Disney will identify visitors at Disneyland based on their shoes

Disney has taken the quote “You can judge a man by his shoes” far too seriously.

So much so that it has patented a technology that judges visitors to Disneyland based on what they are wearing.

Image Credit: Travel and Leisure
Image Credit: Travel and Leisure

But it’s all for good. With this technology, Disney intends to identify and track its visitors based on their footwear so that it can provide a more customized experience to visitors.

3

As a person enters a theme park, cameras and sensors capture images of the person’s shoes. Visual features such as color scheme of the shoes, brand and model of the shoes are identified. Sensors placed in the ground also capture shoe size and tread design that provide more details about the shoes. Once this is done, the system associates personal details such as name, interests, etc. with the shoe characteristics.

Later on, as the person moves around in the theme park, cameras and sensors located in the ground capture images of the shoes and readily recognize the wearer. By knowing what the interests of the person are, a customized experience may then be provided, like presenting a particular media content.

In other words, this technology literally follows the person’s foot steps and ensures that no matter where the person is within the theme park, a customized experience is provided.

And that’s not all. Depending on what you’re wearing, this technology is also designed to compliment you on your shoes!

As compared to current invasive methods, such as retinal and fingerprint identification, to acquiring guest information, the patented method provides a non-obtrusive method to identify guests.

Patent Information
Publication number: US 9,393,697
Patent Title: System and method using foot recognition to create a customized guest experience
Publication date: Jul 19, 2016
Filing date: Apr 2, 2015
Inventors: Paul Beardsley; Aparna Taneja
Original Assignee: Disney Enterprises, Inc.

US9393697