To all of Katherine’s loyal fans, stay tuned for an important message from her husband, Sean…

Greetings!  I am “borrowing” Katherine’s computer for the night.  For months now, I have seen post after post about birds, ribbons, aprons and all other things girly.  You’re only getting half of the story!  Today, I will set the record straight and give you the guy’s perspective!  Today’s topic:  technology at Disney.

Katherine touched upon some neat things we experienced at Disney but I was fascinated by the amounts of technology that went into the rides.  Many were customizable in some way, so that each rider had a unique experience.  For instance, Spaceship Earth played an animated cartoon featuring characters personalized to each rider based on a photo taken earlier in the ride.  Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear ride provided a laser gun to blast away targets, left/right control over your car, and it even kept score!  It was like being in a video game.

Soarin’ was an interesting experience for us, because standing in line before the ride was more exciting than the ride itself!  Five big-screen monitors filled one wall of a hallway.  You ended up standing in front of the screen and then it would present the audience with a game – usually a competition between the five groups.  The best one we played was this game where each group was a bird.  To make the bird go left, everyone in front of the monitor had to lean their body to the left.  I took a quick video of one of the games they played where they had to clap their hands together quickly to break bouncing blobs of paint:

The Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor wasn’t a ride, but it was entertaining to watch.  A big screen monitor in the front of an auditorium presented monsters performing stand-up comedy.  The innovative part was that the monsters were all animated like the movie, yet they were able to interact with the audience.  So, behind the scenes someone was talking, while the technology quickly allowed the animated monster to follow with the appropriate lip-synch movements, as well as facial cues (confused, smiling, etc.)

Personalized experiences are the wave of the future.

Ack!  I think I hear her coming.  Now returning you to your regularly scheduled blog…