Mickey Mouse checks out your neural network

IF YOU go down to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, you'll find plenty of technology behind the Magic Kingdom's curtains. Getting into the parks now requires a right fingerprint swipe - a bit of an interesting surprise for we Americans that haven't been overseas recently.

There's been a lot of buzz over the years about Disney's "Imagineers" pushing the edges of integrating technology to offer cooler entertainment, but when you get right down to it, there's a lot of low-key but interesting stuff that's been woven into the daily background of the park.

For instance, one of the more interesting souvenirs you can buy is a guy by the name of "Pal Mickey," a nine inch Mickey Mouse doll that's packing RFID technology in its anatomy. Our buddy PM costs $65 and is able to ping transponders spread out throughout the Magic Kingdom, er amusement park to find his location. When there's something of interest, he'll giggle and shake, so you squeeze his hand to get him to disgorge some bit of wisdom stored in his library.

What does PM tell you? He'll remind you of parade times, spout off bits of trivia on rides and locations, which attractions have short wait times, and where the Disney characters are appearing in the parks. When you take him home, he reverts to a simple chipped-up toy and will sing songs, play games, and the usual stuff you expect out of a $65 doll loaded with electronics. This reporter tried to get his hands of a PM on the fly, but trying to get a Disney PR person in under two weeks through its website requires a bit more magic than the Kingdom had to offer.

Now, if you don't want to keep track of pieces of paper, PM could come in quite handy as your own personal camouflaged PDA - after all, it is a true digital assistant. On the other hand, some of us over the age of 40 might be a bit reluctant to lug around a Mickey Mouse doll unless we had one or more children in tow.

PM also opens up an interesting question about location-based services. Most everyone has a cell phone these days, so it wouldn't be a big deal to pay $10 per day or whatever amount Disney and the cell carrier could gouge you for so you could get a running stream of text messages and/or web pages to deliver the info to you directly. Of course, then Disney wouldn't get the opportunity to sell you a $65 nine-inch stuffed doll.

Of course, my professionally paranoid friends would point out that PM can just as easily be used to keep track of your movements around Disney's parks. As the RFID "pings in," it could broadcast a unique ID to note it has moved out of the store and around the parks in Florida. Such information could be would be very useful for Disney planners mapping out the movement and shopping habits of a park visitor, help to spot bottlenecks, and plenty of other things detail-obsessed planners and marketers would love to know. µ