Friday, August 28, 2015

Transport Yourself to Any Place in the Universe at this Theme Park

   There's a whole new type of theme park to be rolled out. And, just like when roller coasters were introduced and became all the rage, this will be a game-changer. And, it'll happen as soon as someone stops overlooking modern technology and chooses to apply it.
   I'd sure love Salt Lake City to be the place to introduces such a park, and wish I could excite one of our nice, wealthy people to build it.
   The new park will take on all the advances in robotics we've enjoyed these past few decades. We are hearing a lot about self-driving cars, and drones are almost passe by now, but I haven't yet heard of an amusement park packed with robotic people and creatures. Why not a Jurassic Park?  Why not a park where visitors interact with and take rides on the necks of life-sized robotic dinosaurs?
   Or, you could have Peter Pan, Paul Bunyan, Rumpelstiltskin, and all the characters from storyland. If the characters could be made light enough, you could have a realistic-looking Superman flying through the air, courtesy of unnoticeable nylon string (or some such transparent or unnoticeable string.) Spiderman could defy the law of gravity as he bounded up the side of a building in a manner no human actor could hope to duplicate.
  Computerized interaction? All the robotic characters would be programmed to respond to the tourists, talking with them, dancing with them, or whatever.
   And, how about a section of the park being filled with what we might call interactive tunnels? One such tunnel could be a greeting tunnel, where the visitor enters to be greeted by an image on the wall of a dog, running alongside him, programmed to run at the same pace as the tourist. The dog says, "Welcome to Salt Lake City," in as much of a bark-sounding voice as can be created. Then, when the visitor says, "Cat," the image of the dog flips to that of a cat, and, in a voice slurred to sound like the meowing of a cat, the "Welcome to Salt Lake City" is echoed. If the visitor yells, "Duck, bear, lion," not waiting for each animal to respond by itself, all three appear, and the tourist is greeted with a chorus of welcomes.
   In another interactive tunnel, the walls are programmed with exploding images that change as the visitor touches the wall. If the visitor scratches or drags his hand along the wall, it responds with  with an image tearing along with his hand.
   In another tunnel, the visitor transports himself at the command of his voice to any place on earth or in heaven. He says, "New York," and the walls of the tunnel make it appear he is in New York, complete with people talking back and forth with him as they walk on the street with him. The visitor is surrounded on every side by the city, panels ahead retracting into the walls as he approaches, replaced by panels sliding out further ahead with the very same imagery. There is all the splendid-ness and grandness of a well-produced movie, except this screen is one that not only envelopes the visitor, but interacts with him,
   3D without the glasses. And, you are in the movie instead of just watching it.
   Transport yourself to Kathmandu, to an African jungle, or to the far reaches of the universe, all at the command of your voice. Samantha on Bewitched couldn't do you better.

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