Parks Into Digital Age

Didn't think it was enough to be submitted as news, but it's a light touch on an interesting subject:

Innovations move amusement parks into digital age

Some neat ideas. Interestingly, there's some serious crossover from ideas that we've discussed around here in the past in this thread from 3 years ago and others (that I can't find right now :) ).

I personally think it's great. If we're all going to have smartphones (and when are we just going to quit calling them phones if that's just one of many things we use them for) why not integrate that into the experience? Seems like the easy applications would be more utilitarian, offering info and reservations and such - kinda of a personal guide and chaperone kinda thing to help you get the most out of your day. From there who knows?

Seems like a place a lot of businesses will be forced to go as a generation used to not only have the world available to them, but also having it available on them at all times, comes of age. Amusement parks seem like a business in a good position to take full advantage of that.

Just interests me.

Gonna give this a read. One thing that I don't understand is why parks (especially ones out in the middle of no where) don't have WiFi available.

I thought that lake compounce started to do something like this?

After looking, I found the lake compounce info about the text to ride program.

http://www.lakecompounce.com/Text2Ride_Handout.pdf

Interesting read. I won't go there this time.

What I do find really funny, though, is that for an article about new innovated technologies to be use by amusement parks, they say...

And Netherlands company Tape My Day offers a video system that tracks individual guests and tapes their experiences throughout the park so they end up with a 30-minute highlight recording of their vacation.

Company founder Kees Albers says parks also can make money by selling advertisements and sponsorships that can appear on the finished tapes.

Now that we are in the 2000s, shouldn't that company be recording our experiences, and selling us a DVD? ...Or even a flash drive or email? :)

Many people seem to use the word "tape" as a synonym for "record." 40 years of doing something the same way will do that for ya.

And as I recall from the original press release, it is a DVD.

While in Mexico this past October I went on a zipline/ATV/stalactite swim excursion, all of them requiring helments. There were cameras set up all over the park, and at the end of the day you could stand in front of a monitor, it would read the chip from you helmet and display all the photos you were in for the day. You could get them at the end of the day on a flash drive, or buy them off their website for up to 24 hours after you were there. Surely an amusement park could atleast do something like this.

On the plus side, parks could install (and make additional revenue from) charging stations for electric cars in their parking lots. On the negative side, parks could install Rapiscan machines and play TSA with all of us. For our safety, of course.

I keep thinking that if we allow naked pictures of ourselves to be taken in the airport, for safety, of course, then what's to stop them there? We could very well see these scanners invade our everyday lives, and replacing metal detectors at the local Courthouses, city schools, and yes, even theme parks. People could pay for naked photos of anyone they wanted to, in the underground market, from famous celebs to the little girl (or boy) who lives next door.

I realize where TSA is coming from, trying to keep ahead of the ever-changing (and perhaps made up) terrorist threat that may (or may not be) invading our everyday lives, but this is going too far. What was wrong with metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs?

So, my point is, in a few years, we may be seeing these scanners pop up at the front gate of our favorite amusement parks, for our safety, of course.

A better question is when will they start selling these scanners in handheld form so I can get in line to buy one. Hot chick at the bar, nice! Scan... oh dear, that's a guy. Nevermind.

LK, not to turn this into one of "those" threads, but I wouldn't say TSA is keeping ahead of anything. In fact, this is their response to something that happened last Christmas. And you aren't too far off with your prediction. There are already companies in the process of developing mobile scanners, with Soros supposedly an investor. I guess that's to balance Chertoff being involved with the airport scanners. Technology itself is morally neutral; it's how it's used or misused that makes it either beneficial or detrimental.

kpjb, do you really need a full body scanner for that? I always heard you just check out the Adam's apple and quadriceps (thighs) to verify.

...but what if I'm at a ski resort and they all have on turtle necks and snow pants?