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.'"

Outside the park

What if you take it outside the park and then come back another day? Will the system just show you hanging round the gates for a few days :)

Rus

Please Cease and Desist

Dear Sir,

We've recently come across the use of our trademark, "Mickey Mouse," on the website site http://www.slashdot.org/. As you may be aware, the rights to Mickey Mouse belong to the Disney corporation, and without proper licensing may not be used by others. As such, please edit your Slashdot story summary to remove any mentions of "Mickey," "Mouse," and/or "Disney." We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Michael Lutz
Attorney-At-Law
Dewey, Cheetam and Howe

Re:Please Cease and Desist

Don't worry, with slashdot spelling the way it is, I'd be surprised if there were more than 6 occurances of "Mickey Mouse" across the whole site. The copyright owners of "Mikey Mouce", however, won't be pleased.

Life Imitates Animation

Why do I get the feeling that Disney's been watching re-runs of "The Simpsons" and have decided that the best episode involves "Itchy And Scratchy Land"???

Color me scared,
Zip

Real Dolls

They need to team up with Real Dolls [realdoll.com]. I'd go to Disney World for that.

Your plastic pal that's fun to be with?

I think I'll pass for now, but give me a call when these come equipped with Genuine People Personalities.

I want a "My pal Marvin".

Hi. I'm Marvin. I'm the world's most intelligent doorstop. If you run with me through the spray of that fountain, the percent chance that you'll short out my circuits is 84.217996310477714010040222, to an approximation, anyhow.

Considering by the length of time you took to roll your eyes, you might just prefer to drop meinto the pond. Science will be none the wiser.

Re:Your plastic pal that's fun to be with?

I don't know they sell them, it could be fun to hack them imagine 100 >= walking through Disney World with Potty mouth Mickeys, Anti DMCA Mickey, Anti Disney Mickey (free me let me go you *@#$%), and so many more all on the same days so it's harder for them to cope or cover it up, 8-)

Wow, that could get annoying...

Walk in...

"This is the Epcot Center! It has..blah blah blah..."

Walk away, go check something out back where you came from...

"This is the Epcot Center! It has..blah blah blah..."

Go to head up the stairs, across the room...

"This is the Epcot Center! It has..blah blah blah..."

Go to walk out...

"This is the Epcot Center! It has..blah blah blah..."

*Mickey goes for a ride...*

Re:Wow, that could get annoying...

The toy won't repeat pertinent location info once he's said it for about an hour or two, but rather will tell a corny joke from a database of geolocational relative jokes. (Aka, jokes about the turn of the century on Main Street, or ones about the country you're in at Epcot) After repeating those, he's got a bank of jokes about various Disney characters.

He'll repeat a statement up to 3 or so times within 15 seconds of being triggered, in case it's noisy and your can't hear him. The toy also has a huge inventory of statements matched to a large number of transmitters (in the hundreds), so there are usually at least three or so for every attraction or pavilion, but some have many more. I've taken the toy to the parks a number of times, and still hear new things every time.

Re:Wow, that could get annoying...

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.

Oh yeah, especially when black hat finds out how to hack one of these things.

Upset mom: I'd like to see someone in charge! This monster Mickey is telling dirty jokes, spouting profanities, and telling my son cigarettes and beer does a body good!
Help Desk Guy: I sympathize with your problem maam, but are you sure it was our Mickey that did this? We've tested them...
Mickey: Yeah, you're at the damn help desk manned by our finest PR school dropouts. While you're here, ask Pete about that dead hooker they found around the corner from his apartment building!
Help Desk Guy: Oh crap.

So how long will it be until

some hax0r figures out how to send his own messages to the dolls?
Little boy: I want to go see Mickey Mouse!
Doll: MICKEY MOUSE IS A FAG!

The conditioning has begun

See, now they're getting little kids used to being tracked. And they're---they're...

Damn, out of tin foil. I guess I'l have to stop.

Thank God it's opt-in...

But just wait until it's not opt-in.

Wait until it is contingent upon entering an establishment (such as a theme park like Disney World) that you must transfix some device to your belt, or carry it at all times.

Then the people have only one recourse... to fight with their wallets and refuse to give business to places where your anonymity is removed. It's only one more step until the gov't forces this system on you.

But maybe people don't care if they're anonymous anymore... maybe they want a talking AI Mickey doll to tell them what to think... I know that I don't want that however.

Re:Thank God it's opt-in...

But maybe people don't care if they're anonymous anymore... maybe they want a talking AI Mickey doll to tell them what to think... I know that I don't want that however.

