I would like to talk about specific walks I previously did twice at particular theme parks! The walks I did were at Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood. What caught my utmost attention were two types of interactive experiences I came across at ‘The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’. Mind you, I am no Potterhead, however I am a huge fan of the interactive experiences they provided.
One type of interactive experience that was provided everywhere across both parks were specific installations that would respond to the ‘magical wand’ they sold. These installations would vary, with some interactions being a throwback to the magic that would occur in the Harry Potter movies, such as, but are not limited to, opening a book with the wand, igniting a stream of water from a water fountain, lighting up lanterns, silencing an automated creature from chirping, and even making a skeleton dance by mimicking you.
Upon careful observation, I found the sensor to be an infra-red camera that would capture the motion pattern of the wand through the reflection of an infra-red light beam provided in close proximity to the camera. The wand, I later learnt, in fact does not have any electronics or wiring, and only displays a ‘retro-reflective tip’ that would reflect the light beam back to the camera. In terms of sensitivity of the camera, sometimes waving the wand in the motion described does not yield the results required, so I would assume that either the camera does not always correctly capture the motion of the wand, or the processing ‘controller’ is hypersensitive to the accuracy of the motion patterns when comparing to the patterns that are stored in the system.
Figure of how the interaction works. (Taken from the filed patent)
The sensor (which is in this case the camera) is not immediately obvious unless I actively search for it. The camera is usually hidden within the displayed props. However, in the instances when the infra-red light beams surrounding the camera light up, the camera becomes more obvious.
Infra-red beams surrounding infra-red camera
Camera hidden in display props
I can only know if the camera has sensed if the interaction gets played. Otherwise, there is no direct way to find out that it has sensed the motion of the wand.
If played consecutively, every interaction can be slightly different from the other or reversing the initial interaction. For instance, the stream of water igniting could shoot the water in different angles. The book can be opened or closed. Some installations would activate something else entirely on the second time a wand’s motion is detected. This makes the interactive experience all the more exciting and explorative.
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The second type of interactive experience included motion sensors on the ceilings of various shops in the theme parks. They would sense if a person had been standing in a certain position for a specific period of time, and accordingly a display prop would move or even ‘speak’ as a result. Some of these included an angry monster book becoming more angry with its motion and sounds, or a mirror giving you advice.
The sensor does not make itself known to you at all due to its location on the ceiling, making it look like the display props are alive. And as with the previous infra-red camera, the only way I may know that the motion sensor has actually sensed my presence is through the reaction of the display prop. The interactions varied from prop to prop - for instance, the angry book’s reaction was particularly the same every time the sensor was triggered, however the mirror had a pre-arranged list of advice that it would randomly choose to speak.
Unfortunately, I do not happen to have pictures or videos of the motion sensors for the second interactive experience as these visits were done a long while ago. I will update this blog if I ever happen to get a hold of more pictures and videos.
