Every theme park -- even incredibly advanced ones like Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando -- offers what's known as flat rides. These are the amusement park staples that move passengers around in relation to the ground.
A Ferris wheel is a flat ride, so is a carousel, bumper cars, and basically anything that moves your body in a plane that's generally parallel to the ground. These are the simple rides you see at local fairs, but they're also dotted all over Walt Disney's (DIS) and Universal Studios theme parks.
DON'T MISS: Disney World Should Admit Failure and Bring Back FastPass+
Disney and Universal tend to dress these classic rides up in intellectual property to make them seem unique but whether your spinning around on "Dumbo the Flying Elephant," or "The Magic Carpets of Aladdin," at Magic Kingdom or "Kang & Kodos Twirl 'n' Hurl at Comcast's (CMCSA) Universal Studios, you're on a flat ride.
Now, Universal Studios has filed a patent for what looks to be a wild reinterpretation of one of the oldest flat rides, the carousel.
Image source: GREGG NEWTON/AFP via Getty Images
Universal Studios Tries a New Take On a Carousel
Universal Studios has filed a patent application with the title "Choreographed Ride Systems and Methods." The application, filed March 30 "describes a type of trackless ride system for vehicles that can move up and down while rolling from side to side, influenced by user input, while moving relative to other vehicles along a ride path," according to Theme Park Insider, which first reported the news.
The ride, as sketched in the patent applicaiton, sort of looks like the number eight with loose "cars" (presumably horse and other carousel figures) can move side to and even from one part of the connected oval to the other. It's basically a free-form carousel that takes a very boring ride for little kids and makes it much more exciting.
Universal Studios did hint at being able to use the ride along with its IP, much the way it does with its current flat rides.
"By moving the rider as the ride vehicle travels along the ride path within the ride system, the ride vehicle may provide an entertaining experience for the rider that simulates movement of a carousel ride system, an animal, a superhero, and/or other entertaining systems or characters," Universal's application said.
The patent application also makes it clear that unlike a traditional carousel, in this version, the rider would have some control over the experience.
"The ride control system may receive an input indicative of a desired rider experience. The rider may be riding the ride vehicle, about to ride the ride vehicle, and/or in a queue of the ride system waiting to ride the ride vehicle. The input provided by the rider may include a desired rider experience, such as a desired intensity level of the ride system, a desired theme of the ride system, and other preferences of the rider," the company shared.
Under the ride mechanism Universal details, the rider would also be able to make the experience more (or less) exciting.
"The desired intensity level may indicate a proximity that the rider may wish to approach various obstacles (e.g., wall, other ride vehicles). That is, a first intensity level may correspond to allowing ride vehicles to travel to be within two meters of each other (e.g., the threshold ride vehicle distance), while a second, higher intensity level may correspond to allowing the ride vehicles to travel within one meter of each other to create a sensation in a rider that the ride vehicles may collide," the theme park company added.