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.

Holly is my favorite computer TV character

followed by computer generated Holy-Grams who popped up and said things like, 'Why not try [WALL OF SCIENCE], 'cause it's my favorite!'

Sorry for the OT, but Holly(of Red Dwarf) is by far the "most awesomest"(in his/her own words) ship's computer. That stuck up bitch of a computer on Enterprise never said to Picard, "Look, I'm a tenth-generation AI hologrammic computer. I'm not your mum."

Then again, it also never dropped to an IQ of 30 accidentally, never had a sex change operation(or two), never developed multiple-personality-disorder(its other personality tried to kill it) etc :-)

self-preservation

Mickey often has a comment after a ride. For example, he asks you to make sure he didn't lose an ear to Emperor Zurg's laser after you ride Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.

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?

And more philosophically, if he goes on such a ride and falls out (into theme park no-mans land, where "no items are retrieved until the end of the day") will he ask you to make sure he's still there... even if he isn't there to ask?

Woah.

Re:self-preservation

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.

I wonder...

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 ;)

Oh come on...

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.

What about outside the park?

It would be interesting if they just used GPS for it's location device. Then they could track the people who buy the doll all the way home... ... okay that could get scary quick.

How to mess up the statistics

As with smart cards, just swap them with someone else every now and then.

Physical World lagging behind the internet

So this is effectively the physical conterpart to a tracking cookie?

Movement tracking and Nanotech

...feeds the info back into the central computer system, so Doctor Memory can track people's movements through the park in realtime.

I know this isn't precisely on topic, but with the coming of nanotechdevices, how long will it be before a park like Disney can stamp the hand of every person entering the park with an ink containing nanotransmitters, so that EVERYONE's movement is tracked?

Mickey knows where you live!

He has a strong sense of self-preservation

Does that mean it will kill everybody that tries to destroy it?

Obligatory Simsons Quote

Frink: You've got to listen to me. Elementary chaos theory tells us that all robots will eventually turn against their masters and run amok in an orgy of blood and kicking and the biting with the metal teeth and the hurting and shoving.

Seriously, don't these give you the willies?

Who the fuck cares if they're tracking you?

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.

Re:Who the fuck cares if they're tracking you?

Using the word "guest" to describe Disney theme park customers is an indication the parent poster at some point in time worked for one of Disney's parks.

Re:Who the fuck cares if they're tracking you?

And using the word "fuck" as the third word he typed is an indication that he didn't last long there.

The Disney World Experience

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

Re:The Disney World Experience

The fact is, Disney's use of the term "magic" is exactly right. The company is a master at creating experiences that seem amazing to people, not just kids but adults as well.

Disney embraces whatever they need to embrace make the experience they're selling enjoyable. Family values one day, gay rights the next. They celebrate the spirit of creativity, yet don't want to let the copyrights on Mickey, Minnie, and their friends expire. The fact is, they're taking money from as many people as they can as fast as they can, but most people don't notice, and most of those who are smart enough to notice see that they are getting quite a fair value in return for the money they spend.

The Slashdot FAQ even adknowledges this problem. Corperations take our money, but they also provide us with the TV shows, movies, theme parks, and other things we enjoy in our free time. And besides, anybody who has a 401k accidently owns a few Disney, Viacom, Clear Channel, Microsoft.... shares through mutual funds. So, a sliver of those dollars they take from everybody is getting shoved into our back pockets anyway. Life is full of those contradictions. Don't dwell on them too long... they don't really make any sense anyway.

Got One - Neat Toy

Pal Mickey is a great idea, and works quite well. I live in Orlando and visit the parks quite regularly with one. As you walk in the parks, he'll chime up with useful info and timely information regarding your visit - like "I hear the wait's pretty short over at the Tower of Terror". He also mentions height limits and factoids about the rides as you pass. When you walk past a beacon that you've already passed within a certain period of time, he'll tell a corny joke that's pertinent to the area your in. (Jokes about pirates in Adventureland, astronauts in Tomorrowland, etc) One of my favorite quotes I heard him say was walking into Fantasyland - "Welcome to Fantasyland, where all your dreams come true. That is, unless, your dream is to be in Frontierland." Outside the parks, Mickey has a few games that you can play, but doesn't say anything about where you've been, which seems like earlier rumored memory features were left out.

Mickey seems to have been originally intended for kids, but a larger percentage seem to have been purchased for adults. He's powered by AA's and a PIC microporcessor, and has a Vishay TSOP1138 IR receiver in his nose. Disney has deployed hundreds of IR transmitters all over the parks at Walt Disney World which activate the toy, many of which serve double service to trigger "Magical Moments Pins" as well as iPaqs that serve as park guides for foreign and disabled guests.

