Star Wars Land May Have Working Lightsaber Training Experience

Have you ever wanted to wield a lightsaber? If you've ever been a Star Wars fan in any way, chances are, yes. While new VR options will help you become the Jedi you've always known yourself to be, the incredibly immersive plans for Disney's Star Wars Land at Disneyland and Walt Disney World look like they'll be including their own version of lightsaber fantasy - with an actual saber that can actually deflect lasers.

Now, don't get crazy - this isn't a lightsaber with heated plasma or anything - but it will have LED sensors on it, that will allow fans to wield it as they get shot at by a training bot with lasers, just like Luke Skywalker did in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope or the younglings did in Attack of the Clones. io9 spotted the patent filing from Disney for an "Audience Interaction Projection System" that will make this all happen. The patent reads:

"An entertainment environment has a user with a faux light saber that interacts with a drone flying through the air or operated with hidden rods to appear as if its flying through the air. The faux light saber has LEDs attached thereto to provide IR light to the drone. As an LED is turned on, an invisible light sensor built into the drone captures an image of the field of view with a bright spot at the position of the activated LED. A visible light source built into the drone then projects light through particulate matter toward the faux light saber. As a result, the uses is provided with the illusion that the faux light saber has deflected a laser beam. Multiple LEDs can be activated in sequence at various times to give user the impression that the movement by the users of the faux light saber is deflecting multiple laser beams."

The patent doesn't actually say whether it's for the Disney parks, for some kind of high-end/high-tech toy, or some other use entirely, but like our friends at io9, we figure the former is the most likely of scenarios.