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My Pal Mickey -- Interactive Theme Park Doll
Dan Howland writes "Big Ruxpin is Watching You: Once again, The Firesign Theatre's I Think We're All Bozos on this Bus proves itself to be the science-fiction story where the most stuff came true. If you recall, a hacker named Clem traveled through the Future Fair, followed by computer generated Holy-Grams who popped up and said things like, 'Why not try [WALL OF SCIENCE], 'cause it's my favorite!' Leave it to Disney to perfect that spooky technology with My Pal Mickey, an interactive talking plush doll that knows where it is inside Walt Disney World, and tells you trivia as you move through the park. Ah ha, but even better (at least from Disney's standpoint) is that, just like the Holy-Grams, My Pal Mickey feeds the info back into the central computer system, so Doctor Memory can track people's movements through the park in realtime. (Of course, these data will be skewed because they only track people who buy the dolls...) Here is another link, with the interesting, Asimov-like sentence: 'He has a strong sense of self-preservation, and reminds you to put him some place safe when you get near water play areas, or on wet rides.'"
Lighten up, dude. It's a freaking toy adding another layer of interactivity to a theme park, hardly more sinister than the 100 Years of Magic badges they had last year that would blink when you were near a parade, etc. As for their tracking you, Disney's imagineers are masters of queue control and optimization precisely because they put a tremendous amount of energy into studying how people move through their parks. Absent any evidence that the doll is correlated to an individual, e.g. by ticket or cc# used at purchase, I hardly consider extending those studies with this doll an invasion of privacy.
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So this is effectively the physical conterpart to a tracking cookie?
"Defenestration" is to throw out of a window; what's a word for throwing 'Windows' out of something?
Seriously, does it really matter if they're tracking you, and if they end up using that information to change or plan new theme parks? Quite frankly, isn't that exactly what we should want? We're the guests, and anything they do to make the parks better for me is great. Carrying around a MPM seems to be the perfect way to tell Disney what interests me at the park without having to actually TELL them.
Initial Disclaimer: I hate Disney as a company as much as anyone here thanks to their political and legal activities.
Less than a month ago, I spent a week in Disney World with my disabled mother. (Don't knock the situation: I got to stay in the Grand Floridian, eat lobster for every meal, go parasailing, etc. for FREE)
The one thing that really struck me about the park / resort is that they sell an experience. Every last employee (they call themselves "cast members") from the ticket taker to Security to register operators is SINCERELY dedicated to serving you and ensuring that you are having the time of your life.
Since we were staying at the Grand Floridian, we didn't go past the front gate (and back into Orlando) the entire time. It was culture shock once we returned to The Real World, just because of the level of apathy in customer service shown to us at the airport, restaraunts, etc..
I was honestly saddened that it is not possible for me to spend my own money on a future time at Disney World without being morally inconsistent. The Disney World experience that they sell is incredible, and although I did notice these dolls in the stores, I didn't realize the full potential of them. I'm not surprised though, as you can tell how the "personalized" attention it would give a youngster would be near-magical.
On an aside, I'm an outspoken Evangelical Christian, and whenever I talk to people about the trip and my hatred of Disney as a corporation, their reaction is always "Is it because of Disney's embracing of homosexuality?"
My respone is that I could care less about that, and inform them of copyright extension, bought legislation, etc.
My point here is that I've seen passion on these boards that can rival and often surpass those of many Evangelicals I know. Why are we not mobilizing to inform the public at large and/or get things changed? Even if we're scoffed at as idiots (as many on Slashdot would at a Christian boycotting Disney for the above reason) at least the public WOULD BE AWARE of the issue.
I contacted the EFF as soon as I got back to find out about volunteering a consistent 5-10 hours a week, but was told that since I'm in Ohio they don't have the resources to administer remote volunteers.
- Neil Wehneman
My legal education, in nifty podcast format
Remember just a few weeks ago when Woz's lasest press release was a Slashdot story? Here's a brief summary (nah I don't work there):
"The wOz Platform(TM) system includes an innovative wireless network, a system reference design, and an online service that serve as the foundation for a range of location, status, control, and communications solutions for consumers and businesses. The heart of the wOz Platform is the wOzNet(TM) network, a unique local wireless network that provides long range and long battery life at a low cost."
Anyways when we tried to figure out how this could be used one of the few obvious places was to track people in themeparks. I couldn't really figure out why Woz didn't put a GPS unit in every tracker, but I guess that they figured out a way to make it cheaper but only having a certain number of unit with GPS (maybe think of those as pseudo satellites) and then other units that are able to find their location based on the GPS units.
My basic question was how to you guarantee a suitable number of GPS equipped units in close proximity, and a theme park not only answers that question, but it helps to explain what exactly you would want to track. Kids are always getting separated from parents in theme parks.
Things are not as they appear, nor are they otherwise.
You are in the middle of Walt Disney World, probably the most monitored and carefully controlled environment on the planet, and you are worried about a doll giving away your last location near a beacon???
I would say if you are the least concerned about Disney tracking you when on-property, you should instead stick to your cabin in the Black Hills.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You are one sad, paranoid, hateful motherfucker aren't you?
You don't think your kids would love to have Mickey talking to them as they walk through Disney World? Unclench and enjoy something for once.
"The meek shall inherit the earth, the rest of us shall go to the stars." Isaac Asimov
I am a bit skeptical about the tracking capabilities of the doll. The functions it has only needs input, not output, so it probably only has an IR receiver in its nose, but not a transmitter.
If you do find a transmitter in there, then Disney does have a capability to see where each doll is and track its movement, probably by making it send a UID everytime it receives a signal from a nearby transceiver.
I don't see what's evil about wanting to know what people find interesting or not in your own themepark though, but I agree there's a lot of ways this technology can be abused.
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
How long until they insert individual-doll transmitter/sensors to determine how close one doll is to another?
Imagine waiting in line for a ride with 30 kids standing right next to eachother, each with their own doll, each of which is saying the same exact thing, only 2 seconds apart. I just might grab one and strangle it.
If they could communicate, they could tell eachother to shut the hell up. That would be pretty entertaining. Of course I only see this going in the direction of the dolls having annoying, long, drawn-out conversations about each 'interesting' aspect of the park.
ZEN is a prime number in base-36