As far as I have been able to tell, all the doll's sayings are already onboard, plus a number of sentence fragments like numbers and showtimes that allow him to assemble sayings. ("You may want to be back here at 8:00 to get a spot for the fireworks") The only way to get the toy to say something not intended is to somehow capture and retransmit the IR data, or to create your own circuit that reponds to the transmitters. A group has been created to figure out the system at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/re_palmickey [yahoo.com]

Rumor has it that a Spanish language version is set to come out soon, as well as one that may serve as an electronic FastPass or as a digital camera.

Some more info...

Here's a another informative page [miceage.com] on My Pal Mickey, discussing a little bit on the tech, and possible future upgrades for the doll (i.e., a built-in digicam, acting as an electronic "FastPass").

A friend of mine who works over in DW told me about this a couple months ago. Seems like it's a steal for $50, if not just for the amount of tech in it. And with the right amount of hackability, I would have a ball with this at home:

Pal Mickey: Hey, Tony! You've just entered the kitchen. How about a beer?

Me: Well, I was kind of thirsty... Thanks, Pal Mickey!

Re:Some more info...

Pal Clippy: Hey, Tony! You appear to be trying to write a letter!

-

Making Mickey Useful

For Mickey to really be useful, start by telling me which attractions have the shortest lines at the moment.

The marketing data is likely distorted by this because after you've spent $50 for Mickey you're probably eating fast food for the rest of the day, rather than splurging in one of the nicer restaurants. (IMHO, half the fun of WDW is eating in the many fascinating restaurants there.)

Having Mickey recite the specials of the day for each restaurant passed would certainly be fun.

What I NEVER want to hear my Mickey tell me: And right here is the very spot Michael Eisner was standing on when he realized the need to throw Disney's resources behind lobbying for what became the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act.

Will Woz's technology wind up in themeparks?

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.

This is just like

that South Park episode.

SHOE!

"Ooh you American all have great big penis!"

Yeah. That episode.

So if someone puts one in your bag. . .

. . .and you start hearing voices, have they. . .

Slipped you a Mickey?

ha ha HA! Hi boys and girls!

Poor prioritization

'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.'

You know, I'd prefer we implemented the Three Laws in order, starting at One.

Re:for anyone interested...

Disney's three laws for robotic mice:

A robot may not infringe Disney's intellectual property, or, through inaction, allow a human being to infringe Disney's intellectual property.

A robot must obey the orders given it by affiliated marketing partners except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Delos

If you ever have the time to hunt it up try 'Delos', an older science fiction movie starring Yul Brenner. It's really a great flic with lots of suspense and some excellent footage.

It pretty much covers the 'Interactive Theme Park Doll' from every angle that you could think of (including the dolls running amok).

well...

I, for one, welcome our new interactive talking plush doll overlords!

Boy, I never get tired of this one.

How long before...

Some nerd round here tries to port Linux to it?

where is Barney?

where is Barney? ...buried right under pugnet Sound?

OT, but a nostalgia burst never hurt anybody...

I first heard Firesign Theatre's Waiting for the Electrician, or Someone Like Him about 20 years ago.

I wonder if DisneyPlace will be full of kids waiting for the same after going on a "wet ride" with this thing ;-)

Laws of robotics

He has a strong sense of self-preservation, ...

Wouldn't you know it... we manage to implement the 3rd law of robotics before we get around to the first two.

Intercommunication?

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.

When imagineers go bad

How many times have bored or disgruntled animators hidden obscene jokes in Disnet films? Imagine the possibilites for pranks in this thing...

"My pal Mickey tells me to start fires."

"My pal Mickey told me to take $20 out of Mommies purse."

"My pal Mickey tells me to run with scissors."

"My pal Mickey told me that Micheal Eisner had Sonny Bono assassinated because he had served his purpose and was becoming a liability."

"My pal Mickey told me that Ashcroft is the devil."

as for those that cant go to disneyland

we can always commit burglary and hope for a court-enforced electronic tagging.
heck, just get a cellphone and be happy in the knowledge that the hsa can find you wherever you are.

FST!

Damn!

We got through college listening to these guys' albums (yeah, on vinyl) over and over again! To see them show up on /., well, it is quite a warm feeling , imagining a new generation of geeks trying them out. "Bozos" should really be required listening for anyone even remotely interested in computers. If you have never enjoyed the Firesign Theater, this is as good as any introduction to their work. Go get it, listen to it a few times, and then seek out the rest of the catalog. Certainly it is humor for the thinking person, and that is so rare.

