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My Pal Mickey -- Interactive Theme Park Doll

Posted by timothy on from the could-be-used-for-good-too dept.

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.'"

2 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. I wonder... by ai2097 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Do the people buying these things know that they are being trakced? Is there a disclaimer or fine print or anything? Do the dolls have unique IDs? Could they be linked to a credit card number to allow the tracking of specific people? Could these people be 'followed' to thier rooms and have thier identities discovered that way if they paid in cash?
    </paranoia>
    A slightly more amusing question: Are the dolls getting thier voice data from the checkpoints, or are the blurbs preprogrammed? I think it would be funny to set up a checkpoint on a busy road that triggered Micky to start swearing at the hapless tourists he's travelling with ;)
  2. Re:self-preservation by mistermund · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder... if you take Mickey with you on a roller coaster that he's not tall enough to ride, will he remind you to check himself at the door?

    Actually, you're on track. Since he's targeted towards kids, at the "thrill" rides, he'll remind you of height requirements, and usually say something about being nervous about going, or maybe being afraid - in a kid friendly way. Works well to placate kids who aren't tall enough to ride.

    The belt clip that attaches the toy to your waist is at the height of many ride restraints, so sometimes it's best to stash the toy in a backpack to prevent losing him. Though it has been reported that the toy reports back to the park database to tell where he's going, no personally identifiable info is taken at purchase, so there's no way to match him to an owner if he's lost.