Karen says many kids in wheelchairs never get to experience typical theme park rides. What can we do about that?
We could build or buy a platform that can tilt (say) 20 degrees in two directions under computer control. I don’t think it has to be very high performance at all. We roll the kid’s chair onto the platform and strap it down.
John suggests a platform with a center pivot, springs on 2 sides and stepper motors with cables on the other 2 sides. Missy says we should ask Disney who have all this figured out.
A group of our students go out to a theme park (or the state fair) and record wide-angle HD video, acceleration and good audio. Then we synchronize playback on a big screen (or screens). Perhaps a sub woofer adds some low frequency shake (or maybe the platform could do this). I don’t think we need any “wash out” algorithm for the motion platform. Simply, display the best approximation to the direction of the gravity vector that the tilt platform can manage. We might want to rotate the image to undo some of the tilt. That would be an interesting study on its own.
The log flume ride would be perfect for this. We could spray the rider with some water at the end!
Then we can invite kids in for a virtual carnival or theme park field trip. That would be a ton of fun and an exciting project. Later groups of students could do fully computer generated graphics and sound as more advanced projects.
John suggests we could record historic train rides and such for more educational content.
We link to Tar Heel Reader by having kids read about the experience beforehand and write about it afterward!
I’m going to try to resist immediately jumping on this until I find some $ to pay for it.
2 comments
Interesting idea.
There are a lot of theatrical and technological elements that can be built into these rides to add drama to the experience.
I forget weather it was Disney or Universal, but about 10 year ago I went on a reptilian ride at one of those mega parks in Florida and the seat was equipped with a special headrest. The headrest had two speakers built in that could play stereo audio. The use of stereo audio in close proximity to your head enhanced the sensation of critters running around behind you, getting closer, moving away, breathing down your neck literally.
I don’t remember exactly if there was any sort of artificial air vent to simulate breathing, but one of the SCARIEST things that do happen on that ride is that a small slit in the back of the head rest (around neck level) allows for a hidden tongue to lick the back of your neck (after the ride had built up to this moment with stuff going on ‘behind you’ in the surround sound sense of things).
There’s a lot that you can do theatrically and by getting the mind to play tricks on itself to give people a rush without having to move them physically.
As far as subwoofers go, most racing simulators rely on linear actuators and transducers attached to the floor or seat base for low frequency jolts and other effects… you could do this with subs, but it takes a lot of power to drive subs well that low into the frequency range.
I have a friend (in his 70’s) that designs and builds amusement park rides. He’s at:
http://www.amusementridesbybailey.com/
I’ll tell him about this post. Maybe there’s some untapped potential for someone to specialize in such things??
Shawn
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