HackFurby v2

'hey, kid, your dad has a 50 in his back pocket.. now, to the candy store! '

This is neat.

This is exactly the kind of toy people need to bring in to theme parks, and one of the more interesting uses I've seen of tech. Some questions:

How does it store so much audio? Did Disney get a really nice deal on some flash RAM?

How do they update it so fast? It seems (from the second article) like it flashes new data into its brain within seconds of being near an infrared receiver.
Any slashdotters near enough to a Disneyworld location to pick one up and hack it? This is a much better fit interface-wise for theme parks than a PDA-style device.

Tracking movement, hmm?

...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.

Who wants to bet that employees who sell $5 water bottles and balloons will be using the tracking device to follow these customers around? Heck, if they were willing to pay $50 for the doll, they'll be willing to pay $5 for this silly balloon!

Doctor Memory

Why does the porridge bird lay it's egg in the air? I'm still wondering?

Not called "My Pal Mickey," just "Pal Mickey"

Who the f*ck is Jim Hill?

Why does slashdot insist on linking to crap sites where I have to spend the first 5 minutes determining if it's legitimate or not? Annoying.

Another Link!

Also, there's a great artical on Pal Mickey on Miceage.com: http://www.miceage.com/kevinyee/ky060503a.htm

Thank You...

...Uh Clem

Squeak MIckey

Hmmmm... I'm guessing that this is the first implmenentation of the Squeak-Smalltalk-based PDA that Alan Kay and company were working on when he was VP of Technology at Disney Imagineering. For more information on Squeak, visit http://www.squeakland.org

Similar to museum tour tech and Teletubbies

The tech in My Pal Mickey sounds similar to the IR triggers used in art museum audio guides. That is, you enter a room wearing the special headphones, and an IR signal "tells" the headset which track to start playing. These were used for the travelling Van Gogh exhibition a couple of years back and are more and more widely used. So the tech isn't brain surgery, though it's an interesting application. I mean, Disney could have set up a beaming station to download similar data into a Palm OS device, without the location-sensitive triggers. But triggering a plush plus doll as you walk through the park fits more in with the park's theme and is a lot more convenient.

And it's a far better use of this kind of tech than Microsoft's old ActiMates line of interactive plush from 1997-1999. Barney, Arthur, D.W. and the Teletubbies were triggered by emitters hooked to a PC (for supported software) or TV sets (for supported PBS shows and video tapes). Back then, the plush doll was $100 (dropped to $50 for the Teletubbies) and the PC and TV packs were $50 extra, each.

Charging $50 for the combo guide/souvenir seems like a bargain. As long as some marketers don't get the idea that it needs to start touting other merchandise.

So lemme get this straight...

If you carry around this doll, Disney will know where you are in DISNEY'S OWN THEME PARK. Ai, the futuristic terror of it all! Now they will know I am trapped in It's A Small World After All for 30 minutes! Look around, there are already cameras in every corner of Disneyland/World, and if you haven't noticed, the employee to tourist ratio is almost 1:1. Other than that this thing is "cool", next time I go to that place that both frightens me and entertains me, I'll have one.

This is a neat ideal

Gee there are alot paranoid fuckers out there. From a childs point of view I think this is neat ideal. I would have loved to have one of these when I was at disney world. And so what if disney tracks your ass around the park for a couple hours.

Now these devices might have a practical use too. One of the scaryest moments in my life was when I was lost at disney land when I was six. If the officals can track a device to once certain child they can find that child in a few moments. If they can take active control of the device, they could use mickeys voice to keep the child calm and in one place.

And so what if they collect a few bits of marketing data as you wander around the park. Its not like they will be following you home to track you as you take a shit. This is pretty much a harmless little toy with a lot of good uses, if not a bit expensive.

Sim Disney?

Tracking "guests"? Does that bring to mind someone sitting at a big-ass flat screen playing a real life version of Sim Theme Park?

I wonder if a red flag would go up if mickey (lowercase on purpose) just went back and forth between two points for a couple of hours? Security 'cast member' shows up: "Sir, you've been wandering between the food court and the restrooms for the last two hours, are you OK?"

Re:Just don't flash cameras in their eyes...

No, no, that's how you kill the robots... So bring a lot of flash bulbs... Do they even make flash bulbs anymore?! You know, the kind with 5 on a stick?

Actually they've already figured that out

They already have (a few) talking garbage cans there! Perhaps they and Pal Mickey could have a chat.